Leeds United 2-1 QPR: Kemar Roofe brace makes it four straight wins
- Published
Kemar Roofe (centre) has scored 10 goals in 15 Championship appearances for Leeds this season
QPR boss Steve McClaren was critical of the decision to award what turned out to be a match-winning penalty in Saturday's 2-1 defeat by a Leeds United side he expects to be in the promotion mix come May.
The decision to penalise a handball by Toni Leistner gave Kemar Roofe the chance to add his second from the spot, having already cancelled out Nahki Wells' opener.
"It was a poor decision for the penalty, a very, very poor decision," McClaren said. "It's cost us a result.
"Toni was adamant it didn't touch his hand and the referee's position - wow. He's got fantastic eyes. He can see through people I think to see a handball.
"I think they won ugly today and that's what you need to do when you're going for promotion."
"There's a lot of big clubs and only three can go up. There will be a lot of disappointed clubs with big expectations that won't make it.
"But Leeds are going to be up there, without a shadow of a doubt."
Wells put the visitors ahead, against the run of play, midway through the first half when he nicked the ball past Pontus Jansson and slotted in with a left-foot shot.
Roofe turned in from close range to equalise on the stroke of half-time, and completed the turnaround from the penalty spot eight minutes after the restart following Leistner's handball.
Whites keeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell tipped over a shot from Jake Bidwell in the closing stages as Marcelo Bielsa's side held on to register a fourth straight win.
McClaren (right) and Bielsa were involved in dialogue throughout a feisty encounter
"The first part of both halves were very good. In the second part of the first half we suffered the effect of conceding a goal," Bielsa said.
"After the opponent scored they increased their level of play. QPR dominated but through different paths.
"At the end of the game we didn't have any other option than to adapt to the kind of game that the opponent proposed.
"We had too many tall players in front of our box so we had to solve this problem and as we were only winning by one goal, the result was at stake."
Leeds had looked to be heading back to the top of the table, but Norwich scored a stoppage-time winner against Bolton to retain their place at the summit.
Roofe's second goal, his 10th of the season, came after Leeds were awarded a penalty for the first time in 59 games - a run stretching back to October 2017.
The hosts largely dominated proceedings at Elland Road but Wells twice came close to an equaliser for the west Londoners.
First the on-loan Burnley striker fired over from Angel Rangel's cut-back and minutes later he flashed an effort wide of the post from 20 yards.
Leeds now have a five-point gap to third-placed Sheffield United and Derby County in fourth, while QPR slipped three places to 14th after their winless run stretched to four matches.