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2001/02 Reports

Match facts:

Reading goals: Phil Parkinson (32 minutes), Nicky Forster (74 minutes)
Assist: Andy Hughes (none for second goal as the last person to touch the ball before the goalscorer was a defender)
Opposition goals: None
Half-time: Blackpool 0 Reading 1
Gamebreaker: Reading’s second goal
Attendance: 5,613
Referee: Graham Laws (Whitley Bay)

Reading line-up: Phil Whitehead; Graeme Murty, Adrian Whitbread, Adie Williams, Matthew Robinson; Andy Hughes (Joe Gamble, 85 minutes), Phil Parkinson, James Harper, Alex Smith; Nicky Forster (Sammy Igoe, 81 minutes), Martin Butler (Darius Henderson, 79 minutes)
Subs not used: Jamie Ashdown, Adi Viveash
Reading yellow cards: Phil Parkinson (foul, 52 minutes), Adrian Whitbread (foul, 86 minutes), Graeme Murty (time-wasting, 91 minutes), Joe Gamble (foul, 93 minutes)
Reading red cards: None

Match report:

August in sunny Blackpool. Well, that will have to wait for another time, as for us the “town full of tat” produced only an overcast sky with strong winds and occasional rain. I even got slightly wet whilst standing on the covered terrace because the wind was strong enough to blow the rain through the gap between wall and roof. I suppose we should be thankful that the ground redevelopment meant that we didn’t have to stand on an open end with the rain in our faces.

As leaked during the Supporters’ Club Fans Forum, Alan Pardew has dropped the Adrian’s Wall formation, for now at least. In this game it was Adi Viveash dropping to the bench. I think I agree that he is the third best of our centre-backs but as he has the best left foot of all of them, I think he may well force his way back into the side soon. The change in formation meant room for an extra midfielder, and it was good to see Andy Hughes fill that place. He returned from his recent slight injury and played on the right side of midfield, with Alex Smith starting on the left.

It’s time to act in what is supposedly typical arrogant Reading fashion - from very early on, it was clear that there is a huge gulf in class between these two teams. Whilst I hope that is mostly due to Reading being strong again this season, I’m also certain that Blackpool are one of the very worst teams in Division 2. On that basis, this was an ideal first fixture of the season, as long as we ended up with the three points.

In the opening minutes of the match, Blackpool did come at us a little. They had a tall forward who won quite a bit in the air, and who also managed to gain a few free-kicks for supposed fouls on him in aerial challenges. Reading’s first shot on target came after eight minutes and was easily saved. I can’t actually remember anything more about it, but I do remember noting the time!

Blackpool’s only threat in this period was a shot from a fairly tight angle that Phil Whitehead was able to easily knock over the bar. It was a powerful shot but because it was straight at our goalkeeper there was no real danger.

Gradually, we started to take over the game, as Blackpool’s initial flurry of activity receded. Martin Butler and Nicky Forster looked dangerous up-front, but too much of our play was to lump hopeful balls in their general direction. However, we did also put together a few nice moves, one leading to a shot just wide, whilst other moves ended with comfortable saves.

We dealt easily with any Blackpool possession, occasionally forcing them to pass the ball back to their goalkeeper because our marking and pressure were so good. The best they could manage was a blocked free-kick from the edge of the area and a couple of corners. In fact, from the second of the corners we broke up their attack, and headed straight to the other end on a break. The final shot came from Andy Hughes, and needed a good diving save from the Blackpool keeper, which left us with a corner on the right-hand side.

In general, I expect our corners to be worse this season after the departure of Darren Caskey, but Andy Hughes showed that he can also pick the correct spot most of the time. He took this corner and found Phil Parkinson’s run. Parky headed the ball across the goal and into the net at the far post. After the game, the Blackpool manager criticised his keeper for not coming for the cross (whilst most reports picked up on that statement and described the goal as a Blackpool mistake), but I can’t see that at all. There’s no way the keeper could have got far enough out to claim the ball - the only way you can say that the goal was down to a mistake was the fact that they failed to mark Parkinson properly, but then no-one else manages to do that either.

A few minutes later and full of confidence, Parkinson tried a long shot but it went well wide. On average, he gets about one of these on target each season, and scores with one once every few years, so I suppose it was worth trying to get it out the way early!

In the remainder of the half, Reading started time-wasting, whilst looking mostly for counter-attacking moves. I don’t think Blackpool managed anything, whilst we had only a couple of promising-looking breaks that actually came to nothing.

At the end of the half, the fourth official showed three minutes to go, which seemed excessive. Because of some more time-wasting, the referee actually played four minutes. I have often criticised referees for not adding on enough time, so I’m not going to complain about one who errs in the other directions. Anyway, against a team as poor as Blackpool we should be delighted at more time added on, because it should give us time to score more goals.

One of the half-time scores was that Bristol City were 3-0 up away to Northampton Town. I couldn’t help thinking that with a bit more direction in our own play, we should have seen a similar scoreline.

Although Blackpool, attacking the end behind which the home fans stand, tried to show some more fight in the second half, they threatened on only a couple of occasions. They did get the ball in the net, but it was long after the whistle had gone for offside, and I’m not so sure that they would have scored had we still been trying to stop them. They also managed quite a good attack down the right, after we lost the ball in midfield. Matthew Robinson backed off from the attacker for forty yards rather than risk making a challenge. I just feel that in these circumstances you have to get a tackle in early, even if it is at the expense of a free-kick. As it was their move broke down around the edge of the penalty area.

