| Competition | Date | Opponent | Venue | Result |
| Division 2 | Monday, 24th April | Wycombe Wanderers | Home | Won 2-1 |
Match facts:
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Gamebreaker:
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Referee: Phil
Richards (Preston)
Reading line-up:
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Reading red cards:
Match report:
Well, the day had finally arrived when Alan Pardew had promised to throw in the youngsters. And, relative to previous matches, he certainly did! Darius Henderson in the starting line-up, Ricky Allaway allocated a number, and … er, that was it. Now that we're playing well and winning games, I'm not so unhappy about that, to be honest.
Henderson played at centre-forward with Forster and Butler as wide attacking players. Strangely Forster was on the left and Butler the right - maybe an attempt to force them both to use their less favoured foot.
Having said that, we didn't play at all well in the first half of this match, although we did create the chances to be in the lead. Caskey and Butler both managed to shoot straight at the keeper when in positions that should have led to goals, whilst Wycombe forced only one save from Howie in the half. Murty had problems with the pace of the Wycombe left back, but they were never able to make anything serious from it.
Before all that though, Henderson managed his first booking for an awkward challenge on a Wycombe player. This sparked a 17-man brawl with another Wycombe player who got the first bit of retaliation in also booked. The only clear punch I saw thrown was on Adie Williams and went completely unpunished.
In the first half Peter Grant was also booked, for a late challenge, and Butler got booked after the Wycombe keeper fell theatrically to the floor as if shot. This was after he had failed to cleanly take the ball, and if your centre-forward is not allowed to challenge for the ball in such circumstances we might as well all start playing basketball now. You'll not be surprised to know that the keeper made a miraculous recovery.
Then in injury time, Peter Grant caught another Wycombe player with a late challenge. This of course got him a second yellow card and so we were down to ten men. From the angle I had it was difficult to disagree with the decision. Grant got a standing ovation from the Reading fans, which is a massive turnaround from just a few months ago.
After half-time, we replaced Henderson with Hodges and switched to 4-3-2, a formation we've seen far too often this season. I didn't think Henderson was particularly impressive but it was good experience for him and I'm sure he was only taken off because of the need to change our style of play.
The sending off had clearly fired up the Reading players who looked like a different side in the second half. Nicky Forster in particular (now on the right) started beating his defender on every occasion. His ability to make a quick turn and then use his pace to get behind the defence marks him out as a class above every defence in this division. Unfortunately for Wycombe they didn't know that the way to beat this tactic is to foul Forster in the penalty area and watch the referee wave play on.
On about the fifth time that Forster beat the away defenders, he managed to stumble into the box with the ball. He then lost it under his feet for a moment, but still had time to reclaim it and fire home across the keeper's body whilst everyone from Wycombe waited for a cross to the unmarked Caskey. "Ten men, we've only got ten men", we sang to the Wycombe fans, for the benefit of those of their following unable to count.
Just like at Notts County, the Forster goal was not enough to win the match because of a comedy goal that we gifted to the opposition. In this case a long bouncing ball was passed back by Primus to the onrushing Howie who decided he couldn't catch it without giving a free-kick and incredibly decided to leave it instead. We had four defenders in the vicinity but instead it was the one Wycombe attacker who got a boot to the ball and knocked it into the unguarded net. Reading players castigated Howie, but I thought the real culprit was Primus who should be able to clear easily that sort of ball.
We continued to attack and Butler managed to miss a couple of chances. I was always worried that he would pick up another booking and so was not too surprised that he was then replaced by Martin Williams. Williams seemed to add a new dimension to our game as he was always available for the ball and also harried the defenders in the same sort of style as Butler does.
Neil Smith had had a decent game, particularly stepping up his tackling after Grant was sent off. Smith also tried his long throws on numerous occasions and from one of them, incredibly, we scored. It's taken four months of using that tactic! This throw picked our Adie Williams at the near post, who flicked it onto Martin Williams who headed home. It looked like a defender might just be able to stop it but he failed to do so.
After that, we switched to 4-4-1 with Williams the lone man up front, and rarely looked to commit numbers to attacks. Even so, we should have had a chance for a third as Martin Williams was bundled over in the area. The referee just gave a goal kick - criminal when you think about what Wigan got a penalty for just 48 hours earlier.
Injury time was a bit nervy as Wycombe pushed forward but we held out without too many real scares. There is no good reason to get excited about beating such a poor team, even when reduced to ten men, but the fact is that they are still just ahead of us in the table. It would be nice to put that right before the end of the season.
As the players took the applause, there was one result broadcast over the tannoy system - Stockport 3 Swindon 0. All things considered, another good day!
Match notes:
Match preview:
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Ticket information:
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