Goalkeeper Rob Green claimed a 1-0 defeat to Derby County on Saturday would not dampen Leeds United’s confidence but urged Garry Monk’s squad to heed the lesson from their failure to take an early grip of the match.
Leeds were beaten for the sixth time this season as a second-half goal from substitute Johnny Russell settled a tight contest at the iPro Stadium.
Out-of-form Derby, who had new manager Steve McClaren in the dug-out, rode their luck as Leeds twice struck the woodwork – the second time with a 96th-minute effort from Marcus Antonsson – but both Green and United head coach Garry Monk admitted that Leeds had struggled to get into the contest until the latter stages.
Derby survived a frantic finish and Green said: “If you ask Derby they’d probably tell you they got what they deserved. If you talk to us, we’ll rue missed chances or the bits of misfortune we had, like hitting the woodwork twice.
“Those are the small margins in football and on different days those shots go in. But at the same time, they scored with an hour gone and all of a sudden the game took on a different tempo. I was standing behind the lads thinking ‘we need to up this.’
“I don’t know if you can say we got going too late but we always talk about setting standards and imposing ourselves on the opposition.
“Anyone who’s seen the Championship knows that if you impose yourself on the opposition, a lot of the time you’ll win games. Our own results last month proved that and it’s something we need to be mindful of.
“But we’ve still been in the game and we’ve still had chances. Even though there wasn’t a performance for 90 minutes, we were in the game. That’s crucial.”
Green was unable to stop Russell’s shot which was fiercely hit from the edge of the box after Leeds bundled a Derby corner away from goal.
The effort struck Green’s body before flying into the net but the 36-year-old said he had been left unsighted by a crowd of players in front of him.
“It went through someone’s legs six yards out and hit me on the way in,” Green said. “If I’d been standing in the wrong place it might have hit me on the knees and bounced out.
“You know the ball’s dropped and you know someone’s going to hit it but you don’t know where it’s going and I saw it when it was three yards away from me. In a weird way, as a keeper, if you stand there and don’t move people say ‘oh, he didn’t see it.’
“Whereas I’ve moved, it’s hit me and it maybe looks like I could have done better. But realistically I’ve not had a chance.”
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