Reading’s attacks showed far more likelihood of producing a goal. We had a break where James Harper just couldn’t find the right pass to release an unmarked Butler, and Butler let him know about it afterwards. We also gained some corners when the defender just managed to get a block on what looked like being a dangerous cross.

Although I was a little concerned about Blackpool fluking an equaliser, instead we were the ones to profit from a little luck. Nicky Forster was released down the right, but the Blackpool left-back came over to cover. He got his challenge in, but after a ricochet the ball ended up in front of Forster whilst the defender collided with the linesman (not that he was going to catch Forster up anyway). This left us with a four-on-one break, with Forster arrowing into the penalty area. Despite all the other options he chose to shoot. Under those circumstances, you have to score and Forster was good enough to pick a spot just inside the post and away from the reach of the keeper. Forster went absolutely mental. His shot was vaguely similar to the one that Phil Whitehead had to save early in the first half - the difference was that Forster went for precision whist the Blackpool player just hit the ball as hard as he could. That might well be a sign of the extra quality needed to score goals at the higher level.

At 2-0, this game was over. Everyone knew it, and Pardew started to make substitutions of those of our players who have recently recovered from injury. Darius Henderson got another run-out in a straight swap for Butler, whilst a little later Sammy Igoe replaced Forster (with Andy Hughes going up-front alongside Henderson). That formation lasted only a few minutes before Joe Gamble got only his second league appearance by replacing Hughes. As far as I could tell we switched to 4-5-1 from that point on.

Obviously, these changes were breaking up the game, but we did have to deal with a couple of Blackpool attacks. Adrian Whitbread stopped one with what was effectively a professional foul. There were other defenders covering so he got only a yellow card. The resulting free-kick ended up in the stand, as had the other free-kick in a dangerous position that Blackpool had earlier in the half.

Reading’s last decent move included a nice flick-on from Henderson but the final shot was tame. Igoe attacked down the right once but the defence were able to block his cross and the corner came to nothing.

At the end of this half, the fourth official showed six minutes to be added on, and the referee actually played seven. I think this was probably fair enough - there had been five substitutions (one a double), a lengthy goal celebration, at least one injury, four bookings and a fair amount of time wasted. And again, it shouldn’t have worried anyone because Blackpool still showed no serious threat.

We have at least started the season with a win, something that didn't happen last year. It will reinforce our strong reputation in the division although most people at other clubs will simply look at the result and deduce that Blackpool will struggle as expected.

With projected changes to the country’s gambling laws, there has been talk of Blackpool becoming the new Las Vegas by opening up a series of casinos. That should fit - Las Vegas don’t have a decent football side either.

Match notes:

Andy Hughes and Alex Smith made their League debuts for Reading. Adrian Whitbread made his first appearance as a permanent Reading player (as opposed to whilst being on loan). Matthew Robinson wore a black armband, presumably in memory of the Portsmouth goalkeeper Aaron Flahaven. Nicky Forster made his first start in a League game since May 2000.

Match preview:

This game sees the meeting of the only two teams in our division who took part in a play-off final last season. That of course means that Blackpool are still on a high whilst we're trying to forget our last game. There was a story that Blackpool fans were going to bring along all their Cardiff flags and banners to this match to remind us of the event, but I suspect that won't actually happen.

No-one can be certain what sort of team we're going to put out because there have been no clear statements about which players are fit. The only certainty seems to be that Jamie Cureton is out. Assuming that everyone else is able to play, I would expect to see the "Adrian's Wall" defence plus Murty and Robinson, with Parkinson, Harper and Hughes in midfield, whilst Forster and Butler play up-front. Given that Hughes has not played for a while it is more likely that Rougier or Alex Smith will take his place.

Blackpool's line-up is also in doubt, as they're still trying to finalise deals over a couple of trialists who have been playing for them (later news: they've signed both on month-long loans in time for them to play in our fixture).

Whatever sides the two teams put out, we should be looking to win this game. Reading are the favourites for the title with all bookmakers and in most previews (except strangely for Planet Football who don't even have us in the top six). Blackpool on the other hand are tipped to finish last in the division in many previews, and predicted to struggle by just about everyone.

Our last meeting was two seasons ago, at the very start of our Mad Dog-inspired revival, when we won 2-0 at Bloomfield Road. Conditions were appalling, the game was nearly called off because of high winds, and only about 120 Reading fans made the trip.

Eight years ago in this division, we destroyed Huddersfield Town 3-0 away from home in our first game of the season, and never looked back on our way to title success. 16 years ago we beat Blackpool 1-0 on the first day of the season, a game which was the first of the thirteen wins in a row that launched us to the title that season. This Saturday needs to be along the same lines.

Ticket information:

This game will be all-ticket for Reading fans, with 960 terrace places available. Tickets went on sale on Friday, 20th July to season ticket holders only (on the basis of one match ticket per season ticket), priced £12 for adults and £7 for seniors or under-16s. The few remaining tickets went on general sale from Monday, 30th July and immediately sold out.

The match was also all-ticket for home fans, and on 10/8/2001 it sold out.

Blackpool are currently building a North Stand (on the site of the old Kop) and a West Stand (on the site of the old main stand). Neither will be complete, or indeed anywhere near it, before Reading's visit. Meanwhile away fans will be placed in part of the covered terrace on the east side, as was the case on our last visit there.

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