O'Dea refusing to panic

Darren O'Dea: Is refusing to panic over Leeds' slump, stating the season is a marathon

Leeds United defender Darren O'Dea is refusing to panic over the club's poor run of form during the festive period.

The Whites followed up a last-gasp leveller at Watford with a home defeat by Reading and Boxing Day loss at Derby County.

The Elland Road club have now dropped outside the play-off positions ahead of their New Year's Eve clash at Barnsley.

Leeds are winless in five against the Tykes, conceding 15 in the process, and O'Dea insists his team-mates are staying 'level-headed'.

The on-loan defender is treating the season like a marathon, stating there is plenty of time to get their results back on track.

Composure

"There's 46 games and you're going to go up and down," he told the club's official website.

"I don't think any team has been really consistent. You need to stay level-headed. You can't get too high if you win or too low if you don't.

"The two games before Derby I didn't think we were quite at it, but at Derby we were disappointed by the result, but not the performance.

"We'll still look and aim for the top two. We're only halfway through the season. It feels like we've run one marathon and we have another one to go.

"Come the end of the season if we play largely the way we did we will be there or thereabouts. Christmas is very busy and people say it can make or break your season, but if we play like we did on Boxing Day we will definitely win more games than we lose."

Frustration

O'Dea returned to Leeds' starting line-up at Pride Park and he cut a frustrated figure watching on after sustaining an injury against Burnley in November.

"It's been frustrating because I was out with my head with concussion then got injured against Burnley and had to take more time out," he continued.

"Then I injured my knee and missed another week so it's been frustrating, but now I'm back I felt good. I felt good in training and even better for 90 minutes."