1871 - the ultimate Reading FC website

2001/02 Reports

Match facts:

Reading goal: Darius Henderson (80 minutes)
Assist: James Harper
Opposition goals: After 38, 52 and 87 minutes
Half-time: Reading 0 Swindon Town 1
Gamebreaker: Swindon's first goal
Attendance: 14,389
Referee: Paul Taylor (Cheshunt)

Reading line-up: Phil Whitehead; Adrian Whitbread, Adie Williams, Adi Viveash, Nicky Shorey; Nicky Forster (Andy Hughes, half-time), Phil Parkinson, James Harper, Sammy Igoe (Darius Henderson, 67 minutes); Martin Butler (Anthony Rougier, half-time), Jamie Cureton
Subs not used: Jamie Ashdown, Matthew Robinson
Reading yellow cards: James Harper (dissent?, 70 minutes)
Reading red cards: None

Match report:

Another truly awful performance against an average side, this week featuring those old favourites of weird team selection, clueless substitutions and an overall lack of commitment.

Let's start with the line-up. Presumably Graeme Murty failed his late fitness test so the back four including Adrians Whitbread, Williams and Viveash plus Nicky Shorey was more or less forced on Alan Pardew, In any event after those players had performed reasonably well against Aston Villa on Wednesday, they seemed the obvious choice. Putting Nicky Forster wide on the right meant a space for a left-sided midfield player, and Pardew chose to play Sammy Igoe there. From the early minutes of the game it was pretty clear that this wasn't going to work. Igoe took the ball down the left wing but after beating his man felt the need to cut back inside so that he could use his right foot to cross or pass the ball, and promptly lost it. He then failed to show the confidence in the remainder of the half to try anything more.

On the other side of midfield Forster found himself up against a pacy Swindon player who showed a much better idea of how to stop his runs that anyone at Aston Villa did. On the occasions when Forster did win the battle for pace, he was simply brought down, and the referee helped this tactic out by failing to book the culprit.

In the first 20 minutes or so, Reading failed to look dangerous but certainly held their own against a side who had clearly come to defend and hope to nick a goal. Several of our attacks ended with Jamie Cureton standing in an offside position - the linesman got all the decisions correct, despite Cureton's complaints. However, after this early spell, the opposition seemed to sense that we were there for the taking and became more adventurous. They had a couple of shots from free-kicks (one blocked, the other from about 40 yards saved by Whitehead) before taking the lead with a simple ball played over the top for a player who timed his run rather better than Cureton could managed at the other end.

At half-time, Pardew decided to make some changes. Playing all three big-name forwards - Cureton, Forster and Martin Butler - from the start was probably not such a bad move. Changing things at half-time after it had clearly failed to work was also reasonable, but the actual changes made defied belief. Andy Hughes made a welcome return from injury in place of Forster, whilst Anthony Rougier replaced Butler. Regardless of what instructions the players had been given, our formation at the start of the half was essentially 3-6-1, with Shorey, Igoe, Rougier and Hughes all playing wide with Cureton left up front on his own. To make matters worse, neither Phil Parkinson nor James Harper in midfield were playing forward so there was a huge hole in our formation effectively stopped all of our attacks, whilst also making it easy for Swindon to bring the ball out of defence.

Rougier's sole contribution was to miss a free header from about five yards out in the opening minutes of the half - after that, he decided to disappear. Hughes didn't really look fit at first, but he did come into the game a bit more as it went on and had one good run down the right. He also managed a very weak shot that caused no trouble at all to the keeper.

However, by then Swindon had scored a second goal on the break (and had they been any good would have had several more), before some semblance of order appeared in the Reading side with the substitution of Igoe by Darius Henderson. This gave us another forward and as expected of a younger player, Henderson showed eagerness to get goals back. Also, the referee seemed to change his mind about how to control the game - he had failed to take any action against Swindon players for time-wasting when the score was 0-0 or 1-0, but now that it was 2-0 started to speak to them. On top of that he started to book them for bad fouls (and in one case, for a nothing foul) having previously allowed just about anything to go.

This meant that we saw much more of the ball, and thanks to Henderson were able to get back into the game. After receiving a crossfield ball, he was cool enough to lob the outrushing Swindon keeper to score and give us a fighting chance of a result. In truth it was an easy goal, as it simply required the ability to put the ball in the right place whilst under no real pressure from defenders, but at the moment it's not clear that any of our other players would have managed to score it.

If there was any doubt that the side we were playing against were not at all good, it was clear in the next few minutes. Faced with the prospect of getting something out of the game, Reading players started to show a bit more interest. We still weren't playing well, though, and the chance of a draw was soon thrown away as Swindon were gifted a third goal. Our move broke down and a Swindon long ball was left by all of our defenders for one of the others to deal with. At this point, Phil Whitehead had two options - stay on his line or come for the loose ball. He chose option three - come halfway and allow a grateful Swindon forward to latch onto the ball and score with ease. Whitehead shouldn't have been put in that position in the first place but he made a real hash of dealing with it.

Time ran out soon afterwards, and another three points had gone begging. Pardew applauded the home fans as he walked down the tunnel - it's the sort of action you often see from managers just before they resign, but then perhaps he does it every game and I simply hadn't noticed before. A few of the braver players came towards the Maurice Evans Stand to applaud the crowd, and got a mixture of abuse and half-hearted applause in return.

Match notes:

Compared to the Aston Villa game, Jamie Cureton replaced Neil Smith with a change in formation as well, and Sammy Igoe replaced Anthony Rougier.

Nicky Shorey started his first ever League game for Reading, whilst Adi Viveash started his first League game of the season.

Match preview:

None.

Ticket information:

Prices and details are the same as for standard home games, and are available here.

Home . First Team Index

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