Chereads / Oliver Bryan's football fever / Chapter 19 - Swansea, first Half

Chapter 19 - Swansea, first Half

September 22nd, 2007

It had been just over a week since Lewandoski's injury. While he was still admitted to the hospital, Leed's were preparing to welcome Swansea City at home for their seventh league match. In this match, Leeds was looking to continue their winning streak whereas Swansea City was looking for their first win of the season having lost all six of their previous games.

...

Leeds squad for the game.

" Goalkeeper: Ankergren "

" Defenders: Richardson, health, Koscielny, Alba"

" Midfielders: Prutton, Houston, Douglas(c), Carole "

" Forwards: Beckford, Kandeol "

" In bench: Lucas, Parker, Clapham, Whittingham, Huntington"

...

"Good evening, everyone!.welcome to the live broadcast of the seventh round of this year's Coca-Cola league one match between Leeds United and Swansea city ."

"I'm Roy Spencer, bringing you to live commentary for this game. As usual alongside me joining me for the game is Nickolas Smith"

"Hello everyone Nickolas Smith here, what do you think about today's game Roy "

"Well looking at the recent games Leeds seems to be an obvious favourite for this game, winning all their previous six fixtures, whereas Swansea's display in this season has been awful having lost all six of their previous games."

"Speaking of Leeds, how much do you think they will miss their youth sensation, Robert Lewandoski, seeing as he will be out of injury for basically the whole calendar"

"Well leeds will miss the service of the young pole, but seeing their squad depth and the recent performance of other leeds players I think it won't affect them too much. But we'll that's just my opinion who knows what might happen"

"Anyways let's move back to the game .both teams seem to be moving towards the pitch."

...

Both teams lined up in the tunnel at 2:50 PM. The Leeds players were in their white home kit, while Swansea players had donned their black away Jersey.

After all the players had lined up the officials signalled the players to move out. They soon exited the tunnel and then lineup before the fans. After that, both captains moved forward for the toss where Douglas won the toss and decided to start the play.

"FWEEEE"

The referee looked at his watch and started the match at exactly 3:00 pm sharp.

Leeds was quick on the ball and mounted an early attack.

At the very start of the game, Houston managed to bypass the Swansea midfielder and sent a through pass to kandeol who was just ahead of him.

Kandeol easily managed to get the pass and quickly made his way forward.

While kandeol neared the Swansea goal he was met with a sliding tackle from Marcos Painter, but the tackle completely missed the ball and instead brought kandeol down.

"Aahhhh"

Kandeol cried out loud before tumbling down the ground.

"FWEEEE"

The referee was quick to notice the foul and rushed to the scene. He immediately called for the medical team. The medical team arrived and after making everything was ok with kandeol they left the field.

After that, the referee took out a red card and showed it to painter. Seeing that painter protested that it was unintentional but the referee didn't budge.

After painter moved out of the field clearly not happy with the referee's decision, the referee signalled the Leeds players for carrying out the freekick and moved to organize the wall.

Just like in previous games Beckford moved to take the freekick. The set piece was just a few yards away from the box. Beckford placed the ball on the freekick spot and moved a bit backwards to take the freekick.

"FWEEEE"

The referee blew the whistle after arranging the Swansea players in the box. Beckford quickly sends the ball to the far right corner just inches above the wall. Dorus De Vries, The Swansea keeper tried to block the ball but was inches too short to stop the ball. As a result, the ball found the back of the net.

Soon a loud cheer erupted from the leeds supporters.

Meanwhile, the Swansea supporters were completely silent. Their team just had the worst start to a game, losing a player and conceding a goal in the very first minute after the game started.

After scoring the goal Beckford ran towards the corner flag to celebrate where he was joined by other Leeds players.

The goals didn't stop at that as in the eighth minute Carole send out a long shot towards the Swansea goal. Dorus de Vries this time was quick to react and managed to block the ball. The ball then went out of play resulting in a leeds freekick.

"FWEEEE"

The referee blew the whistle and pointed toward the corner flag.

Alba moved towards the corner flag to take the corner. After the referee blew the whistle to carry out the corner. Alba sends the ball right towards the box crowded with both sets of players. Beckford with his 6ft2 quickly took advantage of his height and headed the ball in the back scoring his and Leed's second goal for the game inside the first ten minutes.

In the stands, the Leeds fans were going crazy seeing their team demolishing the opponent team.

In the eleventh minute alba manage to steal a pass from the Swansea player and used his pace to leave behind the Swansea players. After seeing kandeol unmarked, Alba sent a cross towards him. kandeol easily picked up the cross and sent out a screamer towards the Swansea goalpost scoring a goal and extending the lead to 3:0.

"Leeds United leeds Swansea city 3:0 in the eleventh minutes! Nicolas what is your take on the game so far "

Nicolas just shook his head "I'm loss for words, At this time it feels as if leeds are playing an amateur side. So far Swansea's performance in the game seems horrible. Their defence has become a total mess after losing painter in the first minute and I fail to see any intent from the Swansea players. They are constantly making sloppy passes and are failing to put any sort of pressure on the leeds players"

"So do you see any chance for Swansea to make a comeback in this game "

"Well football is an unpredictable game, who knows what is to come but from my point of view I see no chance for Swansea in this game seeing the lack of motive from their players "

For the next, 20 minutes or so Swansea were able to slow down the leeds attack and didn't let them score more goals but in the thirty-fifth minute, they finally were unable to contain the leeds attack.

In the thirty-fifth minute, Jermaine Beckford made a solo run towards the Swansea goal bypassing the Swansea defenders and managed to score an absolute screamer of a goal, extending leeds lead to 4:0 and completing his hattrick.

"GOAL, surely now Swansea don't have any chance of a comeback after that goal .what a goal by Jermain Beckford with a quick switch he was easily able to bypass the Swansea defenders and score an absolute screamer of a goal. The score is now leeds 4 Swansea 0".

....

While the game was ongoing two pairs of eyes were intently looking at Beckford.

"So what do you think "Steve Morgan the chairman of Wolverhampton wanders said

" If we could get him he will enhance our attacking options plus convincing the player will be easy since he gets to play in the championship rather than being stuck in league one," mick McCarthy the wolves manager said "looking at his current form this season though he might come at a bit expensive price "

"You don't have to worry about the money aspect .leave such discussion to me while you focus on managing the team well"

Both Mick McCarthy and Steve Morgan had come to watch the game as they had some business to attend near leeds and as they had some free time on hand before the meeting they decided to visit the game between leeds and Swansea.

They didn't expect much from a league one game but were proven to be wrong, as they were mesmerised by the amazing display of Jermain Beckford's attacking prowess.

Currently, wolves were in dire need of a striker as shown by their matches now. In the seven championship matches played till now, they lost 1 and drawn 4 winning only two. They were doing well defensively but due to a lack of quality attack, failed to score and win the matches. Seeing such a talent in a lower league, Steve Morgan decided to make signing Beckford a major objective for the winter transfer window.

....

"FWEE FWEEEEE"

The referee finally blew the whistle for the end of the first half after 45 minutes of regular play plus 3 minutes extra.

The Leeds players moved towards their dressing room in a happy mood while this was not the case for the Swansea players. For them, it was just a short break from the hellish nightmare they went through in the first half and there was still another half of it to come.