| Competition | Date | Opponent | Venue | Result |
| LDV Vans Trophy 3rd round | Monday, 24th January | Bristol Rovers | Away | Won 2-1 |
Match facts:
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Referee: Michael
Jones (Chester)
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Match report:
This was sweet. So bloody sweet. Living in Wales I can get all the Brizzle radio stations, so I spent today listening to as many sports programmes and bulletins as I could. All day long Rewvers' players and officials (especially Cureton) forgot they were playing Reading tonight, instead looking forward to Wembley or a tie with Brizzle City. After all they stuffed us twice last year so we couldn't possibly win tonight. Could we?
Well the 103 travelling fans didn't think so either. Each and everyone of us peered ominously at the away terrace, scared that we would be the only one there. The stewards applauded the arrival of each extra Reading fan. The snack-bar girls were worried that they might not sell their 40 pasties!
After learning that Paul Weller had joined the Spice Girls and George Michael was now part of The Stereophonics (if you were there you'll know what I mean), Mark Nicholls hit Brizzle with 2 goals. The first was an excellent header, getting to a cross from the right before the keeper, The second was one of those moments in Reading's history that will remain in your memory forever. A dipping 25-30 yard shot over the keeper into the corner of the net. 2-0 up? That ain't in the script is it Jamie you useless tart. First half should have seen Reading scoring 3, 4 or even 5 times. Rewvers had a blatant penalty for handball turned down by the ref and looked dangerous every time they attacked down the right, but we were 2-0 up at half-time.
Second half - different story. Wave after wave of Rewvers attacks were defended desperately: goal-line clearances by the dozen, superb saves by Howie (now nicknamed Banana Boots after the worst kicking display I've ever seen), a converted penalty after Gurney (I think) blatantly handballed and plenty of great refereeing decisions in our favour. Just as it looked like Rewvers were bound to equalise came the moment which I reckoned changed the match. Rewvers had had corner after corner, the score was 2-1, and the Rewvers fans were creating a lot of noise. We then made a substitution - McIntyre came on. It wasn't the fact that McIntyre then played like Pele or anything like that, but the fact that the substitution took about 30-45 seconds meant that the crowd went quiet and the Rewvers players took a breather. After that we were never going to let in another goal. Despite another handball clearance off the line which only the ref didn't see, despite the ball whistling past our post every minute or so, despite the fact that our players were struggling, the travelling fans knew we would win. And if you believe that you'll believe anything!
Match notes:
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