United's first home game of the League One season ended with an unconvincing performance and a deserved loss at Elland Road, leaving their angry manager Gary McAllister to demand an immediate improvement from his players.

A tight fixture which saw a limited number of chances was settled by two goals from Chris Taylor in the space of 15 second-half minutes and McAllister was at a loss to explain United's display after a solid first week of the new campaign.

Leeds beat Scunthorpe United 2-1 last weekend, overcoming a potential competitor for promotion and swept into the second round of the Carling Cup at the expense of Chester City on Tuesday, but although they had no answer to Taylor's brace, McAllister insisted he would not be drawn into knee-jerk alterations to his line-up.

The Leeds boss said: "In football there are times when things don't go well.

"Sometimes you hold your hands up and say you've been outfought, or that the opposition did something tactically that we couldn't cope with, or that they were technically better. But I don't think it was down to any of that.

"I just don't think we had any players who were at it, but I've got to be thinking that it was a bit of a freak. I've got to look at it like that.

"Things have been excellent in the last two or three weeks and in the latter stages of pre-season. We had a good start at Scunthorpe and backed it up with a decent performance at Chester, but we dropped off the pace on Saturday."

United dominated an uninspired first half at Elland Road but saw Taylor find the net just five minutes into the second period.

Taylor secured Oldham's second win of the year at Elland Road with a long-range finish on 65 minutes.

John Sheridan's side were the first to win a league game at Elland Road last season, securing a 3-1 victory on New Year's Day and a strong defensive performance – led by ex-Leeds centre-back Sean Gregan – set up another excellent away success on Saturday.