United manager Simon Grayson was left berating his slow starters after Saturday's 3-2 defeat at Gillingham.

Grayson's men missed out on a golden opportunity to strengthen the grip on second spot in League One after crashing to defeat at the hands of relegation battlers Gillingham.

The defeat ended United's run of three victories, and with Millwall and Charlton both losing, and Swindon drawing, it was an opportunity missed by Leeds.

"We said to the lads before the game that this could be the hardest of the four games we had left," said the boss. 

"It's a difficult place to go, they have a good home record, and they are uncompromising.

"But you can't start the way we did and expect to win a game. We didn't do the things we'd done at Carlisle a few days before.

"We didn't match them physically. We didn't turn them and we found ourselves 3-0 down in the first half-hour.

"We gave ourselves a lifeline before half-time and we told them they could still win the game at half-time.

"With a bit of luck we might have got something out of it, but you can't start a game like that..."

United were shell shocked inside the opening 33 minutes at the Priestfield as the dominant hosts ran in three without reply.

"We made a lot of bad decisions," said the boss. "It wasn't just the back four, it was from the midfield areas as well.

"We didn't play to our shape as we have done and we were too open.

"We didn't defend the ball coming into the box for the first one and for the first two, two people were nowhere near the players they were supposed to be picking up.

"We can do all the preparation we want, but players have to take responsibility in situations like that and be tight to people.

"The third goal summed up our first half performance. It was a calamity.

"Sometimes you can't work out how they can go from a professional performance on the Tuesday to a shambles like that on Saturday."

United did pull two goals back in the game, Jermaine Beckford slamming home a penalty late on to give Grayson's men hope.

"They did keep going and the penalty made it edgy for them," added the boss.

"We also erased some of the goal difference at one stage, but the only real positive is that we cam away still second in the league."