Leeds United supporters will still have nightmares about Wigan Athletic individual: View | OneFootball

Leeds United finished third in the 2018/19 Championship table, six points behind Sheffield United, who secured automatic promotion alongside Champions, Norwich City, with a second place finish.

The Whites would eventually fall short in the play-off semi-final by losing the second leg 4-2 at Elland Road to Derby County, despite winning the first leg 1-0 at Pride Park. The Rams would go on to lose 2-1 to Aston Villa at Wembley.

Above all, Whites supporters will look back at the 2018/19 campaign and remember their dramatic play-off heartache, but their side could have earned automatic promotion if it wasn't for a collapse late on in the season.

The Whites, then managed by Marcelo Bielsa, failed to win any of their last four games in the regular season, which cost them an automatic promotion spot.

This poor run of form began on Good Friday 2019, as the West Yorkshire outfit lost 2-1 at Elland Road to Wigan Athletic, whose win guided them closer to securing their Championship status for another season.

Leeds United's promotion hopes dented by Wigan

Defeat to the Latics on Good Friday 2019 signalled the beginning of a four-game winless streak, which ultimately prevented Bielsa's men from securing a top-two spot.

The Elland Road outfit looked certain to cruise to victory that afternoon, when Wigan's Cedric Kipre, now of West Brom, was shown a red card in the 13th minute for a handball offence in the penalty area.

Pablo Hernandez missed the resulting penalty for the Whites, an error which would go on to set the tone for a grim day at the office for Bielsa's side, despite the fact, just one minute after the penalty miss from Hernandez, a goal from Patrick Bamford, assisted by Luke Ayling's cross, established a 1-0 lead for the hosts.

Given the fact that the Whites were battling for promotion, while the Latics were striving to secure Championship safety, it seemed inevitable that Leeds would go on to win, especially once they had a numerical advantage.

But this match would provide a classic example of the unpredictable nature of the second tier, as Gavin Massey scored an equaliser for the away team just two minutes before half-time.

Then, in the 61st minute, the wideman gave the Latics a 2-1 lead by heading home Leon Clarke's flick-on, and Paul Cook's men would hold on to claim all three points, despite the match stats stacking up against them.

This was a disastrous outcome for Bielsa's side, and sparked the beginning of a poor run of form which proved to keep the Whites in the Championship for another season.

Gavin Massey haunts Leeds United

Bielsa and co may have won the Championship title at the end of the 2019/20 season, but the Elland Road faithful will never forget the afternoon the former Latics winger single-handedly derailed their side's promotion push with just his fourth and fifth goals of the campaign.

Whites supporters will still look back with dismay on the afternoon. The Latics faithful will look back to that day with much fonder memories, though.

From the point of view of the Elland Road faithful, this result was totally unacceptable and a shock even in an unpredictable division.

Massey was also a part of the Wigan side that beat Leeds at Elland Road the following season (0-1), although that result didn't prove to be as influential in the promotion race, with Leeds cruising to the title in 2019/20.

Nevertheless, Massey, and what he did to Leeds in April 2019, will always be remembered at Elland Road for the wrong reasons.