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2001/02 Reports

Match facts:

Reading goals: John Mackie (12 minutes), Mark Lever (own goal, 44 minutes), John Salako (51 minutes)
Assists: John Salako, Neil Smith, Andy Hughes
Opposition goals: After 34 and 59 minutes
Half-time: Reading 2 Bristol City 1
Gamebreaker: Final whistle
Attendance: 14,060
Weather: Cold but mostly sunny
Referee: Dermot Gallagher (Banbury)

Reading line-up: 1 Phil Whitehead; 2 Graeme Murty, 23 John Mackie, 5 Adi Viveash, 28 Nicky Shorey; 11 Andy Hughes (14 Sammy Igoe, 70 minutes), 6 Kevin Watson, 16 Neil Smith, 29 John Salako; 10 Nicky Forster (4 Keith Jones, 84 minutes), 12 Jamie Cureton (24 Darius Henderson, 84 minutes)
Subs not used: 21 Jamie Ashdown, 26 Alex Smith
Reading yellow cards: Keith Jones (foul, 90 minutes)
Reading red cards: None

Match report:

Bristol City's 3-5-2 formation with speedy attacking wing-backs caused Reading all sorts of problems last season. The fact that Bristol City failed to reach even the play-offs suggests that other sides had managed to find ways of playing against them. So it was good to see that we had learnt some of the lessons needed to compete against this particular side and formation.

Based on the start of the season, it appears that Alan Pardew's preferred centre-back partnership is Adie Williams and Adrian Whitbread. Injuries meant that for this game we had Adi Viveash and John Mackie. This turned out well, as Mackie's pace gave us an extra weapon, and of course both players are keen to do well and keep their place in the side. Another change was that James Harper was replaced by Neil Smith - this also worked well as Smith continued his good run of form and certainly justified getting the start. Nicky Forster got the nod over Darius Henderson in place of long-term injury victim Martin Butler.

Despite the loss of one of their regular wing-backs, it was clear that Bristol City were sticking to their 3-5-2 formation, and in any event, the replacement right wing-back looked to be causing us similar problems. The away side played a lot of passes across the field, but always whilst looking for the opportunity to go forward. I think Reading should have been doing some more chasing and closing down at this stage, but at least when we did get the ball we also looked to be usually passing it around.

Fairly early on, Reading took the lead with a set-piece corner. John Salako crossed the ball to the edge of the area where Mackie, making a long run forward at the last minute, got a free header on goal. The ball looked to get a touch, perhaps by Viveash on the edge of the six-yard box, but carried on to the Bristol City goalkeeper who instead of making what should have been an easy save, fumbled the ball over the line. A defender quickly cleared the ball, but it was too late. The referee, in keeping with his overall standard of officiating, had no idea whether the ball was in, but fortunately the linesman signalled the goal. Mackie hared off towards the centre line in one of the lengthier goal celebrations.

Now, this was the point at which last season we sat back and tried to defend a lead, even with most of the game remaining. This time things were different. We continued to play football and to look to attack. Although we did spend much of the next period of the game defending, I don't think that it was a sign of the old failing but rather of the fact that our opponents were playing well.

Instead it was this season's new problem that allowed them to equalise. On too many occasions we seem to be left with a handful of defenders trying to stop shots raining in from a huge number of attacking players. Normally this occurs when we have failed to clear our lines, but this time it was two defenders knocking each other over and a third Reading player slipping up which left the Bristol left-winger with space and time to cross and pick out an unmarked player at the far post who tapped the ball home.

In another change from recent months, Reading were not overrun once we had conceded but continued to carve out decent chances. The closest we came was when Neil Smith hit the bar with a powerful header. The keeper was well beaten for that one but managed to push the rebound out for a corner. After the similar Smith header at Villa Park that was denied only by an international quality save, we should perhaps be looking for more opportunities from this surprising source.

One reason why Neil Smith gets less scoring opportunities is that he often takes his very long throws in attacking positions and so is obviously out of the danger area when the ball is there. Although we no longer use this tactic at every single opportunity, the long throw did get a few airings in this game. We even tried a dummy one, where Smith instead threw it short to Andy Hughes, the dummy being slightly spoilt by the fact that neither of our two centre-backs had come up from defence. The next throw after that, though, Viveash was in the penalty area and the ball was aimed at him. Two defenders jumped at the same time as Viveash and it looked as though one of them got the key touch to send the ball into the net. Viveash put his hands in the air but didn't really try to be claiming the goal.

After the game I met a Bristol City fan who said he had a good view and it was Viveash who scored, but TV pictures show that it was definitely an own goal. And the moral is: Never trust a Bristol City supporter, or at least not one who has spent an entire morning visiting Reading pubs.

Although we retook the lead just before half-time, there was still a golden opportunity for another equaliser. A Reading reject striker showed why we didn't want him when with loads of space he managed to kick the ball straight to Phil Whitehead who had come off his line quickly. That incompetence meant that we did stay ahead at the break.

I had seen little of Andy Hughes in the first half but at the start of the second period, he seemed to explode into life. Playing wide on the right, he had several good runs ending with dangerous crosses into the box. From one of these, we got a third goal, as the ball went all the way across the goal and found John Salako at the far post who scored from a very acute angle. Cue another lengthy celebration and a huge grin from Salako.

At this stage it looked as though we might go on to extend the lead, but instead Bristol City came back with a well-taken goal by the aforementioned reject, heading home a left-wing cross after getting in front of Adi Viveash. They were denied an equaliser only by a superb Whitehead save, diving full length to push away a fiercely struck volley that looked to be heading just inside the right-hand post.

As the game went on, and at 3-2 ahead, Reading started to look more nervous but did not really sit back as has been the case in the past. We still did have to defend as the away side seemed to change their formation to 3-4-3, allowing the two wing-backs to push even further forward and on occasion giving them five forwards. Alan Pardew's response was to take off both our forwards, and play 4-5-1. This time, it worked, and maybe both Nicky Forster and Jamie Cureton were tired, but I would still have preferred to see us look to exploit the huge holes now to be found in the Bristol defence.

Although Darius Henderson had come on as the lone forward and did get some possession, he didn't really look like getting another goal and we were thankful that instead Bristol City started to make some silly errors and give the ball away. Sammy Igoe played well in this period, as he sensibly retained possession and helped us run off the clock. After four minutes of injury time, the referee signalled the end of the game and another three points for Reading.

Overall, this was an entertaining game, with some decent football from both sides. I said that the Northampton game might have marked a turning point in Reading's fortunes, and this sort of performance was the logical progression from that. We still did not play well for the whole game, but there were signs of a passing game beginning to work properly. Three key players in this, even if they don't get many mentions in my report, are the two loan signings and Neil Smith. I find that Kevin Watson in midfield not only wins the ball in tackles but also distributes it intelligently (on those occasions when someone is available!), whilst Smith played similarly in this game. Salako on the other hand doesn't get so involved in the game, but when he does have the ball will normally produce quality, which is after all what you want from a winger.

Match notes:

Adie Williams was named in the starting eleven but supposedly injured himself in the warm-up and was replaced by John Mackie, who made his first start in a League game since January. Neil Smith also made his first League start this season as he replaced James Harper, whilst Nicky Forster came in for the injured Martin Butler.

Both Mackie and John Salako scored their first goals for Reading. In fact three players opened their goal accounts, because Bristol City defender Mark Lever had also never previously scored for Reading!

Match preview:

None.

Ticket information:

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

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