Leeds United are a 'well oiled machine' and tipped for promotion by Reading boss Mark Bowen

The Royals boss was 'gutted' to leave Elland Road with nothing after yesterday's 1-0 defeat, having arrived with a game plan he felt could bring a positive result.

After the game he was asked about the chances of the current top two, West Brom and Leeds, staying in the automatic promotion slots until the end of the season.

"It looks that way," he said.

This was Leeds' second successive 1-0 win and put a five-point gap between them and third-placed Fulham.

Watching from afar, Bowen never got the impression that Leeds United were struggling, even during a rocky patch of results when they lost four out of five Championship games in January and February and saw their 11-point gap to the play-off places cut to just goal difference.

"They've always looked strong for me," said Bowen.

"I looked at a lot of the stats coming into this game, what they produce week in and week out, penalty area entries, corners, 70 per cent possession.

"Even the games they were losing was a goalie mistake here or a bit of bad luck there. I didn't see them as a team out of form in anyway, they seemed to be like a well oiled machine to me."