With some tough games remaining we really needed to win this game with Leicester City, and we should have done right at the end, even though the visitors had much of the possession.
Javi Gracia made four changes for this game, and only one of them was enforced, as the injury Wöber picked up at Fulham meant a recall for Junior Firpo. Bamford was back in place of Aaronson, and Sinisterra got the nod over Summerville, despite the latter’s lively display at Fulham. And the head coach decided Ayling is currently the less rubbish of our right-backs, after Kristiansen’s display at the Cottage.
Leeds began the game at a furious pace, but had a scare inside the first ten minutes after we failed to deal with a corner. As the ball bobbled around it fell to Tielemans on the edge of the area, and the Belgian unleashed a trademark shot right into the top corner of the net. "Here we go again", I thought.
But for once we can give thanks to the advent of VAR, as the camera picked out an offside in the six-yard box which no one inside Elland Road had noticed, and it was disallowed. Had the goal stood we might have collapsed again, but we battled on after this let-off, and Cooper made a superb block to deny Harvey Barnes his customary goal against Leeds.
Maddison sent a shot wide when perhaps he should have scored, but in the 20th minute it was Leeds who went in front. McKennie picked out Harrison on the right, and he jinked inside before chipping a deep cross beyond the far post, where Sinisterra came in to meet it and head home from a narrow angle.
That got the crowd going and for the rest of the first half the players few off the energy inside the stadium, though Rodrigo was a little too fired up at times, eventually earning himself a yellow card. And Sinisterra was injured once again as Soyuncu’s follow-through caught him after a tackle, with Summerville coming on as a like-for-like substitution.
And we had the first chance of the second period. From Summerville’s flick Rodrigo turned and ducked under the ball to create space as he moved into the area, but after taking an extra touch to try to go round Soyuncu his shot was blocked by Faes. But after that Leicester began to take control of the game, though Leeds were still working hard to keep them out, with several blocks on the edge of the area and clearing headers.
Maddison sent a free kick straight into the wall from a good position, and then came a substitution that has attracted plenty of comment on social media. Rodrigo was running out of puff after all his hard work, but Gracia ignored the crowd’s pleading for Gnonto and to everyone’s surprise sent Aaronson into the fray.
There was also a case for Forshaw to go on to shore up the midfield while we still had a lead to protect, but once again our back four were left without enough cover in front of them as Leicester dominated possession. And with 20 minutes of normal time remaining Dean Smith sent Daka and Vardy on to try and get back into the game.
Iheanacho shot from the edge of the area but Meslier got down to make a fine save, and was up in time to block Daka’s follow-up shot from the rebound. This was something of a redemption for the young Frenchman after Saturday's horror show, when many pundits thought he should have been dropped for this game.
But after all our hard work a lack of concentration in the 80th minute allowed Leicester to break away from a throw-in deep in their own half. Three Leeds players were around the ball, but none reacted fast enough to stop Leicester getting forward, and as they came down the wing Cooper was a bit late in the challenge and caught Iheanacho without stopping him.
Iheanacho hobbled on and played the ball to Maddison, who cut inside past Firpo, before picking out Vardy. And the veteran striker wasn’t going to miss from there, curling his shot inside the far post. Iheanacho went down after making the pass and was forced to hobble off, but by then he had done his bit.
At that point I could see up losing the game despite having been in the lead for so long, and so it nearly came to pass. From another break Tielemans squared the ball to Vardy, but fortunately the prolific striker had made his run a little bit too soon, and Leicester had a goal disallowed for offside for the second time.
But despite being outplayed for much of the second half, we came very close to snatching the win right at the end. Roca rose to meet a corner well, but sent his header too close to the keeper, and it was hacked away when it looked like the ball might spin back over the line. Leicester didn’t get the ball properly away and it was played back into the area with a neat pass to Harrison, but this time Iversen saved with his feet.
It was then cleared for another corner, but the most amazing miss was still to come. This one was flicked on to find Bamford unmarked at the far post, and just as I was expecting the net to bulge, it didn’t. I couldn’t believe he’d missed. The ball came slightly behind him and on his weaker foot, but he could have taken a touch and then put it in.
I thought he might have been offside anyway, but the TV replay confirmed that he wasn’t, so it was a proper miss, and one which could make all the difference come the end of the season. On the balance of play over the 90 minutes we would have been lucky to get the win, but we’d have taken it. There was plenty of injury time to come, but no further goals and we had missed our opportunity to pull away from the bottom three.
In some ways this was an improvement on recent games, as we didn’t crumble and played with plenty of spirit throughout. And you could say that Leicester aren’t a bad side, who shouldn’t be in the position they are with some of the players they’ve got. But now it’s hard to see how we can get the points we need from the remaining games, and Forest’s win tonight has added to our gloom.
The trip to Bournemouth on Sunday is looking like a relegation battle where we really will have to take all three points.