Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink returned to his former stamping ground, Elland Road, but as a manager with QPR and his team secured a 1-1 draw to put more pressure on Leeds United manager Steve Evans.
Leeds United have been quick to sack their managers since the arrival of Massimo Cellino. After their failure to even reach the play-off places, it is expected that Evans will be getting the sack in the summer. For the time being, he is focusing on his role and was disappointed with the club’s ability to take three points from the home game.
After a goalless first half, it looked like Leeds United were going to end up with three points after Chris Wood gave them a lead with only 20 minutes of normal time left. QPR, though, came back into the match with a late equaliser courtesy of a penalty from Chery. Giuseppe Bellusci’sirresponsible challenge late in the match led to this penalty, but Evans refused to criticise his player after the game. This was despite the Italian having already made a costly mistake in the previous game against Rotherham. Both QPR and Leeds United will now be left to play for their pride in the last few matches of the campaign.
“Nobody had any chances in the first half, nobody dominated the play, my goalkeeper and their goalkeeper did not have much to do. I always felt we were going to finish stronger than them in the last 15 minutes. We thought they would play with two strikers but they made it difficult for us to be fluent and have passes and be dominant. Fair play to them,” said Hasselbaink after the game. “Giuseppe Bellusci is a very good player and has had a couple of games where he’s done things you would expect better of him,” said Evans in defence of his player.