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2000/01 Reports

Reading goals: Igoe, Caskey (penalty), Cureton
Gamebreaker: Millwall's second goal
Attendance: 14,743

Reading line-up: Whitehead, Newman, Robinson (Murty), Parkinson, Mackie, Hunter, N Smith (Igoe), Caskey, Butler, Cureton, Hodges (Rougier)
Subs not used: Howie, Jones

Well, this was the game we thought that we had all been waiting for. The latest return of Judas Iscariot to Reading, a home game against the division leaders, and a chance for revenge for an opening day defeat. Instead what we got was one of the worst Reading performances in recent years, with what can only be described as an abject, clueless surrender by the starting eleven players.

The team showed just the one change from the side who failed to take three points off Northampton, with John Mackie replacing the suspended Adi Viveash. So that was mistake number one - such a defensively-minded line-up was entirely the wrong way to go about this game (and it was wrong for Northampton, as well). In the match programme, it said that "the players did not need motivating for this one". Well, that was clearly the next mistake, as what unfolded over the first 45 minutes showed that not a single one of those players had the slightest interest in securing a victory.

I would say that we were second for every ball, were it not for the fact that we were more likely to have been third or fourth. The attitude and performance was the sort that you would not expect to see for any home game, let alone one so important. What makes it worse is that whilst Millwall undoubtedly have a couple of class players, and are prepared to fight for every ball, I don't think they are anything like the superteam that people are trying to make out. Our best team should beat them, and I think that even the team we put out on Saturday was capable of getting a result.

In the opening minutes of the game, it did look as though Reading might be playing at an appropriate level, as we forced a number of attacks and had the majority of the possession. But even this did not translate into goal-scoring opportunities, and all we had to show were a couple of hopeful long-range efforts - one wide, and the other one more like a backpass than a shot.

The other feature of the start of the game were a series of bad fouls by Millwall players - the referee handled these perfectly by producing yellow cards, and in general that meant that Millwall stopped doing them. A good example for many of the other referees we have seen this season on how to actually control a game.

After the early action, the away side came into the game more, and it was no great surprise when they scored. I think that John Mackie is a good defender, but he lacks the experience to cope with the better attackers in this division. I have no idea at all why it was always him rather than Barry Hunter who was marking the division's leading scorer, and the first goal came when Mackie was not close enough to his man, allowing him to swivel and easily put a shot past Phil Whitehead.

Did this goal galvanise Reading into action? Of course, it didn't. Instead we decided that the correct way to deal with a corner was to leave the far post undefended, and to leave the scorer of the first goal on his own so that he could tap the ball in for a second. Our work at set-pieces has improved enormously this season, and yet still there are these basic errors that should never see the light of day in an Academy game, let alone from the first team.

At 2-0 down, Alan Pardew realised that it was time to make changes, and started the subs warming up. As usual, it took too long, and by the time Tony Rougier and Sammy Igoe got onto the pitch we were three down. This time it was Ricky Newman who headed a cross into his own net, although I suppose you have to say that at least he was in the danger area trying to defend.

The players taken off were Neil Smith and Lee Hodges - Smith stormed down the players' tunnel, with only Keith Jones trying to persuade him to return to the bench instead. I don't know what Smith was so worked up about - he had failed to produce even one piece of worthwhile play in the half-hour he had spent on the pitch. Hodges had been little better, so bringing on two attackers was at least a step in the right direction. The problem was that at 3-0 down this game was already lost - there are two things you can do in such situations. You either shut up shop and lose 3-0, or you start attacking with abandon in which case you normally lose 6-0, but just occasionally get back into a game. I suppose it is some comfort that we did at least go for the second option.

Before half-time we had had to use our third substitute, as Matthew Robinson was stretchered off following a collision. He was replaced by Graeme Murty, who took over at left-back. None of the three subs made a great deal of difference to the play at this stage, and at half-time it was still 3-0.

In the early moments of the second half, John Mackie gave away a penalty with a small shirt-tug and Millwall comfortably scored the penalty (really comfortably, because Phil Whitehead made no attempt at all to save it!).

At 4-0 Millwall eased off, and Reading started to come back into the game. In fact, we actually started playing some decent stuff, and managed to pull one goal back with a Sammy Igoe header. Even then, Igoe completely messed up his header, putting the ball straight at the keeper when he had the whole goal to aim at. Fortunately the Millwall keeper just fumbled it over the line.

I doubt if anyone really thought this was the start of a big comeback, but the fact is that Reading did continue to press forward, and Millwall were unable to step up the gear they needed to make the game absolutely safe. With plenty of time still left, their centre-back handled a cross in the area and Darren Caskey scored from the penalty. It is of course absolutely typical that when we get a referee who is prepared to give us a penalty for a handball in the area, it comes in a game which we had already lost.

Millwall took off their left-winger (who as far as I could tell had done nothing all game), so Murty and Newman switched full-back positions. If we had any chance in this game, we obviously had to take any chances that we got, so the final nail in the coffin was when Jamie Cureton put the ball over the bar when the Millwall keeper, having just fluffed a cross, was lying on the ground.

In the closing minutes, Millwall wasted a lot of time, suggesting that they were not as comfortable about the result as they should have been, and Reading failed to look at all dangerous. Finally in the last seconds, Cureton scored after the goalkeeper had again fumbled a cross, this time from a corner. We'd already exceeded the added time shown by the fourth official so it was no surprise that the final whistle went immediately after the restart.

So let's look for some positives from this game - I can only think of two. The first was the performance of Graeme Murty - he showed the same skilful forward runs that we saw when he came back after his first injury, but also put in some good tackles, and also was clearly motivated to do well in the game.

The other positive is that when Millwall eased up and we came back at them, they were unable to get themselves going again. Back in mid-October, Reading eased up at home to Wrexham at half-time when 4-0 up, and we have yet to get going again. Hopefully the same fate will befall our visitors.

As for negatives from the game, I will sum them up as follows:

Wrong team line-up - blame Pardew,
Players not motivated - blame Allen,
Players not playing to their potential - blame the players, and
No atmosphere from the home crowd - blame us, the fans.

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