COOPS: PAIN CAN LEED US UP TO PREM

LIAM COOPER insists Leeds are being driven to promotion by the agonising memories of last season’s end-of-campaign collapse.

The skipper (above) leads his table-toppers into a clash with struggling Luton tonight knowing a win will leave them just 11 points from a return to the Premier League.

But Leeds’ promotion bid ended in heartache last season, and Cooper said: “They’re all so determined to put last year right and hopefully we can do that. We’ve just got to be on it for every game now and we will be.

“We’re lucky we’ve got a great bunch of lads, a fairly young group as well who are hungry, who want to go and develop and want to go and do this. They make it easier for me as a captain.”

United (manager Marcelo Bielsa, below) bounced back from defeat at Cardiff to crush Fulham 3-0 on Saturday, and Cooper added: “Over the course of a season, you go through every single emotion. That is what football does to us and that is why we all love it.

“We’ve put ourselves in a really good position but anything can happen, we all know in the Championship, there is no given.

“We’ve just got to concentrate on us and the rest will take care of itself.”