Leeds United were beaten by the Championship promotion-chasers at Craven Cottage.
In comments reported by BBC Radio Leeds, Noel Whelan has suggested that Leeds came up against the benchmark during their 2-0 defeat to Fulham on Tuesday, and he suggested that both Jay-Roy Grot and Caleb Ekuban are simply not good enough after they both squandered fantastic chances.
Leeds went into the clash with the promotion-chasers off the back of a rare win, having beaten Bolton Wanderers 2-1 on Friday for only the second victory of Paul Heckingbottom’s tenure at Elland Road.
After a relatively bright start to the game from the visitors, Fulham seized complete control of the contest and Leeds were, once again, left grateful to Bailey Peacock-Farrell for producing an excellent reaction save early on. However, the home side would break the deadlock shortly after the half-hour mark.
Kevin McDonald knew little about the chance, but he got the final touch from close range. It was a goal they thoroughly deserved as Leeds failed to register a single shot on target during the first-half.
There were some positive signs for Leeds after the break, but the game was put to bed shortly after the hour seconds after the Whites had a glorious chance to equalise.
Ekuban was through on goal but only managed to put his shot straight at Marcus Bettinelli. And Fulham capitalised on the keeper’s stop as Aleksandar Mitrovic found the bottom corner with a neat finish.
Leeds had a golden chance to get back into the game with little over 10 minutes to go, but Grot somehow managed to put the ball over the bar when it appeared easier to score from a couple of yards out.
The game would finish 2-0 and afterwards, Whelan offered his thoughts on Leeds’ performance and the result to BBC Radio Leeds…
“You’ve got to take your chances when they come your way and unfortunately, our boys didn’t do that. There’s positives but you’ve got to look at the way Fulham play and it’s an ability, it’s a difference in class, it’s a difference in style, difference in tempo, difference in aggression, difference in intelligence. There’s your benchmark along with Wolves.
“You’ve got to add to your goals. He [Ekuban] scored one against Bolton, should’ve had got three. He’s got his one chance tonight to make it two in two, he fluffed his lines again. The keeper came out on top. Grot gets a goal that we desperately wanted him to get and we thought he could go from strength to strength. He comes on, gets himself in a great area two yards out, all you’ve got to do is head it on target, it’s a goal, and he puts it over the bar. So this isn’t about confidence, this is about quality.”
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