Leeds 1 Charlton 1: Rare shots of beauty fail to light up Leeds stalemate

On a night when Elland Road attracted its lowest league crowd of the season, the 17,484 punters who braved a cold night were forced to endure a poor advert for the Championship.

The goals from David Norris and Dorian Dervite that ensured honours ended even at the end of a disjointed 90 minutes may well have been things of beauty.

But those two fine strikes and El-Hadjio Diouf’s usual quality on the ball apart, this was very much a fixture that will not live long in the memory.

Pedestrian football in which the default setting of both teams seemed to be ‘lump the ball forward aimlessly’ was the main problem, along with a tendency among most of the players on show to commit the type of errors that would shame a schoolboy.

After Friday night had seen both the good and bad of football very much on display as a pulsating 1-1 draw between Leeds and Sheffield Wednesday was marred by violence and sick chanting, maybe last night’s contest was always going to be ugly.

In fact, from a Leeds perspective, perhaps the best that could be said was that Neil Warnock’s side managed to grind out a point despite being so far below their best.

That they did owed everything to Paddy Kenny, who pulled off a stunning double save in stoppage time to deny Bradley Wright-Phillips what would have been the winner.

The tone for much of what followed was set in the opening half-hour as both sides laboured horrendously, the sight of Luciano Becchio kicking the ball away in frustration after his own inability to keep it in play perhaps best summing up the quality of fare on offer.

Mercifully, the excitement levels were briefly raised in the closing stages of the half when Leeds took the lead.

A right-wing cross from Sam Byram finding the head of Becchio was the catalyst, as the ball then rebounded off Leon Cort to Norris. Despite having his back to goal, the summer signing from Portsmouth showed tremendous skill to turn smartly and thunder an unstoppable shot beyond Ben Hamer.

Norris’s second goal in a white shirt was a touch of class made all the more impressive by the largely pedestrian play that had preceded it.

Charlton, who had earlier gone close when Cort’s header had dribbled just wide of the post, came close to finding an instant response as the game flickered into life.

First, Bradley Pritchard picked out Johnnie Jackson on the edge of the penalty area only for the Addicks captain to drag his shot well wide.

Then, just seconds before the interval, Tom Lees smacked the ball against his own crossbar in trying to deal with a Jackson corner that had caused panic in the home defence.

Considering how much of a threat Charlton had been during those final few minutes of the first half, it was fair to assume that Leeds would have to be on their guard come the restart.

The opposite, however, was the case as Lawrie Wilson was afforded sufficient space on the right to look up and roll a pass to Dervite.

He, in turn, was not closed down quickly enough, meaning the midfielder was able to drill a low shot beyond the dive of Kenny.

The home side’s night then almost took a further turn for the worse just after the hour when Luke Varney was caught in possession out wide.

That allowed Wilson to scamper clear down the right before drilling a low cross that Salim Kerkar came within a whisker of converting.

Chris Solly also went close 10 minutes from time when only a dart from his own line by Kenny prevented the full-back latching on to an incisive through ball.

The best Leeds could manage in response was a Jason Pearce header in the direction of Becchio, who was beaten to the ball by Cort, who then comfortably cleared the danger from under his own crossbar.

Realising just how little the hosts had to offer, Charlton then redoubled their efforts and twice came agonisingly close to snatching a winner in stoppage time.

First, Pritchard’s dart down the right flank opened up the United defence to allow the Charlton man to square for Wright-Phillips whose close-range shot was blocked by Kenny.

Then, with just seconds remaining, the Leeds goalkeeper repeated the trick to keep out a thunderous drive from Wright-Phillips at full stretch to ensure Warnock’s side did, at least, rescue some reward from an otherwise disappointing evening.

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n United have launched a campaign urging fans to take a stand against vile chants by turning their backs.

The move follows the violence that flared at Hillsborough last Friday after both sets of supporters had taunted each other with sick songs.

Leeds United: Kenny; Byram, Lees, Pearce, Drury; Green (White 64), Brown, Norris, Varney (Tonge 64); Diouf, Becchio (Gray 77). Unused substitutes: Ashdown, Kisnorbo, Pugh, Gray, Hall.

Charlton Athletic: Hamer; Solly, Cort, Morrison, Evina; Wilson, Jackson, Dervite, Pritchard, Kerkar (Hollands 90); Hulse (Wright-Phillips 86). Unused substitutes: Button, Green, Cook, Harriott, Razak.

Referee: N Miller (County Durham).