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2001/02 Reports

Match facts:

Reading goals: Anthony Rougier (58 minutes), Nathan Tyson (59 minutes), Anthony Rougier (penalty, 63 minutes)
Assists: Alex Smith (2) - none for the second goal as it came from a bad backpass
Opposition goals: None
Half-time: Gillingham 0 Reading 0
Gamebreaker: the five-minute spell when Reading scored three goals
Attendance: 36
Weather: Cold, mostly sunny
Referee: P T Crossley
Linesmen: B M Gale, J D Hopkins

Reading line-up: 1 Anthony Malessa; 2 Matt Birnie, 6 Adrian Whitbread (14 Ricky Allaway, 67 minutes), 5 John Mackie, 3 Alex Smith; 7 Sammy Igoe, 4 Phil Parkinson, 8 Neil Smith (12 Adam Campion, 67 minutes), 11 Joe Gamble; 9 Nathan Tyson (15 Joey Alcott, 74 minutes), 10 Anthony Rougier
Subs not used: None
Reading yellow cards: Phil Parkinson (foul, 24 minutes)
Reading red cards: None

Match report:

Gillingham's ground now has the makings of quite a nice stadium. Two new stands have been built and a third is relatively new, leaving only the fourth side as an open terrace and a reminder of how it once looked. They're still working on the internal fittings (even whilst this game was going on), but the insides of the stand look quite impressive already. No bare breeze blocks here.

Before the game, I was honoured to be able to snatch a few minutes of conversation with Kevin Bremner, now the youth team manager at Gillingham. He was only hanging around waiting for the game to start so that he could go off and get showered and changed once the dressing rooms were empty, but he still talked to the entire group of Reading supporters (well, both of us). Not too surprisingly the conversation turned to the 1985/86 season and particularly the home game against Plymouth Argyle.

Reading had the better of the first half, and had a number of half-chances. At the other end, Tony Malessa had almost nothing to do, although he did almost set up a goal for Reading with his first touch, a clearance to Anthony Rougier where the final shot went wide.

Reading's second attack ended with a header just wide from a Sammy Igoe cross, and a Rougier cross then forced a corner from which we had a shot blocked. Later, Nathan Tyson ran onto a ball from Alex Smith but shot over the bar, and then the Gillingham goalkeeper had to make a good diving save to keep out a Matt Birnie shot. That save was at the expense of a corner which was initially cleared, but Birnie put the ball back into the penalty area where Adrian Whitbread shot over.

Those events were spread over half-an-hour and were interrupted only by midfield action. However, Gillingham did then have a goal attempt when a cross from the left wing was headed just wide. Just before half-time, some Rougier trickery along the byline got him into the penalty area, from where he pulled the ball back for a Neil Smith shot that was cleared off the line by a defender at the far post. In the last minute of the half, Tyson went down in the penalty area but the referee waved play on. The defender had just nudged Tyson, and probably not enough for us to complain about the decision.

Reading looked sharper than the home side after half-time, and had a couple of early chances. Tyson forced a save from the keeper, and then shortly afterwards the goalkeeper had to come out to smother the ball when Alex Smith played the ball through to Rougier in the penalty area.

After 58 minutes, Igoe and Alex Smith worked a corner, which ended with a Smith cross into the area. Rougier met it with a glancing header to give us the lead. Almost straight from the kick-off it was 2-0 with Tyson latching on to a poor backpass and firing it past the keeper, who managed to get a touch but not enough to make a save. A few minutes after, we had a third goal. Alex Smith went on a run into the area and was brought down by a defender who was beaten by his skill. Rougier sent the keeper the wrong way and tucked the penalty home for his second.

Alan Pardew now came down briefly from the stand to the bench, and it was soon clear that he was giving instructions for Whitbread and Neil Smith to be substituted.

The next chance fell to Gillingham when Malessa had to get down quickly to his right to save a 20-yard shot, putting the ball out for a corner. That was the only difficulty that our new goalkeeper faced all game and he dealt with it comfortably. The corner was bad and went straight to a Reading player who played the ball straight out to Tyson. He broke down the left wing and crossed but the ball didn't find a Reading player and went out for a throw. It was at this point literally end-to-end as from the throw, Gillingham broke upfield ending up with an attacker against Ricky Allaway, the last defender. However, Allaway tackled him easily and cleared the danger.

Tyson injured himself stretching for an Adam Campion cross, and was replaced by Joey Alcott. Almost immediately Alcott was put through on goal by Campion, but he shot wide. Gillingham threatened briefly with a good move down the right wing, but their forward managed to knock the ball away from goal when trying to shoot. Strangely enogh, in injury time the same thing happened at the other end, after Alcott got to a mishit Campion shot.

Immediately after that, the final whistle went, leaving Reading comfortable winners. Reading's side was quite strong, but the Gillingham side also contained quite a few players I had heard of, so getting a result was not easy. All of the Reading players had good games, with Alex Smith looking particularly effective as an attack-minded left-back. I thought that the players returning from injury had solid if not spectacular games, and all looked capable of a return to the first team.

Match notes:

Neil Smith and Adrian Whitbread made their returns from injury, both playing 67 minutes.

Tony Malessa made his first playing appearance in a Reading shirt.

Match preview:

None.

Ticket information:

None.

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