Leeds United at Wigan Athletic quick recap: Wood equaliser gives Whites final point of season

A second half penalty goal from Chris Wood answered an early Wigan strike from Ryan Tunnicliffe to give Leeds United a 1-1 draw at DW Stadium Sunday.

The draw closes the book on a season that started with promise and saw the Whites vault to a play-off position in the Championship only to see a late-season fall that found Leeds in seventh, one spot outside the play-offs after a 3-3 home draw with Norwich last weekend.

With the penalty strike, Wood became the Golden Boot winner in the Championship with 27 league goals on the season and only the sixth Leeds player to score 30 goals in a season.

In the 49th minute, Eunan O’Kane drove into the penalty area and was taken down, drawing a penalty. Wood lined up and sent Wigan goalkeeper Matt Gilks the opposite direction, drawing Leeds even.

“Chris Wood has joined an illustrious group of names by scoring 30 goals this season and should be proud of that,” said Leeds manager Garry Monk following the game to LUFC TV.

The goal woke a slumbering Leeds offense that seemed stagnant in the first half. At 54’, Kemar Roofe attempted a header in, but Gilks picked it up on his line. Two minutes later O’Kane found Pablo Hernandez breaking away but his effort was blocked away inside the penalty area.

Leeds continued to mount offensive pressure midway through the second half. Stuart Dallas got into the mix at 62’ with a distance shot outside the area that Gilks scooped up. A couple of set pieces at 63’ and 68’ couldn’t find goal for the Whites either. It was O’Kane that set up most of the strong runs from midfield.

At 72’, Alfonzo Pedraza looked in the area on a corner, but Wood was out of position with an open header opportunity. Wood challenged Gilks in the box for a high ball, but Gilks won the match-up. Gaetano Berardi was fouled outside Wigan’s box at 87’ by Callum Connolly. On the free kick, Gilks was up to the challenge catching the offering from Kalvin Phillips.

The offensive flurry came too late as the Whites were hampered by a slow start in the first half. Tunnicliffe scored Wigan’s lone goal at 6’ after maneuvering around Robert Green to poke in the goal, completely against the run of play. It was Tunnicliffe’s first goal in over 1 ½ years.

For the game, Leeds dominated possession for 58 percent of the game, tallying 17 shots on goal compared to already-relegated Wigan’s nine.

As a side note, Monk did confirm following the game that defender Charlie Taylor “refused to play” citing “bad advice.”

Attention now turns to the offseason where Monk will be set to discuss his future with Leeds owner Andrea Radrizzani (presumably). Earlier this week, we reported that Radrizzani is in talks with Massimo Cellino to purchase Cellino’s 50 percent stake.

Monk also suggested his interest in signing Kyle Bartley, so long as he remains manager of the club. We’ll have more on all of these stories in the days to come.