Leeds United: Grayson confident he can keep players

Leeds United boss Simon Grayson has insisted the club's desire to reach the Premier League should keep this side together despite interest in some of his players from top-flight clubs.
United, who travel to Portsmouth in the Championship tomorrow, have played two high profile FA Cup ties against Arsenal in the past couple of weeks.And that will have alerted current Premier League clubs to the talents Grayson has at his disposal. "Hopefully the ambition of the players can be fulfilled here - we are not a selling club and don't need to sell anybody," said Grayson.
"The FA Cup games have whetted the appetite for players to face these sorts of teams on a weekly basis and I believe we have come out of the two games with a lot of credit."
United will have to recover quickly from the 3-1 third round replay defeat to the Gunners on Wednesday.
Grayson admitted his side, whose goal was scored by Bradley Johnson, had been outclassed - but by one of the best teams in football."We showed some good qualities and if you are going to get knocked out of the FA Cup you might as well have it done by one of the best teams in Europe if not the world," he said.
"They showed what they were all about tonight. The way they started the game was quite worrying for us.
"But we got the goal which galvanised us - Bradley shoots like that in training and most of them end up in Wetherby but he hit that one so sweetly and it was a goal worthy of winning a match."
Grayson will be checking on the fitness of leading scorer Luciano Becchio ahead of the trip to Fratton Park after he missed the Arsenal game due to a back injury. George McCartney could also return to the starting line up after he missed the midweek game because he was ineligible to play.