Leeds United Football Club - Fifty Is The Magic Number
Leeds boss Kevin Blackwell is delighted to see his side prove the critics wrong by reaching the 50-point mark - and ruling out any chance of being relegated.
'Doing a Sheffield Wednesday' as it's been termed by dropping through the divisions in successive seasons is not going to happen at Elland Road and the focus is on building towards a promotion drive for next season with an outside chance of making the play-offs this term.
"Today was we overcame the first hurdle because 50 points was the margin we had to get to," said Blackwell after the 2-1 win against West Ham United.
"We are not going to get relegated and that is one of the biggest pats on the back I can give the players, the fans and the staff here because everyone had tipped Leeds United to go down.
"They looked at us and said, there's no players there, they're struggling financially and everything that could go wrong is going wrong. We were written off as a Barnsley or a Sheffield Wednesday. Well we've turned it around and that's because every player, management and fans have knuckled down and worked their socks off.
"To say we are ten games away from the end of the season with no chance of going down is something we would all have taken at the beginning of the season. Let's just take every game now as it comes and see what happens."
Having reached the target the boss set the club for the season, what is the next step with 30 points still to play for?
"People say to me if I talk about the play-offs I'm over-ambitious and talking rubbish, but if I don't talk about it I'm lacking ambition so I can't win which ever way I go.
"But we have to be sensible and let's build this club one step at a time.
"I have got a Premiership ground with Premiership fans and a Premiership training facility, now I have to make sure I get us into the Premiership."
Leeds boss Kevin Blackwell is delighted to see his side prove the critics wrong by reaching the 50-point mark - and ruling out any chance of being relegated.
'Doing a Sheffield Wednesday' as it's been termed by dropping through the divisions in successive seasons is not going to happen at Elland Road and the focus is on building towards a promotion drive for next season with an outside chance of making the play-offs this term.
"Today was we overcame the first hurdle because 50 points was the margin we had to get to," said Blackwell after the 2-1 win against West Ham United.
"We are not going to get relegated and that is one of the biggest pats on the back I can give the players, the fans and the staff here because everyone had tipped Leeds United to go down.
"They looked at us and said, there's no players there, they're struggling financially and everything that could go wrong is going wrong. We were written off as a Barnsley or a Sheffield Wednesday. Well we've turned it around and that's because every player, management and fans have knuckled down and worked their socks off.
"To say we are ten games away from the end of the season with no chance of going down is something we would all have taken at the beginning of the season. Let's just take every game now as it comes and see what happens."
Having reached the target the boss set the club for the season, what is the next step with 30 points still to play for?
"People say to me if I talk about the play-offs I'm over-ambitious and talking rubbish, but if I don't talk about it I'm lacking ambition so I can't win which ever way I go.
"But we have to be sensible and let's build this club one step at a time.
"I have got a Premiership ground with Premiership fans and a Premiership training facility, now I have to make sure I get us into the Premiership."