Ethan Ampadu: Leeds United's backs-to-the-wall effort at Crystal Palace set run-in standards

The Whites are in a relegation battle, three points above the bottom three with eight matches left. Victory at Selhurst Park could have been achieved had Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored a first-half penalty.

But the three teams directly below – Tottenham Hotspur, Nottingham Forest and West Ham United – failed to close the gap as they too drew at the weekend (so too did 19th-placed Burnley, but they are far enough adrift to be less relevant).

Having 10 men for the second half after Gabriel Gudmundsson’s red card just before the break made the character to take a clean sheet on the road something to cherish.

"It's a good point in the end when you're digging in and you're fighting," reflected captain Ampadu.

"Maybe it can be a bit frustrating because you've got a couple of chances as well.

"But when you've got 10 men away from home against anyone in the Premier League it's very difficult and to show that character and that fight, that's the baseline for the rest of the games this season.

"You might not have a little bit of the ball and you're gonna have to dig in a little bit more. You've got to fight for each other, which is no surprise that we did. We had full confidence we could get a point and stick in.

"We have to focus on ourselves but when you can keep the gap you went into the weekend with it helps.

"But there's still a long way to go and there's still a lot more points that we can hopefully pick up."

Leeds were unhappy at the second yellow card for Gudmundsson, with manager Daniel Farke going so far as to say the challenge on Ismaila Sarr might not even have been worthy of a foul, let alone a caution.

There was a slightly unsavoury response from some Palace players in the confusion which followed, with referee Thomas Bramall appearing not to realise he had already booked Gudmundsson for a foul on Brennan Johnson, then celebration from some of the home players when he realised.

Going into at the break very quickly afterwards, Ampadu insisted the mood in the away dressing room was not one of anger.

"I think it was just to regroup, refocus, understand that it's gonna be hard and we were gonna maybe have a little bit less of the ball but we tried to create moments and chances to score a goal," he said.

"We didn't but I wouldn't say it was anger at half-time, it was more of just a refocus and a regroup."

The message was "To regroup, to be tight, to be compact, to make sure we're solid off the ball, not give anything away that's silly.

"Then when we have the ball, try and create a moment, a little bit of a spark, which we tried. It fell a little bit short of that in the second half."

As for the response from Jaydee Canvot and others to the red card, Amapdu said: "They're probably entitled to do what they want after a decision but we did say at half-time that we thought that they were quite happy with the sending off.

"I was trying to ask the question (about why the red card card was shown) but there's a lot going on and I'm not actually sure. Once a decision is made, as much as players can argue sometimes it's already done."