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2001/02 Reports

Match facts:

Reading goal: Andy Hughes (57 minutes)
Assist: Anthony Rougier
Opposition goals: None
Half-time: Reading 0 Queens Park Rangers 0
Gamebreaker: Final whistle
Attendance: 19,329
Weather: Cold, dry
Referee: Bill Jordan (Tring)

Reading line-up: 31 Marcus Hahnemann; 2 Graeme Murty, 8 Adie Williams, 23 John Mackie, 28 Nicky Shorey; 14 Sammy Igoe (4 Keith Jones, 70 minutes), 11 Andy Hughes, 16 Phil Parkinson, 29 John Salako; 10 Nicky Forster (24 Darius Henderson, 81 minutes), 7 Anthony Rougier (12 Jamie Cureton, 89 minutes)
Subs not used: 21 Jamie Ashdown, 19 Joe Gamble
Reading yellow cards: Phil Parkinson (foul, 88 minutes)
Reading red cards: None

Match report:

Well, these are the sort of games that make it worthwhile going to football. In order of preference - three points, a good Reading performance, decent entertainment all-round and a big crowd. In fact, the only thing that stopped the first 45 minutes being one of the best halves I've ever seen Reading play was the fact that somehow we failed to score in that period.

From the first moments of the game, we were attacking in numbers and at will. Nicky Forster and Anthony Rougier were cuasing all sorts of problems with pace and trickery, whilst John Salako and the other midfielders were providing good support.

The first memorable opening came when Forster shot just wide of the goal from a tight angle. The away fans behind the goal jeered, but had we been able to see them close up they must have looked worried. And with good reason, for only a couple of minutes later Nicky Shorey went on a strong run forward, and played the ball through the last line of defence for Forster to run onto. The keeper came out, but Forster pushed it around him - to be fair to the goalkeeper he avoided fouling Forster at this point and got his reward when the shot was headed off the line by a covering defender at the expense of a corner.

The rest of the half was similar - quick forward moves by Reading but QPR holding out. I thought the referee was kind to us in that he gave a lot of free-kicks to Reading, not all of which looked to be clear fouls. Add to that QPR's inability to pass the ball, and we had a lot of possession to work with.

Despite all this, we could easily have gone behind. Marcus Hahnemann made a good save at the foot of his near post, whilst QPR did get the ball in the net after Adie Williams had allowed an attacker to run at him, and his cross picked out an unmarked forward. I have no way of telling whether the forward was offside, but after the disallowed James Harper goal in the reverse fixture back in August, they owed us one.

For whatever reason, QPR started the second half at a higher tempo than we did, and looked the more likely to score. Hahnemann managed to tip one shot onto the crossbar but they had other dangerous attacks as well.

Then one of their attacks ended with a cross that Hahnemann gathered on the byline. He ran to the edge of his area and launched one of his massive kicks towards Rougier, who received the ball and took on the one defender marking him. Rougier took the ball forward to the other byline and crossed where Andy Hughes took a swing with his left foot. He was trying I think to play the ball across the keeper's body and into the right hand side of the goal, but instead got a really poor contact on the ball. There was even time to start complaining about this before we all realised that the ball was trickling slowly towards the net with the defence only able to stand (or in the case of the keeper, lie) and watch. After what seemed like minutes the ball just about made it over the line, and we were 1-0 up. As I said on the news page, it was a "stunning strike"! One other point is that the goal came from a very quick break and Hughes did exceptionally well to be that far forward in time to get in a shot.

We had an excellent chance to seal the game but John Salako missed from only a few yards wide, getting too light a contact on a left-wing cross that meant the ball went wide. Fortunately, most of the QPR forward moves seemed to be ending with an offside flag. Although the away fans (from their viewpoint behind the goal, of course) were getting at the linesman, none of the decisions in this half were even close. If they don't want to be caught offside, then don't stand so far forward.

Also, both sides were giving away possession frequently. This meant that even though we were sitting back more than I would have liked, we were still not put under as much pressure as in other similar games. On the other hand, our own profligacy was stopping us making effective breaks upfield.

With only a few minutes left, Jamie Cureton came on, with a chance to impress against the manager who thought that he was only worth £250,000. "Jamie Cureton, what a bargain, what a bargain", we all sang just in case the manager concerned had forgotten. Cureton had one chance when he did well to be able to hook a shot over a defender and goalwards but the ball was put away for a corner.

