Our owners attempts to recreate our glorious past includes a pre-match ritual where our track suited stars of today wave to all four corners of the ground. Unfortunately, a bit like the first half it was a shambles.
If we could afford one I'd suggest we employ a choreographer ASAP as our "nod to the past" in the form of our pre-match tracksuited wave, perfected during the Revie era actually resembled a bunch of drunks stumbling around on a nightclub dance floor. Stumble was an appropriate word to describe our first twenty minutes or so.
Unfortunately it made no difference that Sam Byram was back, he looked nervy and half fit at right back. The other defensive flank role went to Aidy White, now third choice left-back after injury to Adam Drury and suspension for Stephen Warnock meant the Eire man got a rare outing. Another welcome change saw Diouf replace the out of sorts Noel Hunt
Burnley who have made their best start for 12 years looked up for the task from the word go. We did get a sniff of a chance when McCormack's perfect cross was poorly headed by Varney on 10. However the inevitable happened on 22minutes, Burnley took the lead having already created three chances. Leeds didnt clear their lines, Arfield anticipated Sam Byram half stopped the ball and could not wriggle it to safety and instead Scott Arfield nipped in to slide the ball past Kenny's inside post.
Varney then tested Heaton but found the one-time Old Trafford academy keeper in rich form, a depressing sign of things to come. On 42 Burnley doubled their lead, Leeds failed to clear a hardly probing free-kick and the ball fell nicely for Sam Vokes, who once came to us on loan, who slotted past Kenny.
I felt we should have had a penalty when Varney was pulled down in the box, however referee Lee Probert who had already enraged the home fans waved it away and in my opinion failed to book the Leeds player for diving. I'm often sceptical when we get these Premiership refs, is it a punishment by the authorities for a below par performance to send them to us I wonder?
Despite my proclamations that we were the victims, we had been poor. Havung survived a scare when Ings shot over one-to-one on Kenny we did start slightly more positive in the second half and really started to pile the pressure on the visitors after 56 minutes when Brian McDermott made a double substitution. Green replaced Byram, the Leeds boss worryingly revealed that last season's double-winning player of the year is going for a scan, the hope being he hasn't aggravated his hip injury. Dominic Poleon also replaced Luke Murphy, who had another worryingly quiet game following his heroics on opening day.
The change created more chances, McCormack shot well wide but when we did get something on target, Heaton was on superb form denying Diouf's header and made an excellent double-save from Poleon. Our last throw of the dice came when Smith replaced Varney on 75.
It took Smith just four minutes to make his mark, finally beating Heaton by rising majestically and planting a bullet header into the back of the visitors' net through a crowd of bodies from Diouf's free kick. However it was a false dawn and even six minutes of added time did not really trouble Burnley.
Too many players had off-days today, Rudy Austin for example had his poorest game in a Leeds shirt. From a positive opening, three defeats now have killed off any optimism. Although I admit I have been cynical in my summary today, I cannot join in with the band of twitterers and texters on the godawful BBC Radio Leeds WYS phone-in (can we get Eddie Gray, Thom Kirwin et al back please?) who are predicting a fate akin to Nostradamus. It will take time to turn the tide after eight years of Bates' mismanagement, the club and manager are working flat out to change things but it will not happen overnight.
So on we go to Millwall via Newcastle, the New Den never a nice place to go and the locals buoyed by two wins on the spin. Lets hope a spirited performance in the north-east will at least restore some confidence into the side ahead of Saturday's unwanted trip to the land of plastic Guy Ritchie film extras.