New first team assistant manager Mick Jones admits he was delighted to resume his partnership with Neil Warnock at Leeds United this week.

Mick is a long-time partner to the new manager and the duo have been working hard in a bid to prepare United for a serious tilt at the Play-Offs in the coming weeks.

Mick first met Neil at Peterborough United and has assisted him Notts County, Huddersfield, Plymouth, Sheffield United, Crystal Palace, and Queens Park Rangers before joining up with him at Leeds.

"It's too daft for words to end up here at the last port of my career and probably the gaffer's, it's amazing really," said Mick.

"I knew Neil was in Monte Carlo on Friday and he called me that night and said 'we're off to Leeds United, starting tomorrow'. I went to his house and we were up until 2.30 talking about what should happen.

"I jumped into the car the following day, we met up in Leeds, and he wanted to get his teeth straight into the job because he felt it was a waste of a weekend.

"Obviously the game being as it was, it was a good decision, to come from 2-0 down at home on your debut sets a good standard."

Mick spent much of his playing career at Notts County and Peterborough, but having started out as a youngster at Derby County in the 1960s, he is more aware than most how history was made at Elland Road during the Revie era.

"One of the problems at all big clubs is the burden of the past," he said. "But you should never worry about legacies. You're talking about unbelievable players and it was an era when I played against the great Leeds team in the FA Cup, and I still remember it to this day. It'll never leave me.

"When I was a kid at Derby I used to shoot up the M1 and watch the great Leeds team and to watch that team in those days was something special. It never crossed my mind I would come here."

So, having worked with the new gaffer for much of his career, Mick also knows better than most what people can expect from the new man at the helm.

"He's a demanding man for staff, players and everyone around him," said Mick.

"He's very committed, he expects the same from everybody and if you respond you will have a friend for life.

"With players, if they're good enough and their attitude is good, and they work hard on the training ground and replicate it on a matchday, they'll be fine."

Unsurprisingly, Mick says the new management team have been delighted with the response of the players on the training ground this week.

"You'd expect that because it always happens when a new manager comes in, but we've got what we wanted," he said.

"There's a big squad and a lot of players have maybe been left floundering, and they will get an opportunity, like in the reserves on Tuesday. If they can prove they are in the frame or put themselves in the frame then they won't be forgotten."

It was very much a case of 'will the last one out please turn out the lights' after the new management team left Thorp Arch shortly after 9pm on their first Monday in the job, and Mick says he is excited about the road ahead.

"We've done a lot of work and planning and hopefully now we can pick up a few results and start building confidence," he said.

"I know the Leeds fans have heard all this before about Elland Road being a fortress and all that so let's just get on with it and let's produce a team that will hopefully get them on their feet.

"The second half on Saturday was pure theatre, but the first half was scary. We saw both sides of the coin. And we have to eliminate that. They have to go out there and express themselves, work hard and enjoy their football, we're getting there.

"It has been full on. Tuesday was a high pressure session and I think they enjoyed it. They rested Wednesday and we get cracking again on Thursday and get ready for Portsmouth.

"We've got to go there and make it hard for them. I don't buy into this 'it's a tough game for you' I want people to say 'it's a tough game for them.' We can't give 75 per cent, we have to be fully committed."