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2002/03 Reports

Match facts:

Reading goals: Nicky Forster (5 minutes), James Harper (53 minutes), Alex Smith (66 minutes)
Assists: John Salako, Sammy Igoe, Darius Henderson
Opposition goals: After 15, 37, 54 and 91 minutes (final goal in second half injury time)
Half-time: Reading 1 Charlton Athletic 2
Gamebreaker: Final whistle
Attendance: 3,054
Weather: Dry, warm
Referee: Paul Taylor (Cheshunt)

Reading line-up: 1 Phil Whitehead (21 Jamie Ashdown, 78 minutes); 2 Graeme Murty, 6 John Mackie, 8 Adie Williams, 3 Nicky Shorey (26 Alex Smith, 58 minutes); 4 Kevin Watson (12 Jamie Cureton, 58 minutes); 17 John Salako (7 Anthony Rougier, 58 minutes), 11 Andy Hughes (29 Andre Fashanu, 84 minutes), 15 James Harper (19 Joe Gamble, 78 minutes), 10 Nicky Forster (14 Sammy Igoe, half-time); 9 Martin Butler (24 Darius Henderson, 58 minutes)
Subs not used: None
Approximate starting formation:

Reading yellow cards: None
Reading red cards: None

Match report:

I think I should give up on predicting formations because Reading again used the system with Martin Butler playing alone up front and five in midfield. It seemed to me that Kevin Watson was playing just in front of the back four, so I'm calling this a 4-1-4-1 formation. One slight oddity was that Nicky Forster played wide on the left with John Salako wide on the right.

After five minutes, the advantage of having Salako on the right was shown when he cut back inside to put over a left-foot cross that Butler should have buried. Fortunately Butler's presence put the keeper off and Forster tapped the ball into the net. As the game progressed, though, it looked as though Reading would sturggle to keep the lead. We had a narrow escape when a Charlton shot ricocheted off a defender onto a post, and an even narrower one when a Charlton player put the rebound in the net only for the move to be pulled up due to an earlier infringement.

After quarter of an hour, Charlton did get back on terms. This time Phil Whitehead managed to parry the first shot but the ball fell straight at the feet of an attacker who had an easy task to score. Soon after, Butler failed to connect with another Salako cross that should have produced a goal, and shortly before half-time we paid for that. A visiting midfielder played a long ball into the penalty area, which was back-headed away from Whitehead and just inside the post. Another moment of interest in the half was when we had a free-kick just outside the area, but Salako placed the ball into the huge open spaces of the South Stand. 2-1 was a fair score at half-time.

The break came just at the right time to watch Reading swimmer Rebecca Cooke win a gold medal for England at the Commonwealth Games. Probably the only Reading winner I was going to see today, I thought.

For the second half, Sammy Igoe replaced Forster in a straight swap. Early on we equalised, again the business part of the move starting with a Salako cross. This time he played it very deep where Igoe at the far post nodded the ball back to James Harper, who easily sidefooted the ball into the net.

Any thoughts that we could go on and look for a win lasted less than a minute as John Mackie misjudged a long ball leaving an unmarked Charlton forward with the simple task of slotting the ball past Whitehead. After that, we made a quadruple substitution and switched formation to 4-4-2, with Jamie Cureton and Darius Henderson the pairing up front. Yet again, the switch to the more usual formation improved our game, which really does make me wonder why the experiments are continuing.

One of the four substitutes was Alex Smith, coming on at left-back, and he made his presence felt when we received another free-kick just outside the penalty area when Darius Henderson was clumsily fouled by the last defender. In a competitive game, the foul would have been punished by a red card as well. No fancy free-kicks in pre-season of course, just in case any future opponents are watching, so Smith just hammered the ball into the far top corner. That was the part of the goal the goalkeeper was defending and he still couldn't reach the shot. An exceptional goal for Smith, and probably would have been a candidate for goal of the season had it not been seen by so few spectators.

It looked as if the game would peter out into a 3-3 draw. We made two more substitutions but Charlton stuck with far more of their starting line-up. One of our subs, Joe Gamble, fouled a Charlton player who was so unhappy about the decision that he took his wrath out on Anthony Rougier, illegally stopping a strong left-wing run. The referee had a word but would have allowed him to stay on the field - instead his manager decided to substitute him. The truth is that the Charlton player had every right to be unhappy about the Gamble challenge, were it not for the fact that the same player had at various stages in the game been responsible for equally bad fouls on each of Butler, Forster and Cureton before his assault on Rougier. After his substitution, the prat angrily barged into the fourth official, a young woman, and nearly knocked her flying.

Reading brought on Andre Fashanu who immediately made a mark with a through-ball for Henderson that should have produced a goal. Instead the keeper smothered Henderson's prod towards the net, and then saved the follow-up shot from Cureton.

As the game entered injury-time, Charlton snatched a winner. Rougier lazily lost the ball in midfield, and it was played forward into the Reading penalty area. Mackie made a great last-ditch tackle to stop Charlton getting a shot in, but the ball broke to another forward. Mackie dived forward to block his attempt, but the ball fell nicely for a third attacking player to be able to just roll the ball into the goal. There was only a minute or so more played, leaving us facing defeat for the first time this pre-season.

If there is one major concern from this game, it was in defence. Two of the Charlton goals came from unmarked forwards being able to roll the ball into an empty net, whilst another was from an unmarked forward after a defensive error. The panic defence methods that we saw at times last season appear to be back in vogue, and need to be sorted out immediately. The only reason that we conceded two of those goals tonight was because of an inability to clear the ball properly when given the chance, leaving the keeper out of position and easy opportuntites for the opposition forwards. That wasn't good enough in Division 2 and certainly will not be in Division 1.

Match notes:

Andre Fashanu made his first appearance for the first team for a year and a day, the last such being in the friendly match against Tottenham Hotspur. He wore shirt number 29, although this may not be an allocated squad number for the rest of the season.

Match preview:

A tiny crowd is expected for Reading's first friendly, due to ludicrous ticket prices. Charlton Athletic are expected to field a decent side, but they are still not a particularly attractive opponent. And in fact I don't plan on mentioning them again. The only real interest is in how Reading perform, and in the line-up put out. At one stage in pre-season Alan Pardew suggested that he would be using the two home friendly games to trial the line-up he planned for the first League game, but more recent statements have contradicted this.

Assuming that it is a more-or-less first choice line-up then there are quite a few areas of doubt. The disastrous 4-3-3 formation tried at Kidderminster (which apparently was really meant to be 4-5-1) has been seen again in Germany, but seems unlikely to be on show at Madejski Stadium. Therefore I would expect 4-4-2, with Martin Butler and Nicky Forster up front. Before we signed Jamie Cureton, the FAB boys worked well in tandem but I still think we should have our best goalscorer on the pitch at the start of a game.

Both the central midfield and central defence partnerships are far from finalised, although John Mackie is one certain starter in those positions. There's also doubt over whether Sammy Igoe will slot into the right side of midfield. However, Graeme Murty, Nicky Shorey and John Salako are certain to be part of the first choice line-up.

Reading will be playing in the most recent abomination of a kit that the club marketing department have dreamed up.

Ticket information:

Tickets are on sale now. The North Stand will be closed for this game. Prices are as follows:

Tickets booked in advance via the official club website:
Adults - £13
Concessions - £6
There will also be a £1 fee per transaction.

Other tickets bought in advance:
Adults - £15
Concessions - £8
Wheelchair - £12
There will also be a £1 fee per transaction for tickets bought over the phone.

Tickets bought on the day:
Adults - £20
Concessions - £13
Wheelchair - £18

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