Leeds United failed to make it 10 Championship wins in a row as they took on Huddersfield Town in Saturday’s early kick-off, in a game that was closely watched by the Whites’ promotion rivals.
Leeds went into the game knowing that a win would reduce the gap to leaders Leicester City to three points and increase their advantage over third-placed Ipswich to three points ahead of the 3pm kick-off. But Daniel Farke’s side trailed 1-0 just before half-time.
Huddersfield were down to ten men just three minutes later when Jonathan Hogg was shown a red card. Leeds had the task of breaking down the Terriers and trying to get maximum points.
They managed to do that in the second half when Patrick Bamford scored in the 67th minute. But Leeds were unsuccessful in their search for a winner.
This result had an impact on the promotion and title race even before the ball was played at 15.00. Leeds lost the points, which reduced the maximum number of points Leicester need to secure promotion from 31 to 29 before the QPR game.
Ipswich also had a chance to leapfrog the Whites into the places that guarantee automatic promotion when they took on Plymouth Argyle at their home park. They took advantage of this opportunity with a 2-0 win.
However, Leicester suffered a 2-1 defeat at the King Power Stadium, meaning they were unable to take advantage of Leeds’ relegation. The Whites are now five points behind the Foxes.
Ipswich moved up to second place with the win, two points ahead of Leeds. This means that their fate in terms of promotion is now in their own hands, as the “Tractor Boys” need 32 points from their last 11 games to secure a place in the top two teams, so they may need to win all their games to keep Leeds behind them.
As we know in the Championship, there are more upsets in the last 11 games. That will start this week as Leeds will try to get back to winning ways when they host Stoke City on Tuesday night.