Players are unbelievable

It is more than five months since we played Leeds United at Elland Road and we have been beaten only twice in League One since that Monday night in October.

We were 11 points behind Leeds after that defeat and now we are eight points ahead of them with nine games to go, so it has been a remarkable turnaround.

It is an unbelievable run we have had and I can't praise the players highly enough because they have been absolutely terrific for me.

The lads have given the club something it had lost for years - and that is people coming to the stadium expecting to see their team win. The players and the fans who have come in their droves have gone forward together.

But as we prepare to face Leeds again tomorrow, we must remember we have not achieved anything yet.

What the lads have done is put us right in the mix in the closing stages of the season, but so are Leeds.

Tomorrow's game will be in the spotlight because it is first against second, but I would not say there is an extra buzz among the players because of that.

Our preparations have been just the same, just as thorough as any other week, and it would be disrespectful to the other teams in the division to say otherwise. I regard every game as equally tough and we must prepare for each one in the same way.

Some of our senior players have had to spend a lot of time on the bench lately because those in the side have performed so well, but that's football.

t Paul Lambert's weekly column appears in full in the Evening News every Friday