Manager Steve Tilson is surprised by Leeds United's recent on the field struggles following their excellent season to date.

Simon Grayson's side dropped out of the top two this month and picked up their first win in five games on Monday.

But Tilson is more concerned about his own sides struggles to remain in League One next season.

"It does surprise me that Leeds have struggled lately because they have a big squad with some quality players," Steve told Blues Player.

"But this game is about as tough as it gets for us and we will need to pick ourselves up and be ready."

Blues are currently 22nd in the standings and remain three points from safety.

They will again be without Alan McCormack (foot) this weekend and he joins Scott Spencer (ankle), Damian Scannell (broken foot) and Franck Moussa (suspended) on the sidelines.

That leaves Tilson with just 14 fit professional players and he admits it is an incredibly tough situation to be in.

"It's disappointing news about Scott and Macca won't be ready either so it's very difficult for us," said the former Southend midfielder.

"Any time we lose a player it hits us hard because of the size of the squad and the situation we're in but we will continue to fight."

Blues have six games remaining to avoid the drop into League Two.

And Tilson feels they must win at least half of those to have any chance of staying up.

"We need to win three and probably get another point on top of that as well so it's going to be tough," said Tilson.

"We have three home games left against Brentford, Brighton and Stockport which we need to win and Oldham away as well.

"Leeds will be extremely tough but there would be no better place to turn things around and if we get anything there it will give us all a huge boost."