Grayson singing the praises of United fans

In five of their last six visits stretching back a little over 35 years, the Yorkshire club have left with all the points safely secured.

Last season was the clear highlight of those five victories, a travelling army of 4,000 United fans seeing their side hit back from 2-0 down at half-time to triumph 3-2.

It was a remarkable turnaround and one that manager Simon Grayson puts down in part to the unique lay-out of Burnley’s home ground, where the dressing rooms can be found at the end that houses the away supporters.

Last December, that meant the crestfallen Leeds players could not fail to hear the support from the seats above during the interval – something that Grayson believes served as an inspiration to his team once play had restarted.

Today, of course, the United manager is hoping there will be no need for such a fightback but he still believes the fans have a big role to play. Grayson said: “It is unique in that you can hear the fans in the dressing room. They are right above us in the stand and I can remember the noise last season at half-time when we were 2-0 down.

“When you hear noise like that, sometimes you don’t need to say a lot. The players understood and we got the result.

“It was a sweet result. We will have 4,000 there again and they will have a massive part to play.”

On-loan Reading goalkeeper Alex McCarthy will start as United look to build on beating Leicester in their last outing.

Grayson turned to the 21-year-old after running out of patience with Paul Rachubka, whose unhappy stint in the first team ended with a calamitous night in the 5-0 home defeat to Blackpool.

The Leeds chief is hoping to also bring in Maik Taylor on a short-term contract as back-up to first-choice Andy Lonergan, who is back in training following a dislocated finger injury.

Today’s game, which is being shown live on BBC, will be preceded by a minute’s applause in honour of Jimmy Adamson, who died this week. Adamson captained Burnley to the 1960 league title and also had a spell managing Leeds during the late Seventies.