Leeds United suffered defeat for just the second time in the league this season against Exeter City but received a big boost today after Jermaine Beckford pledged his short-term future to the club.

The performance yesterday was similar to the Wycombe one last week, in that we never got going and looked well off the pace. It is a bit worrying to see us so flat in consecutive games but I think we need to keep things in perspective and realise every side has a poor run of results during a season, let’s hope it doesn’t damage our promotion bid too much.

Norwich City are on fire at the minute and Charlton are in impressive form too, it looks as if it is going to be a three horse race. It is quite possible we will have been knocked off the top by the time we play Swindon, we will see how good a manager Simon Grayson is in the next couple of weeks.

The side looks low on confidence and energy right now and we are starting to see cracks appear in a defence which had been so solid previously. The whole Beckford saga really hasn’t helped things but it all seems to have been resolved now.

In my blog “Beckford won’t leave now”, I said he would find it hard to leave after the win at Old Trafford and Beckford cited that as one of the reasons for withdrawing his transfer request, as well as the reaction he got during the Wycombe game. It really makes you wonder what the hell his agent was playing at.

Beckford doesn’t often speak to the media so it was a surprise to read the article on the official site. The statement itself is very encouraging and should give the side a big lift. We have been waiting a long time to hear Beckford come out and say something like that, it is good to hear. I have been quick to get on his back but really respect what he has done and he should get a good reception against Carlisle. I think he will sign a new contract in the summer if we do go up.

A bad day all round

It was a pretty dismal spectacle on the field yesterday and there were similarities with last season’s dreadful performance at Hereford. Incidentally that was the last time we lost by two goals and was also the last time we went in behind at half-time – let’s hope this defeat has the same galvanising effect. It wasn’t quite as depressing as Hereford but it came pretty close for me.

It is hard to find any positives really. The defence was all over the shop, the midfield was again overrun and out battled and the strikers didn’t get a sniff. I was happy to put last week’s performance down to an Old Trafford hangover but the Beckford mess has obviously affected the squad.

Now it has all been resolved everyone knows where they stand and we can move on and get back to winning ways – the sooner the better.

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