Animated goal breakdown: Jermaine Beckford v. Birmingham City

Last saturday's win at St. Andrew's against Birmingham City was a long time coming for Bolton Wanderers. It was the first win of the season and it also saw Bolton's first goal from a striker. It was Jermaine Beckford, the big (ish) summer signing, that finally came good on his goal promise with what was a difficult chance to take. This is how it happened.

With Birmingham City pressing Bolton Wanderers on the attack, the ball bounced through to Liam Feeney, who was back helping defend. He cleared it first time with a long ball right up to the halfway line. Dan Burn, the Birmingham City defender, has misjudged the bounce and the fact that his turning radius mirrored that of a small moon did not help his cause.

Jermaine Beckford spotted this misjudgment and turned short, emulating the turning circle of a tanker trailer, which is significantly smaller than that of a moon. This allowed the Bolton striker to cut inside and break toward a ball that had bounced  long way in front of him. He was in alone against the goalkeeper, some 35-40 yards out from goal, with a lot of work left to do.

Beckford had a full step on Dan Burn breaking into the area but arguably should have more given his advertised pace compared to that of the 6-foot-6 defender. Imagine Zat Knight keeping up in a foot race like that. Regardless, Beckford carried the ball to the edge of the area and with Burn quickly closing down, he released the shot. It was just at the right time as Burn had gone in for a last ditch sliding tackle but the ball was already gone.

The goalkeeper, Darren Randolph, had been caught in no man's land. He was an easy eight yards from his own goal line but had stopped rushing toward the striker in what was a completely indecisive showing. Jermaine Beckford's shot was placed right at the center of the net, beating the goalkeeper by placing the ball under him, through his legs.

That is how Bolton opened the scoring against Birmingham City.