Leeds United favourite issues final message to Whites players on jobs with supporters must

Leeds are going into today’s final day of the Premier League season with their top-flight status dangling by a thread in sitting second-bottom and two points adrift of safety. The Whites will definitely be relegated if they do not beat today’s visitors Tottenham at Elland Road and even then Sam Allardyce’s side will need slip ups from both third-bottom Leicester City and fourth-bottom Everton to survive.

Asked if he had one last message for United’s players, YEP columnist Prutton said: “The one final message to take into the weekend is do your job. It's gone that far that they have to rely on other people. But all they can do to salvage self respect, salvage personal pride and pride in what Leeds United is, is to do their job - beat Spurs convincingly and then see if the footballing Gods look on you favourably.

"If you beat Spurs convincingly and results don't go for you then it's a minor victory, a Pyrrhic victory in the sense of we did our bit but other results didn't go for us. Then the post-mortem begins and they have to take the flak that comes their way.

"The team that was fighting hard and batting hard under Marcelo Bielsa that fell short and then ultimately went up in the next season had all the praise in the world and quite rightly so. In football, when things are going great, everyone says how wonderful you are and it's lovely and you can say thank you.

"But then when things don't go so great, everyone says how rubbish you are and you have just got to take that on the chin. Success and failure are the two imposters that you have to treat equally and it will be a chapter in some of these players' careers that they will learn from and look back on as a time of real fight and testing and they've got to come through it.

"The fans have come through it. The fans have been through thick and thin so this bunch of players have to do exactly the same thing. Go down swinging. Leeds fans that will be watching Sunday's game might be angry, might be upset, might be inconsolable.

"But at least make sure that you come off that pitch knowing that you have done absolutely everything that you can. Then they can honestly clap you for that performance if not for the season as a whole.”