1871 - the ultimate Reading FC website

2000/01 Reports

Reading goal: McIntyre
Gamebreaker: Final whistle
Attendance: 12,307

Reading line-up: Whitehead, Murty, Robinson, Parkinson, Whitbread, Viveash, Harper, Caskey, Butler, Cureton (Rougier), McIntyre
Subs not used: Howie, Hunter, Newman, Igoe

Obviously, this game was covered on Sky Sports and I bet most people reading this have already watched it on television or via a video recorder. However, I am sticking to my own memories, as apart from the goal I've seen none of the match on TV yet. That means you'll be able to judge exactly how accurate my match reports are!

Before the game I saw Chris Kamara heading to the Sky van carrying a very unhealthy-looking hotdog with lashings of onions and ketchup. You may have noticed that some of the block paving outside the stadium has become a bit uneven over the last year or so - well Kamara hadn't spotted that and nearly tripped up. I mention this because a little later I saw Lee Hodges, Graeme Murty and one other person walking past the hotel and towards the players entrance (I don't know who the third person was, but I'm pretty sure that she wasn't one of our first team squad). As they approached the kerb, Murty stumbled and nearly fell - absolutely typical, I thought.

Inside the stadium it was clear that there were not going to be a large number of Wigan fans present - the relatively long journey for those fans based in or near Wigan, the evening kick-off and live television had all obviously taken their toll. Bear in mind however that we took over 600 fans to their ground on a Friday evening, and for this game a large number of Reading fans still made their way to Madejski Stadium.

The team showed just the one change from the starting line-up at Wycombe, with James Harper recalled in place of Ricky Newman. Newman dropped to the bench, knocking Lee Hodges out of the squad altogether.

The first half was pretty awful, particularly from our point of view. Reading had reverted to the long ball of a couple of months ago, and the Wigan central defenders were winning the ball every time. I was vaguely hoping that this was a deliberate Reading ploy to lull any watching rival clubs into a false sense of security. Wigan looked lively on the break and were putting together some decent passing moves, but every one of them seemed to end with a shot that was way off target. (Based on their recent scoring record, this is something that will lull their rivals into a true sense of security!)

The first Reading shot I can remember came from Phil Parkinson who won the ball in midfield, took it forward a few yards, and then shot from a long way out. It went high and wide, and I remembered Alan Pardew's comments in the programme about how players on live televised games often didn't play their normal game. Parky has scored some goals like that over the years, but he would normally have looked for a pass out wide.

Reading's best moves came down the left with passing between Jim McIntyre and Matthew Robinson, with Harper or Parkinson joining in to make the triangle. At Wycombe on Tuesday, McIntyre had a superb game, and was able to beat the full-back every time. Against Wigan it was a different proposition altogether and after a few failed attempts he stopped trying to go past his man, and instead looked to beat him with passing moves. That shows a level of footballing intelligence that was good to see.

One of these moves led to a free-kick outside the box. It wasn't really in Darren Caskey's range but he moved the ball a few yards further in, which the referee allowed, and then it was. As Parkinson and McIntyre stood over the ball I was waiting for the normal comedy routine, but instead Caskey just stepped up and curled the ball over the wall. The Wigan keeper was easily able to get over to his post to make the save. I wondered whether we dropped the comedy routine because the game was televised, or did we just drop it because we knew that Wigan knew that we were going to do it?

Reading also won a number of corners on the left hand side of goal. Our normal routine for these is for one of our centre-backs to get unmarked at the far post and head back across goal. The first time we tried this Whitbread was blocked by a Wigan defender as he made the run, which no-one apart from me seemed to see. This meant that the corner sailed away to an area where there were no Reading players and the people around me blamed Caskey. Just before half-time, we tried the same routine - this time Whitbread got unmarked at the far post, and headed the ball back across goal. It was a dangerous ball but no Reading player could get the touch needed and Wigan were able to clear.

That meant that at half-time it was goal-less and I wondered how many of the viewers would be switching off and going out instead. (I also wondered whether my video was whirring away as I had set it five days previously, and it would only have taken one power cut in the meantime to mess everything up.)

