Will lessons be learned from last season's FA Cup hangover?

We all know what happened last year, and none of us can say for certain why - but a massive loss in form did occur immediately after our Old Trafford efforts. We slumped from being 8 points clear with a game in hand, of Norwich who sat in 2nd place in the table, to only winning 2 of the following 16 league games I believe. Post "Scum" we accumulated merely 7 out of 24 points on offer. 

Must ensure feet are kept grounded

The first sign of this poor form was a painful 1-1 draw at home to Wycombe, immediately after the Old Trafford victory on what was intended as being a hero's welcome and a celebratory stroll taking the 3 points with ease. At the time, many Leeds fans, including myself wrote the draw off as a mere blip - an exhausted performance after giving their all at Old Trafford, but, to our collective horror, the blip worryingly became an extended downturn. Leeds did what they do best and made the 2nd half of the season exceedingly difficult for themselves and the fans, after being in a seemingly home and dry position. 

It was a shock after our early season dominance, losing only two encounters before Christmas I think I'm right in saying, and one of those was an undeserved and narrow loss, 0-1 to Liverpool in the Carling Cup. We'd also conceded only single figures before the turn of the year in the league. This downturn had to do with three factors. The first, and most minor, was fixture pileup. We had played extra games in the worthless Football League Trophy - with Grayson not over weakening his side as perhaps would have been preferred. We'd also played at least an extra game in the Carling Cup. Perhaps tiredness was taking its toll. 

The second was the Beckford contract saga, and the news that he wouldn't be staying at Elland Road after turning down the club's final contract. I would argue that this wasn't the massive problem causer it looked to be on the surface. Jermaine did suffer a downturn in form but this didn't account for the whole team's massive fall in performance compared to Old Trafford and the previous months in the League. In his poorest run, his lack of goals was covered by Max Gradel and thus I don't believe the issue was him losing focus and other players shouldn't have been affected - they surely get on with their own personal lives and efforts on the pitch. Jermaine still would have wanted to achieve and play well to win a better contract elsewhere and eventually scored our final goal in League One to send us up.

The main factor in my opinion (and it seems now in the opinion of the squad after Bruce's comments today) was a mentality issue, which I believe we inherited as a club post the FA Cup run. As we faced, defeated and then matched opponents from our "rightful place" (The Premier League), we as fans firstly began to expect more rather than encourage when arriving at Elland Road. Our fortress was lost, which had been unbreached in over a year (26 games) with a February defeat at 1-2 at the hands of Walsall. The party atmosphere was gone and the players overconfidence because of the Cup run had led to them now lacking confidence in the League. Our competitors, Norwich, Millwall and Charlton kept up the pressure and it told.

By March 22nd and a hopeless defeat to rivals Millwall, we were seemingly sliding off the face of the earth, unrecognisable to the team that had conquered almost all before them for six months and had strolled to the top of League One. Two games later, we sat fourth. A huge points turnaround, and every Leeds fan was fearing another season in the depths of the Third Division. 

Luckily, we all know how the story ended but it all could have been so different. What the management, fans and players have to do now is ensure they don't get above their station and expect just to win - unchallenged - because of what we have achieved and may or may not go on to achieve in the Cup. 

Simon needs to make sure the players know their place, which is currently a playoff standard team in the Championship. This means making sure they go out onto Elland Road's turf to face Scunthorpe and every other remaining League game expecting the game to be no easier than the game at the Emirates was, taking nothing for granted. He also has to get the players up for the less glamorous ties in the league whilst-ever we're in the cup.

For the fans it means to forget we play Arsenal on Tuesday night and to turn up in numbers to encourage rather than expect. I often reckon expectation to win kills an atmosphere before it's got chance to occur. How many times this season have the crowd been silent and the team been poor up until the last ten minutes when we chime up and spur the team on. We end up nicking points and we have an obvious impact in the way the team plays. 

It is fine to have ambition to be in the Playoffs, automatic promotion places and beyond or have a Cup run but what it must always remain as while we are in our current place, is exactly that - ambition. Yes we are Leeds and I certainly would argue we aren't currently where we belong, but we're here on merit of performances over the past years and as a result we don't have the right anymore to simply expect to turn anybody over, especially in the topsy-turvy Championship where anyone can and often does beat anyone. 

Ambition means we march on with hope of better things - we don't expect them (as the two idiots I singled out in the Cardiff preview did), we don't take anything for granted because football never works like that. Let's not let expectation almost destroy another season's efforts - both from the viewpoint of us fans and most importantly from the players.

Alex Bruce was quoted in the YP today as saying:

"A result like this can only help us in the league, it can only give us confidence.

"To put in a performance like that at the Emirates shows what we are capable of doing. If we can do it there, why can't we do it anywhere and go on to get promotion?

"I believe promotion is there for the taking and, hopefully, we can do that."

To me these comments seem positive. The players have obviously been told or realise what the issue was last season with the Cup run and identifying that should go some way to ensuring it is prevented this season. Just as long as "confidence" from the Arsenal performance doesn't lead to overconfidence.

As Bruce says though, there's no reason the players can't carry that extremely encouraging performance from all angles onto the pitch in the League.