Leicester City boss Nigel Pearson admitted that losing in-form striker Chris Wood proved decisive at Peterborough on Saturday.
The Kiwi international missed Saturday's 2-1 defeat at London Road after suffering a knock in training.
Having scored seven goals in his previous six games, Wood's absence was felt as City created a host of chances but failed to take them.
But Pearson said that once City had taken the lead through Ben Marshall, they should have seen the game out. Instead, they were rocked by late goals from Davide Petrucci and Grant McCann.
With Watford and Crystal Palace drawing on Friday, and Hull and Middlesbrough losing 24 hours later, Pearson admitted City had wasted the chance to cement their place in the automatic promotion spots.
"It is a missed opportunity for us,," said Pearson. "But you have to give them some credit for how they finished the game.
"We missed Chris. I think his record speaks for itself. I was disappointed not to have him but, having said that, we created enough chances and I would have expected us to do better.
"I think we had 20 attempts and when you get in front, especially in games like this, you have to go and close it out. We have been careless.
"We have not played as well as we have done and certainly when we went in front I expected us to close the game out. We didn't do that.
"We didn't work hard enough at times and that is something I don't say often about my players. Once they got the equaliser they had a bit more drive than us. That doesn't happen very often."
On the Wood situation, Pearson said: "He took a knock in training and he wasn't available. Hopefully, he won't be out for long."
Pearson said he was confident his side could bounce back quickly from the defeat, with an FA Cup fourth-round replay coming up against Huddersfield tomorrow.
"We have to get on with it," he said. "It is a disappointing result but we have done pretty well so far this season."
