| Competition | Date | Opponent | Venue | Result |
| Division 2 | Saturday, 31st March (3pm) | Notts County | Home | Won 2-1 |
Reading goals: Butler, Cureton
Gamebreaker: Final whistle
Attendance: 11,624
Reading line-up: Whitehead, Murty,
Robinson, Parkinson, Whitbread, Viveash (Hunter), Harper, Caskey,
Butler, Cureton (Forster), McIntyre (Rougier)
Subs not used: Howie, Newman
When the Reading team ran out to warm up before the match, it was immediately obvious that Darren Caskey and Adi Viveash had made their returns to the starting line-up. Viveash was preferred to Barry Hunter who dropped to the bench, whilst Caskey replaced Ricky Newman, with Graeme Murty reverting to right back.
A few minutes later the subs ran out and lo and behold there was Nicky Forster among them! Because this week's reserve match was postponed, Forster had had only an hour's play since returning from injury. I had thought that this would mean it was a while longer before we saw him get a chance for even a short stint in a first team game. Also returning to the squad on the bench was Anthony Rougier, whilst (compared with the Swindon game) Darius Henderson, Sammy Igoe and Keith Jones were out of the named 16 altogether.
It's tempting to just say that the first half contained some of the most boring football I've seen all season and leave it at that, but I guess I have to make some attempt on reporting those 45 minutes (seemed a lot longer, believe me). The first incident of any note was a Notts County attack after about fifteen minutes which ended with three Reading defenders combining to both block a shot and injure the County player who had the ball. After lengthy treatment he was stretchered off and substituted.
The fact that the away side were playing with ten men behind the ball every time that we got possession made it very difficult for Reading to make any progress. I think that in such situations we should try to get the ball to Caskey as often as possible because if anyone can unlock the mass defence it is him. However, most of his attempts to thread passes through or over the back four failed, whilst the rest of the team only had long balls as a tactic.
Notts County tried to attack only on the break, and fortunately their best two attempts both ended with the offside flag. Although it didn't matter, these attacks saw a magnificent save from Phil Whitehead and a horrendous miss at the far post.
Both of our centre-backs were booked in the half - Viveash brought down a forward in full flight and although he protested his innocence the referee showed him the yellow card at the next break in play. Adrian Whitbread was more unlucky - he certainly fouled an away forward, but the referee was clearly just going to give a free-kick. However, after he noticed that the forward stayed down injured, he called over Whitbread and booked him! Miraculously the Notts County player recovered instantly without even a limp.
The first Reading shots in the game were tame affairs straight at the goalkeeper - one from Cureton and then another from Butler. Our best chance in the half came from a free-kick at which Viveash managed to get completely unmarked at the far post and knock the ball back across goal. Notts County cleared it but appeared to do so with the use of a hand. Our players and the crowd appealed but the referee gave nothing.
For the second half, Rougier replaced Jim McIntyre and this certainly made a difference. Whilst in the first half McIntyre had been involved in decent moves but was unable to take the ball past the full-back, Rougier showed quickly that he could ghost past every County defender.
Gradually, the crowd started to get into the game as well. For whatever reason, the Maurice Evans Stand had been silent for most of the first half, with any attempted chants dying out quickly. I'd just like to condemn personally the people sitting around me (mid-way up in the section closest to the away end), not one of whom opened their mouth at any stage. And it doesn't matter how prepared you are to sing - it's impossible to keep it up when everyone around is acting like they're in a cathedral.
Back to the second half, and we won a free-kick just outside the box. Rougier and Caskey stood over it, there was no real attempt at deception and Caskey's on-target kick was easily saved by the goalkeeper. A couple of minutes later we won the ball in midfield and it was played out to Jamie Cureton wide on the right. He took the ball down the wing, easily outpacing the ponderous defender who was tracking him, and crossed to the edge of the six-yard box. Waiting in the middle and able to knock the ball home was Martin Butler. We were 1-0 up and the end of the move that led to the goal was very similar to the one that won the game at Swindon, except for the fact that Butler and Cureton were in the opposite roles.
Obviously this meant that Notts County had to attack a bit more, and their two forwards started to look dangerous. However, it was Reading who scored next, taking advantage of the Notts County players committed to attack, with some excellent work from Cureton. A through ball was played along the ground through the defence and Cureton ran towards it. At first it looked as if the keeper would reach the ball before him, but as with all predators Cureton is able to find that little bit of extra pace when there's a chance of a goal. He just got to the ball first, tipped it around the goalkeeper and then was able to score with a nice shot from a very tight angle.
At 2-0 it appeared to be all over as we constantly attacked the County goal, but most of our subsequent efforts were off target. One that was in the right direction was another Caskey free-kick which was almost a carbon copy of the one at the start of the half, save that Phil Parkinson and Rougier tried to act out the comedy routine (and didn't do it particularly well). The end result was identical, a comfortable catch by the keeper at his right-hand post.
Having spurned some half-chances we were made to pay about ten minutes from time when County reduced the deficit to 2-1. Some sloppy defending allowed them to get a shot in which Whitehead could only parry to a grateful away player who shot into the empty net. With their next attack Notts County hit the side netting from a tight angle when a pull-back might have been very dangerous.
Reading had brought on Forster for Cureton just after the County goal - in his first piece of action, Forster showed that he still had all his pace, and later on he even had a couple of shots. For the second one, he had taken the ball into the box on the left-hand side and really should have passed with two unmarked Reading players screaming for a lay-off to the right hand side. Instead, looking for glory, Forster shot and failed to find the net.
Fortunately it wasn't costly as we were able to hold on reasonably comfortably to the end of the match.
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