Aidy White returned to the starting line-up for Leeds United with Shane Lowry out injured. Lowry was joined on the injury table by captain Richard Naylor who was replaced by Leigh Bromby at centre-back. Elsewhere there were no changes from the side that drew against Huddersfield.

The draw to Yorkshire rivals Huddersfield could only be seen as a good result at the time, given that we’d trailed to our promotion chasing neighbours and often fail miserably in such derbys. However, Southampton’s 5-0 demolition job on them shortly afterwards had set alarm bells ringing. The Saints, undeterred by their ten point handicap had bought well in January, determined to push on for a play-off spot and there’ll be very few betting against them. Leeds meanwhile did very little and have struggled to find the kind of flair and confidence Southampton have shown ever since.

Personal feelings aside, the lack of ambition the move for a 37-year-old journeyman striker shows sums up the kind of failure post-Christmas has been for the Whites. The implementation of the January transfer window has turned the game almost completely on it’s head. What you do before that date matters little if everyone else improves and you can’t keep up with the pace thereafter. Leeds, for me, failed big time in January and it’s going to be a much tougher slog to the end of the season than it perhaps should have been.

There’s no denying Leeds United were the better team yesterday. Brentford did very little to surprise anyone other than retain possession quite well. Unfortunately for any Brentford fans reading this, that was more a reflection of Leeds not bothering to close down as often as they should more than it was any Brazilian-style ball control on your part. The players were showing complacency once again and expecting the result to just come for them, rather than making any real effort to pressure Brentford into submission.

Leeds, quite simply, could destroy Brentford if they applied the same kind of effort they did against Huddersfield, but it was non-existant. The fact of the matter is, that when the players see Huddersfield on the fixture list they’ll likely take note of the date. Brentford however, is simply a name there to make the numbers up for most of the players, and it showed in the level of effort exerted.

Leading up to Brentford’s goal, all the real chances had gone to Leeds. We probably should have led with ease, but failed to take advantage of our opportunites. There was no real urgency from Leeds as the game seemed to be a bit of a precession. No one expected anything less than three points and it just seemed to be a matter of time until we turned one of our chances into a goal.

Then, the “unthinkable” happened (I use the term loosely, as there’s very little left that could happen to Leeds that would shock anyone). Brentford got a chance and buried it to leave Leeds United behind and looking at each other with total confusion, mystified as to how this kept happening on home soil.

If falling behind did anything, it gave the team a sense of urgency they’d lacked prior. Leeds United got the equaliser courtesy of Jermaine Beckford, but there’s no escaping how poor a result this is. Teams like Brentford don’t come to Elland Road expecting anything. More often than not, it’s damage limitation, but Leeds are just giving away points at the minute through complacency, inconsistency and a lack of determination and fight against these “lesser” teams. It’s starting to feel as though we need to go 1-0 down before everyone can be bothered playing football.

So, it’s all doom and gloom then?

Pretty much, yeah. There’s absolutely no positives I can take from this performance. The fans booing at full-time – however wrong that may be – sums up the kind of second rate, half arsed effort this was. My major concern is a quote from Simon Grayson afterwards who seemed to think it was a good performance. I aren’t saying it was a bad one, and we did dominate, but I’d hardly be praising anyone when they’ve just scraped a draw at home to Brentford.

You look at the list of fixtures still to come, keeping in mind Leeds’ tendancy to blow things at the last hurdle and you can’t help but worry about the final couple of months. Defiantely optimistic, I’m trying to assure myself that we’ll come good against the better teams, but there’s no escaping the fact we’ve blown a substancial lead and as the run of poor form continues, we’re getting very few answers.