Hayes & Yeading:3 U's:0 - all at sea

What did you do with your Saturday?

Mine was spent in not-so-sunny Hunstanton, which I was pleased to discover hasn’t changed at all since I holidayed there as a child; same amusement arcades, same fair ground rides, same bizarre shops – the kind which only seem to exist in Norfolk these days – selling everything from knitting needles to out of date crisps. It was like stepping back in time.

Something else which hasn’t changed since my childhood is United’s propensity to try and ruin my weekend. With all due respect etc etc there’s not really any excuse for capitulating at the hands of a part-time outfit like Hayes & Yeading, and by all accounts we were pretty dire, although these excellent video highlights would seem to indicate we created enough to chances to get something out of the game:

Anyway, I’ve been having a think about what’s going wrong so far this season, and I’ve come to the conclusion that our team is severely lacking in leadership. When you think back to the 2007/08 season, JQ’s side was full of figures who could be relied on to rally the troops when the chips were down. Say what you like about players such as Danny Brown, Mark Albrighton, or the great Mark Peters, but even if they were playing badly they could be relied on to gee the players up a bit. Who have we got in the current team who you could say the same about? Cardy? Danny Potter perhaps?

Of course, the squad isn’t that much different to last season, when we did alright, but even then I always felt we lacked a degree of resilience. If we went behind in a game, or playing badly, we struggled to turn it around, and that problem has been exacerbated so far this term.

Lingy gets the benefit of the doubt from me for now, but his talk of attitude problems will be pointless unless he makes changes. I was disappointed to see Challinor back on the bench on Saturday at the expense of Jordan Patrick or Adam Marriott - it doesn’t exactly show a great degree of trust in the young players if he’d rather have a transfer listed player in reserve. I hope his talk of being happy to blood the youngsters isn’t going to turn out to be just lip service.