In this weeks Teenage Kicks In our young writer Darragh Mullen returns clearly enriched with life after his holiday but not so muh he doesn’t recognise PR pap.

First of all on a completely separate point I feel I must share this video. Aston Villa’s song created especially for their huge cup final this weekend and has somehow managed to top the comedy level of Blue is the Colour!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMogWN7BLjU

Well anyway apparently the confidence is back! Who would have thought that a routine home win against a side who at the time were in 19th place would spark articles from the main site stating how we are back on track and through the slump. Who would have thought that after only 1 win in 8 league games our problems would be solved with a Becchio brace. Don’t get me wrong, I was very happy with the win both for the squad and Becchio but I have a problem with articles like this entitled The Confidence Returns

http://www.leedsunited.com/news/20100224/the-confidence-returns_2247585_1975474

Before you start, this isn’t me just being a pessimistic (again), well I suppose it is really, but I’d like to think of it more as a parent trying to calm their kids down a week before Christmas. I think its worth noting that we beat Oldham 2-0 in Elland Road. I just say that because it sparked Grayson to say “It was a very professional performance and we’re delighted to get back to winning ways,” I’m sorry now for putting all of this on a bit of a downer but surely that is the bare minimum. I seem to recall him saying the other week that ‘The league is our bread and butter’ so surely this win is nothing to make a song and dance about. With all due respect a win Oldham Town at home is hardly something that announces our return to form.

It always seems to happen that any time I go on holiday during the season that Leeds somehow manage to drop a significant amount of points. Last season I went abroad for the month of December just in time to miss the final days of Macca and now this season we draw with the O’s, lose our first home league game all season to Walsall of all teams and then again at the weekend which from what I have heard was a dismal display against Brighton. Those last 3 results are only part of our terrible form since the scum game at the start of the decade, although to be honest I think that win was definitely worth this slump! My point is that after dropping points against teams like Exeter and Wycombe, a what should be routine win against Oldham basically means nothing really.

Don’t get me wrong, I can see what Grayson is trying to do. Last Tuesday was the lowest attendance we have had in the league so far this season and all he was trying to do was to try and rally the troops a bit but to be honest we as fans don’t need to be patronised. We have a right to be angry and much more so those of you who are season ticket holders or who are at Elland Road regularly, in particular the last couple of home games. We basically have had 2 months of rubbish from our team and a win against Oldham doesn’t magically fix that.

Its natural that the general confidence of everybody is down because as the season has progressed we have somewhat forgotten how a season transpires. We got used to expecting us to win every week because we are good enough to do so and that’s not a bad thing. It needs no reminding that every season has its slumps and this is just part of ours. As one commentator said over the last week, if anything, we have hit our slump at the right time of the season as now we can take a good run up into the end of the season. All of it has to start though this Saturday. I imagine its a relatively big occasion over in West Yorkshire and there is a bit of anticipation in the air but to me as a foreigner looking in, its just another tough game. I think its fair to say that Huddersfield have been a bogey team for us these last couple of seasons ever since we trounced them in Elland Road a few seasons back. That is why Grayson needs to get a huge response out of the lads to do this for the fans alone. Not for points or to keep up with Norwich but for the fans who they have given absolutely nothing back to these past 2 months.

After Saturday we have Brentford and Tranmere which I think is fair to say should really be 6 points or at least 4. After that then we go into a string of tough games but if we perform like we know we can in these next three games then we can actually say that we go into the 3 games after that with a bit of confidence and then we can say that the confidence is back!