Try this for size: no cohesion, no organisation, no passion, no clear cut chances, several formations, six bookings, injuries before and during the game and Robbie Keane playing a blinder - for Spurs.

The weekend is currently a bleak place for the hardy souls who follow Leeds home and away. The players and management who express 'disappointment' when the fans vocalise their disenchantment would be well advised to put themselves in the place of the thousands of supporters who gave up their Sunday to travel hundreds of miles to sit and watch this dross. It makes it no better that we all expected this result. We demand passion and pride from our players. And we are fourteen places below Everton.

All the talk in the morning was of the two strong rumours coming out of the club this week. The first, that Olly Dacourt is on his way out, is neither welcome or unexpected. The other story - that the players tried to organise a fancy dress Christmas party in Leeds city centre - may tell us something about the attitude that prevails at the club. It is time for our undoubtedly talented players to stand up and be counted. And we are level with Charlton.

3-5-2

The team was announced as a 4-4-2, with Barmby, Bakke, Bowyer and MacPhail in the middle. As it turned out, the plan was for Wilcox, the putative full-back, to play as left wing-back with Kelly down the right. Bakke sat in the middle of a back three with Woodgate and Lucic. Nicky Barmby was injured in the warm up and had to be replaced in the midfield three by Jacob Burns. Kewell played off SmithSmith meaning a place on the bench for Viduka.

I suspect the idea was to match Spurs' formation player for player. I always find this a strange idea because it smacks of playing to your opponents strengths. To be fair, with the best will in the world Burns was never going to do the kind of job that Barmby was there to do and while Bakke's best position may yet turn out to be at the back, against opponents of the trickery and intelligence of Keane (didn't he always used to be offside when he played for us?) and Sheringham, he was a liability. From the first minute Spurs looked more purposeful and confident than our jaded looking team. They have the hallmark of a Hoddle team: they pass the ball crisply, but they look beatable. Sadly, our team are in no position to facilitate that beating.

1-0

Spurs had already fashioned a couple of decent half chances when Keane burst through the middle. Lucic, who had a decent game, managed to catch and dispossess him but the ball fell kindly for Sheringham - all on his own - to stroke the ball into Robinson's bottom right hand corner. With our players being booked every time they went near the ball, and Keane wreaking havoc down the right, it looked a matter of time before we were overrun. Wilcox may yet make a useful left back but in the strange hinter-world of 'wing-back' he was never far enough forward to contribute to the attack - and always too far in advance to keep tabs on Keane. Although Kelly's contribution on the right was at least as incompetent, we have learnt to live with his strange concept of positional play and so it wasn't quite as noticeable.

When Kewell managed a speculative long range effort that drifted over the bar, the fans sarcastic response was either hilarious or pitiful, depending on your viewpoint.

Tactical genius

Keane was having an impressive game. He showed us what we knew he can do running directly and committing defenders, pulling our already shaky defence into further tangles of confusion. It was doubly frustrating because while he was a good player for us, he rarely put in a ninety minutes of this quality. Why is it that players always look more dangerous playing against you?

Anyway, with referee Bennett becoming increasingly card happy (can there be a more useless ref in the division?) Burns became the latest Leeds player to go into the book. Almost immediately he was summoned from the pitch and replaced by Viduka. Finally we know why it is that football's London based pundit mafia make such a noise about Venables' 'tactical genius'. Apparently, he can recognise that Mark Viduka is a better player than Jacob Burns. Next thing we know he will start telling them to score more goals than the opposition…

To be fair to Burns, he did nothing wrong. He was certainly no worse than MacPhail in the half an hour that he was on the pitch. Blessed with a great deal of skill as Stevie Mac undoubtedly is, away from home in games like this, he can be a bit of a luxury.

2-0

The eight minutes that followed the substitution were easily our best in the half. With Viduka out to prove a point and Kewell, Smith and Bowyer more involved, we began to put them under pressure. Spurs looked shaky. The thought occurred that had we been able to apply the squeeze from kick off the game might have been totally different, but it appears that these days we need to concede before we can start playing.

The danger was that we would concede the sucker punch - and so it proved. Lucic won a fine header against his fellow Teddy, Sheringham, but once again the ball fell to a white shirt. Anderton managed to pick out Keane who rapped the ball into the top corner with the outside of his right boot. A beautiful goal and - although it pains me to say it - a goal he thoroughly deserved. It still hurt though.

Discontent

There is something inherently awful about sitting in someone else's ground when they are hammering your team. Make no mistake, even at 2-0 this was a hammering. The last five minutes up to half time were excruciating as the Tott-ing-ham fans went mad in a flurry of obnoxious designer labels. We could sing nothing back but express our pride in following a team who, with few exceptions, looked as if they would rather be elsewhere.

Fight back?

To be entirely fair to the players, they managed to make more of a fight of it in the second period. Bowyer worked extremely hard, Smith and Viduka put themselves about and with Kewell buzzing about we maintained almost constant pressure. The worrying aspect was that even with something of a grip on the middle of the park, and with space for Kelly and Wilcox to operate, we never managed to fashion a single clear cut chance on goal. Kasey Keller had no saves to make. Too often we would make it to within thirty metres of their goal but no further. The final ball wasn't good and long before the end Spurs knew they had the points - as did we.

The referee tried to make things interesting by booking as many of our players as he could but somehow we managed to make it to the end without picking up another red card. If that was one blessing, the impressive late showing of Jamie Milner (replacing Viduka, injured kicking the ground) was another, the kid has potential. However, from Sheringham opening the scoring in the eleventh minute until the bitter end, there was only one winner, and it wasn't Leeds.

What now?

Another weekend, the same questions, a deeper crisis. We are slipping dangerously near the bottom with a team devoid of spirit, harmony and class where it counts. If the manager is to survive he must use the transfer window well to weed out the malcontents and bring in committed quality. If the chairman is to survive he needs to explain the financial crisis at a club that recouped £33 million this summer and STILL attracts 40,000 people through the gates each week. And for those who want to see Eddie Gray installed as manager? Whilst I love Eddie as much as any Leeds fan it should be noted that he is unlikely to throw tea cups around the dressing room and he was O'Leary's number two as the dream imploded. If surgery is required, it could be major.