White adamant Leeds United can achieve Premier goal

The Elland Road club have won just three of their last 10 games to slip out of the top six.

Four points now separate United from Hull City in the final play-off place and with the club apparently no nearer finding a permanent replacement for Simon Grayson, the fear among supporters is that the season is in danger of drifting towards a disappointing conclusion.

White, however, is adamant the players do not share in that pessimism ahead of a week that will see Leeds travel to bottom-club Coventry City before then hosting struggling Doncaster Rovers.

The Menston-born left-back said: “We have two games that, hopefully, we can get six points out of. I am confident we can go to Coventry and win. Then, we bring Doncaster here and try to get the win.

“The belief is still there, without doubt. Everyone is confident we can win promotion. That was our aim at the start of the season and nothing has changed.”

United have suffered a dip in form, a point underlined by all three of their recent wins having come against teams who had at least one player sent off.

Against Burnley, Leeds prevailed thanks to two late goals after the Clarets had played with 10 men for an hour and the win over Ipswich Town came on an afternoon when the visitors had lost goalkeeper Alex McCarthy to a red card.

Completing the trio of wins was the 3-0 triumph at Bristol City nine days ago when the hosts finished with nine men after losing Mark Wilson and Yannick Bolasie.

It means United’s last victory against a team who ended the game with a full compliment of players was the 2-0 triumph over Millwall on December 3.

Despite that, White insists there is still plenty to play for between now and the end of the season.

He said: “Anything can happen in this division and we have two games coming up this week. We need to bounce back as it was a difficult afternoon against Brighton.

“There weren’t a lot of chances for either team and I am sure from the stand it looked a bit boring.

“But Brighton are an extremely good passing team and I thought they played well.

“What killed us were the goals we conceded. If we could have cut that out and got a clean sheet then we would have won.”

The defeat to the Seagulls was a blow to caretaker manager Neil Redfearn’s hopes of holding on to the job.

White, however, said: “Personally, I think Redders is a great manager. I have known him for a few years and I played for him in the Under-18s.

“I really like him and I wanted to win for Redders. The lads in the changing room feel the same. We want to get promoted so, come Tuesday, we have to come back.

“He is fantastic to get on with and he knows the game inside out. As a bloke, you can have a bit of a laugh with him. All the lads are getting on with him.”

Adding to the headaches felt by the Elland Road hierarchy on Saturday was a protest march held ahead of kick-off when supporters made clear their dissatisfaction at how the club is being run.

Setting off from City Square with around 400 fans taking part, numbers grew steadily during the two-mile route to Elland Road.

Sporting banners that included ‘Premier League, not Premier Inn’ – a clear reference to chairman Ken Bates’s plans to build two hotels in LS11 – and ‘We’re Leeds United, we’ve all had enough’ the march, pictured below, arrived at the stadium with around 1,000 fans chanting their support.

The Leeds chairman was, however, not present to witness the protest due to being in Monaco.

As a tax exile, Bates is only able to spend 90 days a year in the UK so had planned several months earlier to miss both the Brighton and Doncaster home games.