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2000/01 Reports

Reading goals: None
Gamebreaker: Bristol City's fourth goal (I still felt we could come back from three down!)
Attendance: 11,134

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

As I entered Ashton Gate, I saw the very welcome sight of Tony Rougier and Barry Hunter jogging around the pitch (together with a young player who I totally failed to recognise). They were obviously not getting ready to take part in this game, but it's a sign that the two of them are close to being available for the first team.

So after one surprise, the next one came with the team line-up. Although I had suggested in the news section of this site that Alan Pardew might leave out Jamie Cureton in favour of an extra defensive midfielder, I had changed my mind by the time I reached Bristol. As it turned out the person who took his place was Graeme Murty, with Ricky Newman moving to midfield and Jim McIntyre playing alongside Martin Butler.

Now strangely I have for several weeks had that particular defensive and midfield formation down on my depth chart as the way I thought we should be playing. And I would like to hold up my hand now and say that I was wrong, just as Pardew was wrong to play it in this game. As things turned out, Murty had a nightmare of a game, and never managed to cope defensively with the home team's wide left players. What made this worse was that Matthew Robinson also failed to stop their wide right players, so that Bristol City were able to rain attacks on us down each flank right up until the point when we reorganised.

We also saw a change at the start of the game. Because this was FIFA's designated World Fair Play Day, the two teams walked out and lined up in front of the main stand in a similar fashion to that seen at international games (without the national anthem, though, which would have been a nice touch). They even had one of those yellow Fair Play flags carried by small children - the only thing that we were fortunately spared was two sets of 11 children in replica kit being led onto the pitch by the players of the opposing side. I sometimes wonder if FIFA are so out of touch that they think all these gestures actually make a difference once the whistle blows for the start of the game.

Anyway, Reading's interpretation of fair play appeared to be to allow Bristol free reign to do exactly what they wanted with the ball right from the kick-off. They mounted one attack after another and it was no surprise when they took an early lead after Murty had unnecessarily given away a corner. The goal itself should never have stood, though - as a cross came in from the left, one of the home attackers pulled Viveash's shirt (meaning that Adi was unable to jump up to get a clearing header on the ball) and headed the ball on. It came off another Bristol player and fell at the feet of two attackers clean on goal. Whitehead might have come rushing out but stayed on his line, whilst one of the players got a faint touch on the ball which then trickled into the net. Viveash stood there appealing to the referee, but it was obvious that the ref had completely missed the crucial incident.

The goal changed nothing about the way the game was being played, and Bristol scored a second goal on a break. There was some hint of offside about the goal but really the reason they were able to score was our complete lack of defensive cover. This goal came after a break down the right, with goalscorer getting into the area and sliding the ball psat Whitehead, who had no real chance.

The third goal came after another break, this time down the left. Murty was caught out of position by a through ball, and never looked like he would come close to catching the player who rushed past him to pick up the ball. Again the Bristol player ran close in to the goal and slid the ball along the ground past Whitehead.

At 3-0 perhaps Bristol eased off, because we started to come back into the game a bit. However the sum total of our shots on goal in the first half were two hit straight at the keeper with very little pace, so it's not as if we really threatened to get back into the game.

Just before half-time Adie Williams was injured when we were again under pressure in defence - I didn't see what happened but he ended up off the pitch and had to be stretchered off. As the stretcher party passed in front of the home stands Adie got an awful lot of abuse, incidentally. We brought on Andy Gurney, which was another strange decision, as it meant he went into midfield with Newman dropping back to the centre of defence. The obvious alternative would have been John Mackie, which would have been a straight swap, allowing a half-time change of Gurney for Murty (with either Gurney or Newman playing at right-back).

Newman being in the centre of defence at this point became extremely significant just as the 45 minutes were up. Bristol City were attacking again, and Newman put a hard but definitely fair challenge in on an attacker. The Bristol player had been trying to pull Newman over as the two of them had run into position to meet the ball, and finally succeeded after Newman had made the challenge (and whilst the ball went off for a throw-in). The two players therefore ended up in a heap on the floor. Newman got up and the attacker stayed down injured. Adi Viveash went over to look at him and immediately turned away horrified by something he could see. The game was stopped for nine minutes for treatment, with the injured player receiving oxygen on the pitch (whilst being comforted by Keith Jones) before being stretchered off into an ambulance.

The injured player had been a dirty little cheat in the game up to this point, and would almost certainly not even have got injured if he had not been trying to pull Newman over, so I have no sympathy for him at all. And the self-righteous Bristol City fans might want to remember their own reaction to Adie Williams when he was injured, before they start having a go at Reading.

The ref played a further three minutes before half-time, and I felt that if we could have got a goal at this point the game was still there for the taking - I wouldn't have said that about a Reading team down by three (or perhaps even one) when Tommy Burns was manager.

At half-time Jamie Cureton was brought on for McIntyre. Cureton got a bit of stick from the home fans, but not as much as you might have expected. (For obvious reasons, Ricky Newman was getting more but he didn't let it affect him at all.) One reason why Cureton didn't get abused might well have been that he immediately changed the pattern of the game, and the home fans were obviously extremely worried. His first touch led to nothing, but with his second he beat the left back, got to the byline and put over a really good cross that our other forward players just couldn't get a touch to.

Soon after, a Cureton flick hit the bar - we also forced a good save out of the keeper and had a couple of goalmouth scrambles in this period of play. The home fans were silent, the away fans were really getting behind the team and if we could just have got that first goal we could well have gone on to get something out of the game. And then after an hour we got the chance we needed - Matthew Robinson who had become an attacking force in the game, went on a run that took him into the penalty area where he was felled. It was a definite penalty, but the referee saw fit not to give it - only he could tell you why not.

Bristol City cleared the ball and within a couple of minutes had scored a fourth goal by taking the ball down the right wing, and scoring with a simple cross and shot, although I thought that both the player who crossed the ball and the scorer must have been close to being offside at different points of the move (I totally accept though that I was at the other end and had a not terribly good view of this). As the fourth goal went in, it was clear that the game was over.

Both teams recognised this and very little else happened - Reading threatened with a couple of long shots, one in particular from Robinson that flew just past the angle of post and crossbar. Butler continued to chase everything, but didn't get much support from our other players, whilst Bristol City were content to pass the ball around and create nothing.

So the game ended 4-0, and the only good thing that comes out of the game is that never again will anyone write rubbish about the new yellow shirts being lucky.

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