Nottingham Forest 1 Leeds United 1

LEEDS manager Steve Evans felt his side were guilty of dropping two points even as Sam Byram's late effort helped them scrape to a draw against Nottingham Forest.

Forest utilised their counter-attacking game to fend off Leeds for large parts of the match, this after Nelson Oliveira had given them a 17th-minute lead.

Leeds, for their part, dominated possession but could not make that count with a killer final ball, and it needed a superb Byram strike from outside the box to take a point from the City Ground.

Evans was left to rue a missed opportunity for a win that would have taken them within sight of a Sky Bet Championship play-off spot.

He said: "I know Forest fans will be going in the car saying they'll take that point! They've been on a terrific run of form. I've watched games where they've been by far the dominant side. But today they've had the reverse of that.

"I think in the final third we must do a lot with the quality of the pass. Passing from the midfield was quite exceptional. But in the final third, that needs to be much better. That's areas to work on.

"This team has gone from normally being completely outplayed in the Championship to outplaying teams a lot of the time. But we've got a lot work to do if we want to get on and catch teams (at the top)."

Forest's goal came courtesy of a mistake from Leeds defender Giuseppe Bellusci, whose failed clearance allowed Oliveira to snap up the ball and round goalkeeper Marco Silvestri, the victim of a slip in the process.

Byram's contract situation at Leeds remains up in the air, as both club and player are yet to come together on a mutually beneficial solution.

But with his third goal in as many games - he scored twice in the win over Wolves - Byram gave a decent indication of his value.

Evans said of the 22-year-old: "I think privately he would say that (he wants to stay) but I'm not one to talk about what he says privately.

"What I do know there's two parties that need to come together and do something in January because we want our good players."

Forest boss Dougie Freedman admitted the home side would have done well to come away with three points off a game plan that involved soaking up pressure.

Freedman, whose side were looking for a fifth straight home win, said: "I felt Leeds had very good individual players.

"It was a game plan that was working. Credit to Leeds, they go for 95 minutes. So I felt the only way to win the game was to kill them off, because they keep coming at you."

Following the match, there was no hand shake between both managers, after what had been 90 minutes of both Freedman and Evans animated on the touchline.

But Freedman shrugged off any controversy by saying: "I'm focused on my players. I felt my players needed my hand shake for the efforts they put in. I'm concentrating on my players and fans to make sure they're all right."