United manager Simon Grayson was quick to praise his players after a much-changed Leeds side won 2-0 at Oldham on Tuesday.

The boss handed a debut to Hogan Ephraim, David Prutton made his first league start since in Boxing Day, and Max Gradel started alongside Sam Vokes up front.

Jermaine Beckford and Rob Snodgrass were among the substitutes, Micky Doyle travelled but didn't feature in the 18, and the likes of Andy Robinson and Tresor Kandol didn't make the trip to Boundary Park.

Goals from Neil Kilkenny and substitute Luciano Becchio secured the points as United's strength in depth came to the fore.

"We have nine games in a month, we've had four in 10 days and players need a rest," said the boss.

"We have players who are performing for this club and we had the luxury of giving some of those a players a rest when we needed to because there is a lot of games.

"Micky Doyle, who has done fantastically well, was out of squad and some others didn't travel. We have a good squad, and that's important as we work towards winning promotion.

"Paddy Kisnorbo did travel with us after his injury, but he wasn't quite there. He had a fitness test and I just felt we didn't need to push him too much.

"We'll have a few coming back again for the weekend and we'll see how we are again."

The 2-0 victory saw Prutton return to a midfield he last graced in a starting role for Grayson's first game as manager last year.

"Prutts has been ever so good," said the boss. "He's worked hard in training and in the reserves and we felt he could do a job for us."

The victory was comfortable enough for United. Oldham wasted one early chance, but Leeds dominated form then on, and could have won by more than the two-goal margin.

"After the first 15 minutes it was fairly comfortable," said the boss. 

"We didn't start as well as we wanted to, but once we got to grips with things and got the goal we were confident.

"At 1-0 you are still wary and we had enough chances to kill it off before Luciano scored the second to put it to bed."