A Premier League return would be for Leeds fans – Dallas

admin

Leeds: In the promotion mix

Winger Stuart Dallas claims Leeds are determined to maintain their promotion push and restore their top-flight status for their long-suffering fans.After a 13-year absence from the Premier League, three of which were spent in the third tier, Garry Monk’s side currently sit fourth in the Sky Bet Championship table with only eight games remaining.

It has raised the possibility of one of the country’s traditionally bigger clubs returning to English football’s top table after five successive bottom-half Championship finishes.

“I think the Leeds fans have suffered a lot for many years now; it would be a dream come true for all of us to get a club like that back to where it belongs,” Dallas said.

“But it just doesn’t happen overnight, it’s been a long, hard season. The fans have come out and backed us as they do through the good and bad times, but in more recent weeks we are getting 30,000-plus at Elland Road which is incredible.

“It really helps the players. There have been games there in which we haven’t been playing particularly well but we’ve ground out results and in the Championship that’s massive.

“I think it’s been well-documented that Leeds are being talked about as being a top-flight club. Realistically they’ve been through a hard time and it has taken a long time to get them back up fighting for promotion but nothing has been done yet.”

Garry Monk: Felt Leeds deserved Derby win

Leeds’ turnaround can be attributed to the impact Monk has had since arriving in West Yorkshire in the summer.

He picked up just four points from the first six league games at a club where there had been five managers in two years prior to his arrival, yet results soon picked up and Dallas revealed Monk’s belief in the squad has been key.

“He hasn’t changed his ways from the start of the season,” the Northern Irishman added.

“He believed in us and told us from the start he believed we were a good group and he promised us that if we bought into what he was doing we would give a good account of ourselves.

“At the start of the season we didn’t start too well but we kept going.”