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When a Draw Feels Like a Loss

Leeds United dominates the second half of a scoreless match vs. Charlton Athletic, leaves the Valley with one measly point (but continues a solid stretch under Steve Evans).

By Johnny Wakefield
A second half to be proud of, but only 1 point at the Valley today.
A second half to be proud of, but only 1 point at the Valley today.
Harry Engels/Getty Images

Well, alright then. Today's match at the Valley started off hopelessly boring and sloppy, picked up to a frantic pace in the second half, and still ended in a scoreless draw. Liam Cooper tweeted post game, "Hurts more than a loss that," and I couldn't agree with him more.  The team had at least three scoring chances that all should really have been goals in the second half, and Silvestri came up big in net, earning our Through It All Together Man of the Match.

The first half was sloppy, at least partially due to the usual weather in London, and Charlton had the first of the chances with a ball that rolled along the line in the 9th off a pass from Ricardo Vaz Te.  Counters back and forth (and a lot of throw-ins) characterized the rest of the first half, with few good chances.

In the post game interview, Steve Evans praised his team's second half, calling it "absolutely an annihilation." It was indeed that. The team came out on fire, with chance after chance heading towards Charlton's Henderson, and he (or the post) came up big every time. Lewis Cook played the best game moving forward, with stellar passes and an occasional chance on net (the biggest one saved not by Henderson or the woodwork, but accidentally by Chris Wood). By far though, this was the best chance of the scoreless match....

Chris Wood makes a run, and the ball finds its way to a wide open Tom Adeyemi, who puts it off the post.  Heartbreakingly poor finish.  Still shaking my head after watching it for the 10th time.  Don't watch it ten times.

Leeds continued to pepper Charlton's goal throughout the final 30 minutes, but everything refused to go in. To make matters worse, both Berardi and Cooper went down in stoppage time, with Berardi leaving on a stretcher and Cooper limping through the final minutes.  Berardi will go for an exam on Monday, so we'll see where he stands later this week.

Leeds leaves the Valley with injured players and one point.  Just one.  Four out of six since an awful performance at QPR, but still, you felt like Leeds should've won this one.

Moving on to next week, Leeds heads to Molineux Stadium to play Wolverhampton Wanderers on Thursday, a team above Leeds (that shouldn't be).  We'll have more articles for you this week here at Through It All Together, thanks for reading (and be sure to follow our Live-tweet account @thruitallLIVE on gameday).  #MOT

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