Leeds were absolutely humbled at Watford on Saturday 4-1. The result left Leeds fourth from bottom and as the weary and sickened whites' fans returned north the big question was how much longer has Dave Hockaday got to save his job?
Watford is never an easy place to travel to for the Whites. Hockaday gave a start to Italian defender Giuseppe Bellucsi and compatriot striker Mirco Antenucci at the expense of Liam Cooper and Matt Smith.
The chronic lack of width was evident on Tuesday night when Brighton came north and took three-points south with embarrassing ease. However Watford seemed unlikely to give us that much trouble early doors and we looked settled as opposed to the first-half shambles midweek.
However we fell behind on 20 when Fernando Forestieri followed up a fierce shot by heading the Hornets into the lead, Marco Silvestre unable to parry the ball into safety.
But on 32 minutes we were level when Gabriel Tamas sliced Billy Sharp's cross past Heurelho Gomes.
After the restart, Forestieri shot wide and Jason Pearce responded by going close with a header for a rare goal from the Leeds skipper, but United's fate was sealed on 58 minutes when Bellusci clipped the heels of Forestieri and was shown a straight red for being the last man. Troy Deeney stroked the penalty to the right of Silvestre.
Four minutes later, Hockaday responded by subbing striker Billy Sharp for defender Liam Cooper and it is fair to say that this was not greeted favourably by the travelling support.
Many fans were querying the inclusion of "Neil Warnock Old Guard" Michael Tongue and Rudy Austin in the starting line-up and Austin's ever decreasing fan-club lost a few more members when the fading Jamaican star lost the ball to Gianni Munari who in turn fed United's tormentor in chief Forestieri who waltzed through United's hapless midfield to make it 3-1.
In injury-time it got worse, following Daniel Pudil's 30 yarder Sam Byram, who again looked like he would rather be elsewhere was alleged to have elbowed the same player leaving Leeds to finish the game with nine-men.
Whether Hockaday has nine-lives remains to be seen? whether he is in full control or merely a co-pilot in the Cellino entourage it is not working. Like Brighton four-days ago, the manner of the defeat isn't acceptable. Although I've tried to be open minded about Hockaday's appointment, after all so-called big-name proven managers such as Neil Warnock and Brian McDermott failed miserably, we seem to have lurched into yet another self-inflicted crisis and having lost three out of the four opening league matches I will be surprised to see Hockaday still in charge for next week's clash with struggling Bolton if not the potential banana-skin League Cup tie at Bradford on Wednesday.