| Competition | Date | Opponent | Venue | Result |
| Division 2 | Saturday, 23rd September (3pm) | Swansea City | Home | Won 5-1 |
Reading goals: Cureton, Butler (3),
Hodges
Gamebreaker: Reading's third goal
Attendance: 11,003
Reading line-up: Whitehead,
Newman, Gurney, Parkinson, Viveash, Hunter, McIntyre (Henderson),
Caskey (Murty), Butler, Cureton (N Smith), Hodges
Subs not used: Ashdown, Mackie
1,2,3,4,5 - what comes next. Well, it's 5 apparently. The run of scoring goals at home in artithmetical progression came to an end, but you can't complain too much when the team scores five goals instead of six!
Swansea had only let in three goals all season and Alan Pardew had described them before the match as having the best defence in the division (surely you meant SECOND best, Alan?). It took Reading less than an hour to double the size of the visitors' goals conceded column! The Swansea fans will tell you that they were unlucky in this game, and that if they'd taken their chances they might have got something out of it. Well, excuse me, but that's why you have forwards such as Martin Butler and Jamie Cureton, and why you have goalkeepers who can make saves, isn't it? The result was 5-1 - that's not close in anyone's book.
The Reading line-up was the same as for the last game except that Jim McIntyre came in for the injured Sammy Igoe. This also meant that Lee Hodges switched to playing wide on the right with McIntyre on the left.
At the start, Swansea looked fairly assured in defence, although Reading did make some chances. One Darren Caskey free-kick in a good position went just over the bar, but our best chance came from a further free-kick. This one was a bit too wide to try a direct shot, but he curled the ball into the box just above ground level looking for a touch. Incredibly everybody missed it and the ball hit the post before a defender scrambled it to safety.
Swansea then came back into the came and put together some decent moves. In these, they forced Whitehead to make a number of good saves. In all he made three good stops whilst the score was still 0-0 including two from one-on-ones. However, the way Reading are playing at the moment, that was all the oportunity Swansea were going to get to take the lead. We stepped up a gear and started to get good possession and shots on goal.
Butler hit the ball straight to the keeper when in a good position, then Cureton fired over the bar, and Hodges put one into the side-netting from a tight angle. A goal had to come and it did when a Swansea attack broke down. Just before we won the ball Andy Gurney fouled a Swansea player. The linesman flagged but the referee played a good advantage because Swansea had the ball in a dangerous attacking position. They then lost it, and because we took the ball down the other end of the field and scored, the away fans were all moaning at the referee. This was an occasion when the referee made the right decision but the away fans were either too blinkered or stupid to realise it (my money's on the latter option).
The goal itself came after we worked the ball to Butler. He saw Jamie Cureton making a diagonal run and threaded the ball through the flat defence. Cureton was level with the defenders when the ball was played (cue complaints from Swansea fans about offside), took it forward and fired it low past the keeper.
Cureton would have had a second goal soon after when he beat the last man but he was fouled in the box. Amazingly, the referee did not give a penalty and then booked Cureton for diving. Now there is no way that Jamie would have dived at that point - he was through with only the keeper to beat, and (importantly!) he doesn't take the penalties.
The referee added to his unpopularity rating by booking Butler a few minutes later. As is his style, Butler was chasing back to catch a defender who was taking the ball upfield. Butler was much quicker than the defender and so easily caught him up. The defender fell over, and the ref gave a foul indicating that he thought Butler pulled him back. Absolute nonsense. Two minutes later he booked a Swansea player to make up for it - it was a foul but never worth a booking.
At half-time, we're 1-0 up and Kingsley Royal tries to maintain our honour with a penalty shoot-out against some mascot for the away team. Sadly our hero lost 2-0, showing unerring ability to pick out the one yard of the goal covered by the opposition mascot rather than the other seven yards - it's just as well that Kingsley is only our eighth choice striker. The man on the microphone said that there's only one result that counts and that's in the real match. Wrong! We should be winning mascot penalty shoot-outs as well.
