Sam Allardyce talks Leeds United penalty duty and Elland Road crowd after Newcastle United draw

The 2-2 draw had just about everything, with a trio of penalties, VAR interventions, a red card and a fan confronting visiting boss Eddie Howe before security intervened.

Elland Road erupted for Luke Ayling’s seventh-minute opener, the right-back following up a Rodrigo header that Nick Pope saved and slamming home the rebound. Leeds could have taken a commanding lead when Simon Hooper pointed to the spot after Junior Firpo was felled in the Newcastle area, but Patrick Bamford’s tame penalty was kept out by Pope.

Newcastle duly levelled with a penalty of their own, Callum Wilson beating Joel Robles, and the striker repeated the feat midway through the second half when VAR spotted a handball in the area by Firpo.

Leeds hit back through Rasmus Kristensen’s deflected 18-yard effort and though Firpo saw red in stoppage time for fouling a clean-through Anthony Gordon, the Whites held out to take a point.

“Fair scoreline should have been a victory for us today,” he said.

"The commitment and spirit we showed, if we had gone 2-0 up, the way we defended apart from the silly penalty, we would have won. The fact that we allowed ourselves to get knocked back by missing the penalty and conceding a penalty, but the way we stayed in the game was very good. Going 2-1 down, then coming back and scoring. We shot ourselves in the foot quite often but showed enough to say that if we cut out the mistakes we can get three points. We are playing third in the league and should have won it in my opinion. Our fault, why we didn’t win, was giving two penalties away and missing one. Even when we got a player sent off we defended extremely well to get the point.”

Allardyce was questioned over Bamford being the man to take the spot-kick instead of Rodrigo, but the manager said the penalty-taking duties had been left as they were when he arrived.

"I left it how I used to be before I got here,” he said.

"It is what it is. We can all say why did someone else not take it. I would have thought if Rodrigo wanted it he would have gone and snatched the ball off Patrick. We see it quite a lot these day’s don’t we? But that can add even more pressure to you. It can happen to anybody. It happened to us today at the worst possible time. That's very unfortunate for us.”

Max Wober diving in to concede a spot-kick at the other end so soon after was bitterly disappointing for the man brought in to try and save Leeds from the drop, but the effort levels shown by his players makes him optimistic that he can complete the mission.

“The first penalty was more disappointing [than the second],” said Allardyce.

"All week it's been stay on your feet, especially in the box. Pascal did it last week and got a b*********. We're giving goals away by doing it and we can’t afford that because we're not a prolific team. It’s a real disappointment but players under pressure, under the pressure we're under, lost it in that particular moment. The second [penalty] I'm not that sure about, it could have gone either way.

“I needed two valium when I came off. I enjoyed it actually. I was nervous before the game, I wanted to give the fans something. What the fans did for me, the backroom staff and the fans themselves gave us hope going forward. They tried their best.”

The response of the supporters was enough for Allardyce to admit it reinforced his decision to take the job on.

"Wonderful – I've always known it’s wonderful, known that coming here as a player and a manager for many, many years,” he said.

"We needed them, they stuck with us and going 1-0 up was the most important thing, scoring the first goal, it lifted everybody. The atmosphere was brilliant and you’re glad you came back [to management] now, aren’t you?”

Allardyce, who said Leeds had 11 leaders out on the pitch, revealed before the game that his hope was to still be in the fight come the final day of the season and this result keeps that hope alive.

“2-2 in the end is satisfying,” he said.

"I hope it goes to the wire. When we play Tottenham I hope there's something in it for us. We have to keep our fingers crossed a bit today or tomorrow that the others don't win. We're near that position where let's hope they slip up. Let's hope next week we can do it better.”