Leeds and Forest record stalemate
Two of the Championship's form teams cancelled each other out at Elland Road as Leeds and Nottingham Forest drew 0-0 in a dour contest.
Seven wins out of 10 for Leeds and six from eight for Forest under new boss Dougie Freedman saw this billed as an eye-catching clash, and a season's best-crowd of 30,722 turned out to see it.
But short of a handful of half-chances they were sent home with little to talk about - a surprising outcome considering the last nine second-tier meetings between the two had yielded 37 goals.
There would be none here, even after an enterprising start from the home side who fashioned the first chance after excellent work from Alex Mowatt.
The midfielder has been watched by Premier League managers over recent weeks and he showed why as he superbly robbed Eric Lichaj and teed-up Luke Murphy. His low shot was blocked by Jamaal Lascelles and then on the rebound Karl Darlow produced a fine near-post stop to keep out Charlie Taylor.
Forest responded with Chris Burke's run and shot being halted by Gaetano Berardi's legs and then Ben Osborn's low effort being pouched by Marco Silvestri in the Leeds goal.
The visitors quickly assumed the position of the dominant side and it took a fine Silvestri save to keep out Osborn at close quarters 26 minutes in, while - from the subsequent corner - Kelvin Wilson thought he had scored only to see his effort in front of an open goal deflect over the bar.
That was as good as it got for the rest of the first half, though, and the second started in a similarly subdued manner, with Taylor's drive which flashed just over the next moment of note and that came with 58 minutes on the clock.
It was turning into a game where it was going to take something special to win it and Burke nearly produced it, skipping in from the right and then drilling in a low left-footer that looked in until Silvestri got down to push it away and behind for a corner.
Leeds could lay claim to little of the second-half talking points but substitute Mirco Antenucci did at least work Darlow with an 84th-minute drive, but beyond that there was little to stir the short-changed crowd.
Source: PA
