Leeds United have not dropped this many points in consecutive games since the dark days of August mutiny, transfer politics, emasculating clauses and litigation. 
Daniel Farke has overseen such a consistent rise since that purgatory that one point from six has become a jarring and rare experience.
Of course, as a promotion hopeful with one of the three best squads in the division, Farke absolutely should have got them to where they are, but this week holds a mirror to how bleak the picture was just four months ago. The Whites have come so far, but still remain so far behind the top two.
Even when Ipswich Town drop points it hurts. They opened the door to some redemption with an East Anglian derby draw at Saturday lunchtime.
Leeds trapped their fingers as they slammed it shut. Two wins this week would have had the Whites five points off Kieran McKenna’s side with a chance to cut it to two next weekend.
Instead, the divide is 10 points and Leeds can no longer hide behind the shield of the early season. Next weekend is the halfway point and Preston North End on Boxing Day are the last of the 23 teams Leeds need to face.
There are still 72 points to win and so many twists and turns to come. The optimists will say Ipswich losses to Leeds and Leicester City (twice) can immediately trim the gap to one point, assuming United collect maximums.
The pessimists will say Ipswich have lost twice all season (once to Leeds in all fairness) and only gone more than one game without a win on one occasion. The odds remain stacked against the Whites and a week to forget like this one may just take some of the automatic promotion pressure off.
Daniel Farke refuses to single Joel Piroe out for Leeds United goal struggles
Daniel Farke has insisted Leeds United’s wastefulness in front of goal is a concern but the blame does not lie solely with Joel Piroe.
Piroe has now gone three Championship games without a goal but, speaking post-match, the Leeds boss has refused to single him out for criticism. Farke said: “It’s not just about Joel Piroe, it’s also about the others to step in. Even when I think about the header of Joe Rodon, normally it’s a situation where even a centre-back should have scored today.”
“I think he (Piroe) could be a bit more tidy today with his touches and bring himself into better positions. It was not his best day today. And for that, we have to accept this. He’s scored many goals for us so far and it’s definitely one of the key topics that my offensive players score but, all the others, Daniel James has scored more or less in each of the last home games, Cree (Summerville) has scored, Rutter has an assist again but should have scored today.
“After this game, it feels like two points dropped. We created more than enough, sometimes it has to be like this, you have to be relentless to open them and we did this with a fantastic goal from Summerville after Georgi’s (Rutter) pass. The problem is that we didn’t bury the game, we missed two or three chances.
“The amount of chances we missed in the last 20 minutes was more or less unbelievable. The quality of the chances also. When I think about the one-vs-one or the header, or the five yards and other scenes… Efficiency is a quality you need to have to have (and) sadly we didn’t show it enough to win this game.”
