Leader lost in battle before second push (5)
I believe the answer is:
press
'push' is the definition.
(press can mean to force or push)
'leader lost in battle before second' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'before' could be 'pre' (prefix meaning 'before') and 'pre' is found within the answer.
'second' could be 's' (common abbreviation) and 's' is present in the answer.
A single letter 's' remains which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for press that I've seen before include "Iron - clasp - newspapers" , "publicity" , "Squeeze - newspapers - push" , "needed to avoid crooked racket" , "Crowd - papers" .)