Michael Skubala cut a frustrated figure after seeing his Leeds United U21s side’s unbeaten run come to an end against Nottingham Forest on Friday night. The Whites approached the clash at Meadow Lane on the back of nine straight Premier League 2 Division 2 games without defeat and they were keen to restart their campaign by picking up where they left off.
Leeds had a couple of strong chances to take the lead against Forest, too, as Joe Snowden hit the post and Mateo Joseph worked goalkeeper George Shelvey. However, an 86 th minute header from Aaron Donnelly saw United succumb to their first league defeat of the campaign, losing 1-0.
They remain three points clear at the top of the table, but Skubala knows responding to their first loss will see his side’s character tested, particularly when they host West Bromwich Albion next time out.
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“Frustrating but we knew with the way they play, that’s how they play and we knew what was going to happen. I thought we weren’t good enough, competitive enough or aggressive enough in the first half and at half-time we sorted things out and we controlled things second half.
“We knew if they were going to win it, it would be a set piece and we got caught. I thought we had a couple of big chances to go 1-0 up but as the game went on it became more stretched.”
He added: “This month is really tough for us. It’s not just an U21s programme, the whole club is going through lots of games this month. How we manage that and how we support the first-team but also keep trying to win, and I thought we came out and tried to win the game.
“We want to win every game we play, we didn’t try and settle for a draw, we were pushing in the second half to win. We’ll do the same against West Brom and see how we get on.
“I think you get to this point in the season, we’ve done that well that every team wants to beat us, being at the top of the league, we’ve got to keep pushing and grinding out results. That’s why it looks scrappy because I don’t think teams want to play against us and our press, they go over it. We have to work that out quickly as a group.”
With Mark Jackson leaving the club last month to manage MK Dons, Skubala has been dividing his time between the U21s and the first-team, after being asked by Jesse Marsch to help out at a senior level.
“It’s been busy but part of my role is to support the club in any time as a coach, support the players and staff when called upon,” he added. “If they need another pair of hands, I’m here until they sort out what the role looks like under Jesse. I’ve been supporting from a coaching point of view under Jesse.”
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