They are right when they say that football is a funny old game. Last week, many of us were bemoaning the performance in victory against Bolton Wanderers and this week, we’re praising the performance in defeat at Leeds United!

I fully expected us to lose this game, but by a worrying margin of at least three goals and being under pressure for the majority of the game.

The first quarter-of-an-hour looked as if my fears were to prove right as Leeds dominated and scored. I felt that we were in for a very long afternoon.

Yet again we were penned back and I questioned when did we last go for the throat of a side in as clinical fashion at the start of a game?

Leeds looked like they meant business and had a real sting in their tail. It would be lovely to see us come out at Portman Road all guns blazing and going for it from the off.

But this is where any real negative thoughts ended as once we did get a foothold in the game we started to give Leeds plenty to think about.

- Northstander: So much better than last season

There’s no doubt that David McGoldrick is back to his superlative best and he deserved his goal. He’s had his fair share of injury problems in the past and if he can keep fit for the majority of the season, he can notch 20 goals alone.

The fact that we had a lot of possession in the second-half against the best in the division currently really should give us much more optimism moving forward.

It’s just so frustrating that we can have a Bolton-esque performance in us one week and then enjoy this performance against Leeds the week after.

It certainly answered my question last week in that the result really is all that matters I suppose. It was a shame too that Leeds’ winning goal came courtesy of a rare error by Bart.

We cannot chastise him though for a rare error even if it did cost us a point. We’ve won so many because of him after all in the past.

With two home games coming up in the next five days, we have an excellent opportunity now to banish the disappointment of Saturday’s result but wouldn’t it be great to retain the satisfaction of the performance.

- Match reaction: Leeds dodged a bullet, says Mick

Knowing us though, any outcome can be possible from either the Sunderland or Bristol City games.

I’m surprised by the start that both have made to this season and both for differing reasons. I certainly expected Sunderland to be in a far better position than the bottom three after nine games. Their only win to date coming at Norwich in August. Jonny Williams has been a regular feature for them which is something that we could not say too often in his multiple loan spells with us.

He did miss Saturday’s defeat at home to Cardiff through illness. It will be interesting to watch his performance tomorrow night should he play.

And Bristol City are surprising some with their current position of 8th place and seem to be scoring for fun. Their recent 4-1 win at home to Derby was a great result whilst on the road they had a good win at Reading and drew at Norwich on Saturday.

I’d like to think that we can muster four points from these two games. I’d love to see a similar performance to that of Saturday but obviously with being tighter at the back.

I know, I know, I’m always asking for more than I should be but surely a win with a good performance to boot should come around more than once a season shouldn’t it?

Get some points on the board from these two home games, keep in the top six and then welcome another international break to see if we can get another injured player or two back in the squad.