| Competition | Date | Opponent | Venue | Result |
| Division 2 | Saturday, 22nd January | Luton Town | Away | Lost 1-3 |
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Referee: Richard
Beeby (Northampton)
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Match report:
On view at Luton was yet more evidence for those of us that want to see an end to the Alan Pardew reign. This was a performance that demonstrated no will-to-win - that is unacceptable at any time but especially in our current situation. To add to the relevance of this result, you need to know that Luton were missing one first-team player on international duty, three via suspensions, two more who were injured, and a seventh who is in an alcoholic clinic.
The best event of the first half was when Neil Smith went off injured. Nothing trivial, I hope, as that was his only positive contribution to the game. This allowed us to bring on Evers, who proceeded to do nothing for the remaining hour of the game. Luton is his old club, and he couldn't get fired up to play against them! What does that tell you?
Howie made a good save, tipping the ball over from a looping shot but otherwise Luton had only one shot in the first half. And of course that went in. The referee invented a free-kick out of nowhere, they passed the ball out to the wing, Primus was far too easily outjumped for the cross, and an unmarked player slotted the ball home.
Scott had a header that went just wide but we didn't really create a chance all half.
In the second half, nothing changed at all. Luton were still first to every loose ball - that's not just luck, it's because they actually run. Reading players were still muscled off the ball most times that we got it, and giving it away on the other occasions.
Then, after Howie had clawed out another looping shot from just under his bar, the unthinkable happened. Caskey beat the offside trap, rounded the keeper and coolly scored past a defender who had got back. Actually it wasn't quite like that. Caskey only dummied the ball and the keeper seemed to actually let it go by him. Maybe Caskey brilliantly outfoxed him, but it just looked like a terrible error to me.
We only had one other shot on target in the entire game - Scott beat the offside trap, and had a one-on-one with the keeper. However, he took the Paul Brayson option of rolling the ball gently at the keeper, rather than trying to place it or blast it. It is really not good enough for any forward to fail to make it difficult for the goalkeeper in that sort of situation.
Luton meanwhile had a goal disallowed. It looked like the player controlled it with his hand before shooting, but given that the referee gave us nothing else during the game, it's more likely that he was offside. They then had a free-kick on the edge of the area, given for handball by Bernal. Bernal was lying on the ground injured when the ball was kicked at him, and the referee deemed that to be deliberate handball. The free-kick itself came to nothing but from their resultant attack, Luton's top scorer got the ball, turned quickly, and fired in a low shot past Howie.
Reading did at least look like they wanted an equaliser, and with Nicholls and Williams coming on we switched to a very attacking formation. Nothing really came from it though, and in injury time Luton broke away and scored a third.
The support from the Reading fans was pretty good - there was a decent turnout, and we kept singing even after the final whistle. But the players didn't respond to that, so perhaps it's time to see if they'll respond to abuse instead.
Match notes:
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