| Competition | Date | Opponent | Venue | Result |
| Division 2 | Saturday, 6th May | Stoke City | Home | Won 1-0 |
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The way you can tell that we were really bad earlier this season was that we lost to Joke City. In recent years Reading teams of all levels of ability have still known that there are six easy points waiting each season that we find ourselves in the same division as this particular shower. Fortunately this game restored some semblance of normality on that particular score.
Before the game we had the Player of the Year award. I'm delighted to say that Darren Caskey picked it up, particularly as he should have won it last year as well. No doubt we will still have to put up with half the crowd slagging him off most of the time, but it is great that he has at last got some proper recognition from the fans.
Nicky Forster was second and Scott Howie third - no-one could have predicted either of those positions just a few months ago (obviously Forster was injured at the time and we hadn't all properly appreciated that).
With Martin Butler out through injury, Pardew surprisingly brought in Martin Williams for Darius Henderson. It was a good decision because Williams had a pretty good game. He doesn't have the running of Butler (!) but he used his pace and skill to reasonable effect. It will be a shame if this was his last game for the club.
Stoke needed a point to be sure of a play-off place and I think that they had settled for that before the game. They sat back more than I had expected and never looked dangerous throughout the whole game. In the first half they only managed one decent shot that Whitehead was easily equal to.
Reading didn't have that many more attacking chances. Too many of our crosses were simple affairs that the goalkeeper was able to catch easily. We had a good chance when Forster cut inside his defender and ran into the area, but as usual he was fouled without us getting a penalty. A little later he tried a blatant dive to see if the referee wanted to make up for his earlier mistake but that didn't work either.
Our best chance came from one of our five corners. Stoke didn't clear the ball properly and it fell to Smith on the edge of the area. He tried to place it rather than power the ball back in and it went just the wrong side of the post with the keeper just standing and looking. The fact is that he should have scored easily (which would have meant that I didn't look a fool after jumping up and cheering!).
Stoke had spent the half attacking the end where their fans were gathered, and I had been worried all half that they would influence the ref and get unfair decisions. They did get some dubious free-kicks (but to be fair so did we) and I was pleased that we got to half-time at 0-0 without the huge penalty appeal that might have swung an incompetent ref.
At the interval we had June Whitfield on the pitch to make the half-time draw and lead us in the singing of the Terry and June theme tune. An amusing little cameo performance, I felt.
In the second half, Reading seemed to step up a gear but Stoke caught us more often on the break. Again some of our crossing was poor which meant that we didn't get the chances from our possession that we should have done. I must make a special mention of Graeme Murty and Matthew Robinson who both had excellent games. Both of them were creative in attacking positions but also defended well, with Murty in particular throwing himself into challenges (won't be too much longer before he's injured again, at that rate!).
Against that must be set the fact that Primus had an awful game. He quite clearly didn't give a toss and can piss off now for all I care. On more than one occasion he badly misjudged long balls and needed to be bailed out by one of our other defenders.
At the other end Nicky Forster was adopting a shoot on sight policy (also known as a not passing the ball very much policy!) but only found the target once. After cutting inside from the left he hit a ferocious shot from the edge of the area that the keeper saved. At the speed it was travelling I can't believe that the keeper would have made the save if it had been even a yard either side.
It looked as if the game was drifting to a goalless conclusion until we finally won a penalty. At the start of the season when we were playing badly we had lots of penalties - since we've been playing well we've got in the area far more often and not got the decisions. I don't understand it at all. On this occasion it was Darren Caskey who took the ball past his man and was shaping to shoot when he was hacked down.
The Stoke players complained long and hard, but that was only an attempt to put Caskey off. It was as clear a penalty as you will see and I am staggered that it was the linesman that signalled it rather than the referee. Even after he'd made his decision and we had the ball on the spot, the Stoke keeper and one outfield player continued their cheating by complaining about the position. They should have known that nothing fazes Super Darren and he put it high to the keeper's left. 1-0 and Stoke start to get worried about the play-offs.
In fact they didn't have to get that worried because Bristol Rovers, the team with no bottle, were contriving to lose. The Stoke fans obviously knew that from their radios and just in case they didn't our tannoy announcer told them. Stoke did attack more, just in case, and forced a fine save from Whitehead. With the gaps they were now leaving at the back, we also made more chances. After a good low cross from the right, Henderson stuck a boot out and was unlucky to hit the post. It would have been good for the youngster to get rid some of his nerves by opening his account before the end of the season.
Soon after, the Stoke fans started celebrating as they heard the Bristol Rovers result, and knew that they would definitely be in the play-offs. Their team, showing a complete lack of fighting spirit, totally gave up on the game and allowed Reading to pass the ball around at will.
Although there was a lot of injury time, we were never threatened and secured another three points. The players disappeared down the tunnel and then returned for a short lap of honour. The Stoke fans refrained from smashing the place up thanks only to the incompetence of other teams - I hope that we will see them again next year because we know that we are better than them and can look forward to six points.
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