| Competition | Date | Opponent | Venue | Result |
| Division 2 | Saturday, 10th February (3pm) | Brentford | Away | Won 2-1 |
Reading goals: Parkinson, Igoe
Gamebreaker: Final whistle
Attendance: 7,550
Reading line-up: Whitehead, Murty,
Newman, Parkinson, Viveash, Whitbread, Igoe (Jones), Caskey,
Butler, Cureton (Rougier), McIntyre
Subs not used: Howie, Gray, Hunter
Well, firstly, let's congratulate Brentford for actually managing to provide a pitch that was playable despite a fair amount of rain both before and during this match. This is of course in stark contrast to other teams in this division who are either frightened to face Reading at home or quite simply Mickey Mouse outfits (or, of course, both). However, maybe Brentford will wish that they had taken the cowards' way out as well after Reading took all three points.
The Reading line-up showed several changes with Martin Butler returning at the expense of Anthony Rougier, and Graeme Murty getting back in at right-back (with Ricky Newman again switching to left). The other change was that Adrian Whitbread made his debut with Barry Hunter dropping to the bench and John Mackie dropping out of the squad altogether.
The game started off really badly for Reading. Brentford were playing neat passing football along the ground and causing us lots of problems. On the other hand, Reading had reverted to more of a long-ball game, and the home side were always beating us in the air as well!
The first chance came when a Brentford header looped up over Phil Whitehead. He scrambled back but was not going to reach the ball in time - fortunately it went just over the bar for a corner. Brentford had other dangerous attacks but none of them actually produced a goal. One that stuck in my mind was when Ricky Newman headed a cross away from a corner - it was exactly the same as the own goal he scored in the Millwall home game but this time he got the right level of contact.
One Reading attack was halted by a terrible foul on Martin Butler. He had dispossessed a Brentford midfielder on the halfway line, and then set off forwards. The Brentford player thought he had been fouled and got his revenge by putting in a dreadful lunge on Butler. This was right in front of the team benches and Martin Allen came flying over the advertising hoardings to remonstrate with the ref. The end result was a free-kick to us, a booking for the Brentford player, a lecture for Mad Dog and fortunately no serious injury to Butler.
The next good chance was again for Brentford. A Brentford forward got the ball just outside the area, and went past two of our defenders as if they weren't there. With only Whitehead to beat, he shot low and to the right but the Reading keeper was equal to it. A better shot would surely have been impossible to save.
After this Reading started to come into the game. We forced a long series of corners. The first was on the right, and we used the routine where Phil Parkinson loses his marker and arrives on his own at the near post to meet Darren Caskey's cross. Yet again this worked, but Parky's strong volley was cleared away for another corner. This time McIntyre took it and the ball fell to Caskey on the edge of the area. His left-foot shot went a long long way over the bar.
The next corner was on the other side of the pitch allowing Caskey to put in an inswinger. He didn't really get the height he wanted, but it found Parkinson at the near post. He touched the ball on and it went through a crowd of players and into the net. It seemed certain that someone else got a touch as well, but it was Parkinson who was receiving congratulations from the other players.
We had another corner where we tried the standard "Phil Parkinson losing his markers" plan - yet again it worked but this time his header went wide. Also before half-time, Graeme Murty fired a long shot that was high and wide but quite close to the goal, and right on the whistle we had yet another corner but the referee blew before we could take it.
As the players and officials left the pitch, the Brentford manager deliberately waited to have a long chat with the referee. I can't think of any incident in the entire half where the home team had a right to feel hard done by from a decision, but from what we saw in the second half, I can only assume that he was reminding the officials either of the bribe they had received or that they needed to get out of town in one piece.
