| Competition | Date | Opponent | Venue | Result |
| Division 2 | Friday, 7th April | Gillingham | Home | Drew 2-2 |
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Referee: Richard
Beeby (Northampton)
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Match report:
This game was switched to a Friday night in one of the most disgraceful decisions that we have had to witness at Reading in recent years.
The club gave two reasons for the switch - they said that it would give fans not normally able to attend on a Saturday the chance to see the team, and they added that they had approached Sky to televise the game live. Well, there was indeed a decent attendance but this was mostly due to the turnout from Kent. Compared to other recent Saturday games against top teams, Reading lost about 2,000 of our fans. And there was never any chance of Sky showing the game - all of their three channels already had live action booked.
So we have to face the fact that the real reason for the switch was to allow us to pander to the upper class tossers who used Saturday afternoon to ruin our pitch whilst carrying out their plan to bore to death all those stupid enough to turn up or tune their TV sets to Sky.
It must be said that our Friday night game was also nothing to write home about (although obviously still far more interesting than any egg-chasing could ever be). The atmosphere was subdued, our players weren't really up for the game, and at the back of almost everybody's mind was the thought that for Reading this game really didn't matter.
The first half was a pretty scrappy affair with neither side really doing anything special. It was a massive shock to the system when Reading took the lead before half-time. If you ask Gillingham fans what happened, they'll tell you that Martin Butler caught the ball in the area and then drop-kicked it into the net. I thought he controlled the ball with his chest, but I know I'd have appealed if it had been the other way round. This was Butler's first goal at the MadStad and he ran delightedly to the East Stand to celebrate the fact.
At half-time, Gillingham brought on Swindon reject Onoura and switched to a 4-5-1 formation. This immediately changed the game - we seemed to have no defence against Onoura, and our outnumbered midfielders completely failed to hang onto the ball. A Nicky Forster run and shot nearly extended our lead but he pulled the ball wide.
Instead, Gillingham took the lead with two simple goals. The first was a free header after a cross from the left, and the second when Onoura bundled the ball into the net after Martin Butler (!) had flicked a Gillingham corner against our bar. They nearly got a third when Howie completely misjudged a cross, and we were fortunate that the header was straight towards Matthew Robinson on the line, and not anywhere else in our wide open goal.
We struggled to get back into the game but then pulled out a goal of true class. Nicky Forster just managed to get a cross in from the right wing when it looked as if the ball was going out for a goal-kick, Butler strained to head the ball back into the path of Darren Caskey who hit a bullet past the keeper.
We solved the problem of Onoura by bringing on Andy Gurney who was able to dispossess him every time (previously Hunter was trying to mark him).
Although neither team settled for a draw, there were no more clear-cut chances and that is what we ended up with. In many ways this was similar to the Cardiff game, but we were up against a much better team and still managed to salvage a point.
Match notes:
Match preview:
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