Addicks hold Whites in bore draw

Leeds and Charlton played out a dour 1-1 draw at Elland Road on Tuesday night as the Whites extended their unbeaten run to seven games.

Four days on from their controversial Yorkshire derby with Sheffield Wednesday which ended with one of their fans being jailed for assaulting one of the Owls players, United will be relieved their supporters were well behaved this time around. It was not an evening either side will remember for long, though, as, apart from a period either side of half-time which saw Leeds' David Norris and Charlton's Dorian Dervite trade goals, the football on offer was truly horrible. Neither goalkeeper had to make a save and although Charlton will be happy to take a point, their performance does not indicate they will be moving away from the lower reaches of the table any time soon. And, although Leeds are now unbeaten in seven, their only real achievement on Tuesday night was to score, which is the 15th game in a row they have done so, for the first time since 1927. In light of Friday's events all ears were on the Leeds fans in the early stages but, such was the quality of fayre on offer they barely struggled to make positive noises, let alone ones of another nature. It took until 11 minutes for the first attack from either side - Jason Pearce headed over El-Hadji Diouf's corner - and another 19 for the next, with Charlton defender Leon Cort getting a bad connection as he went in for Johnnie Jackson's free-kick. It seemed everyone was waiting for the half-time whistle, with even home boss Neil Warnock heard shouting "what the hell was that" as pass after pass went astray before, with 37 minutes gone, Leeds produced a goal out of nothing. Sam Byram stood a cross up into the box, former Addick Luke Varney rose the highest to nod it down and, when Charlton failed to clear, the ball fell to Norris who, from outside the line of the post, drilled an effort just inside it from the edge of the box. It was a goal the game had desperately needed and all of a sudden Charlton had a purpose, with Jackson failing to make the most of a loose ball in the Leeds box, firing wide when he should have hit the target. Leeds then had a let-off as Tom Lees bundled Jackson's corner against his own bar and the increased tempo continued after the break as Varney crossed for Luciano Becchio, whose shot was deflected wide. Then at the other end, as with Leeds' goal, Charlton grabbed an undeserved strike of their own with 50 minutes on the clock as Lawrie Wilson rolled a pass in from the right and Dervite hit a low effort through a gang of bodies from 25 yards, with Paddy Kenny unable to get down to it. Leeds responded with Byram heading over an Adam Drury cross while Cort took the ball off Becchio's feet just as he was about to tuck in a Diouf corner. That was that as far as the home side went, though, and they ended the 90 minutes indebted to goalkeeper Kenny, who produced two sublime injury-time saves to deny Bradley Wright-Phillips, first blocking a close-range hit with his feet and then tipping over an edge-of-the-box piledriver.