Houllier factor can lift United

3:31pm Thursday 8th May 2008

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Gary McAllister will bank on his experiences of playing cup football under Gerard Houllier at Liverpool to hopefully manage Leeds successfully through the play-offs.

McAllister, who won the league championship with Leeds in 1992, has no experience of the play-offs as his side prepare to face Carlisle next week in their League One semi-final.

But he said: "From the outside I have always been gripped by the excitement the play-offs generate. It is just like cup football, with a home and away leg.

"We had some fantastic cup runs under Gerard Houllier, so I will draw on those experiences to help us prepare."

United's top scorer Jermaine Beckford is expected to be fit for Monday's first leg at Elland Road after being out for four matches with an ankle injury.

Beckford trained with the rest of the squad today for the first time in over a month.

"Jermaine has scored 20 league goals this season so to have him back for the play-offs would be a great boost," said McAllister.

"He gives us something a wee bit different. His biggest asset is power and pace, which you need to play at the highest level."

Experienced midfielder Alan Thompson is also back in training and eager to play a part in the play-offs.

But McAllister says Ian Westlake and Matt Heath will not figure, despite returning from loan spells at Brighton and Colchester respectively.

If United emerge as winners of the play-offs, it will not be just the three other semi-finalists who are disappointed.

All the other League One sides, apart from Nottingham Forest, Southend and Crewe, will be regretting their promotion knowing their biggest home income of the season has just moved into the Championship.

While the Leeds team have looked quite ordinary at times this season, especially in the long-ball days of Dennis Wise, the support has been better than at many Premier League clubs.

Not only have Leeds been the biggest draw for 21 of the 24 clubs in their division, only one Forest match prevented them picking up all the top-ten attendances in League One.

They also grabbed four of the ten biggest gates in the whole of the Football League - including the highest of the season, last Saturday's 38,256 against Gillingham.

Playing in front of that kind of crowd is new for most of the Leeds players and Andrew Hughes was clearly blown away by it.

He said: "There's no experience like it. It takes your breath away.

"I've been at different clubs and experienced different fans but you can't find words to describe what it was like on Saturday.

"We need to do them proud in the play-offs, as well as doing it for ourselves."

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