Leeds United v Bristol City: Heckingbottom declares confidence in Dallas at right back

Winger Dallas has been filling in at right back in the absence of Luke Ayling and Gaetano Berardi with Ayling out injured for the rest of the season and Berardi still banned.

Berardi will serve the final game of his two-match suspension in Sunday’s Championship hosting of Bristol City whose assistant boss Jamie McAllister has openly highlighted the fact that Dallas will be playing out of position.

“The boy Dallas has come in at right-back for them, who’s not a natural right-back, he’s more of a midfielder, so there’s a little change there,” said the Robins assistant.

Heckingbottom, though, has declared his confidence in playing the Northern Ireland international at right back and says the Whites themselves will be out to exploit any chinks of the armour within City.

Asked if he had a response to McAllister citing the fact that Dallas was out of position, Heckingbottom smiled: “I have yes.

“He’d openly say he’s a wide player but some of the best full backs have been wide players in a previous life and ended up reverting back so you never know.

“It’s not often teams are confident enough to give away what they are thinking but that’s part of our jobs obviously so Jamie and the staff down there will be looking at everything that we do, especially the last few games when key personnel have been out.

“They will be seeing if they can find a chink in the armour and we do exactly the same so it will be interesting.”

City assistant boss McAllister had said of Leeds: “They’re a top six side for me.

“But they’ve got a few suspensions. We’ve got a few suspensions, a few injuries as well, but it’s all about Sunday, 11 v 11 on the pitch, who turns up, who makes less errors really,

“We’re confident with the group we’ve got at the moment and we can go and cause them problems on Sunday.”