For the first time in my life I experienced squirming embarrassment watching the team I love. Only Danny Jackman, Liam Davis and Luke Guttridge came anywhere near to expectation.

We knew Leeds could be good if we were bad, but letting them win 5-2 was just too much to bear.

Now we face a crisis of confidence because the last three league matches have all been disasters.

If we don't resurrect ourselves for Hereford away on Saturday and then bury the memory of this FA Cup debacle by taking three points off Leeds here next Tuesday in the league, this season is going to turn from hope to horror.

Was there was any crumb of comfort? Sort of: Jason Crowe's two goals, and an attempt at a spirited response once the battle had clearly been lost.

At half-time, Mike Sewell, covering this game for BBC Five Live, pointed to his stats pad to show me that the number of chances created by each side was equal, but that simply pointed out how useless we were up front and how leaky we were at the back.

Goalkeeper Frank Fielding had already professed a worry about the odd movement of the FA Cup ball, then proved it with a fumbling mess to let in a goal.

When Mark Hughes slipped to free Jermaine Beckford from the touchline all the way across for a beautifully-taken shot inside the far post, not one single defender had tracked back to cover.

Beckford's hat-trick showed us what we miss - a priceless eye for goal. For his best one, he mesmerised our entire defence by jinking through and slamming a great shot across the lot of them.

There's credit to the battered egos of our fans that we applauded him warmly when Leeds took him off for an early rest. The watching Colin Calderwood will be asking Forest's Chairman to raid their bank account in January.

Why did Stuart Gray use Scott McGleish (below) as an isolated striker? This was a game crying out for a two-pronged attack, but the maligned Leon Constantine seemed to have a wider and deeper role, and I'm afraid that he once again had a mare of a game.

Playing him against the evidence is bringing us down. He may be a sensitive soul, but he must take criticism when it is justified, in just the same way he'll expect the praise when he plays well.

That's what the game is all about if you're a professional footballer. Fans who pick on a player should be ashamed, but don't confuse that with genuine criticism. I want to see him play well, but I don't want to be part of the "Emperor's new clothes" syndrome.

What is to be done now we've fallen apart? In the words of the 1932 song by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, "...pick yourself up/ Dust yourself off/ Start all over again."

It's an attitude of mind for us all – players, management and spectators. I'm daft enough to say at this low point that we can still make the play–offs.

Now cut that out and stick it on your bedroom wall!

The public voted with their feet when faced with high prices posted for this extra game; to ask £22 in a deep recession just ahead of Christmas and when it was on TV was short-sighted.

We didn't break the 4,000 mark, and without fanatical Leeds support it would have been closer to just 2,000 Cobblers fans.

Chairman David Cardoza must wonder why supporters are moaning at a few extra quid when he's bankrolled our existence, but he also understands market forces and I hope he holds his nerve.

Messing up the cup game against Leeds lost us £100,000+ from the Histon tie, and he'll feel it deeply. The potential at this club is huge, we need our local politicians to give us even the minimum of assistance that clubs elsewhere have legally received from their own councils.

Championship football for Northampton can be realised. Cardoza won't be enamoured of the moaners who are calling for him to invest in the team, such people fail to understand that it is impossible to buy players at the moment because the rules don't allow it until January. Loan players are not cheap.

If we start to spend money that isn't supported by gate and transfer income, we're on the slope to extinction. We're the closest we've ever been to break-even. That's a major achievement.

Moaning is a Northamptonian's pastime, this awful FA Cup defeat has brought us out of the woodwork, please stop!