Lorimer: Which Leeds players feared for their very futures after Brighton?

Lorimer, writing in the Yorkshire Evening Post, said the club’s three-win streak had taken him by surprise and he was now “almost expecting” Leeds to finish top half of the table.

But he says: “This might be the old pro in me talking but I wonder if certain players realised that their futures were on the line after that shocking performance on the south coast. I don’t just mean their futures at Leeds but their futures in general.

“Football’s an unforgiving sport, an unforgiving business, and defeats like that one at Brighton do your reputation nothing but harm. We’re getting close to the summer and there are going to be changes at Elland Road. That’s a given. I’ve got a suspicion that a few lads might have seen the need to buck up their ideas and buck up their performances.

“I wouldn’t say we’ve necessarily deserved to win all of the last three games but we have won them and by no stretch have any of them been a fluke.”

Lorimer does not name any players, but adds: “I’d like to think that in the aftermath of Brighton, it occurred to some of the players that they were short-changing the people who pay hundreds of pounds to travel all over the country to follow them.

“It wasn’t just that one game. We were on a run of one win from 11 matches and that’s poor form in any league.

The season needed a shot in the arm, it needed a big turnaround, and credit to everyone for making it happen. It gives the squad a chance to relax a bit, play with some freedom and finish the campaign with a flourish.”

He warns: “There are, in my view, a number of players with things to prove before the summer. I always say that one drop of rain doesn’t mean there’s a thunderstorm coming and these three wins don’t change the fact that a lot of this season has been disappointing.”