Ethan Ampadu declares Leeds United autos gap view with confident message and Ipswich Town take

Third-placed Leeds were presented with an opportunity to move within eight points of the division’s automatic promotion places in Saturday’s hosting of Coventry City after second-placed Ipswich had been held to a draw against visiting Norwich City in the day’s lunchtime kick-off.

Leeds, though, were then held to a 1-1 draw themselves which has left the Whites ten points adrift of second-placed Ipswich and now 13 points away from leaders Leicester City following a 2-1 win for the Foxes at Birmingham City on Monday night.

Promotion rivals Leeds and Ipswich will now lock horns at Elland Road this Saturday lunchtime, after which the ‘gap’ to the Tractor Boys could be cut to seven points or in the worst case scenario extended to 13. Ampadu, though, says his side fully believe they can catch up and issued confidence in United’s promotion bid but only if his side take matters one game at a time.

Pressed on whether Leeds were confident of shooting the current ten-point gap down, Ampadu told the YEP: “Yeah. That's going to be our aim but for that to happen we have got to take each game as it comes. It probably sounds a little bit cliche, sorry about that, but that's the reality of how it is.

"We can't get too fixated in a little bit more about the future, we have got to think about the present. To be honest we are looking at it quite promisingly. Although we might be a few points off it now, we all know that we can give a lot more.

"We can get to higher levels, higher performances so I think that is the promising thing about us, People are saying that we have done well but because we know we can do a bit more it makes it exciting. It's not the end of the season. I know it's very easy to say.

"They have got a little bit of a gap but it's not the end of the season, there's still a lot of games, a lot of minutes to be played. We are confident in ourselves but to get that right in the end we have to take each game as it is and make sure the next 90 minutes Is the best 90 minutes of our season."

Sizing up Saturday’s top of the table clash against Ipswich, Ampadu reasoned: “We all know what the surrounding noise is going to be about the game. I'm going to probably sit here and say that we are going to take it as any other game, we are going to focus on ourselves.

"Obviously we know what they are good at, they have shown everyone what they are good at. We know what we can try and do to win the game so it's about this week, make sure that we are preparing ourselves, getting ourselves mentally ready and physically ready for the game."