{"id":13001,"date":"2005-08-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-08-23T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.staging28.planetswans.co.uk\/?p=13001"},"modified":"2020-09-22T11:26:01","modified_gmt":"2020-09-22T11:26:01","slug":"reading-3-swansea-1-aet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/2005\/08\/23\/reading-3-swansea-1-aet\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading 3 Swansea 1 (AET)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n\n\n
\n

THEY put on a brave show, but 10-man Swansea eventually crashed out of the Carling Cup last night after forcing extra-time at the Madejski Stadium.<\/p>\n

Extra-time goals from Dave Kitson – his second of the match – and \u00c2\u00a31m man Leroy Lita broke Swansea’s resistance as boss Kenny Jackett was sent to the stands for apparently remonstrating too forcefully with the fourth official.<\/p>\n

It looked as Kitson had done enough in normal time to send Reading through, claiming his first goal in the 14th minute.<\/p>\n

But Swansea’s impressive striker Adebayo Akinfenwa extended the clash when he converted Ijah Anderson’s cross in the 80th minute.<\/p>\n

Just a few minutes later Anderson, on as a second-half substitute for Kevin Austin, saw red when he collected a second yellow card for a foul on Kitson.<\/p>\n

Swansea scarcely deserved the extra 30 minutes, having been second-best to the Championship leaders for most of the night – even if Steve Coppell’s Premiership hopefuls were guilty of missing a flurry of excellent second-half chances.<\/p>\n

The gulf in class had been clear as Swansea – missing six key players through injury or suspenion, it must be stressed – struggled to match Reading’s movement and ability on the ball.<\/p>\n

It had been an all-too-swift reunion with a team Swansea had met here in last season’s FA Cup.<\/p>\n

On that occasion the Swans were two minutes away from causing a third-round upset when Ivar Ingimarsson equalised Paul Connor’s goal, Reading going on to claim a narrow 1-0 win in the Vetch Field replay.<\/p>\n

The Berkshire club look a stronger outfit these days and, having underlined their Premiership aspirations with the \u00c2\u00a31m summer purchase of Bristol City’s Leroy Lita, top the Coca-Cola Championship after hammering Millwall 5-0 at the weekend.<\/p>\n

Lita was one of several first-choice players rested from the starting line-up last night, but even the fringe players given a run-out by Coppell were too much for the Swans to handle.<\/p>\n

How Swansea could have done with a little magic from Lee Trundle.<\/p>\n

Jackett’s No 1 striker was missing with hamstring trouble so there was a chance for Connor not only to repeat last season’s goalscoring display at the Madejski, but to try and reclaim a regular first XI spot after turning down a summer move to Darlington.<\/p>\n

Connor, replacing Marc Goodfellow in what was the only change to the side beaten 2-1 at home by Doncaster on Saturday, was involved in some promising early moves despite starting in an alien wide-right position as Jackett fielded a three-pronged attack that saw Kevin McLeod stationed on the opposite flank and Akinfenwa as the central strike pivot. But Swansea – missing a total of six players through injury and suspension, all of whom probably would’ve featured had they been available – were 14th-minute victims of a Reading smash-and-grab raid.<\/p>\n

Stand-in keeper Graham Stack lumped a long ball forward, striker Kevin Doyle flicked it on and Kitson beat Swans stopper Willy Gueret – caught in no-man’s land some 10 yards off his line – with a delicious lob from the edge of the area.<\/p>\n

Swansea started to get a little overun in midfield as Reading’s highly-rated midfield architects James Harper and Steve Sidwell began to sculpt some smooth, defence-splitting passes.<\/p>\n

Sidwell had a crack himself on 19 minutes with a thunderous 25-yard drive that Gueret had to finger-tip over the crossbar.<\/p>\n

Swansea were by no means deprived of possession, though, even if they had to wait patiently for chances to test the resilence of Reading’s rearguard.<\/p>\n

Indeed it was the stroke of half-time before Jackett’s side seriously troubled Stack in the home goal, midfield rookie Owain Tudur Jones producing a venomous 25-yard shot that took a slight deflection off Ibrahima Sonko before landing in the arms of Reading’s on-loan Arsenal keeper.<\/p>\n

Swansea were under siege after the interval as Doyle saw a close-range volley denied only by the leg of an unwitting Gueret.<\/p>\n

The travelling fans then held their breath as Gueret hesitated on a cross from Hunt, allowing Glen Little to fire into the side-netting.<\/p>\n

Yet more chances came Reading’s way. The menacing Kitson headed against the bar from a Hunt free-kick and Doyle forced Gueret to make a diving save with a well-planted header.<\/p>\n

The Swans were left to feed off scraps, though they almost squeezed home an equaliser on 64 minutes when skipper Roberto Martinez rolled a pass through to Akinfenwa, who muscled his way past a couple of challenges before being dispossessed by Ibrahima Sonko just as he was about to pull the trigger.<\/p>\n

Just as it seemed Reading would cling on to claim a deserved victory, Akinfenwa discovered his finishing touch.<\/p>\n

Anderson delivered a well-weighted cross from the left and Akinfenwa beat Stack with a firm far-post header, Connor perhaps getting the slightest of touches as it sailed past the keeper.<\/p>\n

Things turned sour for the Swans when Anderson was dismissed six minutes before the end of normal time, though the 10 men in black bravely held on.<\/p>\n

Kitson, though, needed just five extra minutes to get on the scoresheet again.<\/p>\n

Harper shrugged off Martinez to feed the striker and Kitson slotted home even after being pushed a little wide. And things got worse for the Swans when Jackett was banished to the stands for arguing with the fourth official.<\/p>\n

Substitute Lita made certain of Reading’s place in round two when he slid in to convert a cross from Harper six minutes from the end.<\/p>\n

SOURCE: WESTERN MAIL<\/p>\n

How do you rate the players – share your views below<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n\n\n
What are your thoughts? Click Here<\/a> To Share Them<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THEY put on a brave show, but 10-man Swansea eventually crashed out of the Carling Cup last night after forcing extra-time at the Madejski Stadium. Extra-time goals from Dave Kitson – his second of the match – and \u00c2\u00a31m man Leroy Lita broke Swansea’s resistance as boss Kenny Jackett was sent to the stands for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":453,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/453"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13001\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}