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2001/02 Reports

Match facts:

Reading goals: None
Assists: None
Opposition goals: After 6 and 26 minutes
Half-time: Colchester United 2 Reading 0
Gamebreaker: Colchester's first goal
Attendance: 3,691
Referee: Keith Hill (Royston)

Reading line-up: Phil Whitehead; Graeme Murty, Adie Williams, Adrian Whitbread, Matthew Robinson (Darius Henderson, 77 minutes); James Harper (Nicky Forster, 63 minutes), Phil Parkinson, Keith Jones (Sammy Igoe, 59 minutes), Alex Smith; Martin Butler, Jamie Cureton
Subs not used: Jamie Ashdown, Adi Viveash
Reading yellow cards: None
Reading red cards: None

Match report:

Let's be honest. If we'd played this game on a Saturday afternoon and with the team in good form, we'd still have expected to get no points. There's something about Colchester which seems to send our players into another world, one where they collapse under the (totally non-existent) pressure of a couple of thousand home fans and allow the home side to win every challenge. Perhaps Colchester poison the tea-urn in the visitors' dressing-room or something like that.

Having expected to get no points, Reading successfully delivered. However, this was not exactly the same as the previous two abysmal performances. There were large chunks of the game that we totally dominated, and there was a fair amount of playing football in evidence. Unfortunately neither of these positive aspects lasted for the full 90 minutes, but it is at least movement in the correct direction at last.

The game started badly when Colchester scored in the opening exchanges. Keith Jones challenged a home attacker in the air and the referee thought it was worth a foul. (I didn't.) Although the free-kick was hit fairly close to Phil Whitehead, he could only parry it out to another home player who knocked it into the net. Reading didn't really respond to this, although we had some attacks all of which seemed to end with Jamie Cureton hitting the ball just over the bar.

Halfway through the half, Colchester extended their lead. A hopeful punt downfield from the left side found the head of a Colchester midget rather than whichever of our six-foot-plus Adrians was supposed to be marking him. He flicked a backheader in the general direction of the goal and discovered that Whitehead was off his line, meaning a really soft goal.

This time there was a reaction, as Reading played the ball around on the deck. Is that worth saying twice? Yes, I think so. Reading played the ball around on the deck. It proved that Colchester were totally unable to cope with that style of play, and meant that we spent the next 20 minutes camped in and around their penalty area. We had corners, we had shots just over the bar, and on one occasion we even had an on-target shot that the keeper touched over the bar with a diving save. But the ball just wouldn't go in.

In the second half, Colchester just tried to break up the game as much as possible. Aided by a referee who allowed them to waste as much time as they liked (he did add it on at the end of the game, but never actually cautioned or even warned the culprits), and who was also reluctant to show a yellow card, they were comfortably able to keep to their plan. I always find it annoying when Reading try to waste time instead of going for more goals in a game, but it's doubly annoying that we are so poor at it. Colchester have a much better idea of how to carry out this tactic.

We resorted to periods of hoofball but occasionally remembered that football was the way to play against this side. This again produced some chances, and Jamie Cureton explored the area between eight and nine feet above the ground of the other goal as well, discovering that it still only led to a goal kick each time. He did manage to hit the bar with one close-range shot, but that was as close as it came.

Alan Pardew tried to change things around by using all three substitutes. The last one even saw Darius Henderson replace Matthew Robinson, with a switch to playing four up front. Colchester still didn't threaten our goal so it was undoubtedly the way to proceed, but didn't help us to score.

There were five minutes of injury time at the end of the game, and incredibly we managed to make enough good chances in that period to have claimed all three points! But as none of them went in, we ended up (as expected at kick-off) with another defeat.

Perhaps it is a good thing to be playing our next game in the League Cup. There will be no real pressure on the players, which might allow them to play a natural and more effective game. And that might be important because by next weekend, there will be real pressure to take three points in a League game for the first time in three weeks.

Match notes:

Compared to the previous game against Bury, Jamie Cureton replaced Nicky Forster and Phil Parkinson came into the side in place of Sammy Igoe, with James Harper moving to play wide on the right. Igoe displaced Anthony Rougier from the substitutes' bench.

This was Reading's seventh consecutive game at Layer Road without a win (and the sixth defeat in those seven games). Our last win there was over 20 years ago.

Match preview:

I'm sure that the trip to the hovel that is Layer Road was one of the things that we were all looking forward least to this season (and I know that's a dreadful sentence but I can't be bothered to go back and change it). The fact that Colchester started the season playing some decent football and racking up points doesn't help at all. On the other hand, the fact that they have lost their last three games does, and it is possible that this game may not be the banana skin that it appears to be.

The clear message is that Reading are seriously under-performing at the moment. I think that anything less than six points against teams as poor as Bournemouth and Bury was unacceptable, and only picking up one was unthinkable. Personally, if I was in charge, there would be an almost completely different team on the field at Colchester. It seems unlikely that Alan Pardew will take similar action. My real fear for the game is that, as has happened before in smaller grounds, we will allow the home side to dominate affairs, and afterwards look back at a 2-1 defeat wondering what happened.

Phil Parkinson is available again after suspension, but may be injured and so unable to play. Andy Hughes is undoubtedly still unfit, based on his brief appearance for the reserves on Wednesday.

Ticket information:

The away accommodation at Layer Road includes 405 seats and 800 terrace places. This game was originally all-ticket for Reading fans, with tickets going on sale to season ticket holders from Tuesday, 25th September, suppporters' club members from Friday, 28th September and on general sale from Monday, 1st October. However, on Wednesday, 3rd October the club announced that it was now possible to pay on the day.

Prices are:
Seats - adults £13, concessions £7.50
Terrace - adults £11, concessions £5.50

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