FEET are firmly on the ground at Elland Road as Leeds United prepare for a burst of four key games in ten days.

The Whites rose to second in the npower Championship with last weekend’s 2-0 victory over leaders QPR at Elland Road.

They kick off their bid to take over top spot against Leicester City at the Walkers Stadium on Boxing Day, before hosting Portsmouth on Tuesday.

Middlesbrough are next up at Elland Road on New Year’s Day, before manager Simon Grayson takes his men to third-placed Cardiff City on Tuesday, January 4.

First-team coach Glyn Snodin is looking forward to the festive fixture glut.

“We’ve got standards and we want to win every game,” said the former Scarborough youth team coach. “It’s a tough league and there’s big clubs in this league. You can’t take anything for granted or think anyone is a pushover.

“We take it week by week. We’ve got Leicester first and we go from there. We’re not thinking about the others yet.”

Snodin added that the players looked fresh in the wake of their victory over Rangers, sealed by two goals from Max Gradel.

“Last season we were playing Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday for long periods but this season, with the extra rest time that we’ve had, they looked really sharp,” he said.

“It’s up to us to make sure they’re not sloppy in training and don’t get carried away. But it’s very rare we have to do that because they are really at it in training.”