Home gains are a boon for Mac
Were it not for the fact that he understands the critical importance of promotion to Leeds United, Gary McAllister might see this season as a no-win situation for his club.
He and his players began as the bookmakers' favourites in August, tipped by all to walk off with the League One title, and predictions that United would dominate their league came with a thinly-disguised belief that they should.
Before a ball was kicked in competitive anger, McAllister became aware that exceeding expectation was an impossibility for a club which carried the highest wage bill, the largest squad and the most obvious target in the division.
He was, perhaps, the only League One boss for whom promotion was the long and short of his business.
Leeds sit three points short of first place in their league ahead of tomorrow's game against Walsall and McAllister – a perfectionist by nature – is a happy man who would not deny that room for improvement exists within his squad.
What surprises him, then, is the claim that something in the machine at Elland Road is slightly faulty.
McAllister admits that three defeats from 12 league games is ammunition for anyone who expected Leeds to run away with first place and it was because of the club's absence from the division's summit that he believes an ounce of tension found its way into the home crowd on Tuesday night.
Leeds rode a subdued atmosphere with a 2-1 victory over Leyton Orient – the last in a streak of six straight wins on home turf – and McAllister is not willing to allow blinkered opinions of where United should be to detract from the start his players have made.
The 43-year-old said: "The pundits and the bookies say we're favourites and because we're 12 games in and we're not sitting proudly at the top of the league, some people are asking 'what's gone wrong?'
"The fact is that there isn't a great deal that's gone wrong.
"Of course we're concerned that we've lost games, and about the manner in which we've conceded goals, but there's so much that's good about this club.
"I'm delighted with so many parts of the team and although a lot's been said about my younger players that applies to the senior players as well.
"After our games when the coaching staff sit back and analyse things, there's a lot that's good – and I think that fact is whizzing around League One as well. People can see it.
"We've won six on the bounce at Elland Road and until recently our away form wasn't bad either.
But we do want to get better, there's no doubt about that."
McAllister expressed concern at the beginning of the season at United's unpredictability and inconsistent results in LS11, but the quiet construction of six home victories in succession is convincing evidence that the sore has been healed.
Leeds have lost only one match at home this term, a 2-0 defeat to Oldham Athletic which led to McAllister's admission that his players were struggling to perform in front of expectant Elland Road gates, and United's winning run was extended by their victory against a lively Orient side on Tuesday.
United collected almost as many points away from home as they did at Elland Road last term – 49 on home soil compared to 42 on the road – but McAllister is in no doubt that the success of the club's current season will depend predominantly on their 23 matches in Leeds.
It is why he has been so pleased to see their uncertainty vanish.
"That's absolutely gone," he said. "We created a lot of chances on Tuesday, eight or nine quality chances, and we've got to be pleased about that.
"Orient were a team who are fighting for their lives down at the bottom of the league, and I thought they were decent. They made some good chances themselves, albeit with a little help from us.
"It wasn't until our possession started to stretch them that we got control.
"The thing for me was to get the players enjoying the fact that we've got a fantastic home support.
"Again, I've got to say it – Tuesday was a Champions League night and there were big, high-profile games on TV but we got nearly 20,000 against a team who are near the bottom of the league.
"We've got another home game straight away tomorrow, so that's a great crowd. It shows the club's potential, although that's not something you have to tell me about.
"And it's a case of the more the merrier – I want us to get as many fans back into Elland Road as we possibly can."
Walsall's plan will be to dampen the noise of tomorrow's crowd, as Orient did for 36 minutes on Tuesday evening, and the Saddlers' list of beaten opponents this season is a stark warning to McAllister.
The Uniteds of Carlisle, Scunthorpe and Southend have all given up three points to Walsall and on Tuesday night, while Leeds were beating Orient, Leicester City trailed Jimmy Mullen's team twice before recovering to record a 2-2 draw.
Walsall's prospects were slightly unpredictable after the resignation in April of their former manager Richard Money, a successful coach who is now in charge of Newcastle United's academy, but the club have climbed to 10th place under Mullen.
In a similar vein to an Orient team who fought gamely at Elland Road, McAllister is not anticipating a negative performance from Walsall this weekend.
And he has seen enough of the unforgiving focus on his team to know that the loss of points against Mullen's dangerous side will not be seen in positive terms.
"The budget there is tough for them and they lost a good man in Richard Money," said McAllister. "He worked wonders for most of his time there.
"But from what I've seen of them and heard of them this season they'll try and play. They'll get the ball down and pass it around, and I don't think they'll come here to park a bus in front of the goal.
"But it's another home game and we're expected to win our home games. We have to start from minute one."
YEP
