Brian McDermott admitted he was fearful of a terrace backlash following Leeds' latest defeat. Leeds were simply given a second half mauling in the Lions Den on Saturday and surely the visit of Bournemouth on Tuesday night is now a must win game?
The disgraceful second half showing was nearly as hard to stomach for the 2000 travelling fans as the local's constant taunts about the Istanbul tragedy 13 years ago. Save an Austin shot inside two minutes and some typically erratic shooting from Jason Pearce in first half stoppage time, there was nothing else to note except a shot by Lion's frontman Martin Waghorn that clipped the upright.
Save Alex Mowatt's game performance in midfield, the youngster setting up McCormack who just failed to connect the 18-year-old's delivery, there was nothing else to write home about for the travelling hordes and their afternoon got worse on 65 minutes when Martin and Woolford exchanged some quick passes to leave our defence stone dead, the latter curling a shot past Kenny.
Just 11 minutes later, it was 2-0, Trotter and Malone combined for Malone to drill an unstoppable strike past Kenny. There was no way back for Leeds, indeed it might have been even more humiliating if the post hadn't denied Woolford a second.
McDermott looked a haunted man a month before Halloween. He has now seen his side slip to 15th following a fourth straight Leeds defeat. Like many in his position, Chairman Salah Nooruddin is now using twitter to express his micro-views and the man at then helm tweeted that although he will back the manager in bringing in new players such as a striker and a winger, he felt the current squad should have given a Millwall team who lost 5-1 at home to Derby a fortnight earlier a run for their money.
Nooruddin tweeted shortly after the final whistle
@salahnooruddin: We are looking to bring a striker and a winger .. BUT with current squad we should have won today!!!
However the Leeds boss said "The second half went wrong. We didn't turn up, we didn't do the ugly stuff well enough. It's the first time that's happened with me.
"The second half came as a shock. I'm bitterly disappointed with the players we've got who are decent but are not at the level at this moment.
"If you let runners go at your goal or get the wrong side of players, then that's what happens.
"We need to turn this round as quickly as we possibly can and I have faith in the players they can do it.
"If the fans see another second-half performance like we did then we're going to have a problem. We need to keep the fans with us."