Leeds twice took the lead through superb goals from Alex Mowatt, but Charlton Athletic took a point thanks to the generosity of our defence and the referee.

Neil Redfearn made three changes for his first home game as permanent head coach, one of which possibly showed he’s going to stand up to il Presidente, as Byram came in for Beradi. Adryan returned from injury to replace Morison, and the other change was enforced, with Liam Cooper in place of the suspended Jason Pearce.

The first half was a bit lacklustre, with little atmosphere from a fairly sparse crowd of 18,698, although the South Stand did their best to get things going. I was a bit surprised that this was priced as a category B game rather than C, being a midweek game against opponents who could hardly be classified as one of the bigger clubs in this division.

There was a lack of urgency from Leeds, and the flow of the game wasn’t helped by a pedantic and whistle-happy referee who seemed to have forgotten the advantage rule. Charlton enjoyed a bit of possession and tried to stretch the Leeds defence with their passing game, but they spent most of the time going sideways rather than forwards. The visitors’ best chance of the half came when Silverstri fumbled a cross but Bikey couldn’t get any power into the shot and Warnock had time to race across and clear off the line.

At the other end Antenucci fired into the side netting, but our best effort before the break was a Mowatt shot from distance that Henderson had to tip over the bar. But it seemed to be a feature of Redfearn’s temporary spell that we would step up the pace after half time (whereas under Milanic we usually faded as the game went on) and once again he seemed to have said a few encouraging words during the interval.

There was a bit of half-time entertainment to my left in the Kop as four police and stewards moved in to take one man out of the ground, though I couldn’t tell whether he was too drunk to stand or genuinely unwell. Either way, he’ll be sorry he missed out on the best part of the game.

Leeds stepped up the pace and took the lead in the 49th minute. After a good move down the left involving Adryan and Warnock, the ball came through to Mowatt. He seemed to have wasted the chance by taking too long to get it onto his left foot, but as the defenders closed in he picked his spot and curled a brilliant shot past Henderson into the net.

The goal finally sparked the crowd into life as Leeds pressed on, and looked like going on to win the game. Antenucci fired a shot across goal and narrowly wide, but then we were stunned as a series of mistakes at the back presented Charlton with the equaliser. Firstly Byram was caught well out of position, to give Gudmundsson plenty of space to cross from the left.

Then the ball bounced off two other defenders, but there seemed no danger when the ball came back for Gudmundsson to shoot from a narrow angle. Yet somehow Silvestri allowed the ball to slip through his grasp and over the line. As good as his performances were earlier in the season, the Italian keeper has started to make some crucial mistakes in the last few games.

But Leeds pressed on, and it took only another five minutes to regains the lead. A good move saw Adryan and Doukarra having shots blocked, but when the ball fell kindly for Warnock to have another blast, he unselfishly elected to play it across to Mowatt instead. And that certainly proved to be the right decision, as our young midfielder scored with another spectacular strike that gave Henderson no chance.

Our first substitution came in the 73rd minute, with a tiring Adryan replaced by Sloth. The Brazilian had again made some good runs, but all too often there was no end product, and he had a tenancy to waste possession by trying to be too clever rather than making a simple pass. But Leeds looked comfortable, and seemed likely to hold on for the win until Charlton were presented with and equaliser out of the blue in the 81st minute.

I was determined to get through a whole match report without slagging Belucci off, but he was the one who was penalised for pulling an opponent as a corner came in, as the referee stunned the majority of the crowd by pointing to the spot.

Yes, it was a slight tug (made to look worse by the way the Charlton player went down) but as Neil Redfearn said afterwards on Radio Leeds, there are plenty of such incidents in every game, and this time we suffered from a lack of consistency from the official. Be that as it may, Gudmundsson stepped up to send Silvestri the wrong way and score Charlton’s second equaliser.

Leeds again pressed forward in search of a winner, but even with five minutes injury time we couldn’t break through the Charlton defence for a third time. The best of a series of chances saw Henderson tipping a Byram shot over the bar, and although Montenegro came on as a third striker, he was introduced too late to make any impact.

So the winless run continues and we now sit just two points above the bottom three, badly in need of three points against Blackpool on Saturday. One bit of good news is that Belucci’s booking for the penalty incident will see him suspended for that game, and with Cooper generally excellent last night, Redfearn may well realise that Cooper and Pearce will be his best central defensive pairing from now on.

I didn’t entirely agree with the head coach’s upbeat assessment of the performance when he spoke to Radio Leeds, as overall I didn’t think we’d done quite enough to deserve a victory, but there were signs that we’re heading in the right direction. The fitness of one or two players is improving, and a win against the division’s worst team on Saturday might just kick-start our season.

Photo: Action Images

Leeds United Polls