This week, Colchester United parted company with Geraint Williams and Lee Sinnott was relieved of his duties at Port Vale.

I'm all for managers taking responsibility when a season goes off the rails, or big-money signings come to nothing, but a change of manager seven games into the campaign is not my idea of a fair crack of the whip.

Let's take Williams as an example – here's a guy who did a smashing job with Colchester in the Coca-Cola Championship, working with a tiny budget and with very little flexibility when it came to signing players. Yet a poor month passes and his time in charge is at an end.

How harsh can you get?

Similarly, my opinion of Sinnott was that he did a decent job in thankless circumstances last season and to say that he should be judged on a handful of games this term is a joke. Once again, I can't imagine there was much cash to be spent at Vale Park.

I feel sorry for both men because, from where I'm sitting, they seemed to be operating as best they could while scrimping and scrounging for every penny they got.

No doubt Colchester and Port Vale would have preferred better starts to their seasons, but blaming the manager at this stage is an absolute cop out. If a finger deserves to be pointed at the gaffers then it should be pointed just as vigorously at their players.

I noticed that Colchester's chairman admitted that Williams had been let down by certain members of his squad and it is refreshing at least to see someone in his position speaking with such honesty.

Players' contracts are always watertight and seven poor performances never end in a glut of professionals being shown the door.

Williams may well receive some sort of pay-off, as, I assume, will Sinnott, but these guys are now in the managerial wilderness without any guarantees about the future.

Too often, removing a manager is just a convenient way for clubs to ease the pressure on themselves for a couple of weeks, but the key problems are not so easily solved.

We're fortunate at Leeds United that our start to the season has prevented any stupid tittle-tattle about Gary McAllister. There is no better environment for a manager than one where he is allowed to carry out his job with the full support of his club and without any unnecessary sniping from the sidelines.

There is plenty of pressure on Gary and he knows it, but I also think that the pressure is part of what he enjoys about managing the club. He played here for years and he understood when he came back to Elland Road that managers of Leeds don't settle for mid-table security.

We're already above that position and, after reaching third place in League One with an excellent win at Carlisle last Saturday, I can only see us climbing higher if our recent performances are an accurate benchmark for the rest of the season to come.

It's been shown so many times in the past that the most successful clubs are the ones who stick together and remain focused on their strategy – we at Leeds know that better than anyone, we've seen both sides of the coin – and I've been so impressed with the supportive attitude of those players who aren't in the first team at this moment.

As Gary has said, the entire squad will play their part this season and the outcome at the end of the term will be seen as a united effort. The season is far more likely to finish in success if the club keeps faith with their staff and leaves them to get on with the job.

Lorro's hat-trick

Every week Peter selects a treble from the William Hill weekend coupon. This week his selections are: Charlton, Leeds United, Bristol Rovers.