| Competition | Date | Opponent | Venue | Result |
| Division 2 | Saturday, 23rd December (3pm) | Luton Town | Home | Won 4-1 |
Reading goals: Hunter, Cureton (3)
Gamebreaker: Reading's third goal
Attendance: 10,771
Reading line-up: Whitehead,
Newman, Robinson, Parkinson, Viveash, Hunter, N Smith, Caskey,
Butler, Cureton (Rougier), Hodges (Igoe)
Subs not used: Howie, Mackie, Gurney
Wonder of wonders - we were able to play this game entirely in the DRY! That's the first time since the middle of October, and the weather probably helped Reading more than it did Luton.
Alan Pardew had certainly looked at his team for some weaknesses and had made three changes from the last starting line-up. The most popular decision was to replace Keith Jones - perhaps most fans might have replaced him with Joe Gamble but I don't think there were too many complaints about the fact that it was with Neil Smith. Jones didn't even make the bench, which might just suggest that he has picked up an injury.
Also Jamie Cureton came in for Tony Rougier, and Barry Hunter played from the start instead of John Mackie. Mackie has played pretty well during his stint with the first team, and I think we can expect to see him back when Adi Viveash serves his one-game suspension in January.
Another noticeable change from previous matches was a very large police presence and the use of the safety gate - the only possible reason I can think of for this was that the local constabulary were trying a dry run for the Millwall game. You'll all be pleased to know that at the end of the match the bulk of the police were in their vans a long way away from any potential trouble areas, which is of course exactly the way they "policed" the Millwall game from last season.
Luton started the game quite well, without ever really looking that threatening. They had about ten minutes of early pressure during which time they managed a couple of shots that went just wide, and Phil Whitehead had to get down smartly to save a long shot. Nevertheless, they still looked like a team not too confident in what they were doing.
At the other end the Luton goalkeeper showed some encouraging signs of being unable to hold on to the ball. We would benefit from this later in the game. Reading's attacks looked more likely to produce a goal, and it came after 20 minutes when Barry Hunter was in the area and able to fire home after a couple of rebounds.
The goal seemed to put an end to all of the Luton attacks, and instead Reading continued to press. We had two golden opportunities to score, one when a defensive error allowed a cross to reach Cureton several yards out from goal and with no defender within ten yards. However, he snatched at his shot and pulled it wide.
The second chance was also wasted by Cureton - Martin Butler took a weak shot from just outside the area that the keeper should have been able to handle easily. Instead the goalkeeper failed to catch the ball, and it bounced five yards away from him. Any real goal poacher would have been following in at this point, but for some reason Cureton was just standing still. By the time he reacted the ball was safe in the keeper's hands.
Cureton did manage to get on the scoresheet just before half-time. We played a right-wing corner to Phil Parkinson who was totally unmarked inside the area. He turned the ball goalwards but didn't really get the contact he wanted. However, it went to a pack of players, from where Cureton was able to hook the ball in. Half-time and it was 2-0 to Reading.
At the start of the second half, Luton really did put our goal under pressure. I think that the Reading players thought that they had the game won, and eased off. This allowed our opponents back into the game. There were two reasons why they did not quickly score a goal - the main one was that almost every attack they were flagged offside. My view of these was pretty good, and I think that the linesman was right every time. In fact, there was one he let go when they were offside, but the Luton fans (with their perfect view from behind the goal!) were giving the linesman a lot of stick.
The other reason they did not score was that we managed some heroic defending. Barry Hunter, in particular, was a colossus in our defence at this stage of the game. He stopped through runs on the ground, won defensive headers, and best of all was able to head the ball out from under the ball on the one occasion that Luton got past Whitehead. Unfortunately Luton were able to pull a goal back soon after that. From a corner a forward climbed all over Adi Viveash and was able to head the ball home.
Fortunately Luton were not good enough to make the most of this, and Reading were able to gradually raise their game. There's no good reason why we should have had to have done this, but as I said the players had eased off after the break.
Part of the improvement was because Sammy Igoe came on for Lee Hodges. Igoe went to the right side of midfield with Darren Caskey switching to the left. We didn't see that much more of Caskey during the game, but Igoe was involved on many occasions, skipping down the wing and past defenders in the style that the East Stand has really come to appreciate.
After Martin Butler had for the second game running managed to shoot 15 yards high from a good position, it was his on-target shot that led to the third goal. Butler got the ball on the edge of the area and fired a low shot to the keeper's right. He got no real power on it and the ball should really have been an easy save, but instead the Luton goalkeeper just palmed the ball out to Cureton, who tapped it home. On this occasion, Cureton really was playing the poacher's role.
At 3-1, the game was obviously over. Reading just played out the final minutes, and Luton posed no further threat at all. I was sitting there trying to remember whether I had gone for 3-0 or 3-1 in the Prediction League (and obviously hoping that I had chosen 3-1!) when Cureton popped up to score a fourth. Again the goal came from a cross - the ball went over the keeper and an unmarked Cureton had an easy header from a couple of yards out. Again there must have been some poor defence to let him get that sort of chance.
That was in the last minute, and the game did end at 4-1, the same score as in the Simod Cup Final on that great Wembley day more than twelve years ago.
There was a time (and not so long ago) when Reading fans would get ecstatic about a 4-1 win, but we've seen so many big wins this season that we're all getting a bit blasé about it now. That is of course wrong, and we need to appreciate these games where the team doesn't perform with all cylinders firing and still comes away with a comfortable victory. One thing's for certain - the other clubs in the division will look at this result, and continue to worry about trips to Fortress Madejski.
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