There are two ways to consider United's league position – where they ought to be statistically, and where they are in reality. Far from growing tired after 44 games, it is a comparison which is becoming ever more pertinent in the most distorted of divisions.

In normal circumstances, the club's promotion to the Championship would have been confirmed in principle by Saturday's 2-0 win at Millwall, the 25th victory that Leeds have amassed this season.

With a six-point lead over Carlisle United and an insurmountable goal difference, any existing doubt would have relied on tenuous mathematics. Swansea City's title, meanwhile, would not have been the formality it appears.

Set against that scenario, the League One table as it stands is far less palatable and more difficult to swallow.

Where champagne corks might have flown on Saturday, Gary McAllister was looking instead towards the one remaining victory his team require to keep the long road to promotion clear in front of them.

It emphasised once again why the fight against United's 15-point penalty has not been surrendered prematurely.

A mass of crossed fingers awaits the outcome of arbitration, but it is to the eternal credit of McAllister's players that they have been neither distracted nor disaffected by the injustice of a league in which the second-most competent club are deemed worthy of sixth place.

There are many in England who believe – with or without justification – that Leeds deserved their punishment; there are many more who gained satisfaction from the sight of Leeds with an albatross around their neck. But only in a game as tribal and ruthless as football could it be claimed that this is sport as it was supposed to be.

It has been argued repeatedly in the last week that the credibility of football will suffer should the final league table rely on courtroom discussions. It is more accurate to say that, as the division stands, it already has.

From the outset, divine results like that produced at the New Den on Saturday have carried less value for Leeds than they should, though not in a way which has detracted from a season that United are two games from completing.

The 2-0 victory over Millwall brought Leeds their 85th point of the term, enough in five of the last eight seasons to ensure promotion from League One.

McAllister accepted the win graciously and conceded that his side had occasionally pushed their luck, but his modesty played down an intensely satisfying win and one which underlined the virtues of strength-in-depth.

The match was settled by goals from David Prutton and Andrew Hughes, the former's derived from individual brilliance and the latter's the product of collective quality.

So special were both strikes that is seemed bizarre to think that neither player had been able to make McAllister's starting line-up at Huddersfield Town five days earlier.

United are arriving at the play-offs with ominous form behind them and the improvement is running through the length of their squad.
Prutton's inclusion on Saturday was the result of a one-match ban incurred by the otherwise immovable Jonathan Douglas, but his goal alone was worth a starting position. In a sudden reversal of roles, Douglas may find his team-mate difficult to displace.

Hughes, meanwhile, has become trapped among the substitutes since his own suspension last month, but he appeared to excellent effect in the final 17 minutes at Millwall and looked supremely comfortable in a position which relied less on his defensive ability and more on his attacking prowess.

With the play-offs three weeks away, the range of options available to McAllister is almost an embarrassment of riches.

Millwall, in truth, made a more positive contribution to Saturday's fixture than the scoreline suggested and McAllister wondered openly why the London club are as far down the League One table as 19th position.
The answer, perhaps, is that their creditable performance against Leeds brought nothing more than a 10th home defeat.

Kenny Jackett's team hit the crossbar at the start of the second half with a shot from Jem Karacan which Casper Ankergren flicked against the woodwork with his fingertips and United's victory relied on their success in surviving the wave of attacks that washed over them until the hour.

Millwall enjoyed their chances in the first half, with Tony Craig steering two opportunities over the bar and a free-kick from Ahmet Brkovic whistling past Ankergren's right-hand post, but the lead could as easily have belonged to the visitors at the interval.

Anthony Elding – selected ahead of Tresor Kandol with Jermaine Beckford's ankle injury continuing to cause concern – brought a one-handed save from Rhys Evans in the eighth minute and curled a second effort a foot over the bar in first-half injury-time.

Seconds later, Jonathan Howson's free header from a Bradley Johnson cross found the arms of Evans with the keeper badly exposed.

And though Millwall's dominance had been tangible, Leeds had the look of a team with goals in them.

Dougie Freedman threatened twice in the moments before the opening goal, dragging a low shot wide and driving a volley at Evans but the goalkeeper was unable to intervene when Prutton struck in the 70th minute.

The midfielder was hovering on the edge of the box, sniffing for the chance presented to him by a weak headed clearance and he watched the dropping ball carefully before applying a lethal volley which swerved to the left of Evans and crept inside his post.

Prutton's goal was his first since December, but the neat finish that Hughes produced 10 minutes from time ended a longer drought.

Thrown on as a substitute on 73 minutes, Hughes ran in to thrash the ball past Evans after a delightful flow of passing between Freedman and Johnson cut through Millwall's static defence. The close-range finish brought Hughes' maiden goal in a United shirt and his first in the colours of any club for some 25 months.

With that, the hosts were spent.

The delight with which United's players greeted the final whistle said much about the mentality of McAllister's squad and spoke volumes about their readiness for the play-offs.

The biggest threat to United this season was the possibility that their mindset would be blackened by bitterness; on the contrary, their heads seem clearer than ever. United are invoking the age-old mantra of don't get mad, get even.