Daniel Farke admitted his Leeds side had “missed unbelievable chances” en route to a 1-0 defeat at Portsmouth, which ended a 17-man unbeaten run.
Joel Piroe missed two excellent chances, Junior Firpo squandered a one-on-one chance and hit the bar as Pompey keeper Nicolas Schmid produced a man-of-the-match performance.
Colby Bishop grabbied the only goal of the game in clinical fashion in the 61st minute to make Leeds pay and leave them top of the Championship table only on goal difference.
Leeds felt they should have had an early penalty when Matt Ritchie kicked through the bag of Dan James’ legs but they only had themselves to blame for their wayward finishing.
Farke said: “I can’t complain about the performance but I know we can be more effective. It was one of those days where we created so many good chances but we couldn’t put any of them to bed.
“We had three one on ones with the goalkeeper, we headed against the crossbar and Sam Byram forced a great save at the end, and we should have had a penalty.
“It was one of those days where one of our best finishers, Junior Firpo, missed unbelievable chances.
“We expected a tough away game as no team has won more points in 2025 in home games, so we knew it would be tight. They were able to be effective today and for that we have to say congratulations. They are able to celebrate today and we have to accept it.”
Schmid’s heroics were key to Pompey’s win. His double save to deny Manor Solomon and then Piroe in the first half was followed up by a one-on-one save to thwart Firpo before an acrobatic tip over at the death to keep out Byram’s header.
Matchwinner Bishop paid a heartfelt tribute to his keeper.
“Schmid has saved us in a few games this year. Some of the saves were absolutely brilliant. I’ll be thanking him after,” he said.
Pompey had chances of their own with Josh Murphy striking the outside of the post and Andre Dozzell’s thunderbolt forcing Ilian Meslier to parry.
But the match’s key moment came when Bishop latched on to Connor Ogilvie’s ball down the left channel to bisect Leeds centre backs Joe Rodon and Pascal Struijk before clipping over Meslier and in off the post for his sixth goal of the season.
Pompey head coach John Mousinho said: “Colby has been incredible since the first minute I walked into the building. When you take into account what he’s been through this season, it’s even better.
“It feels like the best game of the season. It was an important win after watching the results come in over the weekend.
“Everyone is buzzing we have won the game, but more importantly I think we deserved to win it. It was a really good performance.
“Every single player who was involved was excellent, I can’t pick out anyone who was under the standard.
“I think Leeds are a Premier League outfit with unbelievable players who have played some very good football this season, so to peg them back and come away with three points is amazing.
“We have spoken about the difficulties we cause sides at Fratton Park. Our home form has been absolutely brilliant, and if we had picked up some more points away from home we would be more comfortable.
“We won’t start to look up the table. We need to stay on top of ourselves.”
