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2002/03 Reports

Match facts:

Reading goal: Darren Kenton (own goal, 74 minutes)
Assist: Nathan Tyson
Opposition goals: None
Half-time: Norwich City 0 Reading 0
Gamebreaker: Final whistle
Attendance: 18,970
Weather: Continual light rain
Referee: Steve Baines (Chesterfield)

Reading line-up: 31 Marcus Hahnemann; 2 Graeme Murty, 6 John Mackie, 8 Adie Williams (5 Adi Viveash, 37 minutes), 3 Nicky Shorey; 30 Luke Chadwick, 15 James Harper, 11 Andy Hughes, 27 Steve Sidwell, 22 Nathan Tyson (17 John Salako, 78 minutes); 10 Nicky Forster (24 Darius Henderson, 91 minutes, in second-half injury-time)
Subs not used: 21 Jamie Ashdown, 4 Kevin Watson
Approximate starting formation:

Reading yellow cards: None
Reading red cards: None

Match report:

As submitted to the Norwich football paper, the PinkUn:

My last trip to Carrow Road was for the reserve League Cup final a couple of years ago when we were very unlucky to lose in a penalty shootout. It was an odd experience in many ways because there was no segregation and the 30 or so Reading fans chose to sit in groups of three or four rather than in a block (which must say something about us...). Afterwards, we all agreed that the home fans sitting near us were the most biased and ignorant we had ever encountered!

So it was nice to watch a game without having to listen to comments of Norwich fans, and they obliged by keeping silent for the whole match as well. Although I have to confess that I found the "We shoot burglars" chant amusing. Better than that dreadful song before the kick-off. (And as for the poor sod doing the half-time Ricky Martin style "entertainment", words fail me.....)

The section for away fans is next to the box of the so-called Sky Sports "expert analysts" - I haven't seen their coverage of the game, but I can predict that before the match they generally showed their ignorance of Reading (and probably of Norwich as well). We saw Tim Sherwood take his seat, but at least Chris Kamara was nowhere on view. At the start of the season he tipped us to go down, and now that we're doing well he's claiming that he tipped us for the play-offs (oh, except during a recent poor run when he claimed that he'd tipped us for mid-table obscurity). I expect that before this match he tipped us to get thumped, and afterwards said that he said we'd take three points.

My seat was in Row 4, which confusingly turned out to be the third row!!!!! The view from there was really poor, but then it would be from that close to the pitch in any ground. That's what happens when you're one of the first in the ticket office to buy seats for a game. I'm sure most people have a go at the Norwich away accommodation but from previous visits I don't think it's so bad. At least it's undercover, although the persistent light rain did penetrate as far as my row.

Before the match, most Reading fans I'd spoken to had an uneasy feeling about how we'd get on, no doubt because of the fine Norwich display in the first ten minutes at our place, when our experimental five-man defence proved unable to settle in quickly enough. We also knew that one of our first-choice centre-backs, Steve Brown, was out through injury, so when the other central defender, Adie Williams took a bad knock early on it seemed that all was going wrong. His replacement Adi Viveash had not played for us this season, but I bet you couldn't tell.

My main memory of the first half, though, is of Reading getting the ball into decent positions and then putting in awful crosses or shots. Jeering from the home fans for some of the wider attempts on goal was cut short by the fact that their players weren't doing much better.

Not a single Norwich player impressed me throughout the game. We won things in the air that we don't do normally, we were winning the ball in midfield (which isn't even part of our style!), our now makeshift defence coped well enough with what attacks there were, and like every other team in the League the Norwich defence were unable to deal with our quick breaks.

I guess the only home player who caught the eye was Clint Easton, and that was only because of his desperate attempts to get home early. After about his fifth cardable offence the referee showed a yellow and then he was immediately subbed, which might have been what he was looking for all along.

In the second half, young left-winger Nathan Tyson had good runs stopped illegally on a couple of occasions. The second should have been a penalty but the referee Steve Baines bottled the decision. This is the same referee who awarded a penalty against us a few years ago after a Bournemouth player went down under no contact at all - he's an ex-professional footballer himself, and the best evidence I could ever provide for not fast-tracking players as referees in the future. I believe he's due to retire soon, and it will be not a moment too soon.

Although we had dominated the second half, I had the impression that the ball was never going to go in and would probably have settled for a 0-0 draw. Then Darren Kenton obliged and provided us with a fairly typical 1-0 scoreline. The goal came from our fifth hard low cross driven into the six-yard box during the second half so I suppose sooner or later one was going to go in.

When Norwich brought on Iwan Roberts I was concerned, again based on the game at Reading, but on this occasion he seemed to achieve nothing apart from a bad miss.

Towards the end we sang, "Delia, Delia, what's the score?" and were impressed when she waved back! Perhaps she was optimistically signalling that it would finish 2-1.....

Obviously it didn't and so I had no real gripes about the evening. However, the directions given to our coaches for parking were wrong (twice), and the police force failed to give us an escort out of the city after the game despite apparently saying beforehand that they would do so. But the actual parking place allowed me the chance to eavesdrop on a few Norwich fans' conversations on the way back to the coach - it's pleasing to note that they were generally still saying that we had no chance. "They've got no players I've heard of", "I don't know how they're third", "How can we possibly lose to Reading?". As long as everyone continues thinking that way, it only makes things easier for us.

Realistically, we're likely to be in the play-offs at the end of the season rather than the top two. I reckon that experience in play-off games counts for an awful lot, so I'm delighted that Norwich aren't going to be there this time.

Match notes:

Match preview:

None.

Ticket information:

Norwich are undertaking building work at Carrow Road expected to last the whole season. However, this has progressed sufficiently that we have 1,121 tickets instead of the 500 I had previously suggested. They go on sale to season ticket holders after the Rotherham game on Saturday, 22nd February (maximum of two per season ticket), to Supporters Trust members from Wednesday, 26th February (one per member) and on general sale from Thursday, 27th February. Prices are as follows:
Adults - £15
Over-65s - £9
Under-16s - £9
Under-12s - £5
Students - £9
Wheelchair plus helper - £9

This game is to be shown live on Sky Sports.

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