League One Play-off Previews - Leeds United

Manager: Simon Grayson

Leeds United will go into the League One play-offs as both the favourites and the form team. Simon Grayson’s team won their last 11 home games on the spin at Elland Road and suffered just one reversal (and that to a last minute goal at champions Leicester City) in their last 15 League One matches.

Confidence will be high, but so are expectations and few at Elland Road will need reminding of recent play-off failures. Then again, Grayson does know how to get a team out of League One via the play-offs, having achieved the feat as Blackpool manager in 2007.

The central defensive pairing of Richard Naylor and the on-loan Sam Sodje has given them a more solid look than earlier in the season, so with Jermaine Beckford and Luciano Becchio taking care of things at the other end, it all looks fairly encouraging in their quest to go one better than last season’s play-off final defeat to Doncaster Rovers.

Failure to navigate the play-offs would make it difficult for Leeds to hang on to the likes of Beckford and Fabian Delph. However, should they succeed, Leeds are the type of club where the momentum gained from one promotion could quite feasibly lead to them mounting a similar challenge in the Championship next term.

Results against play-off rivals: Scunthorpe United 1 Leeds United 2 (09 August 2008) Millwall 3 Leeds United 1 (18 October 2008) MK Dons 3 Leeds United 1 (20 December 2008) Leeds united 2 Millwall 0 (09 February 2009) Leeds United 3 Scunthorpe United 2 (28 February 2009) Leeds United 2 MK Dons 0 (28 March 2009)