Reading manager Mark Bowen says that Leeds United never lost their form despite a recent poor run of results, and that he expects Marcelo Bielsa's side to win promotion to the Premier League this season.

Having previously won just two of 11 league games, a 1-0 win over the Royals at Elland Road has cemented Leeds' place in the Championship automatic promotion places - five points clear of third-placed Fulham.

Interestingly, Leeds never dropped out of the division's top two during that 11-game run, and Bowen believes the stats from those matches bode well for the Elland Road club's hopes of a return to English football's top-flight.

Speaking after that defeat to Bielsa's side on Saturday, Bowen was asked if he expects Leeds to win promotion this season, with the Reading boss quoted by Leeds Live as saying: “It looks that way. They’ve always looked strong for me.

“I looked at a lot of their stats coming into this game and the stats Leeds produce week in, week out in terms of penalty-area entries, corners and possession, 70 per cent.

“Even the games they were losing and dropping points, were possibly a goalie’s mistake here with a bit of bad luck there. I don’t watch them every week, but I didn’t see them as a team that was out of form in any way."

Giving his assessment of the Leeds team he saw in the flesh on Saturday, Bowen concluded: “They seem to be like a well-oiled machine to me. We came here today with a gameplan and we’re gutted, really, to be going back down the road without anything.”

The Verdict

This is an interesting assessment from Bowen.

In some ways, a number of the performances Leeds put in during that run of difficult results did suggest they were still playing well, with the exception of taking their chances, which they are still struggling to do now.

That however, is the issue that has dogged Leeds for so much of their promotion challenges over the last season-and-a-half or so, meaning there will still be some concerns about that around Elland Road.

As a result, the fact that Leeds have started to manage to grind out results again in the past week will be a big relief, although you still feel they would rather start taking some more of those chances, in order to reduce some of the nerves around this push for promotion.