In the second half, the linesman who was giving the offside decisions against our attacks was right in front of a group of vocal and nasty-looking Brentford fans (at least one of whom was led away by the police before the end of the game). The fans gave the linesman stick all half and he returned the favour by awarding as many decisions as he could to the home side. Apart from giving our forwards offside on almost every possible occasion, he flagged for free-kicks to Brentford, gave them a couple of throws that were clearly ours, and also managed to indicate a goal-kick from one of our attacks that was headed away by a Brentford defender. However, when their players fouled ours he kept his flag down, and we had to rely on the referee spotting it.
Despite that, we had more of the play in the second half than we had in the first, but Brentford still had good chances to score that they failed to take. Very early on in the half one of their players shot just wide from a tight angle when it looked certain he would score.
At the other end the Brentford goalkeeper made a fantastic save from Sammy Igoe after Jamie Cureton broke down the left. Igoe met Cureton's cross with a thundering shot but the keeper was able to dive to his right and knock it away. Butler could have had a chance with the rebound, but he couldn't get the ball out from under his feet and never actually managed to put in a shot.
A similar move led to our second goal. Again Cureton broke free down the left (to be fair the linesman did not wave his flag for this one, which must have been close). Cureton headed for the area and was fouled by a defender. Unusually, Cureton stayed on his feet and with a nice piece of skill was able to cross for the unmarked Igoe to easily score. Cureton stood in front of the Reading fans, arms raised in triumph. I wonder if he'll get reported to the FA for that!
This goal came with about an hour gone, and at this stage the game settled down. It looked as though we could hold out comfortably for the win, but with about 20 minutes to go Brentford seemed to step up a gear. They made a substitution so that they had more attacking players, and this had an effect on the game.
In a ten-minute period they had several good chances - first Whitehead made a tremendous save by leaping high to his left and tipping a shot over the bar, and soon after had made another good save with a dive to his right. The best of the lot though was another tip over the bar, this time from a long shot that looked as if it was going to sneak in next to the angle of the post and crossbar.
Ricky Newman got booked after a tussle with a Brentford forward in midfield. The ball was over the other side of the pitch so I imagine that Newman was blocking the player's forward run. That means he'll be suspended for our trip to Swansea, by my reckoning.
In order to tighten things up, Alan Pardew brought on Keith Jones for Igoe. Jones ran onto the pitch to a rapturous reception and a rendition of "There's only one Keith Jones". However, within 30 seconds Brentford pulled a goal back. They took the ball down the right, and turned in a low cross from the centre of the box. The people next to me insisted on blaming Jones for this goal, on the basis that if Sammy Igoe had been on the pitch (playing wide on our right, remember!) Brentford would not have scored. Jones should be pleased to be booed by such idiots, because if they're that stupid he won't want their praise.
There were a few more Brentford attacks, but none that really had me worried that they were going to get an equaliser. In fact, we looked more likely to get another (which would have been nice because I had 3-1 in the Prediction League!) and were only stopped by a diabolical decision from the officials. Brentford were playing the ball around at the back and got into trouble, Cureton won the ball and was clearly fouled by the goalkeeper when heading towards the empty net. It should have been a free-kick and probably a red card, but instead the referee waved play on. He didn't book Cureton for diving so it's impossible to know what he was thinking. The foul took place right in front of the linesman I mentioned earlier, who obviously wasn't going to flag for anything our way. Cureton then had a verbal run-in with the previously mentioned Brentford fans, and Pardew immediately substituted him, bringing on Anthony Rougier.
Well into stoppage time, the same linesman gave a free-kick against us on the half-way line, when it was in fact Butler that got fouled. The Brentford goalkeeper went up to make an extra man, and stood unmarked at the far post. I don't know if our defence just missed the fact that he was there, but the ball fell to him. Then we discovered that he had no idea how to control it and ended up facing his own goal. His pass back to a defender was so bad that we even retrieved the ball but unfortunately none of our players could get the time and space for a 70-yard shot at an unguarded goal.
Soon after the referee blew for full time, and we had secured another three points. It wasn't a great performance but with midfield players chipping in for goals alongside our strike partnership we should be confident of similar wins when we visit some of the other very poor sides in this division.
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