According to the South Wales Sports Echo, Swansea changed formation at half-time from 3-5-2 to 4-4-2. I can't say that I noticed the change but it certainly made a difference as we had soon scored two more goals! For our second goal we played the ball down the left. McIntyre headed the ball down to Butler on the corner of the area, and he turned and shot in one movement to beat the dive of the keeper. A superbly taken goal.
Five minutes later, Swansea won a corner. (I just love it when a description of a Reading goal starts like that!) The only way to accurately describe the start of the move is to say that the kick-taker passed the ball to Darren Caskey just inside our area. Caskey took the ball forward a few yards and then played a 70-yard pass out to Cureton on the left wing. Cureton also went forward a few yards and hit a 40-yard pass across to Butler. Butler advanced to the area, slipped inside a defender who was rushing back, feinted to shoot to the keeper's right but then actually put it to his left. 3-0.
Perhaps we sat back after that because Swansea had another spell of pressure. One of their forwards suffered the same fate as Cureton, getting booked for diving in the area when it looked more like he was fouled. Whitehead then made a superb save, scrambling back and just tipping the ball over the bar after a Swansea header. A similar move just after that saw an unmarked Swansea forward stretch and just get a toe on the end of a cross to loop the ball over Whitehead's head - this time our keeper's desperate scramble back and dive was not enough.
So we're now 3-1 up and Swansea continued to attack, but (and I really do mean this) I couldn't see them getting back into the game. Then they hit the bar and I wasn't quite so sure! A player had picked the ball up in midfield, run unchallenged to the edge of the area with the defence backing off and his shot was very close to going in. Soon after, Pardew brought on Neil Smith instead of Cureton, with McIntyre going up front, undoubtedly to tighten up the midfield and stop any similar runs in the future.
Whether the substitution made a difference was difficult to tell because almost immediately we went 4-1 up. This time the goal came from a move involving a lot of passes, with Hodges, Caskey and McIntyre involved on the right. McIntyre's cross went to Lee Hodges on the edge of the area who fired it just inside the post with his right foot. Hodges then proceeded to run around in circles - I really think that his goal celebration needs some work (more opportunities to practice, perhaps!).
The referee finally managed to book someone for a foul that was really bad, as a Swansea player bundled Martin Butler over the touchline and almost into the East Stand. Butler received treatment but rejoined the game. Whitehead made yet another decent save, getting down low to smother a long shot, something which incidentally the Swansea keeper failed to do all game despite numerous opportunities. Graeme Murty came on as sub, to only a muted reception. Clearly he has been welcomed back from injury as a hero too many times and now needs to earn applause for his actions on the pitch. As always when I've seen him, he played hard and well so if he stays healthy (!) there'll be no problem. And also Darius Henderson replaced Jim McIntyre.
The game was over as a contest, and the only questions left were whether Reading could keep up their scoring run by getting six, and whether Martin Butler could become the first Reading player to score a hat-trick for .... well, two weeks.
Unfortunately the first was not to be, but Butler duly obliged in the last minute, heading in after a corner on the right had been flicked on at the near post. At the final whistle, we'd won 5-1 and it was Butler making a grab for the ball and getting photographed whilst holding three fingers in the air. (All seems so routine now......)
Successive five-goal home games, and you still think that there is more to come. It's not just about the return of injured players - I feel that the current line-up can improve. Let's see if the next two away games can be the first step.
One sad event to report - as we were leaving the stadium, the ground staff were already removing the goals ready for the display of overweight public shool tossers engaging in male bonding on the Sunday. I tell you this now - the pitch in front of the East Stand was showing some signs of cutting up towards the end of the proper sport on Saturday, and it will not be too long before our club officials are examining the contract they shamefully signed at the beginning of the season.
News . Opposition . Reserves . Academy . Where Are They Now? . Columns . Kingsley . MadStad . Interactive . Links . Site Map