Gary Mc.Allister will give a few fringe players a game in tonight’s JPT tie at Rotherham, but he still wants to make progress in the competition.

The boss told the official site "In an ideal world we want to get back to winning ways as quick as we can. That's the beauty of this game coming so quickly after Peterborough. We know it'll be a tough game because Rotherham have momentum and have made a great start to the season, but this is an opportunity to get a lift ahead of a big game against Brighton on Saturday." He is going to rest a couple of key players, although there is no possibility of extra time being played, as it will go straight to penalties if the scores are level after 90 minutes. Macca is fairly confident that his team could cope with any shoot-out, even though they haven’t made any special preparations.  "We haven't been practicing as a team, but we have plenty of people who will be stepping forward if that's the case."

Leeds will have Lucas and Sweeney available after injury, and the boss might opt to include both players to give them a chance to get back to full fitness. Lucas damaged a finger during the warm-up at Peterborough on Saturday, but X-rays have shown no break, and he was able to train yesterday, with the aid of a splinter he had to wear on the affected finger. And Sweeney is on the comeback trail after his hamstring problem, and although Peterborough was deemed "too soon" for the left-back, he could be included tonight.

Mc.Allister hasn’t yet announced his starting line-up, but he has said "I might look to change a wee bit, but I'm picking from everyone and there are no injured players. One factor I'll take into consideration is looking at the number of games players have played in a row. The players have had a big schedule, but it'll still be a strong side that goes to Rotherham”. In any case, the competition rules will limit the number of fringe players he will be able to play, as the squad has to include at least 11 of the 16 players who were selected for the previous league game.

And he isn’t going to underestimate the opposition, as Rotherham have been in fine form since they suffered a points deduction at the start of the season. The manager said "When I look through their squad I expect them to be an offensive side," by which I presume he means that they will play in an attacking style, rather than being a team which spends the game making rude and insulting comments. "What they've done already has been a tough ask, but they've gathered that same momentum that Leeds did last season after the points deduction. They'll have that togetherness that brings.”

And Rotherham boss Mark Robins told the Yorkshire Post that he has drawn inspiration from the way Leeds performed last season. Their victory over Grimsby last week took the millers moved onto a positive points total, and Robins said "We could have sat here feeling sorry for ourselves but we couldn't afford to do that – we had to come out fighting like Leeds last season.They set the benchmark and they showed what was possible – the only difference is that they could still afford to go out and buy players. Now we are back in positive points a huge weight has been lifted off our shoulders. Hopefully, in the next few weeks, we can start looking up the table."

Rotherham will be without cup-tied striker Richie Barker, but  Robins will welcome back midfielder Danny Harrison after he missed out at the weekend with a slight hamstring strain. Mark Lynch will be sidelined for two to three months following shoulder surgery, so with a smaller squad than Leeds, Robins won’t have the luxury of being able to make many changes to his side.

Rotherham are unbeaten at the Don Valley stadium this season, but I think that Leeds will just be strong enough to get through to the next stage of the competition.

Photo: Action Images

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