Former Nottingham Forest and Leicester City manager Martin O’Neil has discussed what Leeds United’s faltering promotion bid could mean for their play-off chances.
The Whites are now highly likely to have to settle for a place in the top six unless Coventry City can deliver them with a huge helping hand by beating Ipswich Town tonight, though pundit Ally McCoist cannot see that happening.
Ipswich know if they can avoid defeat in their game in hand this evening they will head into the final day above Leeds with a considerably more favourable fixture at home to Huddersfield Town, who are all but mathematically relegated.
Leeds have had ample opportunities to take a firm grip of those top two places but have lost three of their last five matches, including Friday night’s embarrassing 4-0 defeat at QPR.
Supporters who made the trip down to the capital were understandably angry at the performance they had just witnessed, knowing it would take a miracle not to end up in the play-offs.
O’Neil shares problem Leeds may face in play-offs
Given how that top three have been battling it out for two spots for a number of weeks now, whoever missed out was always going to be left reeling.
With that looking likely to be Leeds, they will have to pick themselves up both physically and mentally in order to prepare themselves for a brutal play-off campaign.
O’Neil, who has plenty of experience in these sort of situations himself, was assessing Leeds’ chances in the play-offs on talkSPORT yesterday.
He believes having been on such a run of form as Leeds were before the international break, it is going to be tough to pick themselves up again, but it is not out of the question.
He said: “Leeds United a month ago were thinking about automatic promotion. They were on this charge and they were doing brilliantly. They looked as though they could get goals at any given stage during the course of football matches, and now they might miss out.
“And the problem is if you miss out and you are so close to missing out, then you do go in those playoffs on a bit of a downer. So, you have to get mindset again, so you have to go again, and that’s possible.”
Who is in-form heading into the play-offs?
Though O’Neil is correct in that Leeds would be feeling low if they miss out on the top two, there isn’t a single team heading into the play-offs in good form.
Southampton had a chance of top two themselves not long ago but have lost three on the bounce ahead of their final day trip to Elland Road.
Norwich City are on the best run of the four teams currently in the play-offs but have almost fallen over the line with three draws in their last four.
West Brom, meanwhile, are highly likely to pip Hull City to that final place but in order to do so, will have to bring their three-match losing run to an end.
