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Page last updated at 10:55 GMT, Monday, 24 November 2008

McAllister to keep rotating squad

Gary McAllister
McAllister's side are just inside the League One play-off places

Leeds United manager Gary McAllister will continue to rotate his squad as he targets promotion from League One.

He brought back Lucciano Becchio, Andy Robinson and Fabien Delph for Saturday's 4-1 win over Hartlepool.

McAllister told BBC Radio Leeds: "The changes are purely because of the amount of games.

"I feel at times that we have to freshen things up in the team - once we get down to the nitty gritty you might see the same team appearing."

He added: "We've got to use the squad because the games are coming really thick and fast.

"Last week we had Saturday to Monday, this week it was Saturday to Tuesday. It's difficult, and if you've got quality then we've got to use it."

Becchio and Delph both scored on their return to the side while Jermaine Beckford's double took his tally to five in two games.

Although Hartlepool's Joel Porter equalised Beckford's opener, McAllister never felt his side were in danger of losing the game.

"Right from early on we got our noses in front and Hartlepool did have a few counter attacks which caused us problems but I felt at half time that we didn't have to do a great deal different," he said.

"We had to show patience and keep doing what we were doing - working the ball, trying to get it wide, trying to get decent delivery into the box, and then it started to fall for us.

"We made their keeper work which at times this season we haven't with the amount of possession we've had, but I was pleased with our patience - there was no panic and I think we got our just rewards."

But McAllister admitted that his side are far from the finished article and was unhappy with their failure to keep a clean sheet.

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"We've got to keep trying to put it right and we've just go to try to eradicate that because as much as we had loads of pressure in the first half, it was only on occasions that Hartlepool did make some serious inroads into our penalty area and each time they did there was a little bit of panic."

New signing Malcolm Christie missed out on his league debut for the club after being sidelined by a rib injury but McAllister is hoping to have him available for Tuesday's trip to Northampton.

"He's had a knock on his rib, which we thought he had popped but he hasn't.

"The feeling is he might just have tweaked the cartilage in one of his ribs and he's feeling very sore when he's trying to breathe."

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see also
Leeds 4-1 Hartlepool
22 Nov 08 |  League One


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