Leeds United 2 (Mowatt 49, 67) Charlton 2 (Gudmundsson 62, 81 pen)
Kevin NOLan reports from Elland Road.
Charlton did it the hard way at Elland Road last night. Behind twice in the second half following superb strikes by young Leeds midfielder Alex Mowatt, they found a way back, survived the damaging loss of key defender Rhoys Wiggins and eked out their ninth draw of the season with ten men. It’s onwards but not so much upwards as sideways for this obstinate team.
A riproaring second half turned this game on its head. The first period had been spent in what can be described as a state of armed neutrality. The 2014-15 Championship is made up of twenty four roughly well-matched sides, with no runaway candidate for the title and only Blackpool dangerously adrift at the bottom. This sleeping giant of a game made that point eloquently.
Back briefly to that first half dross, which featured only one real chance apiece, neither of which exactly stirred the blood. At least, United’s effort alerted the visitors to the potential of Mowatt’s lethal left foot. Just past the half hour, he received from Adryan, let fly from 25 yards and forced a spectacular flying save from Stephen Henderson. At the other end, Johnnie Jackson’s outswinging corner was nudged past Marco Silvestri by Andre Bikey but easily cleared off the line by Stephen Warnock. At least, Jordan Cousins’ vital interception of Marco Antenucci’s byline cutback provides an opportunity to mention the often unglamorous hard work Charlton’s irrepressible 19 year-old gets through.
Before moving on, though, let’s deal with the typo that is Adryan. In my innocence, I’d assumed that the printers had run into a bit of trouble involving their “Caps Lock” key because both programme and team sheet listed him as “ADRYAN”. Happens to me all the time. You can’t imagine how often I end up with names like JORdan Cousins. But no, turns out the twerp thinks of himself in capital letters. Shame he wasn’t born into a family of Pratts. As it was, he was eventually substituted by Casper Sloth. Honestly, I’m not smart enough to make this stuff up.
The second half was four minutes old when Mowatt struck first. A foul on Warnock by Cousins was yellow-carded and conceded a free kick which was taken short by the ex-England left back and reached Mowatt via Pratt. Erm, perhaps best to make that ADRYan. Uncomfortable on his right foot, the teenaged prospect switched the ball to his favoured side before curling it splendidly into the top left corner.
Match Report Sponsored By Grant Saw Wealth Management
Reacting promptly to the setback, Bob Peeters sent on Saturday’s saviour Igor Vetokele for ineffectual George Tucudean but possibly more significantly replaced an already booked Yoni Buyens with new Arsenal loanee Francis Coquelin. The 23 year old French midfielder immediately set about purging the depressing memory of Emmanuel Frimpong, another Gunner loanee apparently related to Judi Dench. Or did I get the wrong end of that particular stick? Anway, Coquelin looks like a good ‘un.
The changes instilled new heart and just past the hour, a helpful stroke of luck aided Johann Berg Gudmundsson’s first equaliser. Combining with Wiggins, he reached the left byline, from which vantage point his hopeful shot struck gold via two deflections, the right post and prone goalkeeper Silvestri. A bit messy but greeted deliriously by 313 noisy travelling fans undisposed to second guess its quality.
The persistent Mowatt wasted little time in restoring the Yorkshiremen’s lead. Moving on to Warnock’s pass, he made space for a marvellously curled drive into the same top left corner he had earlier in the half. Some left foot, this kid owns.
The Addicks -and Gudmundsson in particular – were down but not quite out yet. The increasingly rampant Wiggins surged forward to force another of Jackson’s outswinging corners which the skipper zeroed in among a mob of straining adversaries. Possibly panicked by Charlton’s man mountain defenders, whose bulk had been augmented by 6’4″ debutant Oguchi Onyewu’s 78th minute arrival, Guiseppe Bellusci overdid the rough stuff on Tal Ben Haim and was spotted by laser-eyed referee Graham Salisbury (no homer this lad). The gift penalty was efficiently converted by Gudmundsson, stepping up for the sidelined Buyens, and apparently doing what comes naturally to him in training. Silvestri was given no chance with the left-footed spotkick into the bottom right corner.
Charlton’s silver cloud came with an unfortunate black lining. In winning the critical corner off Sam Byram, Wiggins picked up what might be a recurrence of the metatarsal injury which sidelined him earlier in the season. From behind the goal, he was a biased witness to Bellusci’s foul on Ben Haim and also to Gudmundsson’s nerveless penalty before painfully limping off. An MRI scan will determine today how long the Addicks must cope without their outstanding left back. Morgan Fox will be confidently expected to plug the gap.
With all three substitutes used, the 10-man visitors had a daunting total of 15 minutes to manage without Wiggins. As United surged forward, Byram’s intended cross swirled treacherously over Henderson’s head was clawed to safety by the backpedalling keeper; Antenucci buried a drive into Henderson’s midriff; Lewis Cook skimmed a last gasp drive inches wide of the left post. The Addicks were clinging on but only the most curmudgeonly observer could begrudge them their hard earned point. Not even the all-singing, all-dancing, all-capitalised ADRYAN. See, I finally got there!
Leeds: Silvestri, Byram, Bellusci, Warnock, Bianchi (Montenegro 90), Cook, ADrYaN (Sloth 73), Mowatt, Cooper, Antenucci, Doukara. Not used: Stuart Taylor, Berardi, Tonge, Charlie Taylor, Dawson. Booked: Biachi, Bellusci.
Charlton: Henderson, Wilson, Ben Haim, Bikey, Wiggins, Cousins. Buyens (Coquelin 61), Gudmundsson, Jackson, Harriott (Onyewu 78), Tucudean (Vetokele 52). Not used: Pope, Moussa, Fox, Ahearne-Grant. Booked: Buyens, Cousins.
Referee: Graham Salisbury. Att: 18,698 (313 visiting).