Leeds United should have beaten Newcastle United, says Sam Allardyce, but we shot ourselves in the foot too often

Instead they had to settle for a 2-2 draw which does not lift them out of the Premier League relegation zone with all the relegation rivals still to play.

The Whites took an early lead against the Champions League chasers through Luke Ayling but Patrick Bamford had a chance to make it 2-0 but Nick Pope saved it.

And they conceded two of their own – including one for Max Wober's foul on Alexander Isak minutes later. They also had Junior Firpo sent off for a foul on Anthony Gordon in stoppage time.

That said, they came back after Callum Wilson dispatched both his spot kicks, equalising through Rasmus Kristensen’s deflected shot.

"It should have been a victory for us," reflected Allardyce

"I believe with the spirit and commitment we showed, if we'd have gone 2-0 up and the way we defended – apart from the silly penalties of course – we would have won the game.

"But the fact we allowed ourselves to get knocked back a coupe of times by missing the penalty then conceding a penalty after two minutes and the way we stayed in the game was very good.

"Going 2-1 down to another penalty and coming back from that and scoring and getting a player sent off, we shot ourselves in the foot quite often but we also showed enough to say if we cut out those mistakes we can get three points perhaps.

"We were playing the third in the league and should have won it in my opinion. That's down to our fault giving two penalties away and missing one.

"Even when we got a player sent off we defended exceptionally well to make sure we did get a point because we could easily have lost the game then."

Firpo, who handled the ball for the second penalty having already been booked for a foul on Bruno Guimaraes was sent off when he tackled Gordon from the wrong side just outside the penalty area.

"The first penalty (conceded) was more disappointing because all week it's 'stay on your feet when you're defending in the final third – especially in the box'. It happened last week with Pascal (Struijk) and he got a b******ing for diving in. We're giving goals away by doing it and we can't afford that because we're not a prolific goalscoring team.

"It's a real disappointment but of course players under pressure lose it for that particular moment. He believed he could win the ball but unfortunately he didn't.

"The second one, it could have gone either way. Should it have got looked at by VAR or shouldn't it? I don't know. Was it a push or wasn't it? Was it a big enough tug? Who knows, but it's not been given so there's nothing I can do about it."

Many people wanted to know why it was Bamford – who missed a penalty in October's 1-0 defeat at home to Arsenal – took the spot kick rather than Rodrigo.

"I left it how it used to be before I got here because I haven't seen them take that many penalties," explained Allardyce. "We can all say why didn't somebody else take it.

"I would have thought if Rodrigo really wanted he would have snatched it off Patrick and said, 'I'm taking this.' We see that quite a bit, don't we? That puts you under even more pressure to score.

"It can happen to anybody. It happened to us at the worst possible time."

Leeds must now wait to see how their relegation rivals perform with Nottingham Forest at Chelsea in a three o'clock kick-off, Everton hosting Manchester City on Sunday and Leicester City – now a point behind Leeds – at home to Liverpool on Monday.

"We have to keep our fingers crossed a bit today and tomorrow (and Monday) that the others don't win," said Allardyce. "It's not in our hands, it's in theirs."

Leeds have just two games left, at West Ham United in eight days' time, then at home to Tottenham Hotspur the following Sunday.