SEAN O'Driscoll today said the end of Nottingham Forest's unbeaten run could be blamed on an inconsistent performance from his side – and from referee Andy D'Urso.
After a bright first ten minutes, Forest suffered a nightmare first half, as Leeds powered into a deserved 2-0 lead through goals from Luciano Becchio and Dominic Poleon.
A dramatically improved Forest clawed a goal back through Dexter Blackstock in the second period – and looked as though they would again fight their way back for a point.
After the final whistle, O'Driscoll admitted his side could have been far better. But he was also critical of the referee's performance.
O'Driscoll felt Forest had what would have been an equalising goal ruled out in that first period – when Blackstock was harshly punished for a push - and Jason Pearce escaped a second yellow card after the break despite hauling down Simon Cox on the edge of the box.
"The equalising goal in the first half… we can't see what is wrong with it," said O'Driscoll. "I am quite consistent when I look at things again on video, most of the time you can say to yourself 'I can see why he has made that decision'.
"But with that one, I cannot see it. But that is the Championship. There were a lot of incidents that had both benches complaining. It will be an interesting one to look back on.
"I would like to look at things again and see why things might have been given from the referee's perspective.
"Sometimes you go into games and you see that the referee is going to be one of those that gives lots of fouls and you just accept it. You work with that.
"This time around, one minute something was a foul and the next minute it wasn't. Then some things were not given because 'they were both at it'.
"I asked the fourth official why he had not been given a second yellow card. You don't want to see players sent off, but Simon turned him on the edge of the box.
"The fourth official said that they were 'both at it'. I don't understand how that can be an explanation."
O'Driscoll admitted his side had been poor in the first period, saying: "We started really well, we moved the ball and looked as though we might score any minute.
"We had a great chance when James Coppinger went through down the right and cut it back (for Simon Cox). But then, for some reason, we lost our way. Diouf caused us problems dropping off deep and we didn't really sort that out until half time.
"We employed Simon Gillett to patrol that space in front of the back four in the second half. That got us back on track and we looked as though we could go on and win the game.
"But when your starting point for that is being 2-0 down, it is not ideal."