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1999/2000 Reports

Match facts:

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Referee: Rob Styles (Waterlooville)

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Match report:

"We're shit and we're sick of it"

The latest variation of the Pet Shop Boys song drifted around the MadStad, and perfectly summed up the fans' mood after another terrible show. To really put this in perspective, you only have to note that Scunthorpe had conceded 12 goals in their last 3 games, and had come to Reading with the sole intention of getting a 0-0 draw. It was nothing short of a scandal then that with 3 minutes left they were one goal up!

Looking at the Scunthorpe line-up, it wouldn't surprise me if their fans felt roughly the same as we do. They have got some pretty good players and on paper you might expect that they would be far more than three points ahead of the useless shower of shite currently masquerading as Reading.

Pardew had made one change, bringing in on-loan Kevin Lisbie for Evers (who wasn't even on the bench), and playing what I assume was a 3-4-3 formation with McIntyre and Forster also up front. Scunthorpe played the 9-0-1 formation with the dangerous Ipoua up front.

As early as the second minute, we could have been behind. A failure to properly clear our lines left a man open inside the area. Fortunately there were a lot of bodies between him and the goal, and his shot hit one of them. Soon after, our worst nightmares started to come true. Phil Whitehead injured himself and Scott Howie prepared to come on. Our genius of a physio decided that Whitehead could continue, but following the next back-pass (which he was only able to scuff) he was down again. And so we faced 75 minutes with Howie in goal.

Soon after coming on, he had to make a save. The ball was crossed from the right, and there was an unmarked player at the far post. Fortunately his header was weak and close to Howie. Hopefully that calmed any nerves that he was feeling, and in the remainder of the half his only real problem was to flap at one cross. And even that he managed to clear to safety.

In the first half we didn't play well, but Scunthorpe's style meant that we had a lot of possession, and created a few chances. Lisbie did some good work to get himself into a shooting position, but then didn't shoot. Our best chance came when Lisbie and Forster both broke the offside trap, but then left it to each other to take the ball. A relieved Perez in the Scunthorpe goal was able to hack it from between the two of them.

Forster showed no inclination to work at the game, but did actually make some passes to team-mates this time. He even pulled the ball back for McIntyre in one attack, but it was just behind him (and even I will say probably by accident). Eventually, Forster told the bench that he'd had enough, and Neil Smith replaced him. Not a straight swap, I feel. The fact that we'd had to use two subs for injuries in the first half clearly limited Pardew's options for the remainder of the game, and may have meant that certain players knew they could go through the motions with no fear of being taken off. Although I don't really know if that's how they think, anyway.

Scunthorpe also had their share of injury problems. Or to be more accurate, as soon as they'd worked out that the ref wasn't making injured players go off the pitch, they were dropping like flies in a very successful attempt to waste time. Our cart driver should have been on the pitch next to the injured Scunthorpe player every time to give the ref a very unsubtle hint. Their Spanish forward was not surprisingly one of the worst culprits, but I obviously misjudged one of his theatrical collapses because he was carried off and substituted. Their keeper ran 50 yards to help carry him off and then walked slowly back to position afterwards. That's just time-wasting and the ref let them get away with it.

Scandalously he only added 6 minutes of injury time at the end of the half. We had our best spell just before the interval, so if he had correctly added 10 or 12 minutes, we might well have scored. Instead we had four shots in the last five minutes, all of which went just wide. It was encouraging that we were actually getting some goal attempts in, even if they didn't quite work out.

In the second half, we seemed to sit back and the game was more even. It was also more tedious, something we've come to expect. Lisbie again created a goal-scoring opportunity for himself, and failed to shoot before the defender got back to make a block. Then on a break Scunthorpe scored. I can't say that this was a surprise, although they'd not really shown the ability to even manage a break before. Basically the ball was passed to Ipoua in the centre. We had four defenders surrounding him, but he laid it out to the unmarked Lee Hodges (their Lee Hodges never seems to get injured) who gave Howie no chance.

That was the signal for the fans to properly turn against our own players. Really, we should have got behind them and encouraged an equaliser but it's not difficult to understand the frustrations. One chant of "On the pitch" panicked the Tango Squad, and people began moving to the front of the East Stand. I joined them (purely from the viewpoint of the investigative journalist, you understand!) and I was surprised at how poor the view is from down there, even when standing up. So the remainder of the report might be a bit vague.

Right in front of the gathering masses, Hunter tangled with Ipoua. Hunter was felled, and was lying on the ground. Suddenly Ipoua, who was standing over him, threw three punches at Hunter's back. All this is right in front of both the referee and the disgruntled Reading fans. What does the ref do? He lectures both players. Ipoua's actions deserved an automatic red card. He'd already been booked, so even a yellow would have given us a man advantage. He claimed that Hunter had bit him, but that's not a defence.

Over the next few minutes, Ipoua proceeded to taunt the Reading fans. That’s also a bookable offence, and perhaps even worthy of arrest, but he got away with it. Had there been a pitch invasion, I was heading in his direction.

Somewhere along the line, Paul Brayson came on. He failed to score - did I need to say that? We call him "Brace", not because it's short for Brayson, but because we hope that one day he will get his second goal. After all, he has now made 43 appearances as a striker.

Surprisingly enough, though, we did get an equaliser. A simple cross from the right, and Barry Hunter flicked it past the keeper. The sort of goal we should expect to see more often. This might be an important goal, as it allowed us to hold our league position, and probably removed any faint chances of an on-pitch demonstration.

There was still time for Howie to make two good saves to get us the point. Both moves involved Ipoua who (did I mention this before?) should have been off the pitch and in a police holding cell by now.

So we got our third home draw on the trot. Big deal.

Lisbie, far from being the saviour, looked like Martin Williams (i.e. not bad), but with all the goal-poaching ability of Paul Brayson. Howie had a pretty good game, considering what we were expecting from him. Hunter was atrocious, leaving Polston to do all the work, making him by far our best player.

Match notes:

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