In the last minutes we just kept the ball near the corner flag, until Hughes surprised everyone by playing the ball between two defenders and headed for the penalty area. One of them just tripped him, and we put the free-kick back near the corner flag before the game ended.

At the end of the game, Hahnemann ran to the North Stand and threw his gloves into the stand, which seemed a bit over-the-top. Maybe he was really pumped up after standing in front of a full away stand for the previous 45 minutes.

This was an entertaining game - from the Reading point of view we played really well in the first half and obviously won the game in the second. Some of the credit for the spectacle has to go to the QPR team, because they played from the start with two forwards (which of course is two more than most away teams at Madejski Stadium) and genuinely tried to win the game. You could argue that they still went away with nothing and might have done better had they adopted Port Vale tactics, but I think that QPR came closer to one point (and with a chance of three) than Vale did.

One major reason for the Reading win was the performance of our centre-backs. Apart from one occasion when John Mackie gave the ball away when clearing I can't remember him putting a foot wrong. Similarly, Adie Williams was caught out back-pedalling before the disallowed goal, but otherwise had an imperious game. With good performances from all our other defensive players, we have a fine platform to build on in future games.

Match notes:

Reading's only change from the Port Vale game was to bring Phil Parkinson back in for Keith Jones in the centre of midfield, with Jones dropping to the bench and replacing Alex Smith.

Marcus Hahnemann had to wear an old-style shirt, presumably because our current goalkeeper's jersey clashed with the QPR strip. He also kept his third clean sheet in succession.

This victory was Reading's 15th of the season, more than any other team in Division 2.

The crowd was the largest for any Division 2 game this season, and so obviously also the highest Reading crowd for a League match. However, it was only the third biggest Reading crowd of this season, behind those for the pre-season friendly against Tottenham Hotspur and the League Cup tie against West Ham United. Since the move to Madejski Stadium, this was the third highest League attendance (behind 20,589 for Bournemouth in 2001 and 20,055 for Manchester City in 1999) and the sixth biggest for games in all competitions (behind the four games mentioned in this paragraph and the overall stadium record of 22,034 in the play-off semi-final against Wigan Athletic in 2001).

Match preview:

The fixture list has given us two home games on the trot during a period when many other clubs in our division are seeing their games fall foul of the weather. We took advantage on Tuesday with three points against Port Vale and need to do the same again in this game against Queens Park Rangers. Should we win, we will move up at least one place in the table, and in theory could go top (although this is very unlikely).

It will be QPR's first trip to Madejski Stadium and the away end will be more-or-less full. As of the Thursday before the game, they have sold almost 4,000 tickets with only a few hundred more available to their fans. This should mean a crowd over 15,000. Both sides have been on a good run of form - Reading have seven wins and two draws in the last ten League games, whilst QPR are unbeaten in seven (four wins, three draws).

QPR have a strange second half of the season - with just a few exceptions, they are away to all the clubs in the top half of the table and home to all the sides at the bottom. This might suggest that they are in a slightly false position at the moment, having had the opportunity of taking on all the top sides at home. One of those games was against Reading in August, when only two dreadful decisions by the officials stopped us continuing our then 100% record (a penalty not awarded after a clear foul on Nicky Forster and a direct free-kick from James Harper being disallowed for offside). We need to gain some revenge for that result.

We should be helped by the unavailability of a number of QPR players. They have three players suspended, Doudou, Danny Murphy and Danny Shittu (which means half of the defence that they have been playing with in December). The remaining first choice centre-back, Steve Palmer, is reportedly very slow, which should give Forster a field day.

The Reading line-up will of course depend on which players have picked up injuries this week or whose partners are giving birth! Assuming that Graeme Murty recovers from the injury that took him off the pitch on Tuesday, I would expect the same starting line-up except for Phil Parkinson returning in place of Andy Hughes in central midfield.

I hate to say it, but I think the result of this game may depend on QPR's attitude. If they come to defend, we have every chance of seeing a 0-0 draw or a 1-0 win to either side. On the other hand, if they attack us, I think we'll rip them apart.

Ticket information:

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

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