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2002/03 Reports

Match facts:

Reading goals: Martin Butler (15 minutes), Jamie Cureton (58 minutes), Craig Woodman (own goal, 64 minutes), Sammy Igoe (66 minutes), Sammy Igoe (79 minutes), Martin Butler (89 minutes)
Assists: Jamie Cureton, Martin Butler, Alex Smith, Phil Parkinson, Darren Campbell, Joe Gamble
Opposition goals: None
Half-time: Reading 1 Bristol City 0
Gamebreaker: Reading's first goal
Attendance: About 300
Referee: P N Gibbs
Linesmen: W Bull, M Downey
Weather: Sunny, windy, cool

Reading line-up: 1 Jamie Ashdown, 2 Ahmet Rifat, 6 Adam Theo, 5 Phil Parkinson (12 Gary Middleton, 83 minutes), 3 Alex Smith; 7 Sammy Igoe, 8 Simieon Howell, 4 Joe Gamble, 11 Nathan Tyson (15 Darren Campbell, 60 minutes); 10 Jamie Cureton (14 Jermaine Beckford, 60 minutes), 9 Martin Butler
Subs not used: 17 Jamie Young
Reading yellow card: Alex Smith (foul, 21 minutes)
Reading red cards: None

Match report:

A comfortable win for Reading, and to be honest we should have had more goals. The visitors were mostly youngsters, but with a few known players. Reading fielded a team with several players unlucky not to be in the first team, and our own selection of youngsters.

Our first chance came after just three minutes. Nathan Tyson outpaced the right-back down the left channel but before he could put over a cross was tripped just outside the area. From the free-kick the ball was pulled back to Sammy Igoe whose fierce shot was tipped over the bar for a corner.

Three minutes later, we very nearly scored when a superb Jamie Cureton shot from the edge of the area hit the crossbar, bounced down towards the goal-line and away. The linesman was not up with play and signalled no goal. As if that wasn't close enough, Martin Butler then had a shot that ricocheted off the inside of the right post and away to safety.

However, we then found the key to scoring. Instead of shooting wide of the goalkeeper and against the woodwork, Cureton tried a long shot that the keeper was able to reach. He could however only parry it away and Butler was the quickest to react, stabbing the ball home to give us a thoroughly deserved lead.

It seemed that we sat back after taking the lead, and a few minutes later the visitors might have equalised when a header from a corner landed on the top of the bar. Alex Smith was then booked for a very heavy challenge, which might have resulted in a sending-off in a League game. In the remainder of the half, the game was reasonably even. Just before half-time a long shot from Butler was again parried by the goalkeeper, but this time he was able to recover just before Sammy Igoe arrived.

In the second half, Reading came out with much more purpose, perhaps helped by the substitution of the only experienced Bristol City defender. Early on, Butler put a free header over the bar and moments later, Tyson did the same after a good cross from Smith. The breakthrough came just before the hour mark when a bad backpass allowed Butler to nip in and slip the ball sideways to the unmarked Cureton, who only had to tap the ball into an empty net.

Almost immediately we made a double substitution with trialist Jermaine Beckford given a chance in place of Cureton, as well as a left wing swap of Darren Campbell for Tyson. As always, Campbell was immediately in the game with probing runs and good crosses at the end of them. Only two minutes after he came on, Campbell set up Butler but his shot from close distance was blocked by a defender and the bounce took it away from Beckford. In the next attack, Campbell combined with Smith before the latter sent over a low cross that was turned into his own net by the visitor's left-back.

Very soon after that it was 4-0 - this time Phil Parkinson, playing at centre-back, came forward to intercept the ball and then played a nice through-pass. Sammy Igoe picked up the ball and shot into the top corner from 25 yards out. Ten minutes later Igoe collected a second goal when another Campbell cross picked him out inside the penalty area.

A rare Bristol City attack ended with a dangerous-looking shot going wide, so that Jamie Ashdown managed to get through the entire game without really having to save a shot. In the last minute, Butler completed the scoring, sliding the ball past the goalkeeper after Joe Gamble played the ball through the defence. In injury time, the goalkeeper had to be alert to tip over the bar shots from both Beckford and Igoe.

Overall, it wasn't too bad a performance but there were times in the game when we gave the ball away far too often and it's difficult to say that any of the starting players on the fringe of the squad (by which I mean excluding Butler, Cureton and Igoe because we already know what they can do) made much of a case for inclusion in the first team. The player who really did impress in his short time on the pitch was, as always, Darren Campbell.

Match notes:

Jermaine Beckford is a trialist from Wealdstone who has previously played for our Under-19s.

Match preview:

Reading have announced the following line-up:
Jamie Ashdown, Adam Theo, Ahmet Rifat, Phil Parkinson, Alex Smith, Sammy Igoe, Simieon Howell, Joe Gamble, Nathan Tyson, Martin Butler, Jamie Cureton
Subs: Jamie Young, Gary Middleton, Darren Campbell, Jermaine Beckford

Ticket information:

Standard for home reserve games - season ticket holders and Young Royals can get in free, whilst other prices are:
Adults - £4
Concessions - £2

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