But the Australian international says the club's performance against Derby County should not be seen as absolute proof of their ability to cope in England's second division.

Leeds emerged from a 2-1 defeat to Derby in the fourth round of the Carling Cup with immense credit after outshining their Championship opponents for three-quarters of the game, but Kilkenny insisted the one-off tie would be quickly forgotten if United fail to follow it up with an equally convincing display against Huddersfield Town this weekend.

United were given little time to reflect on Tuesday's narrow defeat – a result which obscured one of their most creditable displays of the season – with a West Yorkshire derby awaiting, and the club will potentially move to the top of League One for at least two hours if they take three points from Saturday's 12.15pm kick-off.

Kilkenny admitted confidence was flowing through United's squad after their performance at Pride Park, an emotion tempered only by the concession of two cheap goals and disappointment at their failure to qualify for the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup.

But he was reluctant to accept that their domination of Derby or their second-round defeat of Crystal Palace in August had increased Leeds' chances of reaching the Championship at the end of this season.

"I'm sure Derby's players would admit that we deserved to win, and I feel we've proved to everyone that, on our day, we're capable of performances like that against teams at this level," said Kilkenny.

"We're capable of matching up to teams in the Championship.

"We did the same against Crystal Palace, and when you look back at that game now you'd have to say that we beat them easily. It wasn't too much of a contest and that was down to the way we played.

"But I think we'd be stupid to look at the game at Derby and say 'that's us ready for the Championship'. If the club get promoted then we'll be ready.

"We've got another huge match to play against Huddersfield on Saturday in front of a full house and the fans who didn't have the chance to see us at Derby will expect us to perform in the same way at our own ground.