Charlton hold Leeds

Fowler failed to hit the mark on an off day for Leeds

Leeds 0-0 Charlton
E-mail your reaction to Football Talk

Leeds' hopes of a place in next season's Champions League were dealt a blow after they were held to a draw by Charlton.

David O'Leary's side are now nine points adrift of the leading quartet and still without a win since New Year's Day.

Leeds have also failed to score in four of their last five games and there was a distinct lack of spark to their performance on a cold Yorkshire afternoon.

Indeed Charlton could easily have been a goal up after just 80 seconds as Olivier Dacourt found himself in trouble just outside his own area.

He was forced to play a suicidal ball across the edge of the box to Gary Kelly and Paul Konchesky took advantage of Kelly's failure to control the ball, but sliced his shot wide with only Nigel Martyn to beat.

Too much for Ferdinand

In fairness, Martyn was nothing more than a spectator during the initial period.

Charlton's other chances saw Chris Bart-Williams strike a sweet 25-yard free-kick inches wide, while Ian Harte just managed to divert a Graham Stuart curler into the side-netting.

It was Dean Kiely who found himself the busier of the two keepers as Leeds finally came alive in the 13th minute.

A superb move involving Robbie Fowler and Dacourt set Eirik Bakke free. His angled drive was then superbly tipped away.

Kiely's fingers were stung again in the 37th minute after Dacourt, at the hub of the midfield, struck a riveting 30-yard drive which was nudged over the crossbar.

Flower fluffs lines

Leeds, however, lost Dacourt for the second period as he landed awkwardly on the right shoulder he dislocated two and half months ago following a collision with Luke Young.

Dacourt's withdrawal brought David Batty into the fray as O'Leary had opted to start with Robbie Keane down the right wing.

Batty continued United's drive forward in the second period, ultimately without reward for the two chances Fowler missed in the second period.

After Bakke had fizzed another shot narrowly over the bar soon after the restart, Australia duo Mark Viduka and Harry Kewell combined down the left wing with the latter pulling the ball back for Fowler.

Euell had the ball in the back of the net

The £11m striker took one touch to set himself up, but with the goal at his mercy, he remarkably struck the right-hand post from just eight yards.

His head was in his hands again in the 70th minute as he latched onto a headed through ball from Batty, and although beating Kiely with an angled half-volley, the left-foot shot flashed across the face of the goal.

The urgency was apparent as Leeds camped themselves in the Charlton half for the closing 10 minutes after Jason Euell had found the net, only to be rightly called for offside when Graham Stuart had fired in the initial attempt.

Viduka struck the legs of Jorge Costa, Kewell rifled a half-volley onto the roof of the net, while Harte curled a 22-yard free-kick narrowly over in injury-time.

---

Leeds: Martyn, Kelly, Ferdinand, Matteo, Harte, Keane, Dacourt (Batty 45), Bakke, Kewell, Fowler, Viduka.
Subs Not Used: Robinson, McPhail, Duberry, Richardson.

Charlton: Kiely, Young, Costa, Fortune, Powell, Stuart, Bart-Williams, Parker (Kinsella 80), Konchesky, Euell, Svensson (Kishishev 85).
Subs Not Used: Ilic, Brown, Johansson.
Booked: Bart-Williams.

Att: 39,374

Ref: M Dean (Cheshire).