1871 - the ultimate Reading FC website

2003/04 Reports

Match facts:

Reading goal: Martin Butler (34 minutes)
Assist: None
Opposition goals: None
Half-time: Walton & Hersham 0 Reading 1
Gamebreaker: Final whistle
Attendance:
Referee: C Lymer
Linesmen: C Greenway, I Hempel
Weather: Warm, sunny

Reading line-up: 1 Jamie Ashdown; 2 Chris Davies, 5 Ahmet Rifat, 6 Gary Middleton, 3 Louie Soares; 7 Bas Savage, 4 Kevin Watson, 8 Mario Noto, 11 John Salako (Peter Castle, 70 minutes); 10 Martin Butler (Simieon Howell, 40 minutes), 9 Darius Henderson (Andre Fashanu, 40 minutes)
Sub not used: None
Starting formation:

Reading yellow cards: None
Reading red cards: None, but the referee forced the substitutions of both Darius Henderson and Martin Butler for dissent.

Match report:

Frankly, there's not much to report on this game, which was a pleasant enough afternoon but failed to really get going. Reading put out a mostly reserve side, whilst the local county FA clearly provided some park officials to take charge of the game. I plead ignorance to the strength of the Walton & Hersham squad, although as they had played a couple of days previously, it wouldn't surprise me if they were at less than full strength.

Early on, Jamie Ashdown had to be alert twice when Walton players had broken through our back-line, both times claiming the ball on the edge of his area.

The only goal of the game came towards the end of the half from Martin Butler after we were awarded a free-kick outside the area. Just as we on the terraces were reminiscing about his free-kick goal against Bournemouth a few years ago, along with comments like "never done it before or since", Butler smashed the ball into the roof of the net, after a couple of short touches by two other Reading players.

Of far more note was the incident a few minutes later that saw our forward line decimated. Darius Henderson was persistently fouled by a defender and the goalkeeper, but the referee didn't award a free-kick. When he'd lost the ball, Henderson impolitely told the ref what he thought of him. The referee indicated that Henderson was off and several other Reading players surrounded him to complain. When Walton were ready to restart the game with a kick of their own, the referee ran over to our bench and obviously told them to substitute Henderson and (for reasons that I completely missed) Butler. There was an incident like this recently in a York v Leeds game, which led to the referee concerned getting an FA charge.

The changes meant that Bas Savage moved from the right side of midfield to play up-front against his old club. He should really have scored a couple of minutes later when he had two attempts cleared off the line in quick succession - one by a defender and one by the keeper.

If anything worth reporting happened in the second half, I can't remember it. The game therefore ended 1-0 to Reading.

Match notes:

This match was played as part of the transfer fee that Reading paid to Walton & Hersham for Bas Savage. The match had been planned for the summer of 2002 before Bas picked up a serious injury.

Match preview:

None.

Ticket information:

Prices are:
Adults - £4
Children - £1.50

Home . Reserves Index

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