| Competition | Date | Opponent | Venue | Result |
| Division 2 | Tuesday, 24th October (7.45pm) | Bury | Away | Won 2-0 |
Reading goals: Butler, Cureton
Gamebreaker: Reading's second goal
Attendance: 2,808
Reading line-up: Whitehead,
Newman, Robinson (Gurney), Jones, Viveash, Mackie, Parkinson,
Caskey, Butler, Cureton (Rougier), Hodges (McIntyre)
Subs not used: Howie, Hunter
Well, after 15 years of trying I've finally seen Reading win at Gigg Lane. And believe me, it feels good.
Reading made three changes from last Saturday - John Mackie replaced the injured Adie Williams, Jamie Cureton replaced Jim McIntyre in what was very much a hoped-for change, and Phil Parkinson returned to the centre of midfield, with Ricky Newman dropping back to replace Graeme Murty. Murty and Sammy Igoe had disappeared from the squad altogether, with both Barry Hunter and Tony Rougier making their returns from injury with a place on the bench.
The final outcome of a Reading win didn't seem very likely about 30 minutes into the game - neither team had managed to settle or to create any really decent chances. The continual rain (which was to last until just before the final whistle) made both the surface and the ball slippery, which wasn't helping things much. To cap everything, Matthew Robinson had gone off injured only a few minutes into the game, to be replaced by Andy Gurney.
However as the half drew to a close, Reading seemed to step up a gear and had significant chances to take the lead. The first one was fortunate, as a cross-field ball managed to confuse a defender who missed it, and ended up at the feet of Lee Hodges on the edge of the penalty area. Hodges tried to take the ball forward, but the last defender tripped him up. Penalty and a red card, I thought. The referee however saw it differently - he gave a free-kick on the edge of the area and completely ignored the Bury defender. Darren Caskey's free-kick deflected off the wall for a corner, which came to nothing.
That was by no means the end of the referee's contribution to the game, though. If you were at the Peterborough match, you will no doubt remember the first handball incident where their defender flicked the ball away to stop our forward getting to it, apparently with no official able to see it. Well, it happened to us again! This time, Jamie Cureton and a defender were closing in on the ball in the six-yard box and the defender just knocked it away with his hand. Again, it would have been difficult for the referee to spot this, but one of the linesmen had no excuse. We even had another penalty appeal a few minutes later, when a hard-driven ball from outside the area was knocked away by a Bury player's hand, although this one might have been harsh as it was hit so hard (fairly similar to the one given to Peterborough in that previous game, though). No doubt these incidents will even out by the end of the season - and part of that is coming up in the second half of this game - but at the moment we are not getting our share of the calls.
Just before half-time, we came much closer to getting a goal. Jamie Cureton picked the ball up on the right side, beat his man and got to the byline before squaring the ball. Butler was there just waiting to tap it in, but a defender got his foot to the ball first, and his attempted clearance cannoned off the post and off for a corner. This was our last chance of the half and at the end where about 400 Reading fans were gathered.
At half-time, I reckon that the management team pointed out a few weaknesses in the Bury line-up. It wouldn't have been that difficult, as the home side had managed to show no hint of how they'd got to the top of the table in the whole of the first half. This meant that in the second half, Reading were able to take complete control of the game from the restart.
It seemed that we were using the full width of the pitch more, and we actually had the ball in the net following a run down the right touchline from Cureton. He crossed the ball for Butler to sweep it home, but the linesman flagged for offside. We'd been offside a lot in the first half as well, so this wasn't too much of a surprise.
Only a few minutes later, we did take the lead, and it was that man Butler again. His twelfth of the season was very similar to one at Madejski Stadium against Wrexham last week, as he received a cross from the right at the near post, and hammered it home across his body, giving the goalkeeper no chance.
A second goal followed shortly after - this time Butler was set free with a ball played through the defenders. Butler chested it on and ran to the right side of the goal, where he crossed for Cureton who had a more-or-less open goal to knock the ball into. I was concerned about whether Cureton might have been flagged offside, but he was probably behind the ball when Butler crossed it, and therefore onside.
To be honest, one goal was probably enough to win this game, so at 2-0 it was well and truly over. Bury still managed to hardly threaten our goal, even when they were supposedly chasing the game, and if anything it was more likely that we would get a third. However Bury did also have a goal disallowed, and I wonder whether it should have counted. From a free-kick, their player drove the ball in. It came off a Reading defender and fell for a Bury player who put it past Phil Whitehead and into the net. The linesman flagged him offside. He might have been offside at the time the first ball came over, but I think it's more liekly that the linesman failed to realise that it was a Reading player who played the ball forward with the second touch. If that was the case, we got some luck, and to be quite frank we didn't need it.
Towards the end of the game, Jim McIntyre came on for Lee Hodges. McIntyre looked like he was back to the form of earlier in the season as he took part in some nice moves. Also, right at the end Tony Rougier (or Rogers as the Bury public address system would have it) replaced Cureton - if Rougier touched the ball at all, then I missed it but it is good to see him back.
Finally, a word about John Mackie. He played well all game, and together with Adi Viveash looked extremely solid at the back. He's not up to Adie Williams' standard yet, but has looked good on each occasion that he's played.
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