I reckon a number of our players weren't so keen on this, but they didn't seem to get much say in the matter. A few Oxford supporters had stayed to watch, and I reckon they were thinking that we had come to their town and totally taken the piss.
| Competition | Date | Opponent | Venue | Result |
| Division 2 | Tuesday, 7th March | Oxford United | Away | Won 3-1 |
Match facts:
Reading goals:
Assists:
Opposition goals:
Half-time:
Gamebreaker:
Attendance:
Weather:
Referee:
Reading line-up:
Subs not used:
Starting formation:
Reading yellow cards:
Reading red cards:
Match report:
| Comfortable wins over Bournemouth and Oxford in the same week? It doesn't get much better than this. |
| Our last trip to Oxford saw one of the worst ever Reading displays. The only comfort from that 0-3 defeat was that Bullivant resigned the following day. Pardew had said that he wanted the players to make up for that shambles and they certainly did. The effort put in by our players was first-class throughout the game, and directly responsible for at least two of our goals. |
| The line-up followed the standard pattern of recent weeks, with a 4-3-3 formation and two midfield ball-winners. The only change was that Hodges played instead of McIntyre. This was a surprise because in recent games, Hodges has usually replaced McIntyre, and always looked inferior. |
| Before the match, Mad Dog decided that half of the pitch was not large enough for us to warm-up in and promptly took all the players down the other end. It was only straight down there and back again but I still love it! He also introduced an unorthodox form of warming-up where the players jogged across the goal in front of the packed Reading fans, and applauded us on order. |
| When the game started, though, it looked for a while like it was Chesterfield all over again. In the opening minutes we had hardly any play, and fairly early on Oxford scored. Their left back received the ball, went past Gurney as if he wasn't there and had only Adie Williams to beat. Williams showed him the outside, the Oxford player said "Thank you very much", took it, and fired a low shot across Howie into the bottom corner. |
| This might have been the worst thing that Oxford could have done, because Reading immediately woke up. From that point on we were always first to a loose ball and harried the Oxford players whenever they had it. Soon after we scored with something of a fortunate goal. Hodges had a shot from the edge of the area and hit the post but the ball cannoned onto the Oxford keeper's back and into the net. When did we ever get that sort of luck!!! Unfortunately it has to go down as an own goal. |
| Soon after, Butler chased down the keeper and made him make a mess of his clearance which fell straight to Hodges. Hodges shot straight back but the keeper just managed to stop it going in. This was in front of the end where the Reading fans were, and by now we were giving the keeper some serious stick. The Reading players also sensed his problems, and started putting him under pressure at all times. Forster and Butler were chasing him down from 40 yards away to force him to hurry his clearances, and Butler tried a 30-yard lob that (surprisingly) the keeper dealt with comfortably. |
| Also, when the keeper was taking free-kicks we always stood a man just ten yards away to put pressure on him. When they were on the side nearest the dug-out you could also see (and sometimes hear) Mad Dog hurling abuse at the goalkeeper as he took the kick. I can't repeat what I think I heard. |
| On one occasion, we had a move down the left where Forster got behind the last defender, but couldn't get his shot in before the defence got back. He beat two men, but then put the ball over the bar. He's missed a few too many like that just recently for my liking. |
| Soon after, Oxford had their one other chance of the half. A forward got the ball on the edge of the area with only Howie to beat, but Barry Hunter managed to make a tackle from behind and play the ball back to Howie who cleared. There was a loud shout for a penalty, but only an incredibly biased referee would have given it. Surprisingly the incredibly biased referee waved play on, though. |
| Then Andy Gurney tried a long shot. This was one of the ones that he caught just right, and it flew like an arrow towards the goal. It might have gone just wide, but the keeper decided he had to be certain and dived across to make the save. However, he just parried the ball out to the edge of the six-yard box, where an unmarked Lee Hodges was waiting to slot the rebound home. Hodges was only there because he had been running forward in a way that we wouldn't have seen a couple of months ago. A defender should have followed him, but there was only one team putting in the running at this stage of the game. |
| Soon after the Oxford keeper started to pretend he was injured. He waved his arms around a bit and then signalled to the bench that he wanted to come off. Their reserve keeper started warming up. The referee (who had a scandalous game) saw all this, and blew up for a free-kick to Oxford. In fact, Robinson had just put in a good tackle, and it looked like we were mounting an attack. What an absolute disgrace. Oxford weren't even ready to make the substitution, so it was fully four minutes before they got the chance to take their unearned free-kick. |
