Town fell to back to back league defeats for the first time this season as they were beaten 2-1 at Leeds United with all the goals coming in seven second-half minutes and Daryl Murphy having a late penalty saved. Alex Mowatt put Leeds ahead on 71, Freddie Sears equalised three minutes later, then Billy Sharp put the Whites back in front on 77, prior to Leeds keeper Marco Silvestri saving Murphy’s spotkick.
Boss Mick McCarthy made his promised changes with strike pair Murphy and Sears rested and amongst the subs.
Chris Wood and ex-Leeds man Luke Varney were handed their full Blues debuts with Paul Anderson and Jonny Parr starting on the right and left of midfield respectively, and Kevin Bru and Richard Chaplow also dropping to the bench.
Cameron Stewart - who was on loan with the Whites last season - and Paddy Kenny - a former Leeds keeper - Kundai Benyu and Alex Henshall also made the trip but were left out of the 18.
Ex-Whites striker Noel Hunt, who is on crutches and expected to be out for the season due to his medial knee ligament injury, also travelled.
The Blues started brightly and had the ball in the net in only the third minute, Varney heading skipper Luke Chambers's right-wing cross home against his old club, but with the linesman’s flag having been raised.
Leeds weren’t far away from going in front in the seventh minute when Lewis Cook sent in a cross from the right towards January Town target Sharp, who hit a shot which looked on its way into the net until Tommy Smith blocked.
Sol Bamba headed over at the far post in the 14th minute after Mowatt had dispossessed Varney on the edge of the Town box on the right following a Leeds freekick which had been half-cleared. Moments later, Tyrone Mings did well to cut out a through ball ahead of Sam Byram,
Neither side threatened again before the half hour mark with the game a typically scrappy Championship affair. The Blues won a number of corners and freekicks in dangerous areas but, as was the case at Norwich on Sunday, failed to make anything of them.
Leeds should have gone ahead in the 35th minute when Christophe Berra slipped when in possession in the left-back position, allowing Byram to cross towards Sharp, who headed wide while under pressure from Smith with the home players and fans calling for a penalty. Referee Mark Brown was unmoved, however.
A minute later, Giuseppe Bellusci smashed a freekick over from 30 yards before play moved back to the other end and Mings won another corner with a dangerous cross from the left. Again it came to nothing.
Three minutes before the break, Leeds keeper Silvestri punched Anderson’s freekick to the edge of the area. Smith and then Wood both had efforts blocked.
The game remained goalless at half-time with little in an evenly balanced first half. The home side had had the better chances but via Town slips at the back rather than through their own guile.
Despite Wood and Varney having linked up well at times - there seemed little argument about the early disallowed goal - and Parr and Mings having looked threatening down the left, the Blues had been unable to test Silvestri in the Leeds goal.
Two minutes after the restart Mings forced Silvestri into his first serious save of the evening. Chambers crossed from the right and the Blues left-back headed towards the far corner but the Leeds keeper did superbly to get across to push it wide.
From the corner, the ball fell to Cole Skuse on the edge of the box by Bamba blocked his shot, with his hand according to some Town players. Again referee Brown was unmoved. The Blues kept up the pressure, Scott Wootton blocking a subsequent Mings strike.
On 51 Mowatt crossed low from the Leeds left to Sharp, whose shot on the turn deflected through to Bialkowski off Berra.
Varney, who had undergone treatment for a head injury after a clash with Bamba a couple of minutes earlier, did well to get over a cross from the left in the 55th minute but Anderson somehow managed to hit his shot from the edge of the box to Parr also out wide on the left.
Bru replaced Anderson in the 61st minute, Parr moving to the right and Tabb to the left with the Mauritian international taking up his usual central midfield role.
Four minutes later, as Mings prepared to take a freekick on the left, Murphy replaced Varney, who was booed off loudly by his old fans.
Mings sent the ball into the box and Leeds were unable to clear, Tabb nodding into the danger area and Chambers and then Berra both having efforts blocked. Soon after Bru picked up the game’s first yellow card for a foul on Charlie Taylor.
As in the first half there had been little between the teams but on 71 the home side went in front, profiting from another Town defensive error.
Mings dawdled on the ball just outside the box to the left and lost out to Byram, who he then hauled back. Mowatt took the freekick and curled it between Bialkowski and his left post and into the net. The Polish keeper will feel he might have done better.
Town immediately swapped Sears for Wood and two minutes after coming on the sub got his side back on terms, although the goal owed much to an error by Leeds keeper Silvestri.
The ex-Colchester man hit a low speculative effort from 25 yards which the keeper ought to have claimed easily down to his right, however, it somehow slipped under him and into the net to restore parity. It was Sears’s 18th goal of the season and his fourth for the Blues.
Town started to look for a second, Sears crossing and Mings flicking the ball up into the air and into Silvestri’s arms.
However, only three minutes after losing their lead, the home side went back in front with the game’s third goal in seven minutes. After a break down the right, Cook crossed and Sharp hit a superb low volley on the turn at the far post which gave Bialkowski no chance.
The Blues immediately went about getting back on terms for a second time, Silvestri saving efforts from distance from Mings and then from Bru. At the other end, Sharp teed up Cook but Bialkowski wasn’t troubled by his edge of the box strike.
With seven minutes left on the clock Town were given a golden opportunity to get back on terms when Bamba handled inside the area on the left as Sears tried to take the ball past him. Referee Brown awarded the Blues only their second penalty of the season, the other coincidentally having been against Leeds at Portman Road.
On that occasion David McGoldrick netted but in his absence Murphy took the responsibility. Town’s 21-goal top scorer hit a low shot to Silvestri’s right but the keeper got down and across to push it on to the post and away from goal, atoning for his earlier error.
Two minutes from the end of scheduled time Mowatt was unable to reproduce his earlier freekick, sending a strike from the left well wide.
Town couldn't find an opening in the remaining minutes, Chambers heading a late corner over, and the referee’s whistle confirmed a second away defeat in four days.
As so often in the Championship the match was settled by mistakes. Mick McCarthy won’t have been impressed by Mings’s role in Leeds’ first and will feel Sharp ought to have been marked more closely for the second, the game's one moment of real quality.
The Blues, who remain seventh, were somewhat gifted Sears’s goal and also the penalty, which was more a save than a miss and McCarthy will feel it was a match they shouldn’t have lost.
A season which has held so much promise is now in danger of slipping away with Town now having lost six of their 11 league games since the turn of the year having previously been defeated just once in 20.
However, they are still only five points from the automatic promotion places and a point off sixth-placed Brentford, who visit Portman Road for a crunch clash on Saturday afternoon.
Leeds: Silvestri, Wootton, Bamba, Bellusci, Cooper, Byram, Cook, Murphy, Mowatt, C Taylor (Antenucci 68), Sharp (Morison 86). Unused: S Taylor, Berardi, Sloth, Doukara, Cani.
Town: Bialkowski, Chambers (c), Mings, Berra, Smith, Skuse, Tabb, Anderson (Bru 61), Parr, Varney (Murphy 65), Wood (Sears 72). Unused: Gerken, Clarke, Chaplow, Connolly. Referee: Mark Brown (East Yorkshire). Attendance: 19,730.