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1999/2000 Reports

Match facts:

Reading goals:
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Opposition goals:
Half-time:
Gamebreaker:
Attendance:
Weather:
Referee: Peter Jones (Loughborough)

Reading line-up:
Subs not used:
Starting formation:

Reading yellow cards:
Reading red cards:

Match report:

And so it is back to the dark days of December and January. The signs were there at Scunthorpe when the team performed only fitfully against poor opposition. In this game we performed not at all against far worse opposition.

I'll tell you what's going on here. A month or so ago, the players woke up to the fact that we were in a relegation battle. No doubt helped by the arrival of Martin Allen and a couple of key signings, they started performing at the level they are capable of. This was enough to play Preston (plus a referee) off the park, to beat Millwall and secure comfortable victories against weak teams. After this mini-revival, the old habits are now back as our squad figures that they can start just going through the motions again.

The performance at Chesterfield was totally unacceptable, and no fans should have to watch their team perform so abjectly, without even a hint of urgency.

We may hear excuses after this game. There was a strong wind, making good football impossible, we had several key defenders injured, the referee failed to take action against bad fouls from Chesterfield, the players have exerted themselves a lot recently and there was bound to be a reaction. And so on. If you hear that sort of stuff this week, then ignore it.

None of these make up for a comfortable defeat against what really is the worst team in the division by a long way. The only good news is that a large number of travelling Royals witnessed this performance, and we will not accept seeing anything like it again. If they play like this at our next away game in Oxford, not only will we lose 5-0 but also the team bus can expect to get bricked after the game. But only after the players have got on it. Play like this at a home game, and we'll burn their Ferraris.

You might think that there's not actually much about the match in this report. You'd be right. If the players can't be bothered to go out and perform when they're earning two grand a week, then I can't be bothered to write up on their lack of action.

Players' ratings:

Match notes:

Match preview:

None.

Ticket information:

None.

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