Simon Grayson hopes to celebrate his manager of the month award for December by seeing Leeds United complete a double over tomorrow’s opponents Scunthorpe at Elland Road, and start another long unbeaten run.

United were 4-1 winners at Glanford Park on October 30, when Jonny Howson netted the first hat-trick of his career, and there were debuts for Andy O’Brien and Billy Paynter.

It was the start of a 12-match undefeated spell in the league and Grayson hopes a win tomorrow will spark another double-figure unbeaten run in the Championship after the 2-1 defeat at Cardiff.

He said: “When we lost at Cardiff we went on a run of 12 games unbeaten, starting with Scunthorpe, and it would be nice to start a new run by beating them again on Saturday.”

Grayson still believes the league game against Scunthorpe is more important than FA Cup progress against Arsenal.

Not even the prospect of a home fourth-round tie against neighbours Huddersfield, if Leeds win their replay against the Gunners, has changed his opinion on the relative importance of the tasks.

United have taken just three points from the last 12 available to them, drawing their last two home games, and Grayson said before the 1-1 draw with Arsenal at the Emirates last Saturday that the Scunthorpe match was “far more important”, with promotion to the Premiership the club’s top target this season.

Winger Sanchez Watt trained yesterday and Grayson expects him to recover from hamstring and head injuries in time for the weekend but club captain Richard Naylor is still some weeks away from a return to first team action after making his competitive comeback in the reserves this week.

United are looking to strengthen their midfield resources, with Neil Kilkenny away with Australia, Ramon Nunez with Honduras, Amdy Faye having left the club at the end of his short-term contract and Bradley Johnson still refusing to sign a new contract despite playing on for the first team.

“We have had one or two polite enquiries about Bradley but I cannot let him go until we get a couple more midfield players in and Neil Kilkenny gets back,” said Grayson.

“Midfield is an area of the pitch we need to strengthen but it is highly unlikely that we will get someone in before the weekend. Realistically something might happen before the game at Portsmouth a week on Saturday.”