We all hoped that Saturday’s win over Middlesbrough was the sign of better things to come, but last night’s performance against Brighton and Hove Albion brought us back down to earth. Cellino has already said that David Hockaday needs “babysitting” so will our esteemed ‘head coach’ be around for much longer?

Hockaday admitted that the first half was dreadful, though he seemed to think that we improved after the break, although we hardly had a shot. In his interview on LUTV he said “I thought they caught us cold in the first half. They played brave and we didn’t press together. Also when we got the ball we kept on giving it away. So that is a recipe for disaster. I was actually happy to go in at 1-0 at half time.”

“In the second half we went brave and basically went man for man. It was more like it and we created a great chance and if we’d have put that away it would have been 1-1. We had all the possession in the second half but other than that one chance we didn’t really create anything.”

The consensus among the fans was that the biggest problem was the midfield, which was too easily by-passed as Brighton built their attacks, and was lacking in width. But maybe that’s not too surprising when you have four central midfield players, and Bianchi in particular would benefit from a more central role rather than trying to play out wide.

Tonge was recalled to the starting line-up after his decisive contribution led to the winning goal on Saturday, yet last night he was guilty of missing the one chance that could have brought us back into the game. And in the second half the Hock substituted both his main strikers which was a bit odd when we desperately needed a goal, and you couldn’t really fault them when they were getting hardly any service from midfield.

And at the back Sam Byram gave another performance that suggested his mind was elsewhere, so is he still hoping for a move to Southampton before the transfer window shuts? While the Hock says we still need quality recruits and new players continue to arrive at Elland Road, is Cellino planning to cash in on our most saleable asset?

All in all it was a night to forget, and if it hadn’t been for that late winner against Boro we’d be right down in the relegation zone. The Hock is still saying that “we are a work in progress”, but he can’t afford too many more performances like this one, else he won’t get time to try to mould all our new signings into a coherent side.

And all of this came against a Brighton side who had lost both their opening two games. At least our next home game is against one of the teams who are still below us in the table, and all the Bolton fans in my office are moaning that their side have been desperate so far, but will they also manage to look like world-beaters against us?

With Cellino’s notorious impatience with coaches who don’t perform, a few more bad results could see Hockaday on his way, maybe even before the end of September. And at the moment there won’t be too many Leeds fans who will be sorry to see him gone.

Photo: Action Images

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