Nottingham Forest 1-1 Leeds: Dougie Freedman and Steve Evans reaction

Steve Evans has urged Sam Byram to commit to Leeds after his late equaliser saw the club draw 1-1 with Nottingham Forest in the Sky Bet Championship on Sunday afternoon.

The youngster's future has been a topic of much discussion this season and he is due to become a free agent in the summer, having turned down a new deal earlier in the campaign.

He has now scored three goals in the last three Leeds games and they have all come in front of the Sky Sports cameras, including a brace against Wolves last week to add to Sunday's equaliser. 

"Sam is a top player and that's why we're still hoping he'll be at the football club," Evans told Sky Sports during a pitchside interview after the game.

"He's a player we want to work with but we also want him to commit to the club. With a club the size of Leeds, he should want to commit."

The Whites went behind in the first half after a defensive mistake from the two centre-backs, letting Nelson Oliveira through on goal but Byram secured a much-deserved point 10 minutes from time.

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Evans added: "I reflect on the game really positively. For all our dominance, we were subject to a mistake on the break-away and we said to the players at half-time 'just win the second half' and I thought some of our play in the second period was exceptional. We opened them up a number of times and on another day, we go in front and win the game."

"We've got some good players and I don't think some of them have been able to get forward and express themselves. I'm a manager that wants the boys to get on the ball and pass it and be brave.

"We gave it away sloppily a couple of times, maybe more than a couple of times, in the final third today but I need to keep encouraging them to try that passes that open teams up."

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Nottingham Forest manager Dougie Freedman also believes his side should have taken the spoils on Sunday, and that they should have killed off the game.

"We felt that, although they have some good individual players, our structure was very good. They didn't have many shots on target and we were walking towards trying to win the game," the Reds boss told Sky Sports straight after the game.

"I feel a bit disappointed we didn't take the opportunities to kill the game off. We decided about 50/60 minutes into the game to open it up and that increases our chances of winning but also increases our chances of losing. In the Championship, three points is big and that's what we tried to do."

The Forest manager was well aware of the threat from Leeds, who were unbeaten in five games going into Sunday's match, and commended their effort that eventually saw the spoils shared at the City Ground.

"Credit to them, they kept on going. When you play Leeds, you have to kill them off because their fans demand them to go until the end and that's what they've done.

"I felt today that our best way to win the game was to retreat and hit them on the counter-attack and if some of our decision making was better in the second half, we'd have been winners but it's something we've got to work on."

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