Elland Road, is one of those venues that you love to visit as an away supporter but only if your team ends up winning. You can forgive the traffic issues, the difficulty parking, the run down stadium and the poor view, yes everything can be forgiven providing your team wins the game, or at least avoids defeat.

I'd therefore enjoyed both my previous trips to "Dirty Leeds" as we'd avoided defeat in May and took all three points in November. Unfortunately since our win there, our away form had taken a massive nosedive and we'd lost every subsequent game on our travels. So it came to pass that our latest early exit from England's premier cup competition was virtually inevitable.

Successive defeats at struggling Fulham and improving Preston suggested that without any reinforcements, and with our injury list beginning to grow, this would prove to be something of a game of revenge for our former manager. 

We did start with one new player, a Tunisian international who actually did well, offered some pace at centre back and was assured on the ball. there was also a new keeper on the bench, perhaps heralding the end of Wembley hero Adam Collin's tenure with RUFC.

A surprisingly good following of almost 1400 fans greeted the teams in a half empty stadium. As usual the view wasn't great but we'd had worse here so we were reasonably happy. I suppose we often take for granted the superb playing surface at NYS, Elland Road's pitch was, to put it bluntly, a disgrace for a Championship club of Leeds standing. Uneven, with large patches without any grass! Memories of Leagues One and Two?

I won't dwell on the actual game too much as much has been written by now. Suffice to say that our performance followed the usual pattern when the team have to get in a coach and play away from NYS. Lots of possession but little or no cutting edge. Sideways passing in abundance and with the home side joining in, that first half was a virtual non event. Indeed, until newly acquired on loan Carayol , decided to do exactly what he'd done when playing against us for Huddersfield a few weeks back, namely shoot directly at goal, I couldn't see either side scoring!

It was a decent strike but some blame ought to be attached to Richardson, who held back allowing the on loan winger to hit the shot past Camp. 

Instead of going into the break level, we were a goal down and our display hadn't filled me with any hope that we would equalise.

Second half, young Facey, on loan from Manchester City failed to appear, allegedly through injury but his first half performance, had resembled something of a"Little Boy Lost". At least JCH offered a bit more power.  

 Leeds improved, as they had more possession, without seriously troubling Camp too much. Dallas did hit the bar with a screamer, and for our part Ledesma, making one of those rare appearances as substitute, fired wide and that was about that!

Oh, forgot to mention the farcical last minute second goal, Richardson looked to be successfully shielding the ball from Doukara on the edge of the box, Camp failed to pick up and the lumbering Leeds player slipped between them both for an easy tap in!

Game over and by now, it was pouring with rain and the car seems to be parked miles away. We'd gone out of the cup, again! 

Final impressions were that unless we recruit a striker and soon, we will be relegated. We offer nothing in the final third of the pitch. We also need to find a box to box midfielder, as at times we were overrun by limited opponents. The referee was a true "homer" gave us nothing and them everything(Rose tinted spectacles?) Richardson is past his sell by date and our squad is evaporating given the inexperience on the bench.

I also learned just how biased local radio can be. Tuning into Radio Leeds, their reporters thought Leeds throughly deserved their victory and that it was an outstanding display? Outstanding? Mediocre I'd say and ours was poor!

I was also surprised to read on a variety of forums that some of our fans saw this defeat as a good result, presumably following some of the media stuff about a cup run being a distraction? What a load of rubbish, no defeat is a good result ever in my opinion. Think of the confidence boost we'd all have, including the players, for our next game against Brighton! Think also of the potential revenue rewards of a tie at White Hart Lane or The Emirates, had we won? Not to mention the morale boosting day out for the long suffering fans.

We move on now to the serious business of trying to win enough games to survive what has been a very disappointing season to date. Brighton beckons, then QPR! At least they're both at home!