Lack of just rewards for Leeds United frustrates boss Steve Evans

Leeds United climbed into the top half of the table with the 2-2 draw, a target that Evans had set for his side prior to the festive period. The Whites could have taken all three points, having gone ahead with 15 minutes of the game remaining. Chris Wood showed his mental fortitude to come back from a run of four games without a goal to head Leeds into the lead, although they were later denied a victory by Tom Ince’s equaliser.

At the weekend, Leeds dominated their away game against Nottingham Forest but could only draw after a lapse in defensive concentration gifted Forest their equaliser.

Evans believes the points tally over the last two matches would have been higher had Derby not had a longer period to prepare for the game than his players.

He said: “We see it as it should have been four out of six, if not six out of six and when you take two that’s disappointing. But we’ve gone into the top half of the table, we’ve got fixtures to look forward to and that won’t change for us.

“If you put the Derby game on 24 hours later then we see the last 15 minutes out. I don’t doubt that. I had to watch in the lead up to the goal, I’m watching Derby players break off ours and they’re completely fresh. My players are running on empty fuel tanks. With 24 hours we’d have seen a different result.”

Wood’s joy at scoring was somewhat dampened by his late withdrawal with a hamstring injury, which leaves him in doubt for Saturday’s clash with MK Dons. Evans was quick to praise his striker for the work he has put in outside of scoring.

He said: “I said prior to the match that the minute Chris Wood stops getting into goal-scoring positions is the time I take him out of the team. All strikers, including the world’s best, have periods where they don’t score goals and miss chances. But it wasn’t just Chris’s finish his effort and determination to work hard for the team was there in bundles again.

“There’s a very minor strain which probably makes him 50-50 for Saturday. If we had a clear week then it would be no problem but we’ll monitor him over the next 48 hours.”