| The incredibly amusing thing is that the new keeper had all the same problems as the old one! Butler and Forster continued to press him into hurried clearances, and he put one after another either out of play or to one of our men. We started singing "Worse than the last one, you're even worse than the last one!" We had one chance that looked as if it might go in. Again Butler hassled the keeper, who cleared it straight to Forster. He fired a first-time shot from 35 yards out and the keeper stumbled. Just as it looked as if the ball must sneak inside the post, the keeper just managed to get across his goal and scramble it away for a corner. |
| One other incident of note in the first half was where Butler challenged the Oxford right-back about 40 yards out from goal. The right-back passed to the centre-back, and Butler chased him down as well. He put the ball out to the left-back, and Butler was over there in a flash. One player has tied down the entire Oxford back line! As Butler dispossessed the left-back, the referee gave a free-kick (which might have been correct) and then amazingly booked Butler. Just for showing some effort, I suppose. |
| From another attack, the Oxford keeper actually caught the ball and then threw a punch at one of our players who was nearby. In my book this is a penalty and probable red card, but the referee decided to speak to the keeper and then wave play on. If there wasn't a foul what was he saying? If there was a foul, why didn't he give it? All very mysterious. |
| One tactic we used a lot in this game was the Neil Smith long throw. Although it always seemed to create problems in the Oxford defence, none of our best chances actually came from it (which is why I haven't mentioned it elsewhere in the report). We did however mix up the throws - we tried the one where Hunter runs 30 yards to the ball just as it is thrown, and one where Williams stood on the goal-line and then ran 10 yards to meet the ball. Neither of those worked, by the way. However, we also occasionally threw the ball short and tried to play the ball forward, which shows that the long throw is not a tactic we intend to rely on (compare and contrast Scunthorpe). |
| It could have been more but we were 2-1 up at half-time. I got a feeling that this is gonna to be our day (now where have I heard that before...). During the interval, there was some high-quality entertainment, where one fan from each side took two shots at the goal from about 35 yards out. We won 2-0, until we realised that in fact the two people concerned were aiming for the crossbar, and getting nowhere near it. |
| At the start of the second half, Mad Dog came out with the Reading players, and conducted a warm-up session. I don't think I've ever seen this before, and I have a vague feeling that it's against the rules. Anyone know? (It's possible that we do this all the time at home games, as I think there's a warm-up area under the West Stand.) At the end of the warm-up the players went into a Celtic-style huddle, and then went sprinting off to all corners of the half. |
| The second half was more of the same. Reading were totally dominant, and I can't remember a single shot from Oxford worthy of the name. We continued to win the ball in midfield, continued to press the keeper into hurried clearances, and the fans were in fine voice. At times there were three different songs going, as different areas of the terrace started up the chants. |
| We got a third goal, but not the others that our pressure deserved. Butler played the ball out to Forster on the left (or it might have been the other way around) and he put a cross into the box. It wasn't a very good cross, and the keeper could have taken it easily. However the only player in the centre of the box was an Oxford defender who should have dealt with the ball comfortably. Instead he completely missed the ball in a hung-over Sunday morning kickabout sort of way, and the ball landed at an unmarked Caskey's feet. Again it was superb running from Caskey even to be in that position and he easily put the ball past the keeper, playing it to the side of the goal that the keeper was moving away from. Caskey then ran off towards the Oxford fans making vaguely provocative gestures. |
| Both Butler and Forster had chances to stretch the lead. Butler beat the last line of defence but hurried his shot as the last defender desperately tried to catch him up. Forster shot wide from a tight angle, but boy did he hit it! I wouldn't have wanted to get in the way of that one. |
| We brought on Murty for Robinson, who had actually done very little. I don't know if he was ill or unfit, but he only brought the ball forward on a few occasions. Oxford brought on the six foot eight "Freak" who still managed to win very little in the air against Hunter and Williams. We also replaced Hodges with McIntyre and Forster with Evers. |
| The game got more scrappy with all these changes and with Oxford just fouling our players whenever they felt like it. They got away with an elbow on Butler and a boot into the face of Grant before finally the referee showed a yellow card for a brutal hack on Butler. When you compare what the Oxford players got away with to the tackle that Butler received a card for in the first half, it is nothing short of scandalous. |
| There
were five minutes of injury time but Oxford still
produced nothing. The final whistle was greeted with much
jubilation, and the home stands emptied very quickly. Mad
Dog made sure that the players all came over to the
penalty area at the end where we were all gathered. After
a bit of this, some players started to head for the
tunnel, but he was having none of it. Again they went
into a huddle, and then lined up along the 18-yard box. I
was expecting a stage bow, or one of those headlong dives
popular on the continent, but instead Mad Dog got them
doing the Mexican wave.
