United’s spirit adds to Grayson’s belief they can challenge to end

The Elland Road club yesterday missed the chance to move up to third in the Championship when held to a 1-1 draw by Cardiff City.

Following on from last Wednesday’s defeat at Birmingham City, it means United have won just once in four league outings – a run that means they sit seventh in the table this morning, two points adrift of Hull City in the final play-off place.

The Tigers also have a game in hand but Grayson believes his side’s second-half display against Cardiff City in front of the live Sky cameras underlined their promotion credentials.

He said: “We played Birmingham the other night and lost in a game where we deserved to get something. And against Cardiff, we played even better and got a point.

“But that is what this league can be like. It is a tough division. We have probably played worse and won games.

“I was delighted with the spirit and I told the players afterwards that if they keep performing like that then we won’t be too far away come the end of the season.”

A bizarre lapse in concentration by Darren O’Dea gifted Cardiff the lead in the 17th minute when Joe Mason was allowed to dispossess the United defender before finishing coolly.

At the break, the Bluebirds looked good value for their lead but Leeds hit back in impressive fashion to rescue a point through Robert Snodgrass’s second goal of the season 16 minutes from time.

Grayson said: “At half-time, I told the players to up their tempo. We had created some good opportunities in the first half despite not playing as well as we could.

“But I felt we lifted it by 10 per cent after half-time. I told the players I wanted us to press them further up the pitch, pass the ball quicker and get about them.

“We certainly did that and got our rewards with the goal. But, unfortunately, we couldn’t get the winner that I felt our chances deserved.”

On O’Dea’s mistake that let Mason net his third goal of the season, Grayson felt there were mitigating circumstances.

The United manager said: “Darren got a slight nudge and was put off his stride pattern. He should maybe have dealt with the ball earlier, though.

“He also had a little bit of concussion, hence why he came off. That maybe contributed to it but I still felt the nudge in his back put him off.

“Darren got a knock on the head in the last five minutes at Birmingham, probably suffering a bit of dizziness.

“I am not sure it was concussion or anything like that and he did declare himself fit on Saturday. The problem is he then got a bang on it early on against Cardiff.

“He had a lack of vision down one side and a little bit of blurredness. I would imagine he has suffered some sort of concussion.

“With that sort of injury, you have to be careful so I would imagine he will be a big doubt for Wednesday.

“It is a shame as over the last few weeks he has been very dominant. He has struck up a good partnership with Tom Lees.

“But we have some good players to come in. Paddy Kisnorbo did very well when he came on and Andy O’Brien has looked very sharp in training recently.”

Even allowing for O’Dea’s mistake, Cardiff goalkeeper David Marshall was the main reason United had to settle for one point rather than the three their efforts had possibly deserved.

In a one-sided second half, he kept out four goalbound efforts from the home side with his acrobatic stops from Adam Clayton and Ross McCormack, in particular, deserving of the highest praise.

Grayson added: “Sometimes, you think it is going to be one of those days – especially when a goalkeeper is playing as well as Cardiff’s was.

“But full credit to the players as they showed great belief that we would get back into the game.”

For his string of fine saves, Marshall was arguably the game’s standout performer.

Pushing him all the way, however, was Snodgrass whose teasing wingplay and set-piece delivery meant he was always the most likely player to get United back into the game and Grayson felt the Scot’s equaliser was just reward for his efforts.

He said: “I was delighted for Robert Snodgrass that he got our equaliser. One or two other players can consider themselves unlucky not to have also got on the scoresheet but he definitely deserved to score.

“He is a constant threat and it was great that he got the reward of a goal. His workrate and quality were high.”

As impressive as United’s second-half attacking efforts were, it could not hide the fact that the goal they conceded was self-inflicted damage.