Leeds let chances go astray

Leeds United 0 Charlton Athletic

For Leeds, the vision of a place in the Champions' League next season is receding quickly. Restricted to a point at Middlesbrough in their last Premiership action a fortnight ago, they were frustrated again yesterday by stubborn opponents who set out to defend and achieved their goal.

With Newcastle successful earlier in the day, Leeds' run of six Premiership games without a win leaves them nine points adrift of the fourth qualifying position.

For all that Alan Curbishley's Charlton, forced by injuries to include three 20-year-olds, defended with courage and discipline, Leeds should have won comfortably, dominating possession as they did. Worryingly for David O'Leary, however, even a line-up boasting four strikers did not yield one individual capable of breaking the London side's resistance.

"To win you have to take your chances and today we did not," the Leeds manager said. "With Newcastle winning it is a setback, but we have 11 games left and maybe we will start getting the rub of the green.

"We had to make changes with players suspended and I was pleased with the effort, given that they were tired after playing in Europe last week. But the game is all about taking chances."

Charlton made no apology for setting out to stifle Leeds and Curbishley was justly delighted with a point after his back-four had given their all, in particular the two centre backs, Jorge Costa and 20-year-old Jonathan Fortune. Curbishley's goal extends to no more than clinging to the Premiership's safe middle ground. The tussle for the leading positions may have cast aside a few contenders now, but the distance between mid-table and the bottom three is still too short for his side to consider themselves fireproof.

Therefore, the pursuit of a point yesterday was entirely legitimate. Moreover, Curbishley planned his tactics knowing that the Elland Road crowd would be on the home side's backs if Leeds were still running into brick walls late in the game. In fact, Jason Euell had the ball in the Leeds net 12 minutes from time, but was denied by a marginal offside flag.

Leeds, inspired by the feints and turns of Harry Kewell on the left of midfield, had launched attack after attack, only to be prevented by good defending from delivering the incisive final ball or by Dean Kiely in the Charlton goal on the occasions when a flowing move did end with a worthwhile shot.

At other moments, however, they let themselves down with the quality of their finishing, which needs to be better from a team with ambitions to compete with the best in Europe. Mark Viduka, effectively shackled throughout, rarely had a real chance, which could not be said of his partner, Robbie Fowler.

Recalled in place of the suspended Alan Smith, he had the two clearest opportunities of the match during an increasingly fraught second half, but squandered both. Five minutes after half-time, set up by Robbie Keane's cut-back and with time to steady himself, he hit the woodwork from 10 yards. Later, in a wide position on the left, but not a prohibitive one for a striker of his quality, and with Kiely struggling to cover his goal, he dragged his shot across the face of goal and wide.

"Robbie felt he should have buried the first one at least," O'Leary said. "With the confidence he has at the moment, because he is scoring goals, you would have expected him to put that one away with his eyes closed. But he is human, sadly."

Earlier, Viduka had flashed a header wide at Kiely's near post after an excellent cross by Kewell and Keane, making his first start in three months on the right of midfield with Lee Bowyer suspended, had hooked the ball over the bar from another Kewell delivery. Kiely, meanwhile, had made outstanding saves to deny first Eirik Bakke, given a clear sight of goal by Olivier Dacourt's through pass, and then Dacourt himself with his fingertips when the Frenchman took aim from 30 yards.

Leeds, disrupted by the loss of Dacourt to a leg injury that makes him doubtful for Thursday's second leg against PSV Eindhoven, plugged away to the last, Kewell landing a dipping shot in the roof of the net in stoppage time and Ian Harte swinging a free-kick a foot over the bar. But by then a failure to score seemed to have been written into the script.

Leeds United (4-4-2): Martyn 6; Kelly 6, Ferdinand 7, Matteo 6, Harte 4; Keane 6, Dacourt 7 (Batty 6, h-t), Bakke 7, Kewell 8; Viduka 6, Fowler 5. Substitutes not used: Robinson (gk), McPhail, Duberry, Richardson.

Charlton Athletic (4-4-2): Kiely 8; Young 7, Jorge Costa 8, Fortune 8, Powell 7; Stuart 5, Parker 6 (Kinsella, 79), Bart-Williams 7, Konchesky 6; Svensson 5, Euell 6. Substitutes not used: Ilic (gk), Kishishev, Brown, Johansson.

Referee: M Dean (The Wirral) 7.

Bookings: Charlton: Svensson, Konchesky, Bart-Williams.

Man of the match: Fortune.

Attendance: 39,374.