'Can't happen' - Patrick Bamford makes Leeds United admission and avoids excuse in action call

Leeds created a host of decent early opportunities in Sunday's clash at the City Ground but fell behind in the 14th minute as Forest netted from their first attack via a fine Brennan Johnson strike. Johnson volleyed home after latching on to Pascal Struijk's attempt to head clear a Morgan Gibbs-White free-kick which was awarded after Struijk was deemed to have fouled Johnson on the right touchline.

Johnson appeared offside before being taken down by Struijk but Bamford refused to look for an excuse and admitted the manner in which Leeds conceded from the free-kick "cannot happen" with Johnson free on the edge of the box.

Bamford felt his side would have gone on to open up a clear advantage had they taken one of their early chances but instead Johnson's strike proved the only goal of the game and Bamford admitted his side ultimately "tailed off" towards the end of the second half.

The defeat, a tenth loss of the Premier League season, left Leeds fourth-bottom and only out of the relegation zone on goal difference. Bamford felt the defeat was one of those days but admitted the reverse was a microcosm of the season so far and admitted Leeds must make that change.

"I think that almost sums up the season a little bit," said Bamford to LUTV. "We created a lot of chances and if we score the first goal then I think we probably go on to get a couple. But we know what they (Forest) are like and once they got the first goal, they're obviously very, very tactically sound defensively and just made it difficult. In the end, we didn't have the answer and I think we kind of tailed off a little bit in the second half.

"Some days it just doesn't click and we did create a good few clear chances in the first half and one of them has to go in. You can have days like that and you can have days where all of the chances go in so we've got to try and make sure that we have more of them days than the one we had here.”

Asked if there was frustration in the dressing room at Johnson appearing to be offside when fouled for the decisive free-kick, Bamford reasoned: "To be honest, I didn't I realise that that was a possibility. But we've got to stick to our jobs there. There’s a free man on the edge of the box which can't happen and really it's a cheap goal to give away."