The Yeovil Town midfielder will be given a close-up impression of United's attributes when Leeds visit Huish Park on Saturday afternoon, but Warne's doubts about their likely league position are based on the strenuous task of claiming enough points for promotion for a second successive year.

The final league table at the end of the 2007-08 term displayed Leeds with 27 wins and a collection of results worth a total of 91 points, but the effect of their infamous points deduction was enough to require Gary McAllister's squad to tackle League One and the division's clubs again.

United will make their longest journey of the campaign to Yeovil this weekend – the ground where the club's involvement in the play-offs was secured last season – and Leeds have questions to answer after their first home game ended in a 2-0 defeat to Oldham Athletic last Saturday.

Warne, an ex-Oldham player, believes his former club have guaranteed a committed response from Leeds this weekend, but the Latics' win at Elland Road further convinced the 35-year-old that United's aim of reaching the Championship will come down to extremely fine margins.

"If I'm being honest, I don't fancy Leeds to go up," Warne said. "It's not that I don't think they've got a good enough squad or that I don't think they'll be there or thereabouts, I just feel that doing what they did last season for a second time is a very big ask.

"Because of their points deduction last season, the players had fire in their bellies and a huge amount to prove, but it's difficult to maintain that intensity. The sight of another 46 games coming on the back of all they achieved last season is not exactly pleasant.

"The truth is that Leeds deserved to be promoted last season, and if you add on the 15 points that were taken away from them then they'd have been well clear.

"I'm aware of all the politics involved but, in purely footballing terms, Leeds did more than enough to earn promotion.

"The question for them is whether they can do the same again, and I'm not so sure.

"It's a bit unrealistic to say that Leeds should go up because you often see clubs struggle the year after they go close to promotion and miss out.

"A lot of people will turn round and say 'I told you so' if they do get into the Championship but I wouldn't be that surprised if they fall short. Dominating a league like this two years on the bounce is not as easy as it sounds."

Leeds saw the effect of a play-off final defeat in 2007 when they were relegated from the Championship 12 months after coming within a game of winning a place in the Premier League.

Yeovil, too, were League One play-off finalists during the 2006-07 campaign, only to finish 18th last season.

The crucial difference between the clubs is their respective final strength, and while McAllister has tweaked and improved his squad steadily this summer, Yeovil boss Russell Slade is managing a tight pool of limited numbers which will be under constant threat from injuries and suspensions.

The Somerset club are, however, one of only seven who hold unbeaten records in League One after a fortnight of the new season.

Yeovil held Walsall to a 1-1 draw at Huish Park before collecting a 2-1 win at Hereford last weekend, results which fell either side of a Carling Cup first-round victory away to Charlton.

It is a reassuring, and some might say surprising, sequence of results for Slade, who was facing unveiled criticism from the Glovers' supporters during United's last visit in April.