TEAMS can fly up from nowhere to win a promotion place to the promised land – and Leeds United might yet be another one to do just that.

That was the view of United striker Ross McCormack ahead of tomorrow’s Championship trip to Derby County (1pm).

A seven-match winless sequence had the Elland Road outfit in the doldrums but, three games and three wins later, the club are up to 11th in the table, four points off the play-off places and with momentum behind them.

And, as McCormack noted, going up after getting on the up has been done before.

“You have only got to look at Reading and what they did last season, to go on and win the league from where they were. I think anything can happen in the Championship,” said the Scotland international.

“In my season at Cardiff when we lost in the play-off final, Blackpool came from nowhere and got promoted, so it’s definitely possible. It is just about momentum now. If we can keep going, we will have a chance.”

To continue their run tomorrow, Leeds will have to overturn a Derby side who, while 16th, have lost only once at home in the league so far this term.

McCormack, who returned to Leeds’ starting line-up for last week’s 4-2 win at Huddersfield and duly set up two of the goals, was confident they could do just that, with new-found form that has coincided with the arrival of Alan Tate and Jerome Thomas.

“The two players that have come in have given us a lift,” said the 26-year-old.

Meanwhile, Leeds ’keeper Paul Rachubka has had his emergency loan stint at Accrington extended by a week. He is eligible to play against Burton on Sunday and in an FA Cup replay on Wednesday.