How many times recently have we talked about 'crunch' games? Well there's another coming up on Saturday - especially if we want to keep ourselves even remotely in the Championship race. More realistically now, we need to be looking over our shoulders at teams likely to take our Champions League slot away from us. Suddenly, almost from nowhere, Liverpool are just three points behind and you certainly wouldn't rule out Arsenal or even Chelsea at this stage.

If we think we've had a few problems of late, though, spare a thought for the supporters at the Riverside. When we played them at Elland Road earlier in the season, they were in a respectable seventh place, having made a pleasing start to the campaign. Now, they are languishing in fourteenth - and things would have been even worse had they not managed a win against Coventry last Saturday.

Their previous home game against Aston Villa, televised live on Sky, was a real horror show of epic proportions. It's hard to recall a Premiership team playing as badly as Boro on the night and anyone who witnessed Colin Cooper's post match interview will have rarely heard such a brutally honest summing up of a team's performance. Againt Leeds, though, you can bet things will be different. Robson will hope to build on the Coventry victory and breathe some much needed life into their ailing season.

Robson can rightly point to the injury situation as a partial excuse to their current dilemna - and there is no doubt whatsoever that the reintroduction of Ziege and Ricard had a massive impact on Saturday. However, they still have several key players on the treatment table and ex-Leeds favourite Brian Deane will not be available for selection against us at the weekend.

O'Leary's team selection will be badly hampered by injury and suspension problems. However, despite being stretched to the limit, he should still be able to fill the eleven positions with capable reinforcements. Kelly, Bakke and Jones are suspended whilst Batty is certainly out with an ankle problem. McPhail and Bridges are also major doubts although, if unavailable on Saturday, they should be ready for the trip to Roma on the following Thursday. Mills, Haaland and Hophin are all set for rare chances in the starting eleven.