Officially, at least, Leeds United returned to business as normal yesterday, although it certainly did not feel that way. At a time when David O'Leary is having his post vetted for death threats, Michael Duberry cannot leave home without looking over his shoulder and a firm of slack-jawed heavies has been employed to bolster security, the routine of beating inferior opponents appeared to have been temporarily forgotten.

O'Leary called it "stupid" and "something that could come back to haunt me", which, funnily enough, could be an appropriate way of describing his decision to swell his own bank account by writing a book, Leeds United On Trial, on the club's difficulties after the attack on Sarfraz Najeib. Thankfully he stopped just short of blaming yesterday's dramatic capitulation against a willing but strictly limited Leicester side on the microscopic scrutiny of all things Leeds United since the trial of Jonathan Woodgate and Lee Bowyer reached its finale, even if he did complain about it being a "tough weekend".

Yet the manager could scarcely disguise his displeasure about the vapid manner in which his side sieved two goals in the final 12 minutes of a match that, until that juncture, had been as one-sided as anything else witnessed at Elland Road this season.

Title-winning sides do not hoist the white flag like this and O'Leary made no attempt to conceal his ire. "It's a throw-away of two points," he said. "We were excellent in the first half but then we went 2-0 up and maybe we started thinking: 'We can coast this. We're a really good team and we don't have to work hard.'

"I don't expect to be conceding two goals like that, particularly against a team like Leicester. I mean, at the end of the day what exactly have they got? A couple of big strikers up front who can be dangerous at set-plays." O'Leary may have had a point, even if he was less than gracious, but Leicester, at least, deserve praise for making up for their glaring deficiencies with their sense of togetherness and, unlike Leeds, when they got their chances they made them count.

"We're chuffed to bits," said their manager Dave Bassett. "When you're 2-0 down at a place like this you do tend to think to yourself 'well, that's it really'. We've got a point because of our character and attitude." Had Leeds taken a better percentage of their chances, it could have been so different, particularly in the first half when a snap-shot that brought Harry Kewell's fourth goal in three games, teed up by a marvellous back-heel from Mark Viduka, was scant reward for their creativity and adventure.

Viduka crashed a shot against the crossbar inside the opening minute, Robbie Fowler squandered a straightforward chance to break his duck, and O'Leary looked back ruefully to the moment, after 18 minutes, when Viduka volleyed exquisitely into Ian Walker's net only for it to be wrongly ruled out by the linesman.

Yet Leicester could justifiably claim their own injustice when, with the score at 1-0, Brian Deane headed in Stefan Oakes's corner and the referee Rob Styles inexplicably judged that, in jumping for the ball, the striker had impeded Dominic Matteo. "It was an absolute nonsense. Maybe the referee had it as a home banker," said Bassett, although the voice of experience talked him out of confronting Styles afterwards.

"You can't talk to gods, can you?" Bassett's irritation was such because, within 60 seconds of the referee's mistake, Viduka had doubled the hosts' advantage, flicking on Ian Harte's cross and, when the ball was returned into the penalty area by Gary Kelly, clipping a neat volley past Walker.

Those Leicester fans who headed for the exits will have been some distance down the M1 when Callum Davidson, on a rare attacking foray, drove a low centre across the six-yard area for Deane to mark his full debut by scoring against his former club at the far post. Even then, there was no great sense of anxiety among the home supporters.

With two minutes left, Muzzy Izzet dropped a deep cross into the penalty area, Deane's mere presence did enough to distract Rio Ferdinand and Scowcroft swivelled to volley low and hard past Nigel Martyn. "I just hope those two points don't come home to haunt us at the end of the season," said O'Leary. "That's when we'll really know how much damage this has caused."

LEEDS UNITED: Martyn, Mills, Ferdinand, Matteo, Harte, Kelly, Batty, Johnson (Bakke 18), Kewell, Viduka, Fowler. Subs Not Used: Robinson, Wilcox, Duberry. Booked: Bakke. Goals: Kewell 7, Viduka 59.

LEICESTER: Walker, Sinclair, Elliott, Marshall, Davidson, Savage, Oakes, Izzet, Impey (Akinbiyi 72), Scowcroft, Deane. Subs Not Used: Flowers, Jones, Benjamin, Stewart. Booked: Savage, Elliott, Marshall. Goals: Deane 78, Scowcroft 89.

Referee: R Styles (Waterlooville).