But Leeds United's sparkling on-the-road start to the current campaign, which brought a 2-1 win at Scunthorpe and a 5-2 Carling Cup thrashing of Chester, merely raised expectation levels to ridiculous heights among some supporters.

Most fans greet the new season with optimism, but since the Elland Road lost last season's play-off final to Doncaster there has been a feeling of unfinished business among the Whites' faithful.

Gary McAllister's men hit the ground running, playing open, passing football and the fact that they came from behind to triumph at Glanford Park seemed to bode well for the gruelling months ahead.

It probably still will augur well, but the home defeat by Oldham – a bogey side for Leeds since their last spell out of the top-flight – at the weekend seems to have created unrest among sections of the support.

That is in stark contrast to the findings of a survey carried out for the National Lottery which discovered that Leeds supporters are among the most confident in the country of league success this season.

The figures, from a Football Fans Census of 3,756 supporters, aged 16 or over, up and down England, were revealed before John Sheridan's Latics upset the applecart with their 2-0 win and suggested a massive 90 per cent of United fans dream of nothing less than the League One title, with a further nine per cent aspiring to at least second place.

The last few are still backing promotion via the play-offs, despite United's poor recent record in finals, meaning that every single Leeds fan expects nothing less than a promotion campaign.

Are they confident? Very! Ninety-eight per cent of fans believe that promotion, in one form or other, is both realistic and achievable.

Unsurprisingly, this level of belief places Leeds supporters near the top of the pile of fans who have total faith in their club.

In fact, only followers of Manchester United, who are 100 per cent confident of another Premiership crown, and Chelsea (99 per cent) topped them. Leeds were third equal with Birmingham City for fans who trust the club to meet their expectations this season.

The good news, I think, is that football legend and top pundit Mark Lawrenson is backing McAllister's men to succeed.

He said: "It will be good for Leeds to get back to concentrating solely on matters on the pitch this year.

"With a bigger budget and squad than most other clubs in the division they should secure one of the top two spots, but things don't necessarily work as they should.

"Leeds fell apart for a while last season after Dennis Wise left for Newcastle, However, Gary McAllister picked up the team, steadied the ship and changed the way they played.