Noel Whelan laments Leeds goalkeeper Felix Wiedwald’s role in Ipswich’s second goal

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Felix Wiedwald conceded twice as Leeds United claimed a narrow 3-2 victory over Ipswich Town to keep the Whites at the top of the Championship.

Noel Whelan told BBC Radio Leeds that he thought that Felix Wiedwald made a terrible mistake that led to Ipswich’s second goal in Leeds’ 3-2 win over the Tractor Boys at Elland Road on Saturday.

Thomas Christiansen’s men had created some much-needed breathing space heading into the final 20 minutes of the contest as Bartosz Bialkowski’s own goal had made the scoreline 3-1 to the Championship leaders.

However, Joe Garner set up a nervy finish as he calmly slotted the ball home after a low cross from right-back Dominic Iorfa was parried out towards the penalty spot by Wiedwald. And after the game, Whelan insisted that the summer signing should have done a lot better with the cross than he did.

“We’ve got to look at the goalkeeping again for their second goal,” he told BBC Radio Leeds.

“Wiedwald, I’ve got no idea what he’s doing, terrible bit of goalkeeping there. It wasn’t even a shot, it was a cross that came in. He couldn’t hold it, he pushed it out into the central area, you’ve got to push it away from goal, to the side of the post, not back into play.”

There can perhaps be some sympathy towards Wiedwald for his decision to parry the ball as Iorfa’s cross was struck firmly and bounced just in front of the German so he may have felt that trying to gather the ball could have been a mistake.

However, Whelan’s point that Wiedwald should have parried the ball away from the centre of the goal will surely be met with plenty of agreement from the Elland Road faithful as it handed Garner a simple chance, whereas sending the ball out wide would have surely lowered the chances of the ball finding the feet of an Ipswich player.

And with Andy Lonergan impressing in the League Cup win over Burnley in midweek, Wiedwald will know that had his error proved more costly, the level of criticism would have been greater. And if he follows that up with more mistakes in the coming weeks, there is another goalkeeper potentially ready to take his spot in the side.