Eddie Gray thinks that the Leeds United players cannot be criticised in terms of the amount of effort and commitment they put in during their 2-1 defeat at Burton Albion, but noted quality in key areas was lacking.
Leeds went into Saturday afternoon's Championship fixtures sitting in seventh spot in the table with three games left and only kept out of the top six by goal difference.
But with sixth placed Fulham and fifth placed Sheffield Wednesday both grabbing wins, while Leeds lost, the picture has been transformed and the Whites are facing a battle over their remaining two games to finish in the playoffs.
Gray does feel that Leeds were lacking in attack at the Pirelli Stadium against Burton.
He said on LUTV: "Disappointing. I thought we did well at times, but the final third wasn't good enough.
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"Their two goals were good goals.
"Once again at the end of the game we're putting our centre-back up front. The front players haven't done enough in the good areas of the pitch."
But Gray insists that the Leeds stars cannot be said to have put in anything less than a real shift, with the main issue being a lack of quality.
"You can't criticise the players for effort and commitment", the Leeds legend explained.
"But it seems to be a little bit of quality we're lacking in certain areas when it comes to the crunch."
Garry Monk's men have seen their form come off the rails at a crucial point in the season and have won only two of their last nine Championship matches, a run which includes a damaging four defeats.
The Whites' final two games come against Norwich City (home) and Wigan Athletic (away).
