Leeds United travel to Middlesex on Easter Monday on the back of their shock 2-1 loss at home to Wigan Athletic.
Wigan previously had the worst away record in England and furthermore had been reduced to ten men after just 14 minutes. Leeds even held a 1-0 lead and somehow managed to lose the game against the worst away side who were a man down.
To worsen matters,Yorkshire and promotion rivals Sheffield United won comfortably at home and leapfrogged Leeds into second place.
The Blades are at Hull at the same time as Leeds are at Brentford. Both the home clubs have remarkably similar home records. Brentford have a WDL record of 12-4-5 where Hull have 11-5-5, so both Yorkshire clubs face very similar challenge with whichever loses points likely to suffer serious damage to their promotion hopes. Leeds and Sheffield are separated by just one point on their away form.
The bad news for Leeds is that United’s next game is already relegated Ipswich at home, so they are really praying for Sheffield United to slip up at Hull. If not, Leeds may find automatic promotion gone, and the lottery of the play offs their disappointing dessert.
Brentford have little to play for having guaranteed safety some time ago. They have only one win in the last eight games and that was against lowly Ipswich.
After Brentford last played Leeds, Dean Smith left to take over Aston Villa. Thomas Frank took over, it was a horrendous run with only one win in the first ten against London rivals Millwall. Frank steadied the ship and thereafter went seven games unbeaten, lost to Nottingham Forest and then won four of the next five.
Although they have meandered a little since then, they now can look forward to next season with some optimism, given the calibre of the sides who may be coming down.
This game will be an acid test of Marco Bielsa’s ability to motivate and lift his team. Should he not pass it, then the playoffs will be Leeds’ true reward.
He should be able to overcome what Brentford have to offer as their season winds down
Prediction: Brentford 0 : 2 Leeds United
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