| Competition | Date | Opponent | Venue | Result |
| Friendly | Saturday, 20th July (11am) | Queens Park Rangers | Bisham Abbey | Lost 0-1 |
Match facts:
Reading goals: None
Assists: None
Opposition goal: After 70 minutes
Half-time: Reading 0 Queens Park Rangers 0
Gamebreaker:
Attendance:
Weather:
Reading line-up: Jamie
Young, Ahmet Rifat, Gary Middleton, Alex Stanley, Adam Theo (Captain),
Simieon Howell, Andre Boucaud, Steve Warren, Nathan Bailey, Steve
Laidler, Leon Bird
Subs: Andre Fashanu, Louie Soares, Callum Earl, Richard
Bouton, Johnny Mullins, Russell Lucas plus possibly two trialists
Reading yellow cards:
Reading red cards:
Match report:
From a correspondent:
Reading fielded a side of 1st 2nd & third year scholars with the strongest side all bar Louis Soares starting.
The first five minutes saw QPR come out very quickly and put Reading under pressure but to be fair the Reading defence of Ahmet Rifat, Adam Theo, Alex Stanley and Gary Middleton coped quite easily with everything QPR had. After the early flurry from QPR Reading took control of the game and mounted some good attacking moves which continued all the way through the first half. Rifat had an excellent first half making some very good runs and challenges from the right back position.
The noticeable thing about the first half was that even though Reading looked very comfortable there was a lack of shots at goal despite all the good build up play and possession. QPR hit the post with about five minutes left in the first half and that was the only real notable effort in the first half.
Reading changed the team for the second half bringing off Middleton, Stanley, Theo, and moved Rifat to the centre of defence along with a number of other changes. QPR managed to get the upper hand and slowly increased the pressure on the Reading defence, culminating in the only goal of the game which was a header from a cross played in from the left hand side. Rifat unfortunately let the attacker get across him and glance the ball past Jamie Young who until that point had very little to do. This was the only real mistake made by Rifat who looks like an excellent prospect for the future.
With 25 minutes left Andre Fashanu came on for his first appearance in almost a year following his knee injury and immediately showed some nice touches and was unlucky on two occasions not to level the score. Reading tried very hard to get level but unfortunately time was against them.
It should be said that the game was all about getting fit and confident on the ball again and the result did not really have a great significance as both team coaches would be happy with the performance and the manner in which the game was played.
Nathan Stamp played for QPR against Reading for the first time since signing for QPR and had an excellent game (was it a mistake to let him go?).
Match notes:
Andre Fashanu's last game was on 19th August, 2001 for the Under-19s against Southampton when he suffered a serious knee injury.
Match preview:
None.
Ticket information:
None.
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