Jesse Marsch wants Leeds United to stave off the 'stress and fear' after they lack ruthlessness at both ends at Crystal Palace

Leeds played with an intensity and a quality their hosts could not match in the first quarter of the Selhurst Park game, but had only a 1-0 lead – scored by Pascal Struijk after an excellent Brenden Aaronson run ended with a shot against the post – to show for it.

So when Liam Cooper conceded a soft free-kick there was a certain inevitability when Odsonne Edouard glanced his header in from it, Palace's first attempt 24 minutes in.

From there Leeds' confidence drained away and Palace built theirs, finding a second-half winner when Eberechi Eze dribbled across Cooper and shot into the bottom corner of the net.

Coach Marsch's frustration afterwards was obvious.

"I think the performance in the first half, we should have been able to come in (at half-time) with a lead and maybe even a two-goal lead," he commented. "If you look at a series of matches, where there's been games where we're much in control of the match for major portions, we're not scoring enough goals.

"Coops (centre-back Cooper) knows it wasn’t a necessary foul. We’ve taken pride on set-pieces so it’s disappointing.

"Again, we have big chances (in the) second half and even first half, if we can be a little bit sharper in the final third."

Patrick Bamford, making his first start since the opening away match of the season was guilty of the worst miss, failing to bury a chance when Aaronson played him through on goal minutes before the equaliser.

"I believe we’ve played better over the last five games than two points (would suggest)," said the American.

"We just have to live in the moment. We can't allow stress and fear to be built into what we're doing and we have to continue to believe. I know we have the right kind of people in the dressing room to do that.

"I believe in this team, and I know that we're going to improve and keep getting better.”

On the performance of talismanic centre-forward Bamford, who was substituted after 62 minutes, Marsch said: "Patrick's clearly in physically good form, so that's a big bonus.

"Then we just need to keep getting him fully game fit and fully ready and sharp.

"But in general, I thought he was okay. I think on a day where he's a little bit sharper and fitter, he finds a goal and I think he can be part of the solution moving forward, in terms of being more dangerous

“Sometimes the clarity of options, the clarity of movement, the quality to make the last play, the decision making it's a little combination of everything, but my experience is that it comes together.

"We have a young team and we need to keep developing, but most of the teams I've coached we scored goals in bunches.

"Here we just aren't able to reward ourselves in big moments when we create advantages and are often on top of the game. We've got to find a way to get leads and then add on to them.”

Aaronson admitted the defeat was hard to take after such a good start to the game which he epitomised.

"As a group it's tough to swallow that because in the first half we had a bunch of chances and we just didn't punish them the way we wanted to," he said.

"To come away from home and play against a good team like that and play the way we played, it's tough."

On Edouard's equaliser, he added: "It was a really good ball and a good header so it's tough to recover from that but I think we did and at the end of the half we were good. But they got another goal and it was tough.

"Whenever a team doesn't have many chances and the first shot (leads to the) first goal it is a gut-punch but they have so many individual players of such quality.

"I think we did a good job handling them but it was a tough result.

"(In the second half) I don't think we attacked like we did in the first half."

That it was Bamford who returned to the side in place of the suspended Luis Sinisterra prompted a reshuffle which saw Aaronson moved out to the right until his withdrawal, and the summer signing was a bright presence throughout Leeds' best spell, along with left winger Jack Harrison.

"Most opponents are addressing him," said Marsch of his compatriot. "It means he has to come up with quicker solutions. I thought he had a good match in general, I thought a lot of our players played quite well."

Left-back Junior Firpo, who made his first appearance of the season against Aston Villa the previous week, was left out of the squad in south London.

"Firpo picked up a little something after the last game," said Marsch. "He’ll be ready next week."

Leeds are at home to Arsenal on Sunday.

The Whites are still looking for their first away victory of the campaign, but Aaronson refused to read too much into that."It's not a concern," he insisted. "it's early in the season, I don't think anybody's really worried.

"We're disappointed in the result, I think everybody's head dropped afterwards but you've got to keep your head high in this situation. We know we played well and it's just on to the next one."