Staunton backing promotion push

5:19pm Tuesday 5th February 2008

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Steve Staunton is hopeful he and Gary McAllister can halt Leeds' slide and steer them to promotion from League One.

Former Republic of Ireland boss Staunton admits that Swansea look to have promotion tied up, unless they suffer a massive collapse.

But the new Leeds assistant manager said: "There are a lot of teams with not many points between them. It's a matter of who goes on a winning streak and quickly.

"It hasn't been great at Leeds since Christmas but hopefully we can push on from here.

"We learned a bit about the players at the weekend and if we can put our heads together and the players do their bit, it will be the right combination.

"From what I gather, the players are lacking a bit of confidence but looking at them in training they look bright and lively.

"You can regain confidence in many ways - a lucky win, a goal or even a good training session."

The new United management team will soon have an extra selection option in defence as Rui Marques will be on his way back from the African Cup of Nations.

The Angola international got as far as the quarter-finals before his side were beaten 2-1 by Egypt.

It will be strange for Marques to find that Dennis Wise, the manager who advised him not to sign a new contract in case more was on offer at the end of the season, has gone and he has yet another boss to win over.

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