Sam Allardyce says Leeds must use the fear of relegation to “drive them on” as he prepares for his first home match in charge of the Premier League strugglers.
The former Newcastle, West Ham and England boss was hired by Leeds on May 3 in a last-ditch bid to keep them in the Premier League for a fourth successive season.
Leeds are second bottom of the table after last weekend’s 2-1 defeat at Manchester City — two points from safety with just three games to go.
They host Newcastle at Elland Road on Saturday before games against West Ham and Tottenham.
“The fear needs to drive them on,” Allardyce said at his pre-match press conference on Thursday.
“The fear of relegation, the fear of losing their Premier League status should hopefully make them fight, and fight hard for their status and their position at Leeds United.
“I want to be still in it when we play Tottenham (on the final day). I’ll be very satisfied if, when we play Tottenham, we’re still in it.”
Allardyce was sacked by Newcastle in 2008 after just eight months in charge, but said that would not give him extra motivation to deal their top-four hopes a blow.
“It’s a long time ago,” said the 68-year-old. “Was I disappointed? Yes. What did it do to my career? Massive knock-back.
“But I always recover and move on. It was an opportunity, but in the end I couldn’t avoid a change of ownership that was unexpected.”
Mike Ashley had taken control of Newcastle from Freddy Shepherd the previous year.
Third-placed Newcastle lost 2-0 to Arsenal last weekend, but have won eight of their past 10 league games to stay on course for Champions League football next season.
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