While the league table suggests Leeds are having a difficult season, Neil Redfearn knows that the recent performances have been better than the results, so he’s optimistic as he prepares for the visit of league leaders Derby County.
At the moment we’re sitting uncomfortably only two points above the relegation zone, with only one win in the last ten, and that was against an abject Blackpool side in the last home game. But last week’s performance at Blackburn showed we’re heading in the right direction, as we had the better of the match for the first hour and were very unlucky to come away with nothing.
And when the head coach spoke to the official site about tomorrow’s game he said "Everybody will expect them to come and get a result against us but I think we’re in this position now where we’re an unknown quantity for teams. We like to play at home, you can see that. We’ve had most of our better victories at home. We’ve got to go out there and play with confidence and enjoy the occasion.”
But while he’s got the side to play more entertaining football, he knows that we’ve got to cut out individual errors at the back to get the results we deserve. "We want to play this kind of football, there are no two ways about it. We want pass it and we want to get it down because we’re in control about what we’re doing.”
"But there are times in games where you’ve just got to defend. If it means putting your foot through it, you’ve got to put your foot through it. We’ve just got to be aware of the business ends of the market at both ends of the pitch. We’ve just got to be a little bit more thorough with our defending. We’ve got to make decisions."
And we have to assume that was a reference to Blackburn’s equaliser, when Silvestri should have just kicked the ball into the stand instead of dithering, when he allowed the ball to run through for Jordan Rhodes. It’s not the first time this season that Silvestri has been involved in this kind of mix-up, so that’s something Redfearn will have made him work on in training this week.
We’re long overdue a win over Derby, as we haven’t beaten them in the last 12 meetings between the clubs, and that included a 10 match winning run for the Rams, which we only broke by getting a draw on the final day of last season. That’s a big turnaround from the years between 1990 and 2004, when we went 17 games unbeaten against Derby in all competitions. And despite Derby’s recent record in this fixture and the relative positions in the table, Derby boss Steve McClaren knows it will be a difficult game for them.
He told their official site "Derby vs Leeds games are well renowned in the past and they are trying to get back on their feet. Their attitude is good and they have good players, so like every team in the Championship, they can hurt you if you’re not right. The key is to respect the opponent, but we have to make that, from Monday to Friday, the players are focused and doing the work and then Saturday doing the job. We have got to earn the right to play and then you have to play, the past is gone and the players on Saturday will have to do it all again.”
With Derby going so well it’s no surprise they will be bringing a big following. Their original allocation of 1,437 sold out quickly, and this was increased to 2,900, presumably by giving them the bottom tier of the away West Stand section as well. Only a few of these seats are remaining, so it should make for a good atmosphere.
Leeds have no new injury or suspension problems and could well be unchanged, but Derby have a couple of issues to sort out. Lee Grant is likely to return in goal after missing the last seven games with an ankle injury, but Jamie Ward won’t recover in time, having only just returned to training. His fellow striker Mason Bennett is facing two months out after injuring his knee during a development squad game, and Zak Whitbread is also unlikely to be fit.
Leeds could do with a result tomorrow, as we’re heading into a difficult spell of games before the end of the year. For some reason we have to play Derby again in just over a month, and between the two matches we also have to travel to Ipswich and Nottingham Forest, two other clubs in contention for promotion. But I think we’re capable of getting at least a draw tomorrow.
Finally, to put it all into perspective, there will be a minutes silence before kick-off in memory of Alex Cairns’ brother Blake, who was one of the victims of the recent accident on the A630 just outside Doncaster, which resulted in five teenagers losing their lives. Hopefully that will be immaculately observed by both sets of supporters.