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2000/01 Reports

Reading goal: Butler
Gamebreaker: Final whistle
Attendance: 7,021 (includes a bloody good Reading turnout as well as a lot of cheap or free tickets for Wigan kids in case you're surprised at how high that number is for a Wigan home game)

Reading line-up: Whitehead, Newman, Gurney, Parkinson, Viveash, Williams, Jones (N Smith), Caskey (Murty), Butler, McIntyre (Cureton), Hodges
Subs not used: Howie, Robinson

As far as I'm concerned this is two points dropped. Wigan were there for the taking and we failed to take advantage. This being a match against Wigan, let's start with the referee. He was biased towards the home side (of course) with a series of mystifying decisions in their favour and two quite criminal bookings of our players. However, he was nothing like as bad as others we have had to put up with in this town in previous seasons. He even gave us the occasional free-kick during the game. The Wigan line-up was missing several players (although not as many as we were, it must be said) and had others returning from injury, meaning that they weren't playing as a unit. And yet we still failed to get a win.

Surprisingly, there was a change to the line-up from the last match - Alan Pardew replaced the division's leading scorer Jamie Cureton with Keith Jones. However, this didn't mean a 4-5-1 formation, but instead Jim McIntyre played up-front alongside Martin Butler. To be quite blunt, I think this was a mistake, although McIntyre certainly had a good game. We also had Matthew Robinson making a welcome return, although in his case he sat on the bench and did not get to come on.

Anyway, despite the fact that we failed to win our first ever game in Wigan (and may never get another chance, of course), the team as a whole played reasonably well and certainly created enough chances to clinch the match in the second half. It was also the first time that Wigan had dropped any points at home all season.

We attacked the Wigan goal almost from the start and Butler had the first chance when he outpaced a defender but couldn't get any power into his shot which the keeper saved easily. A few minutes later we took the lead. We played the ball forward and one of our players was in an offside position. Because he wasn't interfering with play, the linesman did not flag, and in any event Wigan cleared the ball upfield. We picked it up again, and played a long ball over the top of the defence to Butler. This time he ran forward, outpacing the defender again, and slotted the ball into the net. The Wigan fans and players were annoyed at not getting the earlier offside decision, but then they're used to having tame officials who give them everything.

Whilst Reading fans were still dialling their absent friends with the latest score, it suddenly became horribly out-of-date, as Wigan equalised less than a minute after our goal. I don't remember the build-up but the final shot was a looping attempt from 30 yards out, that just beat Whitehead and was just inside the post. My impression was that Andy Gurney (who was closing the ball down) just got a touch on the ball after the shot, which is why the ball curved in the way it did, but no-one I was sitting with agreed with me!

After that initial flurry, the game settled down. Both sides had periods of possession (Wigan's usually starting with a dubious free-kick, of course), and there were some half-chances. Wigan's Spanish midfielder showed that he was a good ball-player but more significantly that he could fall over and get a free-kick at any time. As a fan near me said, "When he was at school I bet his mum was forever telling him off about ripping his trousers, getting cuts and scrapes, and so on". Wigan had two free-kicks in a fairly dangerous position just outside our area but were unable to create anything from them.

Probably the best move of the half was a mazy dribble down the left wing by a Wigan player. He got into the area and put a shot in but Andy Gurney was covering and was comfortably able to clear the ball away from danger. In general, Wigan were playing more football and our style was more direct, but of course you do have to allow for the fact that every time we tackled them, they got a free-kick. Incredibly, Adi Viveash got booked for nicking the ball away from a Wigan player, when it was doubtful whether it should even have been given as a foul.

At half-time, it was still level, and thinking about the game, I was impressed with Keith Jones in midfield. Apart from the defensive role that I assumed we had bought him for, he was also very quick to link up with attacks, in a fashion that Parkinson is now unable to manage. There were times when Jones gave the ball away, but I'm fairly certain that we can just put that down to lack of playing time with our other players. Similarly there were occasions when Adie Williams and Adi Viveash didn't seem sure which of them should go for a particular ball but none of the incidents were serious, and again that partnership will develop as they play together more.

Half-time entertainment at Wigan meant a race for six kids to see who could first score a goal. Six balls were placed on the six-yard box with no goalkeeper(!), but the competitors did have to run from the other penalty area in their socks and put their trainers on when they reached the half-way line. And bear in mind that the pitch was pretty wet and a bit muddy! Even better, one of the six managed to miss the empty goal - I think it might have been Paul Brayson in disguise.

Back to the real action, and early in the second half, Jamie Cureton replaced Jim McIntyre. McIntyre had played well, showing some skill, but Cureton's pace added something extra to our attacks. The two Wigan central defenders were slow and very slow, respectively, so we knew that we had to create the match-up of them chasing Jamie.

The game was fairly tight so that attacking opportunities didn't come as freely as they have done in some of our other games this season. Nevertheless we did get Cureton into the right position on several occasions. The first time, Caskey threaded a ball through the defence but Cureton hit the ball straight at the keeper. He'd only been on the pitch a few moments, and I reckon he'd have put that one away if he hadn't only just come on.

The next half-chance saw Cureton played through but on this occasion the ball was just the wrong side of one of the two centre-backs, who was able to ease Cureton away from the ball and clear it. In one of our other moves, we pressured their left-back into a terrible backpass that was extremely difficult for the keeper to head or kick. No problem, though - he just caught it (under pressure from Butler) and the ref waved play on.

If that wasn't enough of a reminder, the referee then proceed to give every decision to Wigan for about a ten-minute period. The worst of these gave them a free-kick on the edge of the area, but they hit it straight at our wall. I think the ref tried to even things up a bit after that as he gave us some fouls that we certainly would not have expected based on his earlier performance. This allowed us to slow the game down a bit, and it was clear that the players were going to be content with a draw.

There were still chances to win it, though. Lee Hodges had a shooting chance from a tight angle after a ball played from the right wing, over the whole defence, but instead he chose to pull the ball back to an area where we had no players. The best chance of the lot fell to Butler. Cureton received the ball on the right touchline, went past two players, beat the full-back and got to the byline. He cut inside and then picked out Butler, who unfortunately scooped the ball over the bar.

At the other end Phil Whitehead had to scramble back hurriedly and tip another looping shot over the bar, but Wigan did not really pose too many threats. The last good chance was another Cureton one-on-one with the keeper, following a brilliant Caskey pass threaded through the defence. Cureton's shot was saved by the keeper as he tried to get it over him but didn't get enough height.

There were three minutes of time added on at the end, which we basically just played out. Graeme Murty came on for Darren Caskey with 30 seconds left, and headed the ball once without getting injured. At the final whistle Murty grabbed the ball and turned to the Reading fans in triumph. I think it was more in jest than anything else.

I suppose we'd have settled for a point from this game before it started, but I'm still disappointed that we couldn't have claimed all three. Really, our finishing was to blame in the second half, although if we had played in a more attacking fashion there would have been that many more chances.

If you're reading this report and think I've mentioned the referee far too much, then I should add that he was easily the fairest ref we've had for a Wigan game for some years. And he was still bent.

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