Former Leeds United star David Prutton has singled out two game changing moments in the Whites’ promotion push as he shoots down any critics suggesting the players have not had the mental strength necessary.
The Elland Road outfit have seen automatic promotion slip from their grasp as they trail Sheffield United by three points heading into the final two games of the Championship season, knowing that the Blades have to slip up if they are to finish in the top two.
However, Prutton has rubbished any suggestion of mental weakness and instead picked out Pablo Hernandez’s penalty miss versus Wigan and the spot kick Patrick Bamford was not awarded against Brentford as crucial moments.
He wrote for the Yorkshire Evening Post: “There was a ridiculous amount of one-way traffic but Wigan were more clinical and when Pablo Hernandez is missing from 12 yards you are really thinking that something could be in the water.
“If you look at the Brentford game, I don’t know how on earth Leeds were not awarded a penalty for the foul on Patrick Bamford. But again Leeds didn’t take their chances and this just shows the fine margins whereby this second automatic promotion place is going to be won and lost.
“In the Wigan game Leeds were battering on the door for 80-odd minutes but Wigan were just more clinical on the day. Pablo has been wonderful throughout the course of the season and you would have put your house on him to score a penalty. You can’t legislate for stuff like that, sometimes there is just an off day and I think to question the character of the side is premature.”
Opinion
There’s a lot more than just two moments which need to be picked out when analysing Leeds’ inability to seal automatic promotion this season but Prutton’s suggestions are valid all the same. Had Leeds scored that penalty, who knows how Wigan would have coped, likewise with Brentford and the seemingly stonewall penalty that was not given. Confidence is huge in football and had one or both of those moments gone in Leeds’ favour, we might have been talking about Sheffield United needing a miracle to seal a top two finish. What is a given is that Leeds will learn from their mistakes in recent weeks and try to put them behind them as they head towards the playoffs. If the Whites can get over their recent frustrations, then they might still have a chance of a Premier League return. As Prutton says, sometimes you just have a bad day at work. It is time for Leeds to turn their own fortunes around.