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Chapter 296 Damn Two Points

Poorness leads to change, and change leads to success. McAllister's helpless move, although Leeds United have played for half a season, and the already quite mature tactics have to be changed, it has prevented Leeds United from being unable to get out of the predicament of not having an attacking midfielder in the next game.

In the next round of the league, Leeds United defeated Crystal Palace 5-30 at home, and the ranking returned to No.[-] again. Long Bisheng scored twice, and Guerrera scored his first goal after joining Leeds. Immediately after the No.[-] round, Leeds United beat Blackpool [-]-[-] away.

In the subsequent games, Leeds United had wins, draws and losses. After all, they had played for nearly a season, and they were basically only supported by the main players.

The game went on one by one, and before we knew it, we had reached the No. 40 round. The league has basically come to an end with six rounds left. Leeds United ranked fourth, leading No. 7 Sheffield Wednesday by nine points, and basically secured a spot for the play-offs.

But now McAllister has new troubles.

Now that it is firmly in the top six, McAllister is naturally unwilling to go to the play-offs. It is of course the best to be promoted directly to the top two. The current situation is like this. The number one Middlesbrough has reached 86 points, seven points ahead of No.2 Coventry and nine points ahead of No.3 West Bromwich Albion. The possibility of Middlesbrough is unlikely, but it is still certain to catch up with Coventry with 75 points.

However, Leeds United’s opponents in the last six rounds are not weak. The No.40 round challenged the eighth-ranked Sheffield United. Sheffield United still has a chance to enter the top six, and they will definitely not let Leeds go easily. No.40’s opponent Blackpool in the second round and No.40’s opponent Preston in the third round are not free from the danger of relegation. In the second half of the league, such opponents may be even more difficult.

No.40's opponent in the fourth round, Bristol City, is not an ambitious team. However, the opponent in the last two rounds, McAllister, can only smile bitterly. No.40 played against Reading in the fifth round, and the final round against Nottingham Forest.

Although Leeds is basically not in danger of slipping out of the sixth place, if they cannot squeeze into the top two, it is better to give up the temptation of direct promotion, let the main players who have been tired for a season take a good rest, and prepare for the play-offs. But for McAllister, this kind of temptation is something he cannot refuse.

If Delphi is not injured, McAllister is confident that he can defeat any opponent when the players have no physical problems. However, Delphi cannot play now after all, and the performance of the new tactics in the league is also somewhat ups and downs. With the current lineup to play in the play-offs, McAllister does not have much confidence.

There may be only one way in front of him, and that is to grit his teeth, take advantage of the current team's good results and better condition, win the next game in one go, and strive to enter the top two as the top two. But if he does this, if he fails to enter the top two after the league ends, then Leeds' situation will be very bad-they will participate in extremely tense play-offs when the players are exhausted!
"Grit your teeth and go on." McAllister gritted his teeth and thought, "Let's see how the results of these rounds are."

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Leeds' No.40 opponent is Sheffield United. Sheffield United is now [-] points behind Leeds United, but only three points behind Reading, which is sixth, and it is their home court. Naturally, they will not easily let Leeds take three points, because these three points are also very important to them.

However, Leeds, who are in excellent form recently, rumbled past Sheffield United's home court like an unstoppable chariot, 20 to [-], a score that left the opponent speechless. Long Bisheng scored his No.[-] five goals this season, firmly occupying the first place in the scorer list!
This is his sixth goal in the last six games. After a three-game scoring drought, Long Bisheng once again showed his demeanor as a key shooter. The closer the league is coming to an end, the better he is!
This is also due to Long Bisheng's personal characteristics. He has excellent stamina and plenty of physical fitness, which is enough for him to play the entire season. This also makes his performance as good as before the start of the season when other players have various physical problems at the end of the season.

Leeds won, Coventry and West Bromwich Albion also won, Leeds is still four points and two points behind their opponents, McAllister's determination is still not down.

But what happened in the next round made McAllister make up his mind.

Leeds, sitting at Elland Road, defeated the visiting Blackpool. The big score of [-] to [-] made the visiting team feel embarrassed. Long Bisheng scored another goal in this game. It seems that it is not impossible to score more than [-] goals in the last few rounds. It was a zero-to-zero tie with fifth-ranked Reading, and the gap between Leeds and them was only two points!
With four rounds left in the league, Leeds is already ahead of No.7 Sheffield Wednesday by [-] points. As long as they get two more points, they will be able to lock in the play-off spot. For Leeds now, it is almost a breeze to accomplish this!

If there is no hope of entering the top two, McAllister would like to send all the substitutes to play the last four games, so that the main players can fully recover their physical fitness.

But now he is only two points behind the first two—only two points!The gap of a game!If you don't work hard at this time, when will you have to wait?
McAllister also knew that he couldn't vacillate anymore. If he continued to vacillate, then the players might suddenly experience a decline in their status because they had no sense of purpose!

So in the No.40 three-round match, McAllister once again dispatched all his main players to win the away game against Preston, who was fighting for relegation, and continue to maintain the pressure on the previous two opponents!

Before participating in this game, Leeds got good news. West Bromwich Albion suffered a disastrous away game, losing [-]-[-] to Doncaster who was in the relegation zone!This means that as long as Leeds win this game, they will surpass West Bromwich Albion!
Coventry is playing away against Sheffield United in this round of the league. This opponent is not easy to deal with, especially when they have not lost hope of entering the top six.

Leeds fans firmly believe that they can win the opponent away, and Coventry will be strongly blocked. Their team will surpass both opponents in this round and enter the top two for the first time this season!

This optimism has also infected the Leeds players. They have forgotten that West Bromwich Albion lost to a relegation team, but the facts often prove that the more the season goes to the end, the more powerful the energy of the relegation team will often be!

You must know that Preston is also the team that has created the longest unbeaten record in England's top league!In terms of history, they are not inferior to Leeds United!What's more, this game is still at their home court!

Leeds paid the price for their underestimation of their opponents. Preston obviously studied Leeds’ recent tactics in detail. Even at home, they still used an airtight defense to deal with Leeds’ three forwards.

The Leeds players walked out of the stadium dejectedly, and then from another field, there was a news that made them wonder whether they should be happy or depressed-Coventry was also tied by Sheffield United in the away game, and the gap between the two sides was still two points.

McAllister looked at the standings dumbfounded. There were three rounds left before the end of the league, and they were two points behind and one point behind. This was not an insurmountable gap, but looking at the already somewhat exhausted players, McAllister wondered if his team would be able to persist until they won the next three games. Even if they won, what if Coventry also won three games in a row?
What's more, there is a West Bromwich Albion sandwiched in the middle!This is a team with rich experience in upgrading!
Either win this game and overwhelm Coventry with the advantage of goal difference to rank second.

This is a headache gap, at least, it makes McAllister extremely headache.

(End of this chapter)