Eddie Gray believes that Leeds United still face a “difficult” task to reach the play-offs despite their win over Brentford at the weekend.
Paul Heckingbottom earned his first victory as Whites manager as his team edged past Brentford 1-0 at Elland Road in the Championship.
Liam Cooper scored the only goal of the game with his first-half header and it was the team’s first win of 2018.
Leeds are now five points adrift of the play-off spots with 12 games remaining and will hope to make a late charge into the top six.
They are 11th in the league standings and travel to seventh-placed Middlesbrough on Friday night, before hosting runaway leaders Wolves.
Gray believes that Leeds need to embark on a winning run to stands a chance of making the end of season play-offs.
“It was an important there points [against Middlesbrough] because it just keeps you in touch with the teams in the top six,” Gray told LUTV.
“There is still a long way to go, it will be very difficult for us to get in there. It’s doable with the games left you never give up in football, if we can string three wins together on the trot you are right back in it.”
OPINION
Results certainly went in Leeds’ favour over the weekend and they saw the deficit reduce to just five points away from sixth-placed Bristol City. Heckingbottom’s side now need to hope they can pick up some real momentum and knocking off another promotion rival in Boro in their next fixture would be a big statement. The Whites showed in the early stages of the campaign they can be a force in the division and need their key players such as Pontus Jansson, Samuel Saiz and Pierre-Michel Lasogga to really hit their best form. The Championship often sees one team make a late charge into the play-offs and Leeds do have the quality to do so, but the odds are firmly stacked against them based on their form in 2018.