After the excitement of almost beating in-form Fulham during the week, Leeds came back down to earth with a surprisingly lacklustre performance against Queens Park Rangers.

There were four changes for this game, one enforced as Vieira came in for the suspended Phillips. The others saw Wood and Ayling back from injury, while Hernandez was recalled after getting a break in midweek. I was a bit surprised to Charlie Taylor returned to the bench. Does Garry Monk really prefer a makeshift left back to our want-away defender, or does he still have to work on his fitness after his lay-off.

There was another 30,000 plus crowd, with an expectant atmosphere as there always is these days, and it was nice to see the old place looking so full once again. But right from the start Leeds were struggling to produce a performance that would be worthy of such devotion. Hernandez still seemed to be short of form despite being rested on Tuesday, and Pedraza was another disappointment

Chris Wood was starved of decent service for much of the game, but although I’m not a fan of a lone striker system when the opposition sit deep, you couldn’t really say they had come to defend. In the first half they looked comfortable in possession around the Leeds box, with Conor Washington finding plenty of space while Jannson and Bartley were distracted by the areal threat of Matt Smith.

From an early corner Washington was inches away from getting the touch he needed to poke the ball into an empty net. And shortly afterwards he produced the best moment of the game, beating three defenders with a clever turn just outside the box, only to be denied by a fine save by Rob Green. I’d have to say that Green was the Leeds man of the match on his 600th appearance in league football against his former club, always dependable whenever Rangers threatened.

At the other end we managed a Pedraza shot from a narrow angle which Smithies saved, and a couple of shots blocked on the edge of the area, but that was about it. And the second half was more of the same. Sacko replaced the anonymous Roofe after an hour, but as usual he produced a lot of runs down the wing, but with little end product.

The one time he did manage a decent cross Wood seemed to be wrestled to the floor, but the referee ignored our claims for a penalty. The closest the big man came to scoring was when a flick off the back of his head went narrowly wide, but it wasn’t to be his day. As time went on I was worried that QPR could nick one themselves, but the best they could do was a shot across goal from Washington after another good turn, and a header from Freedman that was straight at Rob Green.

Our final two substitutes saw Doukara come on for Pedraza, and then O’Kane coming on for Vieira, but these changes made no difference to the Leeds performance. And the referee didn’t help near the end with a truly appalling decision to give a goal kick rather than a corner, despite a clear touch off a QPR defender.

The game had always been a little fractious, and tempers flared as we moved into 90 minutes, after Rangers refused to give the ball back for Leeds to take a free kick. A couple of yellow cards were dished out after the fourth official drew the referee’s attention to an off the ball incident that he’d missed. In total there were six booking during the game, including one for Ayling that means he will become the latest Leeds player to serve a two match ban.

Four minutes of injury time were insufficient for Leeds to force a winner, and we had to be content with just the one point. We can be thankful that Reading and Wednesday both lost on a poor day for the current top six, but Fulham closed the gap with a fine win at Newcastle.

Our position would have been far more comfortable if we’d held on for the win on Tuesday, but now we’ve still got work to do to secure our place in the top six. And we’re going to have to play a lot better than this.

Photo: Action Images

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