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2000/01 Reports

Reading goals: None
Gamebreaker: Final whistle
Attendance: 11,549

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

Obviously our good run at home had to come to an end some time, but I think everyone will agree that this was a bit too early. Against very limited opposition, Reading showed no real ideas about how to break them down to get the openings that had come naturally in previous matches.

The starting line-up showed the expected change from the Walsall game with Cureton replacing Rougier. The bench again consisted of four wide players, signalling a very attacking intent on Alan Pardew's part. During the week Colchester had signed two players on loan - a centre-forward and a goalkeeper. Filling such key positions with loan players indicated that their manager was not at all confident in the squad he has (the fact that he's keen on buying Keith Scott does rather send out the same message!).

The other key thing to mention before the game was the state of the weather. Despite heavy rain, and two new lakes either side of the Relief Road leading up to the stadium, the pitch looked fine although obviously iut was greasy on top. We saw the same two seasons ago, where however much water falls out of the sky it just seems to drain away. Unfortunately there was also a very strong wind, which was obviously going to have an effect on the game. The weather undoubtedly kept the size of the crowd down as well.

From the whistle, Reading looked lacklustre, and nearly conceded a goal in the opening minutes. A Colchester player in acres of space managed to break through our defensive line but put the ball just wide of Phil Whitehead's right-hand post. That should have served as some sort of wake-up call, but it didn't really seem to have any effect on the pattern of the game. In fact the whole of the first half consisted of Reading getting the ball and struggling to find players to pass it to. Although we had some good attacks, there was never any fluency in our play. Keith Jones and Andy Gurney were particularly poor with their distribution. Even Darren Caskey was unable to produce more than a couple of the telling passes that have been his principal contribution this season.

Reading's first decent chance came from a stupid error from the Colchester keeper. Whilst taking a drop-kick he ran out of the penalty area whilst still holding the ball. He tried to tell the linesman that he'd released it before crossing the line, but that was rubbish. It was still a real shock to see a linesman give such a decision, but my lack of faith in match officials was reaffirmed a moment later when the referee tried to make us take the kick one yard outside the area! - I mean it HAD to be on the line, didn't it? Colchester put a defender on the goals's left-hand post so they obviously knew what we had in mind. When Caskey did take the free kick it didn't get past the wall.

We did have a spell of pressure following that, forcing a number of corners. The first couple of these were taken by Caskey and easily cleared. Rather than try the same thing again, when we got another one, Lee Hodges took it. He played the ball along the ground to Adi Viveash who had made space about 15 yards out from goal. Viveash turned the ball nicely towards the goal where Martin Butler needed only to get a decent touch to prod it home. Instead Butler got the ball stuck under his feet, and although there were two other Reading players in the near vicinity Colchester were able to clear it.

At this stage the away side had not looked remotely threatening, apart from that early chance. Even when they did attack, they had failed to get a shot in. However, Reading's miss became very important within a minute, as Colchester won a free-kick 25 yards out from goal at a bit of an angle. A short touch to change the angle, and one of their players smashed the ball into the net with a fierce left-foot drive. Whitehead had no real chance. (With the benefit of a TV replay I now know that this was because the ball went through the wall into the half of the goal that Whitehead was not covering.)

The change in score still did not change the way the game was played, and in the last ten minutes of the half, Reading only really had a long-range Andy Gurney shot to show for quite a lot of possession. His shot was well wide

Pardew knew that we needed to make changes, so at half-time he brought on Tony Rougier and Sammy Igoe to replace Andy Gurney and Darren Caskey. Hodges switched to left-back. This change completely changed the game, and meant that Reading totally dominated the second half. The two players coming on not only added some woidth to our game, but because both of them are good at holding the ball up, we gave it away a lot less. However, I think I would have been tempted to take Keith Jones off instead - he had had an awful first half, and that could have left Caskey in the centre of midfield. Phil Parkinson was having a good game, so that we were already winning quite a lot of ball in that area. And in any event, the main Colchester tactic was to hoof the ball upfield to their tall on-loan forward so a defensive midfield was not so important.

Anyway, Rougier started on the left and Igoe on the right. Within ten minutes we had seen several good runs from both of them, although none of the attacks actually led to anything concrete. It did however seem to be only a matter of time - it also looked that if we could get one goal, it might be quite easy to go on and score a few.

Meanwhile Colchester were looking to take something on the break. As mentioned their plan was to get the ball in the air to the centre-forward. He won pretty much everything in the air (usually against Viveash), and proved quite adept at laying the ball off when he got it to feet. From one early break they worked the ball out to the right, and when the cross came over it took a brilliant clearance from John Mackie to prevent a goal. Mackie had another good game and continues to look like an excellent signing.

Despite our pressure the goal we needed just would not come. There were shots that went just wide, and a couple that the keeper dealt with comfortably. With 20 minutes or so left, Igoe and Rougier swapped wings. I don't think this really worked as we looked less dangerous at the end of the match, but it was worth a try. Jamie Cureton's runs meant that he also often ended up in wide positions. On one occasion when trying to cross, he almost completely missed the ball and ended up doing a pirouette whilst the ball trickled off. It would have been quite funny if we'd been a couple of goals to the good. On another occasion, Cureton got clear down the right wing, but crossed without looking up, meaning that his dangerous cross pased several yards ahead of the unmarked Martin Butler in the middle.

Our single closest goal attempt of the game came from Ricky Newman. He again had a solid game in defence but linked up with forward moves on the right as well. With about 15 minutes left, he took a short pass in a wide position 40 yards out from goal, beat a couple of defenders, and looped a shot over the goalkeeper head and onto the crossbar. The ball bounced back (against the wind) to nearly the halfway line and off for a Colchester throw, just to give you an idea of how hard he must have hit it. For completeness, I must add that I thought Newman handled the ball in the first place when he received it, but if he did none of the officials saw it.

Pardew replaced Butler with Jim McIntyre - I guess this counts as a brave decision given that Butler is still the division's leading scorer, but to be frank he just hadn't produced in this game. McIntyre showed up in some good little moves, but again none that came to anything much. The last good chance came when a ball from the left got into the danger area, but both Reading players who might have turned it home ended up on the ground. I assumed that they ran into each other, but there had been a previous attack when all three Reading players in the penalty area slipped over at the same time.

The ref added only three minutes of injury time - I don't think it made a lot of difference to the result, but with injuries, substitutions, a booking for Cureton, plus a lot of time-wasting from Colchester, it was a lot less than there should have been. In those three minutes, the only incidents of note were a very long shot from Sammy Igoe that threatened Kingsley Royal by the corner flag more than the goal, and a booking for Newman.

After a bad defeat like this, it is tempting to blame the referee (Matt Messias), but that is something that we must not do. He was absolutely hopeless, and how he has just got a promotion to the Premiership is totally beyond me, but the failings in this match were entirely of our own making. We have been totally screwed by a couple of refs this season (I mean Peterborough and Walsall, although Wigan perhaps ought to be on that list as well) and we mustn't dilute our righteous anger against those incompetent or corrupt officials by saying that Messias had any effect on the result of this game.

And if we play like this against Gray Athletic next week, we might only beat them by four!

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