The University of Leeds Men’s Football 1st Team have had a disappointing start to the season at the Varsity, as they could not match last year’s 4-0 win, losing 3-0 to Leeds Metropolitan University, in what was actually a closely contested game.
The University of Leeds team, who’s last competitive game was another unfortunate defeat to Manchester 1st Team, lost at Weetwood through goals from Ryan Liley; who converted a nice pass from Josh Cartmen in the 36th minute, TawandaRupeei; who managed to benefit from a mistake in defence to score just a minute later in the 37th minute, and Josh Cartmen who received a pass from previous goal-scorer Rupeei after another defensive mistake in the 54th minute.
Although a disappointing result University of Leeds did enjoy long spells of dominance throughout the game. After the first 5 minutes of scrappy play from both sides, the Uni side showed increasing composure, suggesting they were much the stronger side for the next 30 minutes, although Leeds Met had begun to look increasingly dangerous on the counter-attack. However, University of Leeds didn’t make their dominance count before Leeds Met managed to benefit from defensive errors and score their first 2 goals. However, the University of Leeds signed continued to push-on until the half-time whistle, but still nothing to show for their efforts.
In the second half the pattern unfortunately continued in a similar way, University of Leeds exploded out of the blocks in an attempt to close the gap created in the first half. This lasted almost 10 minutes including a clear chance of a penalty turned down by the referee after the Leeds Met goalkeeper came to collect the ball, but collided with the opposing striker’s feet instead. Shortly after, Leeds Met illustrated their ability to cash-in on defensive errors again by slotting home a third. The last 30 minutes consisted off more pressure and possession from the University of Leeds side, with a couple of decent chances after the introduction of some substitutes. Leeds Met did however look threatening when in possession, but began to sit back and defend more as the clock ticked on. At the final whistle the University of Leeds side were deflated knowing that simple mistakes had cost them a game in which they enjoyed the most possession.
When catching up to Brian Deane, the Director of Football at the University of Leeds and ex-player for Sheffield United, Leeds United and England, he highlighted that it was the mistakes that defined the game as they were “not particularly good goals”, but it is “never good being beaten in Varsity”.
Author: Freddie Gray