On to the next one...

Another game, another disappointment, another post mortem.

So we lost tonight to a team I believe most of us thought we would beat. The fact is, for the most part, we are still only performing for half a game. What is disappointing is that Darko has had the 2 week international break to work unhindered with his, sorry, Massimo's squad.

What bothers me more than anything is our inability to prevent the concession of goals to the opposition. The defence has been as porous as a Tetley teabag for a number of seasons, regardless of who plays. Successive managers/coaches have come along and not been able to shore it up.

I don't want to criticise Darko because it's early days and it's going to take time for everyone to gel - coach and players alike, but what I think has made his task all the harder, and raised our expectations, has been the brief, and let's be honest, unexpected successful tenure of our very own Redders. We thought we'd turned a corner. Redders got results although the performances may have not always been convincing. Against that backdrop, Darko was always going to be on a hiding to nothing unless he came in and maintained the momentum and the encouraging run achieved by Redders.

I will always believe that the timing of Darko's appointment was wrong. He came to take over a team that seemed to have settled and had gone on an unbeaten run under a coach they were all familiar with and appeared to be motivated by. Darko may prove to be the right man in the long run and if he isn't, then he'll be down the road, which is no less than anyone would expect, whether it's MC driving the bus or Mr. A.N. Other Moneybags. We'll never know if the wheels will have eventually fallen off the Redders bandwagon. What we do know is that he is a cornerstone of LUFC and it does concern me that his name has been mentioned as a candidate for a managerial role elsewhere. His record has been widely applauded albeit very short, and whilst the Academy job will offer some degree of security for him, any coach worth his salt will also want to test himself at a higher level, especially as in Redders' case, he has already had more than a taste and felt that he could make a go of it.

LUFC has had the mother of all rollercoaster rides over 25 years or so. Promotion from the old 2nd Division, League Champions 2 seasons later, followed by years of Premier League mediocrity (who wouldn't settle for that now?), followed by a youthful resurgence under DOL which took us all the way to a Champions League semi-final, followed by financial meltdown which saw us spiral out of the PL for a decade and longer and no small number of false dawns under each successive managerial appointment.

The success of the 60s and 70s is also remembered by a generation still breathing (just about) - and hoping, and having sampled success the second time around in the 90s and the start of the Naughties (although not on the same scale as those early heady days), are foaming at the mouth for a return to the promised land of the PL and renewed battles with old adversaries.

The danger is that with the passage of time, the longer the exile continues, there will be fewer fans who remember the successful times and so, the expectations will not be as intense or desperate as they are now - hence the pressure on the coach to achieve results, and sharpish-like because we've been out of the mix too long.

There's an old saying about today's news being tomorrow's chip-shop paper, and tonight's result is just that - it's history - it's gone and we can't change it in anyway. We move onto the next game and hope that lessons have been learned by those who are paid to learn them and put measures into place to improve the next time round.

You only get so many chances to improve before it's considered that you can't hack it, and something deep inside makes me think that Redders is playing a Cool Hand Luke game right now - his stock is high and will continue to be so as things stand at present. Let's hope to God Darko gets it right for all our sakes and that Redders' head is not swayed by offers from elsewhere.

With each successive negative result, I have to admit to being underwhelmed but like many, I'm impatient and frustrated and yearn for better days which always seem to be just around the corner. It's time to face the reality of where we are and realise that the success which has proved to be so elusive is not going to happen overnight.

I apologise for going on for so long but, in a way, I've been trying to rationalise it all and come to terms with the reality myself.

Finally, these Friday night games are a nightmare when they go wrong - the weekend's a downer before it's even got going. Damn the live TV overlords.

Anyway, despite the disappointment of tonight's result, here's wishing all our friends on the board a good weekend.

MOT