Sam Byram details Leeds United dressing room mood after defeat to 'time-wasting' Blackburn Rovers

Sam Byram admits the Leeds United squad are ‘gutted’ after seeing their unbeaten home run ended by Blackburn Rovers on Saturday.

Leeds dropped points for the fourth time in five games, Sammie Sczmodics capitalising on some slack defending to score the only goal of the game on 82 minutes. Blackburn had 25 per cent possession at Elland Road and found the net with just their second shot on target.

Daniel Farke’s side were underwhelming going forward again and failed to score for a second consecutive home game, not helped by referee James Bell’s refusal to punish obvious time-wasting almost from kick-off. Leeds missed the opportunity to climb into the top two with defeat and Byram described the feeling among his teammates after the result.

“Yeah everyone is gutted in there,” Byram told LUTV. “We knew we had to win today, that was the plan, to put pressure on the other teams. The fans are as disappointed as we are. 

“We set out for three points, Blackburn have come here with a plan. You could see from the start of the game they were wasting time and are a difficult team to break down when they put everyone behind the ball. They’re obviously desperate for points and we know at this stage of the season, games will be like this and a loss is not what we wanted.”

In another ridiculous weekend in the Championship promotion race, both Leicester City and Ipswich Town also dropped points. Leicester lost at home to Plymouth Argyle on Friday evening, with Ipswich unable to open up a gap at the top after drawing 1-1 at home to Middlesbrough.

Leeds have more than a week until their next game, which comes at Middlesbrough a week on Monday, and know they must turn their own performances around if automatic promotion is to be achieved. Byram is one of the more experienced heads in the squad and has urged his side to return to the kind of football that saw them flying earlier this year.

“There's three games left, it's out of our hands in terms of points but all we can do is try to win all our games,” the Whites defender added. “We're not out of it yet, we're relying on other teams to drop points but we've got a good break to do some work on the training pitch and work on areas we need to improve. 

“Everyone at the club has the same goal, that brings pressure. We just need to stick with what we've done all season and what brings us joy. The last few games we've not been good enough and we have to hold our hands up for that. We need to get three points at the next one and put it right.”