“WHAT THE HELL IS going on?” has been a regular chant from supporters of Leeds United this season as their club has drifted down the Barclaycard Premiership table, shedding players and credibility in equal measure. They sang it again at The Valley on Saturday, but this time in bemused delight as Leeds broke spectacularly free of the frustrations of the past six months to record the Premiership’s biggest victory of the campaign.

What was going on was that Peter Reid, the caretaker manager, was giving them their old team back. Out went Terry Venables’s signings such as Paul Okon, Teddy Lucic and Raul Bravo, and back came the Leeds that challenged for titles at home and abroad: hard-working, aggressive and incisive. No one typified those qualities more than Alan Smith, played out of position on the right of midfield by Venables but returned by Reid to his best position, in the forward line.

Smith typically made few friends among the home supporters or defenders, but he had a foot or a head in the first five of the Leeds goals, including a hat-trick for Mark Viduka. It was as if he had taken personally all the recent publicity about Wayne Rooney as the future of English football, and wanted to remind everyone that there was still some life in a previous boy wonder.

“Absolutely outstanding,” was the verdict of Dominic Matteo, the Leeds captain, on Smith. “The lad’s got it all and I’m sure he’ll get back in the England squad soon, because he’s got fantastic talent, and his workrate as well was unbelievable. Mark scored three, but in my opinion Smudger was man of the match.”

The spiky Smith tortured a lax Charlton defence. His pass was knocked in by Harry Kewell after 12 minutes, he was tripped by Richard Rufus after 34 minutes to win a penalty that was converted by Ian Harte after a brief wrestle for the ball with Viduka, and he headed on bravely for Viduka to score the third two minutes before the interval.

Jason Euell’s penalty gave Charlton brief hope, and they flung on Matthias Svensson in an attempt to duplicate the effect of Smith, but only the haircut was the same. The genuine article zigzagged past two defenders to set up Viduka’s second, and when he was fouled by Luke Young, Viduka completed his hat-trick with another penalty. Tahar El-Khalej presented Kewell with the sixth.

But if Smith, Viduka and Kewell took the acclaim, the foundation was Reid’s insistence on a collective work ethic. When Kewell, for example, was not terrorising Young or Paul Konchesky, he was tackling back or heading away from inside his own six-yard area.

“I think that’s what we need to get back to,” Matteo said. “All our success in Europe came from that. I think we’ve been playing as individuals most of the season, but today it was a proper team performance. It was great to work with Terry Venables, but Peter has come in and we are back to playing football, enjoying ourselves, and working a bit harder.”

Reid had written a compelling opening paragraph to his application for the job on a full-time basis, but preferred to give credit to his players — another astute career move. “When you see them play like that, you can’t believe the position they’re in,” he said. “We’re not out of it, but I think the players are up for it. They have set themselves standards, and if we maintain them, we’ll give any team a difficult game.”

It will take more than 90 minutes to bury memories of the past six months, and further player sales may yet be forced on Leeds by financial circumstances. Charlton remain healthier as a club, although that seemed scant consolation to them in the immediate aftermath of a display from which only Dean Kiely and Scott Parker emerged with any credit, and which cost the players their day off yesterday.

“I hope everyone says it was all down to Reidy, but a lot of it was down to us,” Alan Curbishley, the manager, said. “Anyone who’s seen us would find that performance quite astonishing — a massive wake-up call for everyone. We’ve got six games to turn this season into a great one still, or six games to ruin it. I don’t expect us to play as badly as that again.”

CHARLTON ATHLETIC (4-3-1-2): D Kiely 7 — L Young 4, M Fish 3, R Rufus 2, P Konchesky 4 (sub: T El-Khalej, 65min 3) — R Kishishev 4 (sub: C Powell, 46 4), S Parker 6, C Jensen 4 — J Euell 4 — J Johansson 3, K Lisbie 2 (sub: M Svensson 46, 5). Substitutes not used: P Rachubka, J Robinson. Booked: Svensson. NEXT: Blackburn Rovers (a). FORM: LDLLWW

LEEDS UNITED (4-4-2): P Robinson 7 — D Mills 6, L Radebe 7, M Duberry 7, I Harte 6 — G Kelly 7, E Bakke 7 (sub: J Milner, 85), D Matteo 7, H Kewell 8 (sub: J Wilcox, 80) — A Smith 9 (sub: Simon Johnson, 78), M Viduka 7. Substitutes not used: N Martyn, N Barmby. Booked: Matteo. NEXT: Tottenham Hotspur (h). FORM: WLLLLW

Shots on target: (h) 4 (a) 10. Fouls: (h) 14 (a) 20. Offsides: (h) 0 (a) 2 Euell 45 (pen)