Leeds 4 - O Yeovil

Well, that was as expected. Not got a lot to say about that result really, no-one except the most drunken optimist expected to get anything out of this game and nothing was what we got. Skivo talked his usual good game afterwards but one of his quotes in particular struck me as almost desperate. He said (in his best Gary Johnson stylee) : " I'll take some of the responsibility, or even most of the responsibility as I pick the team. You find out about that and then you also find out the people who are with you."

Sorry to say it Terry, but judging by that performance and also by the fact that only 4 players (count 'em) turned up to his testimonial dinner last weekend (and one of them was his fellow coach, Nathan Jones) then he's got a lot of work to do to persuade the players that he's a worthy successor to the previous manager. The good ship YTFC is looking rudderless at the moment, going round and round in circles as well as leaking like a sieve.

I say that with no pleasure whatsoever. Skivo has been a marvelous servant to this club, a great player and generally a credit to the shirt but he's been cast out into the deep end by the board now and left to sink or swim. As much as all the fans want him to succeed, the odds against a player - even one as experienced and respected as Skivo - being able to move from the dressing room to the manager's office with all that entails and then take the club onwards and upwards are massive. I truly hope I'm wrong, but I fear the worst.

But before we drown in pessimism let's look on the bright side. Good old Gary is backing Skivo, and he's going to let a couple of his players come to us on loan, according to one of the ITK's on the Green Room. One of them was going to be TBCUTR's strapping young striker, John Akinde, according to informed sources; except the sources weren't so informed after all because he's gone on loan alright, but to Wycombe, not us. The other possibilty people are getting excited about is our old friend Lee Trundle, who Gary splashed £1 million on from Swansea and who's struggled to hold a place on the City bench since. He's just had a relatively unsuccesful month on loan at Leeds but is back in Brizzle now. Again, I hate to be a naysayer, but I just can't see Trundle coming to us, as good a player as he is. His career may be going down the pan, but I can't see him being able to swallow a drop down to lowly Yeovil as anything but confirmation that his career has gone down the said pan - his pride will never allow it. I hope I'm wrong - I'd love to see a player with his skill in a Yeovil shirt.

Talking of Trundle I remember the first time I saw him play - for Southport, when they played us in the Conference, about 10 years ago now. There were 3 Lee's in the Southport side; Lee Trundle, Lee Elam on the wing and Lee Furlong, who was a striker. Of the 3 it was Elam who impressed most that night from memory, with Trundle and Furlong both looking fairly anonymous. Don't know what happened to Furlong, but of course Elam ended up with us in L2 where he flattered to deceive for 6 months before being sold back to a Conference club... I think he's at Northwich or somewhere like that now. Trundle was of course the one who made it as a pro footballer, but he didn't look anything special that particular night. I think we won 2-1 and if I was any kind of blogger I'd go and look it up and provide a link to the match report but I'm not any kind of blogger, so you'll have to do it yourself.