| Competition | Date | Opponent | Venue | Result |
| Division 2 | Saturday, 4th December | Bristol City | Away | Lost 1-3 |
Match facts:
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Opposition goals:
Half-time:
Gamebreaker:
Attendance:
Weather:
Referee: Phil
Dowd (Stoke-on-Trent)
Reading line-up:
Subs not used:
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Reading red cards:
Match report:
The nanny state is alive and well in Bristol, it appears. After an interminable safety announcement, we had to listen to the following over the PA - "Now, when the players come out, there's going to be at least one big bang. Don't worry - it's just a cannon going off to announce the start of the players coming onto the pitch." And he repeated that three times. Where has all the suspense gone, eh?
I mention that because the view from the new away end at Ashton Gate is so poor that I don't really know what was going on at the other end of the ground, and I needed to pad the report out a bit!
It's important that we realise just how poor a result this was. Bristol City may have just come down from the first division, and get biggish crowds, but they are going through exactly the same sort of problems as we are. They were there for the taking today, and none of their fans would have been surprised if we'd come away with three points.
Pardew's game plan was to hold out for 0-0 as long as possible and try to sneak a goal when they got frustrated. Utter stupidity. The way to take this lot on was to go for it. If we'd scored first, they'd have reacted by falling apart.
Potter came into the team at left-back, and Grant replaced the suspended Parkinson, with Reading playing 5-3-2. The bench included Lisbie and Brayson, so obviously no chance of any goals from those sources. Bristol City included a common criminal at right-back, who was roundly booed throughout the whole game. This led to the following songs:
"You're going down, you're going down,
you're going, Lavin's going down"
"Three months. You're gonna get three months."
Reading fans never forget. Apparently Lavin has to report to a Reading police station this week, and will be charged.
The first half was a fairly dull affair. Jim McIntyre had the two best chances. The first was when their keeper came out of the area but only cleared the ball to one of our players. He passed to McIntyre who got a shot on target but a defender had had time to get back to clear. The second was a wicked flick from a well-driven corner, which the keeper did well to catch. Unfortunately the keeper concerned was Scott Howie, as that was whilst defending a corner.
There was to be one minute of injury time in the first half. After 30 seconds, Darren Caskey had a shot that went well wide, and in the 63rd second of that minute, Bristol scored. A quick break whilst our players were all taking it easy before half-time, and their player suddenly had the ball on the edge of the area with no defender in sight. He did well to put it into the top corner, just far enough away from Howie.
The half-time team talk certainly did the business for Reading yet again, as we started the second half under siege until Bristol got their second following a goalmouth scramble. Now it was time for change, and Pardew responded by replacing the completely ineffectual Sean Evers by Neil Smith. Luton would like Evers back - as far as I'm concerned they can have him. I've not been a fan of Smith either, but this was easily his best game for us. He linked up from midfield to attack, and it was probably not coincidence that once he was on we had a spell of pressure. Potter looked good coming down the left wing (and also takes quality corners from the other side), and we did look dangerous.
As the fan next to me said, "That's been the first spell of pressure we've had in two years".
We didn't actually score during that period, but the game had certainly changed. Five minutes later Pardew was preparing to bring Lisbie on when we got a free-kick about 25 yards out. The ref decided that it was sufficient for the wall to be only seven yards back, but up stepped Super Darren Caskey and proved that he can still score from direct free-kicks. Lisbie sat down again. There was a vicious rumour that he could only score from free-kicks in friendly matches, but Caskey has now demonstrated that he can also get them in games where they don't count! Incidentally, I think that was his only positive contribution to the game, although it's very difficult to criticise anyone actually getting a goal.
A few minutes later Williams had a good run into the penalty area and was pulled down just as he was about to put a cross over (from the by-line!). The ref said it wasn't a penalty - he was 100% wrong.
Lisbie came on as we switched to three front players, and showed some good touches. He even took the ball into dangerous positions in the penalty area on a couple of occasions but we got nothing more than goalmouth scrambles. However, the point here is that I really thought we might score, and that hasn't happened too often.
However, it all went wrong again. Caskey gave the ball away halfway inside the Bristol half, and three seconds later after one good through-ball it was in the back of our net. It was all so easy, and it's not as if our defence was really pushing up.
At that point the game was over. There was still time for the ref to give us a penalty. He said that McIntyre was fouled in the box, but it all looked pretty dubious to me. I think he was just trying to make up for the one he didn't give, but there's a big difference between awarding one at 2-1 with 20 minutes left, and at 3-1 with two minutes left. In any event, Caskey's kick had little power, and the keeper saved it easily.
So we lost 3-1 and we won't get too many easier games than this. Our best player was Potter (how long before we drag him down to our level or he gets injured, I wonder?) and there were good performances from Primus and Williams. We had a lot of attacks in the second half, and actually looked threatening, but the time when that was enough has long since passed.
At the end of the game, there were the first shouts of "Pardew out". Well, Alan, it's time to show us that you are going to make a difference, or else you'll be lucky to survive to February.
Match notes:
Match preview:
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Ticket information:
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