Hapoel Tel Aviv did as they pleased to Beitar Jerusalem to record their first win of the season, 3-0 on front of over 22,000 fans at Bloomfield Stadium in what was a dominant performance by the reds. They glided all over the pitch throughout the 90 minutes and totally dominated a shell shocked Beitar who couldn’t get anything going. To add insult to injury, Luka Gadrani was sent off at the start of the second half to put Almog Cohen’s charges further up against the wall as the 1-0 halftime lead became 3-0 by the end of the evening, one that the Beitar faithful will want to forget and forget quickly.

Beitar were beaten to every ball, had few opportunities that could be counted on one hand and Elyaniv Barda proved once again why he is a top flight head coach. But it wasn’t just how Hapoel played and took full advantage of the extra man in the second half, it was how disinterested the Beitar players were. They looked slow, lackadaisical and just simply nowhere to be found after Cohen had said that everyone would see the real Beitar after Maccabi Netanya had dismantled them on Saturday night.

It was a demolition derby to the utmost as the yellow-and-black supporters kept losing their patience and made their feelings known. Many didn’t stay until the bitter end and who could blame them as there was absolutely no chance for Beitar to come back. After two games Beitar has two losses which is half of the amount of total losses from last season when they only had four under Barak Itzhaki. That’s a very difficult pill to swallow for the faithful.

The pressure packed situation was so hard to diffuse after not only losing a pair of matches to start the new campaign, it was that Beitar looked nothing like the team that played under Itzhaki last season and played so poorly with what appeared to be a massive lack of passion that the natives were getting restless and when that happens, well, things can get out of hand very quickly.

When times are good the supporters, who have purchased over 20,000 season tickets which is an all time record for the club, back the team day and night, from the south to the north ns will Accor the fact that sometimes the squad will come up short. But when the effort isn’t there which was the case in the first game, then the fans have the potential of making like very, very difficult for the players, staff and management. They will demand change, they will demand passion, they will demand results which is what Cohen had said is what he cares about the most prior to the Rosh Hashana toast. However, after two games the results can’t be found.

Following the game, owner Barak Abramov went on TV along with Cohen and Omer Atzily who rarely if ever speaks to the media to calm the oncoming storm while the trio then made an appearance at the press conference as well. Abramov threw his support behind Cohen after having called him the best head coach in the country at the New Year’s Toast and made it clear that he is going to go through fire and brimstone with him and that there is not going to be any panic moves.

That may be very true and that may be what Abramov truly believes and wants to convey to the general public. But at some point if the results don’t materialize, the results that Cohen clearly said is what he cares about the most, then Abramov would be very hard pressed to continue with what he would like to be status quo.

He will be forced to make a move, the fans just won’t accept a subpar season. But the truth of the matter is that Abramov himself shouldn’t be satisfied with a season that won’t meet expectations and there are plenty of them.

When Beitar built the squad over the summer they brought in top notch players and players that everyone around the club wanted to see wearing yellow-and-black. Whether it was Shon Weisman, Tomer Yosefi along with Eugene Ansah, Daniel Worko and Noam Muche, there was not one compliant about the new acquisitions.

But now, when Beitar is struggling and struggling mightily and as other top teams continue bring in new players, whether it’s Douglas Owusu at Hapoel Tel Aviv (who was absolutely magnificent against Beitar) or Gaby Kanichowsky at Maccabi Tel Aviv or Pedro Brazao at Maccabi Haifa, there is tons of talk about why the capital city side isn’t strengthening their squad. Every time this is brought up, Abramov has made sure to remind everyone that Beitar didn’t wait until the season began to sign new players but did so in the offseason.

The staff and management are also making sure that their European campaign, which saw them get past Larnaca and then fall to Austria Wein, is remembered to have been one of the club’s best since they lost in the Champions League qualifiers to FC Copenhagen.

The problem with the reminders is that the fans are not interested in hearing any of it. They look at the situation as clearly as possible and are saying, what have you done for me lately.

For the supporters, the signings were ages ago and the European contests are ancient history. No one wants to hear about those games again. It’s all about the here and now and the results that have not been up to par for a team that wants to compete for the championship.

That’s all that matters, what have you done in the past game as no one cares what had occurred in July and August. A football club is judged on results and the most recent results. Next up is a trip to Bnei Sakhnin on Monday night that both Cohen and Atzily said is a must win, which for all intents and purposes is.

You’re only as good as your last game.

And right now Beitar is not very good.

If something doesn’t change soon, Abramov won’t have a choice and he will need to make changes because the fans aren’t going to accept mediocrity as the season, which was supposed to be their best in ages ends up turning into one mega sized disappointment.

Even the owner won’t accept that.