| Competition | Date | Opponent | Venue | Result |
| Division 2 | Tuesday, 4th April | Bristol Rovers | Away | Won 1-0 |
Match facts:
Reading goals:
Assists:
Opposition goals:
Half-time:
Gamebreaker:
Attendance:
Weather:
Referee: Paul
Durkin (Portland)
Fourth official: Paul Rejer (Leamington
Spa)
Reading line-up:
Subs not used:
Starting formation:
Reading yellow cards:
Reading red cards:
Match report:
Ho ho ho. It was all I could do to stop myself laughing out loud as I went into the home end after this game (and that's another story).
What's your excuse this time, Holloway? The gamesmanship was all from your team, you were at home, and the officials gave your team absolutely everything. And you still got beat. Just face it, we're better than you are, you know it, and you can't stand it. And remember it when we play you again next season!
Something that I bet Ian Holloway didn't have to put up with was the fact that there were no cold drinks on sale inside the away end. I wonder if that was to make sure that we didn't have any bottles! In any event it was so cold that they wouldn't have sold any - it even hailed just before the start of the match.
And something else Holloway didn't have to put up with was the view from the corner of the pitch. The home bench is positioned nicely on the halfway line providing the perfect view for the manager and coaches. The away bench is normally about 20 metres to the side, providing a considerably worse view. But for this game, Bristol had moved the bench right down the touchline, level with the penalty spot. They'd painted an area around the bench so that Mad Dog and Pardew couldn't get anywhere near the action without breaching the rules (you could see the markings from where the away bench was previously).
Before the game, the Reading players came and warmed up right in front of our fans. I was looking out to see if any of the youngsters were around, and spotted one in the squad. Then I looked again and realised that it was actually Sammy Igoe.
Whilst the players were doing stretching exercises, I could hear Mad Dog's words. He was wandering around shouting at our players, "You're the best team in the league, you're the BEST team in the league". This sort of motivation works for me.
When the game started, though, we looked a little lower than the best team in the league, as Bristol put us under a lot of pressure. In the first few minutes, we'd blocked one shot and seen another two go just wide. Corners were causing us problems as Bristol's tall and mobile players seemed to be getting first to everything. Although they had all this early pressure, none of the chances were really that clear-cut, and the first time Howie was really called into action was after 25 minutes when he brilliantly tipped away a curling long shot.
At the other end, we had had one half-chance when Neil Smith did a very accurate impression of Keith Scott by heading over when in a good position. We were using Smith's long throws and also the hoof to clear the ball, so we were really not playing that much football.
Bristol showed their true colours with a brutal hack on Caskey. Fortunately he was not badly injured and the referee did at least book the culprit. That was about the only thing the officials did give us in the first half - the linesman in particular let several runs go unchecked when players were clearly offside. From one of these, Cureton hit the ball tamely at Howie - how did he get all those goals this season if that's the best he can do?
Jason Roberts was causing us lots of problems; firstly, by his frequent dives. He won many dubious free-kicks this way, had one penalty appeal that got turned down flat, and must have come very close to getting booked for an outrageous bit of cheating just before half-time. That particular dive only led to us getting the ball, thankfully. Roberts does have ability as well, and frequently managed to go past our players as if they weren't there. He never once managed a shot on target, though.
We struggled to the interval still level. Half-times can be boring and ours certainly was. Meanwhile, just a few miles away, a match was being abandoned at half-time after a helicopter landed on the pitch! Apparently the chopper was in trouble and had to land immediately. The football ground was the only flat area they could see that was also lit up. Now that would have been a sight to behold!
In the second half, Scott Howie was standing in front of the goal where all the trouble happened at the last game. In this match, there was no trouble and he even managed to take his time with goal-kicks without looking unduly worried.
However, the other keeper was getting some serious stick. Regular cries of "Dodgy keeper" and "Nicholls - from the halfway line" met his every move, and when he blasted a couple of clearances off the field (Howie-style!) the noise only got louder. Mad Dog was also giving him stick, and encouraging us to keep up the pressure. I have to say the keeper did pretty well considering, even making an excellent save from a Lee Hodges rocket.
But that was after we'd taken the lead. Hodges received the ball just outside the area, cut inside his man, and headed for goal. Or he would have done if "his man" hadn't cynically fouled him. The culprit was booked - a red card must have been a possibility although there was another defender not too far away. The real punishment came from the free-kick, as Caskey curled the ball into the far bottom corner with the keeper nowhere.
The way we celebrated you might have thought we'd clinched promotion - some of our bench ran onto the pitch, most of the players ended in a heap nearby, and the fans went absolutely wild. (In fact, I pulled a muscle in my back which still hurts!!!) This of course also allowed us to run a bit of time off the clock because, to be quite frank, we scored this goal rather too early for my liking.
Bristol tried to step up a gear but failed. They made a panicky double substitution that left them worse off than they were before (well done, Holloway!), and the only real sign of them doing anything was that several of our players got booked for fouls on Roberts.
By awarding us the free-kick which led to the goal, the referee had given us our quota for the full 90 minutes, and managed a series of shocking decisions in the rest of the game. One in particular, when a defender wrestled Hodges to the ground as they both chased the ball and the ref just awarded a home throw, led to Mad Dog bouncing the ball high in the air. The referee spoke to him and we feared the worst. However, I think the ref knew that we should have had a free-kick and let the bench off with a warning.
Bristol did force a good save from Howie at the end of normal time. He had to dive low to his right and turn the ball past the post. The fourth official then held a board up showing four extra minutes on it. Probably fair enough, but the ref actually played six minutes (which did include a 45-second injury) before putting us out of our misery.
The ground emptied quickly as the Reading fans and players celebrated down in the corner of the pitch. I thought we might get the Mexican wave again, but that was probably deemed a bit too inflammatory. I'll just have to settle for six points this season off a club that cannot cope with the pressure of being near the top of the table. If they do go up this season, they are going to really struggle next year.
Match notes:
Match preview:
None.
Ticket information:
None.
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