LEEDS UNITED boss David O'Leary, who has guided the Yorkshire club to the last eight of the Champions League, believes that Sunderland will still qualify for Europe, despite slipping back to sixth place in the table.

Leeds hoisted themselves into third spot with their sixth consecutive Premiership victory over the Wearsiders.

But their manager feels that Peter Reid's men force their way into Europe and will make an immediate impact because of their aggressive style of play.

O'Leary said after his side's 2-0 win in front of a record 48,285 crowd at the Stadium of Light: "I was so pleased that we took three points against a team I have a great deal of admiration for.

"I think they will still qualify for Europe and will do well.

"Sunderland play a very direct type of football and it is a style that not many teams in Europe will have faced. It will cause a lot of problems.

"If they do qualify they will have deserved it and I think they will do very well next season."

Sunderland skipper Michael Gray believes that Sunderland will have to get back to basics after the latest disappoint-ment, which followed hard on the heels of a superb 4-2 victory at Chelsea.

The fans turned out in force, expecting further progress in the bid to win entry to Europe.

But they were bitterly disappointed to go down at home for only the second time in the Premiership this season.

Now, with the next game at Middlesbrough a week away, former England defender Gray fears that the team could slip even further down the table.

He admitted: "This was a particularly disappointing defeat because we told ourselves it was going to be a six-pointer against Leeds.

"If we'd won we'd have climbed into third place but unfortunately we now find ourselves sixth and because we haven't got a game next weekend we could slip even further down to eighth.

"That's not a position you want to be in with seven games to go.

"I don't know why we seem to have stopped scoring goals at the Stadium of Light, but at the moment we are not keeping enough clean sheets.

"If you win 1-0 you don't care as long as you get three points.

"We have just got to get back to basics like we were around Christmas - we have to do that again.

"We are not defending properly because we are letting too many goals through at the back."

Gray believes that a further 12 points would put Sunderland in with a great chance of qualifying for Europe, but after only one win in eight games he knows that the team's fortunes will have to pick up dramatically.

He said: "If we can get 60 points I don't think we will be far away.

"But losing this one at home to Leeds is a big setback and the lads were really disappointed in the dressing room afterwards.

"We have discussed a few things and we all agree that we have to get back to basics in the remaining games."

While Gray believes that too much emphasis must not be placed on the absence of striker Niall Quinn, he will welcome back the Republic of Ireland international, possibly at Middlesbrough.

He said: "We got a fantastic result at Chelsea without Niall - Don Hutchison did a great job up front and got two goals.

"But Niall is obviously a big miss. People seem just to think he is great in the air but he is a fantastic target man.

"It will be nice to get him back as quickly as possible and allow Don back to his midfield role."

Gray stressed: "But if we are going to win games it is not just about one player - it is about the whole team playing well as a unit.

"If you go to sleep on set pieces like we did against Leeds you are not going to win games.

"At the top level in the Premiership you are playing against some of the best players in Europe

"Leeds are one of the best teams, and if you fall asleep when you give freekicks and corners away like we did today you pay the penalty."

Gray added: "I think this side is good enough to play in Europe next season.

"We want to improve on our position last season when we finished seventh.

"But we don't know if there will be five or six teams in Europe this year.

"We don't want to be hanging about sweating on sixth position.

"Decisions have gone against us this season which might have cost us six or seven points - if we'd had those we would have been in a fantastic position.

"Now we've got to get them elsewhere."