Third-placed Leeds moved to within six points of second-placed Ipswich Town through Friday night’s 1-0 win at Championship leaders Leicester City before the Tractor Boys picked up a point through Saturday’s 2-2 draw at Birmingham City.
Daniel Farke’s side are now seven points adrift of the automatic promotion spots but second-placed Ipswich have a game in hand and Kieran McKenna’s side will take in that fixture tomorrow evening with an away clash against third-bottom Rotherham United.
Leeds will return to action four days’ later with the visit of sixth-bottom Plymouth Argyle, by which time the automatic promotion state of play will have changed one way or the other via Ipswich’s game in hand which offers McKenna’s side the chance to move ten or eight points clear.
Ipswich host 14th-placed Swansea City on Saturday whilst leaders Leicester City visit 12th-placed Middlesbrough as the division’s top three all play in 3pm kick-offs.
Ghana international Fatawu did superbly to create Leicester’s best first-half chance as the 19-year-old skipped past Byram on the right wing before cutting in and curling a powerful left-footed effort that crashed off the bar.
Leeds broke straight away and Crysencio Summerville went down on the edge of the box under very slight contact on his arm from Ricardo Pereira.
Visiting boss Daniel Farke was booked following protests that his side should have had a penalty.
It was Leeds who upped their game in the second half as Piroe had a shot well saved by Hermansen, while James Justin did well to dispossess Summerville in a dangerous area soon after.
Leicester were ready to bring on Iheanacho for the quiet Jamie Vardy when Leeds went in front as Rutter could not miss.
The Foxes came close to drawing level when Fatawu’s volley went over after some excellent build-up play before Iheanacho had a shot blocked as the hosts upped the pressure.
Joe Rodon did well to block Iheanacho’s late effort from inside the box before Meslier pulled off a top-class save in the fifth minute of stoppage time as Dewsbury-Hall’s back-post header looked destined for the top left corner.
While Leeds are still six points behind second-placed Ipswich, having played two more games, this result appears to bode well for them.
What goes down as just a second league loss suffered by Leicester this season will have buoyed Farke’s West Yorkshire side ahead of games against bottom-half teams Rotherham United, Plymouth Argyle and Swansea City.
Leicester City manager Enzo Maresca told BBC Radio Leicester:
“Overall I’m happy with the performance because they competed, we created some chances.
“I don’t think we deserved to lose the game, but it’s football. We always say the same, we cannot control the results, but we expected them to use their weapons like counter-attacks, it was the game we expected.
“The race is long, 46 games, we cannot think to win, win, win, win, it’s normal that we are going to lose and draw games, and win for sure.
“But in the end the most important thing is the way they behave and that tonight has been good – we created chances, tried to play our football and so for me overall it was a good performance.”
Leeds United manager Daniel Farke told BBC Radio Leeds:
“To be brave, to play football with courage and to go for it with confidence was the key today.
“When you want to get something in such a game you have to be brave and you have to make sure that you have periods in the game where you bring the game to their half, you press them really high with bravery and when you’re good in possession you hurt them with your possession.
“You can’t have these periods over 90 minutes, there are also periods where you have to be structured and allow them possession in areas where they can’t hurt you and don’t offer them any spaces where they can create chances.
“So to bring such a complex performance on the pitch, on the one hand to be brave and our high pressing, to be good with the ball and dominate, but when they are in possession – because they are so good with the ball – to stay disciplined, to stay well structured and have the possession more or less in their own half where they can’t hurt you, I think that was definitely the key today.”
