1871 - the ultimate Reading FC website

2002/03 Reports

Match facts:

Reading goal: John Salako (22 minutes)
Assist: Nicky Forster
Opposition goals: None
Half-time: Brighton & Hove Albion 0 Reading 1
Gamebreaker: Final whistle
Attendance: 6,817
Weather: Showers
Referee: Matt Messias (York)

Reading line-up: 31 Marcus Hahnemann; 2 Graeme Murty, 8 Adie Williams, 29 Matthew Upson, 3 Nicky Shorey; 15 James Harper, 11 Andy Hughes, 4 Kevin Watson (25 Ricky Newman, 70 minutes), 17 John Salako; 7 Anthony Rougier (9 Martin Butler, 83 minutes), 10 Nicky Forster
Subs not used: 21 Jamie Ashdown, 6 John Mackie, 12 Jamie Cureton
Approximate starting formation:

Reading yellow cards: Nicky Forster (being fouled in the penalty area, 8 minutes - the referee deemed it a dive), Andy Hughes (foul, 42 minutes), Martin Butler (dissent, 93 minutes, in second-half injury-time)
Reading red cards: None

Match report:

There are times when following your team can be a real joy. And a spell like this - every game we turn up, win the match and don't even concede a goal - must rate as one of the best. We've been spoilt recently. To have two perfect months in the same calendar year must surely be a first for any club.

Of course, when you're in the surroundings of the Withdean Stadium, joy can be slightly tempered. It is nothing short of a disgrace that this small athletics stadium, probably less suited for professional football than Palmer Park, is in use in Division 1. Whilst Brighton put in their planning applications to decimate huge areas of greenbelt for a new stadium that we all know will never happen, they continue to eke out a miserable existence with temporary stands surrounding an illegally small pitch that is about as flat as the trenches of the Somme.

However, the conditions were nowhere near as bad as last season - to their credit, the home club have clearly done work on the pitch, despite the fact that having a proper playing surface will clearly disadvatange them more than the visitors. Amazingly there was still grass throughout the surface even though this game was played at the end of November. Also, the rain held off for most of the match.

With conditions that did not drag us down to the abysmal level of the home side, the destination of the points were never really in doubt. Another calmly efficient performance from the Reading defence meant that once John Salako had driven the ball into the net off a Brighton defender (after receiving an unusually on-target Nicky Forster pass inside the penalty area!) the odds were always on yet another 1-0 Reading win.

Before the goal the referee had turned down two penalty appeals from Reading. The first (not absolutely clearcut) came when Forster looked to be fouled in the area but was deemed a dive worthy of a yellow card, the second was when Anthony Rougier was clearly pulled back when trying to run in for a cross at the far post. Clearly the ref didn't see the foul for the second and received no help from his linesman. Given the level of Rougier's performance for the rest of the game, there was probably no need to foul him. Hopefully, today was a mere blip rather than the signal that his recent good run of form has come to an end.

Forster had also produced one decent diving save from the home goalkeeper early on, whilst in the entire first half Marcus Hahnemann had nothing more to do than make one dive to his right to pick up a tame long-range shot. Towards the end of the half, we almost got a second goal but the ball was chested off the line by a covering defender. Reading fans appealed for handball, but I thought the ref got that one right.

At half-time, there was unanimous agreement that Brighton were easily the worst side we had seen this season, and the big surprise about their season so far was that they had managed to get as many as 12 points (even if seven of those 12 were against teams with only ten men on the pitch at the end of the game).

But in the second period Brighton did improve, so that the pattern of the game changed and was played more in our half. In one sense this was a good thing, because from the away fans' area you can't really see what's going on at the far end of the pitch, partly because it's so far away and partly because the (no doubt illegally under-powered) floodlights provide about as much light as a couple of candles. Generally speaking, the pattern was that we would play quite deep, deal comfortably with most of the attacks, and look for a quick break. As at Crystal Palace, the interplay between Andy Hughes and Forster on the break never quite came off, often leaving us one good pass away from a strike on goal.

