| Competition | Date | Opponent | Venue | Result |
| FA Cup 3rd round | Saturday, 11th December | Plymouth Argyle | Home | Drew 1-1 |
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Match report:
Well, it's becoming something of a recurring theme, but again we played reasonably well (against very very poor opposition), and ended up with essentially nothing to show for it. The only consolation is that our record this season against clubs lower than the second division is good, and will therefore stand us in good stead for next season.
Pardew made a big tactical switch for this match, as we played four at the back for the first time in a while. I think this probably worked although our defence had relatively little to cope with. Following the Tommy Burns lead, we had Murty at right-back and Gurney as right-half. In the few games that he was available last season, Murty made this work because of his pace and dribbling ability. Unfortunately he seems to have lost both of these following the latest injury, and at the moment is only a liability. Bernal played the problem left-back spot, and generally did OK.
Before the game, we saw two Plymouth fans arrested. I didn't see what - if anything - the first one did, and I suspect he was just a known face. Two police approached him, and tried to remove him. He resisted and eventually there were six police around him. They tried to take him out to the concourse but he struggled so much that even six of them couldn't manage it! So they took him down to the side of the pitch, and cuffed him. They then carried him out face down, and he was still giving six of them problems! One of his mates tried to intervene and was also removed - just imagine what could have come from this if we'd been facing Cardiff or Millwall.
Another change was that our players warmed up at the South Stand end and obviously hoped to kick to that end in the second half. It didn't work as we lost the toss, but I hope this is a permanent new plan. It is so obvious that we should have been doing this for the last year, and it appears that someone in the management team has finally listened to the fans on this matter.
On with the match - Reading started brightly and had most of the game in the first half. Williams pace and trickery on the ball was far more than the Plymouth defenders could cope with, so they resorted to kicking him. The ref gave no protection at all, and often not even free-kicks for these obvious fouls. The outclassed Devon team also resorted to extreme time-wasting measures, and again the referee allowed them to get away with it.
A lot of our play involved intricate moves in the penalty area, which broke down. Most of our players are simply not good enough to play this way, and it puzzles me as to why we do it. Perhaps we were just hoping that one of the defenders would lunge in and give away a penalty, but it didn't happen. And when, during one spell of pressure, one of their players clearly handled the ball in the area, we didn't get a penalty for that, either.
We scored from an attack down the right wing. Martin Williams and at least two defenders missed the cross, and McIntyre swept the ball home. It was an easy chance, but he was in the right place, and I can think of at least one Reading forward who would have failed to take it. One Plymouth fan climbed onto the segregation netting, trying to start a fight, and the stewards did nothing to stop him. The goal stopped the Plymouth time-wasting, but in other ways the game stayed the same.
Plymouth had three shots I can remember in the first half. One was a good long-range effort that went just wide, although Howie probably had it covered. The second was a shot at least 15 yards wide, with the typically stupid yokel fans reacting as if it had shaved the post. Their best chance came from a quick break after another of our too-complicated moves broke down. We should really have cleared their cross, but fortunately the forward rolled the ball just wide.
A far more significant incident just before half-time was that Williams was injured by yet another unpunished bad challenge. He limped his way to the interval, but it was no great surprise that Keith Scott replaced him in the second half. This may well have cost the game - Scott didn't do too badly, and won quite a bit in the air, but he is unable to hold the ball up and frustrate the defence in the way that Williams was doing. This meant that Plymouth had more opportunities with the ball.
McIntyre however was having his best game for us. Perhaps the goal gave him confidence but in the second half, switching between the left wing and the centre, he was involved in most of our good moves. Once he received the ball on the edge of the area, turned and shot just over. On another occasion he took the ball down the wing, beat a man, went to the byline, and pulled back a good cross for Gurney. Gurney then blazed the ball high and wide, as is his wont. Scott also headed a cross over, when he should have done better.
Plymouth still hadn't created anything, and we appeared safe enough not to worry about premature singing of "Going out", when another of our attacks broke down. Plymouth built a move from the break, involving what looked like handball on the edge of our area, crossed from the right, and their left-back shot in after a knock-down. It's the sort of shot that Howie often saves, but the guy really did connect well. Four Plymouth fans ran onto the pitch - I'm pleased to say that two of them were ejected, but why were the other two allowed back into the stand?
We looked for a late winner, and brought Mass Sarr on. He showed enough good touches to say that he should definitely be playing for short periods in every game, as every time he gets the ball, there is a chance that something will happen. In his six minutes on Saturday, he had an overhead goal attempt from 30 yards (when to be honest he should have done something more likely to work!), and two good dribbles. The only way Plymouth were able to stop the second dribble was by fouling him just outside the area, but Caskey put the free-kick just over. That was in injury time, and the game ended in a draw.
Plymouth are not a good side - I'd say worse than Halifax - and we should not be having to go there for a replay. On the other hand we should expect to win there, and then face a considerably tougher prospect in the fourth round at home to Preston.
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