Simon Grayson fires warning to Leeds United players after Millwall defeatLeeds manager Simon Grayson has issued his players with a shape up or ship out ultimatum as he attempts to invigorate the Yorkshire club's League One promotion challenge. By Rob Stewart
Published: 12:18PM GMT 23 Mar 2010
Rough and tumble: Leeds' promotion push is falling apart at the seams Photo: ACTION IMAGES
Grayson's charges are now in danger of slipping out of the top two automatic positions and into the play-off places following a calamitous run of form that last night saw Millwall close the gap to just three points with a 2-0 win at Elland Road.
With a daunting visit to pacesetters Norwich looming on Saturday, Grayson has warned his players that they must raise their game to get the Leeds United promotion challenge back on track ahead of the trip to Carrow Road.
Price is right for Millwall to stay in touch with League One leaders
"Everybody can accept the plaudits when things are going well but you have to roll your sleeves up and anybody who does not want to roll their sleeves up then they might as well disappear out of the football club," Grayson said.
"I want people with character and qualities about them to take this football club back up and I have firm belief that we will still do that. It has dented us a little bit and we are hurt by the situation but we have to roll our sleeves up and move on for the weekend.
"We are still in a good position in that we are three points clear and second in the division with nine games to go and hopefully my team will come out and respond in a positive manner from now until the end of the season to achieve what we set out to achieve at the start of the season."
Grayson made it clear that he was far from impressed with his players' efforts during the defeat by Millwall.
"They did the ugly things better than us in terms of being hard to beat, winning tackles and with the ball they played a lot better," Grayson added.
"We have players who can do a lot better to affect football matches and we didn't do anything that we have done over the last few to get us where we are. It is disappointing but we have to move on and learn from the experience.
"When we're at our best we pass it well with flair and imagination. We are creative and we're hard to beat as well - and we didn't do any of those things.
"We couldn't cope. Throughout the team with Millwall. None of my players won individual battles and that is disappointing.
"You accept what happened and we have to make sure we learn from the experience and come out fighting at the weekend and try to put right what has been wrong and look on the positive of what could happen.
"We knew the significance of the game and what could happen and we knew Millwall were a good side and a hard team to beat. They are on a great run of form and they are a major threat to everybody in the division."
Despite the downturn in fortunes, Grayson remains bullish about his club's promotion prospects following a slump that has yielded just three wins since the start of the year.
"I am very confident," he said. "I have a group of players who performed very well for the first half of the season. Obviously you go through parts of the season where things aren't happening for you and we are confident. We have a belief we can succeed in what we are doing.
"The morale isn't too low. It is affected because they know they can do better as individuals and players. We have to make sure we pick the players up. They players have to look at themselves to think about they could do to affect the game more. We have to look at ourselves and think what can we do individually as a staff to affect the team."
"We were disappointing at Southampton but before that we played really well at Tranmere and we want to get back to that level of performance at the weekend."