The worst defensive moment was when a mishit corner kick skidded along the byline and hit the outside of the near post. However, even for that incident, Hahnemann was standing right by the post and would have stopped it going straight in. Later, the one decent attack constructed by Brighton in the whole game left one of their players with a chance to slide the ball in at the far post. Any of our forwards would have scored easily in the same position, but Hahnemann was able to not only get down quickly enough to stop the ball, but also to hold onto it.

With the game nearing the end, Brighton had three laughable corners in succession. (That's laughable because none of them should have been corners, rather than because they were poorly taken, although I'd understand if you were expecting it to be the latter.) The first came after a wayward shot went off for an obvious goal-kick, or at least obvious to all except the referee. That ball was played to the near post from where it was knocked out of play by an attacker's foot. Another corner. The next one was floated to the near post and handled by a Brighton player before substitute Ricky Newman was pushed over and whilst on the ground knocked the ball out of play. Free-kick? No, of course not - another corner. (At least on that occasion it really was our player who put the ball out.) The third corner was cleared and that was about it as far as an attacking threat on Marcus' goal went.

The final whistle was cue for much celebrating, with November Manager of the Month certainty Alan Pardew happy to have yet again got the better of his old mentor. Brighton's one decent player, who had had a very poor game, left the pitch talking to Hahnemann and smiling broadly (probably delighted that his side had only lost by one goal this week - either that or he knows he's leaving soon).

This isn't revenge for last season at all. This is another step to securing at least a play-off berth for Reading this season and thankfully another nail in the coffin for our opponents. Barring an unlucky Cup draw we really should never have to visit this dump again.

Match notes:

The Reading line-up was identical to that of the Crystal Palace game, but in a different formation. I may not have got it exactly right above, but Anthony Rougier was certainly playing much further forward than on Tuesday.

John Salako's goal was his first of the season.

This result ended a perfect November with five wins and five clean sheets in five games. Adding in the last game of October we have now managed six consecutive victories with clean sheets. The club record is seven such games, set in January 2002.

Marcus Hahnemann has now gone 608 minutes without conceding a goal. That's still short of his personal best for Reading in League games (743 minutes from 26/12/2002 to 14/9/2002, although that combines the end of his loan spell last season with his first games after signing this season) and well short of the club record (Steve Death with 1103 minutes in 1979). The best recent such spell in consecutive games was 675 minutes by Marcus and Ben Roberts combined, which ended in February 2002.

Match preview:

None.

Ticket information:

Withdean Stadium is without doubt the worst arena ever to stage professional football and it is unlikely to have changed significantly from our visit last season. Brighton have laid a new pitch over the summer of 2002, but they did that last season as well and it was still unplayable by the end of September.

Away fans are seated in a temporary open stand behind one end and what seems about 60m away from the illegally small pitch, something that is allowed only because Brighton have been given special dispensation by the Football League. There are 746 seats available for away fans.

There was some talk of Brighton erecting two further temporary stands for the 2002/03 season which would have increased the capacity from 7,036 to 9,002. However, they submitted the planning application for this in late July 2002 and hope to be able to make the installation by the end of 2002, so it seems unlikely that anything will have changed by our visit. If the change does take place, then League rules state that away fans should receive a higher ticket allocation of 900. We shall wait to see whether this rule applies to Brighton or not.

Prices for the home seats in comparable areas to the away stand are:
Adults - £20
Concessions - £12.50

The ticket price includes a voucher for travel to and from either a park-and-ride site or a short train journey to the dump.

Because the away stand is open, Brighton sometimes provide plastic macs when it's raining. They charge £1 for these - not sure if that is for rental or purchase.

Home . First Team Index

News . Opposition . Reserves . Academy . Where Are They Now? . Columns . Kingsley . MadStad . Interactive . Links . Site Map