My take on yesterday...

Having read many, many articles on here, I know I'm putting myself up to be shot down, but here goes.

I still play football, I've managed reasonably successfully with kids and adults, admittedly at a low level. I'm always optimistic (sorry to some on here), and try and look for the positive things from any situation, including football.

I travelled 200+ miles on Tuesday to watch the Brighton match, and I think I'm safe in saying, that we have never been played off the pitch by a team like we did that night... I struggled to find any positives, although I thought Bianchi had something about him. So even with five in the car, the 200+ miles back was not as lively and chatty as it usually is!

Heading to Watford my optimism was returning, especially with two new signings. As I walked towards the ground we could see a large number of Leeds fans jumping up and down singing Hocka Hockaday song... positive!? Maybe pi55 taking? Not sure, but the atmosphere was good in the ground, and Chris Kamara adding to it with many songs aimed his way.

In my opinion, we played really well and dominated the first half, and I think their goal was against the run of play. Our equaliser was nothing less than we deserved. The midfield still don't want to shoot around the edge of the box, and they can't seem to feed it into the front two as much as they should, which is frustrating. I would suggest that if we sign Sloth or Adryan, they will start instead of Tonge, Murphy or Austin. But overall the first half was much improved, and people around us, including myself, were very positive at half time and looking forward to the next 45 minutes.

The second half we started off slowly (or Watford started on the front foot after a bollocking at half time!), but Pearce should have put us ahead with a free header from a corner. The big turning point which completely changed the game was the mistake by Bullusci who tried to make up for it and gave away a penalty, as well as being red carded... double blow! Now we were chasing the game with a player less, against a good passing team. A very difficult task which we unfortunately couldn't do.

Now this is where Leeds fans started to become disgruntled, Hockaday's substitutions. When you're losing and you need to score, taking Billy Sharp off isn't the most positive thing you can do, especially when you leave the untried, unproven new signing on instead... now that is Hockaday's fault. Watford took full advantage of the extra man and obviously ran out comfortable winners in the end. Byram's sending off was an Oscar winning performance by their player, and will hopefully be rescinded. Byram had got forward far more than he did against Brighton, in fact we played with far more width than in previous games, although neither fullback likes putting the ball into the box first time which is frustrating.

I have some sympathy for Hockaday because it isn't his fault he got given the job, and I can see an improvement from the first half performance. He has new players he probably has to play, who don't even know their team mates names. The squad isn't complete yet, so very difficult to play a settled side and bed players in, unfortunately as Leeds manager you are never going to get time! I'm not sure who will come in to do the job once he's sacked, because I wouldn't think many good coaches will work for Cellino, possibly Italian.

Still at least we've got easy game next!