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2002/03 Reports

Match facts:

Reading goals: Nicky Forster (12 minutes), Own goal (39 minutes), Martin Butler (53 minutes), John Salako (58 minutes)
Assists: Nicky Forster, John Salako, Anthony Rougier, Martin Butler
Opposition goals: After 19 and 25? minutes
Half-time: Kidderminster Harriers 2 Reading 2
Gamebreaker: Reading's fourth goal
Attendance: 814
Weather: Very heavy rain
Referee: Paul Rejer (Leamington Spa)

Reading line-up: 1 Phil Whitehead; 2 Graeme Murty, 5 Adie Williams, 6 Adi Viveash (15 Phil Parkinson, half-time), 3 John Salako; 7 Sammy Igoe, 4 Kevin Watson (16 Joe Gamble, 70 minutes), 8 James Harper (12 Andy Hughes, 70 minutes); 10 Anthony Rougier (17 Bas Savage, 75 minutes), 9 Martin Butler (14 Jamie Cureton, 75 minutes), 11 Nicky Forster (18 Alex Smith, 53 minutes)
Sub not used: Jamie Ashdown
Reading yellow cards: None
Reading red cards: None

Match report:

There's no better time than pre-season to tinker with formations, and let's all give thanks that we're never again going to see the one that started this game. It seemed that we were trying to play something approximating to 4-3-3 with Nicky Forster, Martin Butler and Anthony Rougier up front. Forster was playing mostly wide on the left, whilst Rougier was just getting in the way of Sammy Igoe in right midfield. John Salako played at left-back, which was OK except for the fact that no-one was playing on the left side of midfield, so when he did go forward there were huge gaps behind him. My favoured combination in the centre of midfield, Kevin Watson and James Harper, failed to produce anything much, which has caused me to rethink!

Despite all of the above, we started the game better than the home side and had a couple of early shots that went wide. Forster had used his pace to leave the right-back floundering on a number of occasions, whilst Igoe had also put some crosses over. After 12 minutes, Forster attacked down the left again, and this time fired hard with his left foot. Perhaps taking the goalkeeper by surprise, the ball rocketed in off the far post. I think it was a shot, because Forster is not known for the number of passes he makes.....

Kidderminster had put in some tough challenges, and Adi Viveash ended up struggling after one from their centre-forward, who had previously been rejected by Reading after a trial and was presumably trying to make a point. Not long after our goal, Kidderminster broke down the right wing, and after pulling Viveash out the way in the six-yard box the reject headed past Phil Whitehead. The Reading keeper could have claimed the cross but chose to stay on his line.

Soon after that the home side took the lead with a powerful shot after another break down the right wing when we had no left back in evidence at all. The ball cannoned in off the crossbar, with Whitehead given no chance at all. By now the game was being played mostly in torrential rain, which meant passes were zipping off the turf and often beating the intended recipient.

The Reading formation was still failing but we did have one chance where a pass put Butler behind the defence. However, just as it appeared he was about to shoot, he ended up on the ground. As this event was down the far end, I can't be certain if he was fouled or if he was close enough to the ball to shoot anyway, but if it hadn't been a friendly I think there would have been serious protests afterwards. Harper then produced one good run where he beat several players, but his shot was unfortunately over the bar.

Salako gave away a free-kick on the edge of the Reading area immediately afterwards but it came to nothing. Then just before half-time, our left-back pushed forward once more and put a dangerous low cross in the general direction of Rougier. A defender got there first and put the ball into his own net. This meant we had achieved a rather undeserved parity at the break.

For the second half, Phil Parkinson replaced Adi Viveash at centre-back because we had no defenders at all among our seven substitutes. I assume that Viveash must have been not too badly injured otherwise he would have not have stayed on the whole of the first 45 minutes.

Early on in the half, we took the lead when Butler broke the offside trap after a through-ball from Rougier. Butler had no defenders anywhere near him, and calmly slotted the ball past the keeper. Immediately we took off Nicky Forster, with Alex Smith going to left-back and Salako moving forward. Now that the formation was the more normal 4-4-2, Reading looked the much better side and extended the lead shortly afterwards. Again Butler broke the offside trap - this time he looked up and saw Salako on his right, and then rolled the ball to him for a simple goal. Salako must have been close to being offside for the final pass but presumably showed sufficient experience to hold his run back.

Both sides made a series of substitutions and there was relatively little action in the rest of the game. Phil Whitehead was called on to make a couple of saves, and the Kidderminster goalkeeper also had to tip one shot over the bar. Our midfield was strengthened when Joe Gamble and Andy Hughes replaced Watson and Harper, and we had a lot of possession without showing much likelihood of scoring again.

For the last 15 minutes, Jamie Cureton and Bas Savage replaced our front two - Cureton didn't get too involved but Savage had several good moments. In one he chased the ball down to near the corner-flag, showed some nice skill to to leave defenders floundering and put over a decent cross that was headed away by the defence.

Overall, it was a performance of two portions (almost of two halves) determined by the formation. It means Reading have won five games out of five this season, but we will need to continue to improve in the next three weeks before the League season starts.

Match notes:

None.

Match preview:

None.

Ticket information:

Prices are as follows:
Adults - £10
Concessions - £5

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