Don’t think we’re not hurting says under-pressure Leeds boss

McDermott spoke with confidence about United’s forthcoming clash with Birmingham City and described a wounded but defiant mood around the club’s training ground at Thorp Arch.

“Whatever people think about the way we’ve played in some of our games, they shouldn’t think that any of us aren’t hurting,” he said.

“I’m expecting every one of us to respond on Sunday and get a result.

“I’m looking at Birmingham as a game we’re going to win.

“That’s the mindset – on Sunday we’re going to get a result. We’ve lost a few games and we need a result, I know that and the players know that. They’ll come out fighting.”

United limped into the international break on the back of five defeats from seven matches, the last coming after a weak performance at Derby County.

Leeds dropped from sixth in the Championship to 14th in the space of three weeks amid a chronic shortage of goals and mounting criticism of McDermott’s team.

Sunday’s televised fixture brings Birmingham to Elland Road on the back of a home defeat to Bolton Wanderers, their seventh loss of the season so far.

McDermott said: “We’ve had tough results and bad results.

“We could have taken a point against QPR and we could have won at Reading. Maybe we deserved more. But when you look back on Derby, you have to say that we never gave ourselves a chance. We can’t afford to be like that.

“If we do what we did at Derby then we’re going to have a problem but we’ve shown that we can play much better.

“At home, live on TV, I’d expect us to show that.”

Meanwhile, young United left-back Charlie Taylor has joined League Two club Fleetwood Town on a month’s loan.

Taylor’s spell away from Leeds is his third following previous moves to Bradford City, York City and SPL side Inverness.

He is likely to make his debut in Fleetwood’s visit to Southend United on Friday night.

The 20-year-old said: “I didn’t know much about Fleetwood but I looked at the table, saw they were second in the division and my choice was made.”

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