Leeds Utd Match Zone

Heckingbottom – I Didn’t Enjoy The Game

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Leeds United head coach Paul Heckingbottom says it felt like a testimonial game and that he didn’t enjoy the game after he watched his side lose at Norwich City.

Leeds threw away a 1-0 lead, as Norwich hit back to win 2-1in a dour end of season game at Carrow Road.

Kalvin Phillips had given Leeds the lead on 39 minutes but Norwich midfielder Wes Hoolahan, who was playing his last game at Carrow Road after ten-years with the Canaries, was the main catalyst for the home side, as he helped turn the game around.

Hoolahan equalised on the stroke of half-time when his deflected shot looped over Bailey Peacock-Farrell and eventually went in after hitting both posts.

The 35-year-old then set up Josh Murphy for the winner with just over 20 minutes remaining as he brought down the curtain on his career at Carrow Road.

Hoolahan, who has made 352 appearances for Norwich in his ten-years with the club, was given a guard of honour ahead of the kick-off by both sets of players and he received another standing ovation from his teammates and the fans when he was substituted with five minutes remaining.

Heckingbottom admitted he knew that plans had been made by Norwich for Hoolahan and that he didn’t want the game to feel like a testimonial but that is what it felt like.

 “I didn’t enjoy the game at all. We said beforehand that what with all was going on we didn’t want it to be like a testimonial – but that’s what it felt like,” Heckingbottom told the BBC.

“I thought the game was there for the taking and we did okay in the first half and got a good goal – but then we were guilty of bad game management by letting them back into it just before half-time with a deflected shot.”

The defeat for Leeds sees them drop down to 14th in the Championship table and they have now won just 3 games out of 15 since Heckingbottom replaced Thomas Christiansen in February.

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