Reid rallies behind Roque

The South American begun his Whites career with a 4-0 hammering away to Leicester, before being given his marching orders in Saturday's 2-0 defeat to Birmingham City.

The on-loan Milan stopper has suffered a barrage of criticism for his displays so far, but Reid says he has every confidence in the South American's ability.

"When I looked at the Leicester game I was panicking - and even though we conceded another two goals, I thought we looked solid on this occasion," said Reid.

"He was a little bit unlucky, getting sent off for two bookings - and the referee has made his decisions - I thought Roque was fantastic.

"He showed against (Christophe) Dugarry and (Mikael) Forssell that he is quality and just why he plays for Brazil. He was terrific. I think he is a really good player."

With just one win and three defeats from their opening six games, the Elland Road boss is encouraging his players to get the Yorkshire side's season kick started against Swindon Town in the Carling Cup on Wednesday.

"Sometimes you don't get out of games what you put into it. I thought the players were terrific, so now it is about how we react," added Reid.

"After a solid start we have had two defeats, which is disappointing. But if we play like we did against Birmingham then we will be all right. We just need to start getting results."

In other news, Leeds coach Kevin Blackwell fears bad refereeing decisions could cost jobs.

Blackwell is furious with referee Dermot Gallacher for the red card he showed Roque Junior in the defeat to Brum, before ordering the resulting penalty kick to be re-taken after he judged Paul Robinson to have moved off his line early to save David Dunn's effort.

Robbie Savage scored at the second attempt, much to the annoyance of Blackwell: "There was a collective amount of poor decisions.

"There was a blatant push on Roque Junior as the ball got played in before the penalty. People talk about jobs, but decisions like that cost people their jobs."