Keegan: Eddie Has Total Respect

Last updated : 22 December 2003 By Kevin Markey

When he played for Liverpool the Man City boss enjoyed some good battles with the great Leeds teams of the 70's and still has admiration for Eddie Gray.

Gray is attending his daughter Natalie's wedding today and will miss the match tonight and Keegan said: "I am one of the people who look at Leeds and I think it is a shame what has happened there. You want Leeds, who are a big, big club, to come through the problems they have got, but not against us.

"We obviously want the three points as desperately as they do so it is a very big game. They want to keep their good run going and we are looking to turn our season around.

"Eddie knows the club and he seems to have been there a hundred years and I don't mean that unkindly. I used to play against him and he was a terrific player first and foremost.

"He is always going to have the total respect of his players because when he says `have you thought of this' or `have you tried that' they know that he has been out there and done it and got the t-shirt.

"This has become a big game for us as we need to turn ourselves around and we need to do it sooner rather than later. Leeds have the confidence and run that we have not got at the moment but they are still way below us in the table.

"Eddie has put all the homegrown players back in. They have worked hard, fought and scrapped and looked good in their last game against Fulham, who are not an easy side against which to play.

"It has been much easier for Eddie to make wholesale changes. He has been on the outside and I suppose like supporters watching, everyone has their own opinion on the team.

"I think what Eddie has done has proved to be right because of the results. Whatever he has done is working as they have taken seven points out of the last nine and that is championship form. They have crawled off the bottom of the League."