Speed Inquest in Warrington

The inquest into the death of Wales football manager Gary Speed will be held in Warrington on Monday.

The 42-year-old was found hanged at his home in Huntington, near Chester, by his wife in November.

Friends and colleagues spoke of their shock and sadness following Speed's death, which came after a run of success with the Wales football team. His family have said they have been overwhelmed by the support they have received.

An inquest was previously opened and adjourned a couple of days after Speed's death.

The brief hearing was told that his wife Louise found her husband's body just before 07:00 GMT on 27 November and called the ambulance service, but police were not treating the death as suspicious.

The hearing was also told that reports were being awaited from the pathologist.

After news emerged of his death, tributes were paid to Speed from around the UK and the sporting world.

Football matches around the country held minute's silences and applause, while fans of his former clubs, including Leeds United, Everton and Newcastle United, left scarves, shirts, photos and flags in Speed's memory.

Tributes were also left at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff City Stadium and Wrexham's Racecourse Ground.

The Football Association of Wales announced a memorial international friendly game against Costa Rica in Cardiff, which will be held on 29 February.

He had earned the first of his 85 Welsh caps as a 20-year-old in a friendly against the Central American country in 1990.

The former Premier League star, who had two sons, went on to become Wales' most capped outfield player, captaining his country 44 times and scoring seven goals.

Before becoming Wales boss in December 2010, he enjoyed a distinguished career managing Sheffield United and playing for a variety of top clubs.

Earlier this month Speed's friend and former Wales teammate Chris Coleman was unveiled as the new Wales manager.

Leeds Win a Speed Tribute

Leeds paid the best possible tribute to former number 11 Gary Speed with an emphatic win over Nottingham Forest on an emotional night at the City Ground.

Applause before the match for Speed, who died at the weekend, was followed by 11 minutes of chants from the 11th minute by Leeds fans.

Robert Snodgrass put the visitors ahead and Jonny Howson smashed a second.

Luciano Becchio's header and Adam Clayton's finish sealed the win before Andy Reid was sent off for Forest.

Leeds manager Simon Grayson, who forged a friendship with Speed after they signed schoolboy forms with Leeds on the same day when they were 14, had asked his players to win the game in Speed's memory and they did not disappoint.

They bossed the game from start to finish, to the backdrop of constant chants from the away support about their former midfielder.

It was apt that Leeds's first goal came almost exactly at the end of the United fans' 11 minutes of concentrated chants for Speed, with Snodgrass picking up the ball midway into the Forest half before unleashing a crisp strike that beat home keeper Lee Camp.

The goal was reward for an opening the visitors had dominated and they continued to do so after with Becchio seeing two efforts blocked by defenders and Snodgrass denied a second goal by a last-ditch intervention from Wes Morgan.

However, Leeds did make it 2-0 late in the half when Snodgrass set up Howson to crash home a superb 25-yard half-volley into the top corner of Camp's net.

Forest had barely registered a chance in the first half and brought on Ishmael Miller after the break in a bid to remedy this, but they were left reeling again four minutes into the second half when Becchio headed home Michael Brown's cross.

Miller did get in on the action on the hour but his header was comfortably saved by Leeds keeper Alex McCarthy.

This was only a momentary spark for Forest, though, and Leeds were amongst the goals again soon after when Clayton was on hand to finish from close range after Camp had saved Howson's initial effort.

And Forest's awful night was compounded late on when Reid's game was cut short when he received a second yellow card for a foul on Aidan White.

Leeds United manager Simon Grayson: "It's been a difficult couple of days for myself and Gary's family, supporters of Leeds United and supporters in general."

"Gary Speed was a fantastic person and I wanted my players to go out and produce a performance for him tonight.

"That was right out of the top locker of our performances tonight. It was very poignant that the first goal [from Snodgrass] came right as the 11 minutes of singing ended and was a left-footed shot.

"Gary Speed scored many goals like that. It's been difficult, but I'm a very proud manager tonight. I'm delighted to have got a result for Gary Speed."

Wales Boss Delighted Speed of Results

Wales manager Gary Speed says his side's rapid improvement has exceeded all expectations, but stressed they are by no means the finished article.

Saturday's 4-1 friendly win over Norway gave Wales a third successive win and Speed's fifth in 10 games as manager.

"We've progressed further than I'd have thought in this space of time but we've still got a lot of work to do," said Speed, who took over in December 2010.

"Norway caused us a few problems and we'll learn from that."

The confidence and sense of optimism in the Wales squad is a complete contrast to the despondency and embarrassment in August when Speed saw his side sink to their lowest Fifa ranking in history.

A friendly defeat to Australia saw them fall to 117th place - below the likes of Azerbaijan, Guatemala, Haiti and the Faroe Islands.

But wins over Montenegro, Switzerland and Bulgaria helped propel Wales up to 45th place - their highest ranking in 17 years.

"I'm satisfied," said Speed, evaluating his first 10 games in charge.

"It was a slow start, but we knew it was always going to be a slow start because there was so much we had to do.

"Those results in the early days, although disappointing for everyone, we knew inside that camp that we were on the right track.

"We didn't really take too much notice of the results. Now we're getting results it's fantastic."

Speed, appointed despite only four months managerial experience, stamped his mark on the Wales set-up by recruiting his own support staff and appointing Aaron Ramsey as captain.

He has even changed the hotel used before home matches in an attempt to distance the players from the past failures.

"It was a losing atmosphere," said former captain Craig Bellamy recently.

"As soon as we turned up we were used to getting beaten. Winning's a habit, but so is losing and we certainly had that."

Speed appeared at his most downbeat after the defeat to Australia, but the former captain says the result marked a watershed in his side's development.

The upturn in form of the last few months there is enough to suggest that Wales can go into the 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign with real confidence

He said: "It was the best thing that has happened to us, as after that game we really spelled out to the players what we wanted from them and the win against Montenegro in the next game was a result of that.

"It hasn't happened overnight, on the surface it may look like it, but the work we put in from February to August has now shown its rewards."

And Speed, who won 85 caps for his country during a 14-year international career, modestly questioned whether he would deserve his place in the Wales midfield if he was still playing at his peak.

"Sometimes you look at the attacking quality on the pitch and think, 'He's not bad is he?'," said Speed.

"I don't think I would have got in that team, all the way through it has quality and they are all good players and hopefully they can believe that and take that belief forward."

WALES' RESULTS UNDER SPEED

Feb 8: Rep of Ire 3-0 Wales

Mar 26: Wales 0-2 England

May 25: Scotland 3-1 Wales

May 27: N Ireland 0-2 Wales

Aug 10: Wales 1-2 Australia

Sep 2: Wales 2-1 Montenegro

Sep 6: England 1-0 Wales

Oct 7: Wales 2-0 Switzerland

Oct 11: Bulgaria 0-1 Wales

Nov 12: Wales 4-1 Norway

P:10 W:5 L:5