Leeds were outplayed by Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough, but the margin was exacerbated by the contentious dismissal of Matt Smith.

So this was the great comeback after the embarrassing defeat at Rochdale, which was going to be an “absolute driver” for Brian McDermott and his team. I was a little surprised with side he selected to start the game, with Byram dropped after being the best outfield player last week, and Austin keeping his place despite being awful. Both new signings were in the eleven, but he stuck with central defenders and went with McCormack as lone striker.

Leeds had a restricted allocation of only 3,100, which was harsh on those who had nothing to do with the trouble last year, but our fans still managed to make themselves heard for most of the game. We won’t lose sleep on Wednesday losing the extra income they could have had from selling us more tickets, and the Leeds fans who missed out could still catch the game on Sky TV.

Right from the start Wednesday seemed to be working harder all over the field, and they had an early chance when Maghoma was put through on goal, but he fell over his own feet on the way through and Kenny was able to come out and gather the ball. But that was only a temporary let-off as Wednesday took the lead in the 20th minute.

A free kick was partially cleared on the edge of the box, and three defenders rushed out to follow the ball, leaving two forwards in acres of space at the far post. So when the ball was crossed back over Johnson had plenty of time to shoot past Kenny, though there might have been a slight touch off Pugh as he tried to make a desperate clearance. Meanwhile Peltier was appealing for offside even though he’d been the one playing Johnson on.

After this setback we tried to get forward and back into the game, and Kebe got the ball into promising positions a couple of times, but in Smith’s absence he had no one to cross to. Playing McCormack on his own up front was never going to work as he just looked isolated, and he’s the type of forward who needs to feed off a big strike partner. On the other flank it’s hard to remember Stewart getting a touch of the ball.

At the other end Kenny had to be alert to deal with a fierce Wickham shot from distance, before Wednesday extended their lead just before half time. Once again they found plenty of space in the Leeds defence, with Johnson allowed to run through unchallenged and cross to a similarly unmarked Nuhiu at the far post, who had the simple task of knocking the ball home from close range. And in injury time Wickham could have put them even further in front, but shot into the side netting.

At the break McDermott decided to go to 4-4-2, replacing Lees with Smith to go with two central defenders and two strikers. That is the formation I would have started with, and it would have been nice to see if it would have worked, really. But we’ll never know as Smith was sent off in the first minute of the second half, and this could be our fastest ever dismissal after a player had come on as sub. (A record previously held by Tresor Kandol at Norwich in 2010).

Smith clattered into Johnson after the latter had headed the ball, and after a bit of a scuffle Lee Probert decided to produce the red card. I thought it was never a sending off, as Smith hadn’t raised his arms and there was no deliberate swing of the elbow, he just caught Johnson after being a bit late with his challenge. McDermott is considering an appeal against the dismissal, and so he should. So we were back to the same formation as the first half, but with one fewer at the back.

And before we had time to regroup, Wednesday scored the third, as Zaliukas was dispossessed by Wickham, who then took the ball inside before shooting past Kenny. When Zaliukas first came I thought he was a good signing, but I have to say he had an absolute ‘mare today, being at fault for at least two of the goals, though for this one you could also say that Kenny could have got to the shot if he’d got down a bit sooner.

The fourth goal arrived on 66 minutes, and you know it’s not your day when the opposition score with a free kick that takes a big deflection off the wall and rolls just inside the post. Kenny was going the other way and would have got to the original shot, but the deflection left him flat-footed with far too much ground to cover.

At the end a long-distance shot from Austin drew huge sarcastic cheers from the Leeds end, as it was at least on target even though it was never going to trouble Kirkland from that range. That was about as good as it got for us in the second half. Byram came on for Kebe, but the game had gone beyond the point where could have any sort of impact.

Wednesday scored the fifth with ten minutes left, when another Zaliukas error let Lavery through. I was expected him to pass to an unmarked colleague to his right and thought the danger had gone when he tried a shot himself, but somehow the ball got through the two defenders in front of him and inside the post.

And Lavery scored again in injury time to complete the scoring, taking advantage of yet another defensive error to curl the ball past Kenny into the far corner. Soon after the referee put us out of our misery with the final whistle, and brought an end out biggest league defeat for something like 55 years.

Brian McDermott is calling his team in for a crisis meeting tomorrow, and to some extent you have to feel for him over the Smith sending off. Obviously we would still have lost the game, but surely the margin wouldn’t have been so huge if we’d still had eleven men on the field. You could also say there was an element of fortune about a couple of the goals.

But McDermott has to get his tactics right and devise a formation that will get the best out of his two new signings. I think we have to play two up front and there is talk of signing another striker before the transfer window closes, but he also has serious problems at the other end of the field. Maybe we need a new defensive coach to get them organised and cut out the basic errors that we saw today.

It’s not going to get any easier, with the next two games being against in-form Leicester and Ipswich, so McDermott needs to stop the rot pretty damn soon, before any hopes of making the play-offs disappear altogether.

Photo: Action Images

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