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Leeds United: We're ready for step up - Kilkenny
Neil Kilkenny walked out of Pride Park on Tuesday night with the feeling that Leeds United are now equipped for a year in the Championship.
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."You win and lose promotion in your league games, and we've got a lot of them left to play.
"We'll take confidence from the Carling Cup game, and it's a really good sign about what we can achieve this season, but the performance against Derby will be worth more if we follow it up with another good display on Saturday."
News of United's excellent performance at Pride Park travelled quickly – Derby manager Paul Jewell admitted freely that his side had been "battered" for 70 minutes by Leeds – and reports of their creditable display are unlikely to hinder the sale of tickets for Saturday's League One game.
Leeds were already anticipating a crowd in excess of 30,000 after opening the upper tier of Elland Road's East Stand for the first time this season, and a sixth home win of the term would place United at the top of their division until present leaders Leicester City fulfil their fixture later in the day – provided second-placed Scunthorpe fail to win at Bristol Rovers on Friday night.
The schedule facing Gary McAllister's squad is growing in intensity – the club will have 48 hours to recover from Saturday's match before contesting an FA Cup first-round replay at Northampton Town – but Kilkenny expressed his disappointment after United narrowly failed to add a Carling Cup quarter-final to their busy fixture list.
"There's so much in that performance for us to be pleased with – except for the fact that we lost the game," he said. "We gave away two silly goals and that's going to frustrate us.
"The team deserve credit for the way we played but we've missed out on a place in the quarter-finals and that's a big deal to a club like Leeds.
"To be fair, whilst we made things difficult for ourselves, we didn't have a lot of luck either. Robert (Snodgrass) hit the post and Derby's keeper made a great save from Andy Robinson so in a way we were unfortunate and I think we did enough to deserve better.
"It's disappointing to be talking about how well we played and then realising that we're not through."
The Carling Cup may have ejected Leeds, but the League One table is looking increasingly satisfying for McAllister.
Although Leicester climbed into first place on Tuesday night with a victory over Yeovil Town, Leeds trail them by two points and have established a gap of four over the club immediately below the play-off zone, Oldham Athletic.
Kilkenny was both a Championship and a Premier League footballer with Birmingham City, and he would be optimistic for United's chances if the club were thrown into the second tier with immediate effect.
But the midfielder said: "As a footballer, when you play well you want to win. Good performances don't register as much if the result goes against you.
"I've been confident since the start of the season that we'll do it (win promotion) and playing like we did against Derby is proof that we can, but we won't go up because of that game. It's our results from here that count.
"We've got good enough players and a good enough squad to have a go in the Championship.
"I've been at that level before so I know what it takes, and the manager's probably thinking about doing one or two things to the squad in January. I'd imagine that others will come in if we do go up, but that's all down the line.
"The best thing about the Derby game was the belief the players showed against a team who everyone expected to beat us. Let's do the same against Huddersfield and show that we can dominate like that twice in a week."
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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