After Leeds striker Patrick Bamford's blocked penalty proved costly in Saturday's 2-2 Premier League tie against Newcastle, Sam Allardyce refrained from criticizing Bamford.
At Elland Road, Bamford had the chance to make up for his obvious error in last month's home draw with Leicester by giving relegation-threatened Leeds a 2-0 lead.
Allardyce's team had taken an early lead thanks to Luke Ayling, but Nick Pope easily stopped Bamford's poor penalty effort after Junior Firpo had been brought down by Joelinton.
"I thought he was good today," Allardyce stated. He raised the ball and created some issues. He made the cross that led to the first goal. We were managing him quite fine.
He hopefully scores goals when he gets the chance, as everyone should when things start to get a little better next week and again.
We don't have as many goal scorers as we need on the field.
Following Max Wober's careless challenge on Alexander Isak, Callum Wilson scored the first of his two penalties four minutes after Bamford's attempt.
Early in the second half, after VAR had referred referee Simon Hooper to the pitch-side monitor to verify Firpo's handball, Wilson scored his 17th league goal of the year from the penalty spot.
Rasmus Kristensen's 79th-minute equalizer gave Leeds a draw, but several supporters were upset that Bamford, who was lacking in confidence, took the penalty rather than leading scorer Rodrigo.
"Well, I left it how it was before I got here," Allardyce continued. They haven't taken many penalties, I mean.What is, is what is. If Rodrigo really wanted it, I would have assumed he would have gone and pulled it away from Patrick and declared, "I'm taking this."
You missed it, but everyone can experience it. Today was the worst possible time for it to happen to us. And that's really bad for us.
Newcastle's point secured them a top-six finish, and with home games remaining against Brighton and Leicester before traveling to Chelsea on the final day, they are still on track to play in the Champions League next season.
Eddie Howe, the manager of the Magpies, said: "We can wait a few more days if we succeed. We were aware of how challenging today would be because it's the toughest league in the world.
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