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Monk looking to quickly banish memories of Barnsley defeat

By Jamie Woodhouse 

After their surprise 3-2 defeat to Yorkshire rivals Barnsley, Leeds will aim to get their promotion push back on track, as they meet a struggling Nottingham Forest in the Championship.

Leeds find themselves 4th in the table, dropping from 3rd place after the defeat, 10 points adrift from the automatic promotion places.

Forest are languishing down in 19th place, with just one win in their last six Championship games. After selling captain Henri Lansbury to Aston Villa for fee of around £3 million, there have been calls from some Forest fans for owner Fawaz Al Hasawi to sell the club, after a proposed takeover of the club recently fell through.

Leeds Head Coach Garry Monk expects to see a stronger performance from his team in this match, telling the Yorkshire Evening Post: “We had a disappointment at the weekend and that doesn’t sit well with us.

“We spoke about it in pre-season and one of the things we discussed was bouncing back from defeat or a negative result.

“Because we’ve been performing at such a high level, anything below it seems indifferent. People think ‘is there something wrong, what happened there?’ That’s just because of the level of performance we’ve been getting. When it doesn’t happen there can be frustration and disappointment but no-one feels that more than the players, myself and my staff.”

Interim Nottingham Forest manager Gary Brazil told Sky Sports: “The mood is very good in the camp and there is a buzz around the place.

“Forest v Leeds is always going to be well attended. They are at the top and we are hitting some form, so it should be a good game.

“Leeds are a good side and will be hard to play against, but it might not be a good time for them to play against Forest.”

Leeds will be boosted by the return of centre-back Pontus Jansson after he completed his two match ban for picking up ten yellow cards this season.

Matt Mills is unavailable for Forest with a groin injury.

 

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