Kevin Nolan’s Match Report: Leeds United v Charlton (30/04/2016)

Leeds United 1 (Bamba 71) Charlton 2 (Gudmundsson 39, Lookman 49).

Kevin Nolan reports from Elland Road.

It was surely a mischievous quirk of the fixture list that sent Charlton to visit Leeds United on the penultimate weekend of a deeply troubling season. They were greeted in West Yorkshire by a fellow basket case of a football club, also fallen from grace, grateful for mid-table mediocrity and using their doomed visitors as a warning of what happens when your grasp exceeds your reach. Not that United, under the chaotic ownership of Massimo Cellino, are about to listen to warnings.

Motormouth Cellino staggers from one legal crisis to another, always sailing close to the wind aboard a yacht in which the Italian authorities maintain a keen financial interest. Life at Elland Road is described in their own programme notes as a story of “protest, unrest and legal issues”, at the centre of which is their belligerent Chairman. They broke the mould when they made Massino Cellino… just in case.

Taciturn Roland Duchatelet, on the other hand, has rarely a word to say about the mess he has made of Charlton. His first important executive decision in 2014, involving the ruthless sacking of Chris Powell, set in motion the train of events which has led to an ignominious, bitterly resented return to League One, the division from which Powell had led the Addicks so spectacularly in 2012. Hunkered down in his Brussels bunker, Charlton’s absentee owner leaves his beleaguered CEO Katrien Miere to field the flak. The know-all owners of Leeds United and Charlton have nothing and everything in common. Sorry is not merely the hardest word for them to say – they choke on their cornflakes when anyone so much as suggests they use it.

Anyway, as my Mum used to say, bad cess to the both of them. For this reporter, it’s always about the football. And, oddly enough, with no discernible pressure on them, these relaxed sides served up a surprisingly open, entertaining game. It was no surprise, either, that Charlton, unbeaten at Elland Road since 2000, survived a late battering to emerge as worthy winners.

You’d be wrong in assuming that the result of this ostensibly meaningless match didn’t matter. United’s manic quest for a second goal to extend a four-game unbeaten run belied that assumption, while their classy visitors left behind them the impression that they’d realised too late they were far from one of the Championship’s worst three teams. Unfortunately, the table proves otherwise.

The long awaited return of Ahmed Kashi showed what the Addicks had missed during the French Algerian’s long absence. Covering, tackling and inevitably picking the correct pass, Kashi was superb, as was Nick Pope behind him, whose string of assorted saves edged his colleague to man-of-the-match honours. Goalscorers Johann Berg Gudmundsson, almost certain to leave in the summer, and Ademola Lookman, still three months from his 18th birthday, also ran Pope close. Lookman would be advised to continue his promise locally before trying out deeper waters.

Gudmundsson served early notice of his left-footed shooting prowess with a cracking 30-yard drive which beat Marco Sivestri all ends up but rebounded harmlessly off the base of the right post.

Six minutes before the break, the graceful playmaker put the record straight by firing his buoyant side into the lead. He arrived at the near post to finish an incisive move which flowed through Johnnie Jackson to Lookman, then on to the aggressively overlapping Morgan Fox. The left back’s perfect cross picked out Gudmundsson who gave Silvestri no chance.

During an even first half, Pope had begun his heroics by leaving his line alertly to narrow Luke Murphy’s angle and blocking the clean through midfielder’s close range effort with his legs. Before the Addicks headed south with the points, the brilliant young keeper repeated the feat twice to similarly deny substitute Marco Antenucci and Chris Wood in one-on-one confrontation, while the bravery he showed in diving full length to head clear from Wood outside his penalty area was exemplary. When the decks are cleared before next season, Pope must be among the first names on the new teamsheet.

Pope’s excellence prepared the ground for Lookman to double the lead four minutes after the break. Jinking in from the left, a series of deceptive feints made space for a crisp right-footed drive into the bottom left corner. He’s a talented kid as Duchatelet, from the safety of his counting house, is no doubt already evaluating.

Shortly after Lookman struck, Charlton rode their luck as Charlie Taylor’s sumptuous cross was cleverly headed against the underside of the bar by Wood, with Sol Bamba blasting the rebound into the sidenet. The Londoners were living nervously and eventually succumbed with 20 minutes remaining. A weary foul by Kashi on Taylor earned the holding midfielder a booking and allowed substitute Alex Mowatt to place a lethally outswinging free kick on Bamba’s head. Even the inspired Pope could do nothing to prevent the huge centre back’s unstoppable header from reducing United’s arrears.

Defending as though their Championship survival depended on it, with substitute Simon Makienok a tower of strength in the air, the Addicks were pinned back by the ferocity of the resultant onslaught. But whenever their resistance crumbled, there was always Pope to get past. An instinctive reaction at his near post to stop Antenucci’s point-blank blockbuster almost paled into insignificance alongside the marvellously athletic, mid-air save he produced in added time to touch Mowatt’s top-corner bound drive over the bar. The joy and relief among players and fans at referee Hill’s final whistle was almost touching and told us that this battered old football club is still very much alive. That’s the message we brought back from Leeds and is one worth passing on to Brussels. We’ll still be around when you’re gone, pal. Don’t let us keep you.
Leeds: Silvestri, Coyle, Bamba, Cooper, Taylor, Bridcutt (Antenucci 66), Murphy (Diagouraga 75), Botaka, Cook, Dallas (Mowatt 50), Wood. Not used: Wootton, Erwin, Phillips, Peacock-Farrell.

Charlton: Pope, Fanni, Diarra, Teixeira, Fox, Harriott, Kashi, Jackson, Lookman (Ba 89), Gudmundsson (Suk-Young 72), Vetokele (Makienok 82). Not used: Mitov, Sarr, Lennon, Motta. Booked: Diarra, Kashi.

Referee: Keith Hill. Att: 25,458.

“And you’ll start crying…96 tears.” This report is dedicated with a sense of joy to the Hillsborough families. God bless you always.