Derby County manager Phillip Cocu has revealed after his side's 1-1 draw that he urged his players to stay in the game at Elland Road as he believed Leeds United would wilt towards the end.
Leeds took an early lead from a Max Lowe own goal in the 20th minute and completely dominated the game following the goal as Derby struggled to keep the Whites at bay.
However, the Whites kept on squandering opportunities to build on their lead, including a missed penalty from Mateusz Klich, and they went on to pay for their profligacy in front of goal.
Chris Martin scored a stoppage-time to equaliser to snatch a point for Derby to take away from Elland Road on the day.
Cocu admits that he was certain that the Leeds players would wilt as, despite all their quality, they could not possibly maintain their level of intensity for the 90 minutes.
He revealed that he urged his players to stay in the game during the break as he was certain that Derby would get their chance at the other end at some point.
Cocu said in his post-match press conference: “That’s why I said stay in the game. They have very good players on the ball, but it’s expending a lot of energy.
“To keep this up for 90 is very difficult, I felt.
"I believed if we could get to the end of the game, we had a chance. Physically, we were okay.
“In two games we have had leads and didn’t score penalties at 1-0.
"It happened to Leeds, so it’s nice for us to feel like this is our turn.”
Leeds will look to dust themselves down from the disappointing result and go again when they travel to Charlton Athletic next Saturday.