I half expected Alan Pardew to replace James Harper at half-time because he had had little effect on the game, but instead Anthony Rougier replaced Jamie Cureton, who appeared to have taken no part in the proceedings at all. We also changed our game plan - instead of the long hopeful balls, there was a bit more passing going on. One of Rougier's strengths is that he is able to hold the ball up whilst our midfield join the attack in good positions. He's also able to go past just about any Division 2 defender, sometimes even when there are several around him. His effect on this game was immediate as he started to make good runs through the Wigan defence, which often ended with a foul and a Reading free-kick. However, Reading still didn't create the clear chances that we have come to expect in home games.

Wigan's passing game seemed to have mostly disappeared in the second half, but they still had some shots, nearly all of which were off target. However, they did get the ball in the net when a forward got in front of Adi Viveash and stabbed a low cross into the net. The key phrase here is "in front of" because he was offside. I had a perfect view of that one, and was appealing for the decision even before the linesman had his flag up. For what it's worth, it certainly looked to me as if their forward was offside.

A few minutes later another Wigan attack ended with a penalty appeal. One of their players went over in the penalty area, and my first instinct was that he was fouled. Fortunately the referee waved play on, and I think that is justice for the last two seasons when Wigan have benefited from three bad penalty decisions in games against Reading, including one in each of their two previous games at Madejski Stadium (although the one last season certainly had no bearing on the result, because we had lost that match anyway).

Earlier in the season, one of the reasons Reading had so many big home wins was our ability to break quickly and pass accurately to our forwards. With 20 minutes to go, this method of scoring made a welcome return, as a Wigan corner broke down and we were able to play the ball out of defence. It was Whitbread who got it first, and the ball was played out to the right wing for Harper. He was several yards behind his marker but still managed to get to the ball first. We were told that he had pace, and here was some clear evidence for it. Once Harper had the ball, he turned the defender inside out before getting to the byline and putting over a low cross. Rougier was at the near post and couldn't get the ball but he did distract the keeper, who couldn't go for the ball in case Rougier had been able to stretch and reach it. We also had Martin Butler in the centre of the penalty area but he was several yards away so the cross continued to the far post, where McIntyre (seemingly coming from nowhere) was able to slot it home from a tight angle.

At 1-0 down, Wigan had to push forward and that gave Reading opportunities for more space in our attacks. Wigan made a series of bizarre substitutions, taking off players who had done well, and bringing on defenders, which of course did us no harm at all. I assume that they were forced by injury, but then looking at some of Wigan's recent results (and managerial decisions), then maybe not.

From another break, Butler took the ball forward and passed to Harper on his right. The pass pushed Harper wider than he wanted to go, and it looked like he would have to take the ball further out wide and then put in a cross. Instead he turned and fired in a very strong shot which the Wigan goalkeeper was only able to push over the bar. Other keepers in this division would have conceded a goal to that shot, and it showed another of Harper's qualities.

With time running out, Wigan had one really good chance where their most lively player got behind our defence with the ball at his feet. He was at a very tight angle, and fell halfway between having a shot and putting in a cross, meaning that the ball went across the face of the goal and off for a goal-kick with no forward able to reach it.

As normal time expired, Butler had a golden opportunity to seal it (and to give me maximum points in the Prediction League) but he had to stretch for a cross and somehow managed to put it over the bar from very short range. He seems to have done that rather often just recently.

The fourth official showed three minutes to go, which with all the substitutions and the time-wasting from Wigan before we scored, seemed a bit generous for Reading to me (but I'm not complaining). In any event, Reading kept the ball for most of that time, and as the three minutes were up, Rougier went on a run through the defence which would have given him an excellent chance to score. However, at that moment the referee blew for full time, which many of the crowd didn't even hear. I think it's a good sign that we were making enough noise not even to catch the final whistle.

Unlike our last home game against Rotherham, Reading's players were allowed to celebrate on the pitch without having to look out for wandering thugs from the opposition players or management, whilst the Wigan players gave me the impression that they were quite happy with their night's work. They'd played quite well, and must have become accustomed to losing just recently which is another very good sign for our promotion push.

Home . First Team Index

News . Opposition . Reserves . Academy . Where Are They Now? . Columns . Kingsley . MadStad . Interactive . Links . Site Map