I reckon a number of our players weren't so keen on this, but they didn't seem to get much say in the matter. A few Oxford supporters had stayed to watch, and I reckon they were thinking that we had come to their town and totally taken the piss. |
| (I have an idea here for a corner-kick routine. The keeper and two defenders stay back, and one player takes the kick. The other seven players stand on the edge of the penalty area and do the wave until the kick is taken. The bemused defence don't know what to do, our players suddenly dart all over the place as the kick is taken and at least some of them will get into space. The question is whether we can get the ball into the same space, of course.) |
| Still it wasn't over. The players now started on a warm-down session, and most of our fans were still watching. We might have been there for some while yet, but the stewards came onto the pitch and told the players to leave! |
| I was surprised that they agreed, but I suspect that this was because the stewards had mentioned that the largest operation in Thames Valley Police history was just getting underway, and the team was holding it up. |
| As we left the ground, we discovered what was going on. Although most of those Reading fans who had travelled by car were parked towards the south-east of the ground, every fan was forced to leave in a north-west direction. After trudging down what seemed like an interminable alleyway, the police directed most of the rest of us to buses heading for the town centre. |
| I don't know what if anything had happened but a further group of 150 or so fans were being held in a tight police cordon. I ended up on a bus, and waited for ages. After a while we saw the team coach come past. The people in the bus in front of us were applauding it as it drove past them, but as it went past us we could see that no-one was on it. Were they just cheering the coach driver???!!!! |
| The cordoned off group of fans were led off on foot, with a heavy police escort. Then our buses were driven off. The station is two miles to the west down a straight road, so it was a surprise that the buses headed north. Having got into the northern Oxford suburbs, we then turned and came back through the City Centre. No doubt there was a good reason for this, but it defeats me. The bus stopped at the station, with a load of police waiting at the top of the steps. However, most of us on our bus just turned left and headed for the City Centre. I could hear running behind me. It was all the police scrambling down the bank to stop us, although they ignored me and just stopped everyone else. I am clearly no threat! |
| I decided to see what was going on with the group on foot and walked about a mile towards the ground until I found them. They were walking slowly, escorted by 10 minibuses, 3 vans, 6 horses, 4 motorcycles, and I also counted 95 police on foot. Further up the road were 30 to 40 police sweeping the area the fans were about to get to. They were closing down all the kebab vans, moving people away from bus-stops and stopping traffic from approaching the fans. Every bar or restaurant had two or three police stationed outside it. |
| I have never seen as many police in a single operation at a football match. If the Pope was to meet the Queen and Tony Blair in the Thames Valley and there had been terrorist threats in advance, I doubt if there would have been more police in evidence. What we have to ask ourselves is why they clamp down so tightly on Reading visiting Oxford, but are nowhere to be seen when Millwall came to Reading. Are they practicing for the Cardiff game, I wonder? |
| Because this was Oxford City Centre, there was not a single Oxford fan in sight, but just loads of curious students. Some of them acted hard, until they got close to the fans and then slunk off. The Reading fans were (not too surprisingly) well behaved and frequently singing songs such as "3-1"! They eventually reached the station at about 11:30 - that's two hours after the end of the match. |
| It's also the point when I went off to watch Central Soccer Special, which showed the four goals but nothing more of the game. Still rather more than Meridian ever manage, I suppose. |
| It's Brentford at home on Saturday - more of the same, please! |
Match notes:
Match preview:
None.
Ticket information:
None.
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