Lonely Redfearn Pays Valentine’s Day Penalty TSS February 15, 2012 Match reviews 43 Comments Another woeful performance from The Whites left Neil Redfearn’s hopes of landing the job permanently in tatters. For all his assertions that he knew what the problems were, and more importantly, how to remedy them, Redfearn has had three games to get things right and totally failed to do so. It’s not as if Redfearn has had it all that tough either. In-form Brighton may have looked like a bit of a tricky fixture, but the reality is, they played poorly. He got the result at Bristol City, granted, but that had a lot more to do with the two red cards than any managerial prowess. Against nine man Bristol, I’d expect our youth team to win 3-0. Then there’s last night’s fixture away to bottom of the pile Coventry City, statistically the worst team in the Championship. The Coventry City fans must have left wondering how on earth we’re so far above them after that showing – I know I did. Leeds fans know we don’t have the best team in Championship, not even close. We have an underfunded mid-table side that was living up to all expectations before Simon Grayson was sacked. Then our ever-so-predictable chairman decided to test the cheapest option before looking for a suitable replacement, which leaves us in the mess we’re in now – six points dropped and looking like the worst side in the division. There are simply no positives I can offer Redfearn. The farcical defensive errors remained, there was no tactical change whatsoever, we have an excellent central midfield in Delph & Clayton that the caretaker-manager got absolutely nothing out of and we were pretty useless in attack – aside from Ross McCormack that is, who Redfearn (in his infinite wisdom) decided to take off when we were searching for a winner. The crowds chants of “there’s only one Simon Grayson” summed things up perfectly. Redfearn will point to the two penalties and bemoan his luck, but the reality is, we were second best to the Championship’s whipping boys. Grayson may have had his faults, but he was the difference between what we’ve witnessed in the last three games and the mid-table Championship side our chairman hasn’t paid for – and then sold off, before not paying for again. I don’t expect miracles from Redfearn under current circumstances, I really don’t. But I expect some kind of change, some attempt to secure the job permanently that changes Leeds United’s style completely. Otherwise, what’s the point? The crux of the matter is this; Simon Grayson had us as high, if not higher than the investment in this squad should realistically achieve – anything beyond that is miraculous. Had we sacked Simon Grayson because Merlin the Magician had suddenly become available then fair enough – “alakazaham” and we’re in the Premier League, job done. Even if we’d sacked Simon Grayson because Ken Bates felt there was another manager available, whose ideas could give us that final push we needed, I could have bitten my tongue and accepted that too. But that wasn’t the case. Simon Grayson was sacked as part of a shameless ploy to divert attention away from a failing board. The club then tried to cop out of paying for a replacement by testing the cheapest option available. The most depressing thing is, this was an extremely poor Coventry City side. It took two penalties for them to beat an even worse Leeds United side, which tells you everything you need to know about how incredibly relegation-worthy they are. Like Brighton at the weekend, we’d have probably snatched all three points had we staged the late attacking flurry we were so famous for under Simon Grayson. Instead, our most threatening player (and goal scorer) was removed and we did absolutely nothing. Quite why we didn’t surge forward is as baffling as Ross McCormack’s substitution because Coventry didn’t look capable of scoring from open play. The biggest threat they posed came from corners and Luciano Becchio was heading most of those clear. Aside from that, they may as well have had two Billy Paynter’s leading the line for all the difference it would have made. Unfortunately, there’s even less to speak of in terms of Leeds United’s efforts. We constantly threatened to string three or four passes together but then decided against it and returned possession to the home side instead. If nothing else, we’re certainly charitable under Redfearn. All this leaves us six points off the play-off places, with 5th placed Birmingham City and 6th placed Reading both having a game in hand over us. The boards failure to act quickly means we’ve squandered one of the easiest runs we’ll get all season and with just 15 games remaining, a third season in the Championship is starting to look inevitable. And just to rub salt into the wounds, Fabian Delph sustained an injury during the course of one of the worst games of football ever witnessed. Truly depressing times for Leeds United Football Club. Silver lining? Well, Merlin isn’t available but a twice Championship champion is… “At the moment we’ve got 16 first team players. My initials stand for Mick McCarthy, not Merlin the Magician.” Final score: Coventry City 2 – 1 Leeds United [starratingmulti id=3 tpl=12]