A lifeline for the Royals!

After a run of really good away form it all comes down to the last day of the season.

It would be ironic if after last seasons relegation via goal difference, we were to be promoted the same way!!

You never know...

April form

A Coventry City D 0-0
H Sheffield Utd L 0-1
A Blackpool D 2-2
H Barnsley D 0-0
A Derby County W 2-0
A Norwich City W 2-0

Two smart headers and a very professional performance saw us beat Norwich at Carrow Rd.

This sets us up with a glimmer of hope of automatic promotion on Sunday.

Any chance of a decent player surface?

Palace 0 Reading 0 and Run of Results

Crystal Palace 0 Reading FC 0

March 21, 2009

Steve Coppell's men had to settle for a draw away at Selhurst Park this afternoon.

Reading looked the more composed side during the first half but it was Palace who had three shots on target while their own keeper was untroubled.

The Royals started the second half brightly but failed to make the most of their chances.

Liam Rosenior was send off 27 minutes into the half for a second bookable offence leaving Reading with their backs against the wall for the last 15 minutes.

Palace threw everything into a frantic last five minutes but Reading held on and will have been glad in the end to pick up the point.

Wolves extended their lead at the top of the Championship beating Nottingham Forest 1 - 0 while Birmingham City could only manage a draw at home to Norwich.

Liam Rosenior sent off and now will be suspended for a game

7 Mar Plymouth A 2-2

10 Mar Charlton H 2-2

14 Mar Ipswich H 0-1

17 Mar Doncaster A 1-0

21 Mar Crystal Palace A 0-0

Away form good, home form causing us to blow it!

Luckily Birmingham also making a mess of things

Good to see Andy D'Urso is keeping up his standard of refereeing!

List of shocking decisions

• Chris Armstrong should have gone
• Clear pen for foul on David Kitson
• Stephen Hunt kicked all over the place and then gets booked
• Moses should have been booked for a blatant dive....
• Liam Rosenior's first yellow
  

All in a days work for Mr D!

Championship Table

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Wolverhampton	36	11	4	3	37	20	9	3	6	30	26	21	67
2	Reading	34	12	3	3	37	11	6	5	5	23	19	30	62
3	Birmingham	35	11	3	3	23	13	6	7	5	18	18	10	61
4	Cardiff	33	10	4	2	26	12	4	10	3	20	18	16	56
5	Preston	36	13	2	3	28	16	3	6	9	21	30	3	56
6	Sheff Utd	34	8	4	5	24	17	7	6	4	23	15	15	55
7	Burnley	36	9	5	4	27	21	6	5	7	23	29	0	55
8	Bristol City	35	6	9	3	24	19	8	3	6	20	18	7	54

Reading draw at Southampton but still in second place

Reading played out a tired draw at Southampton today, but showed great character in coming from behind late in the game to draw 1-1 with a goal from Shane Long.

Other results went our way with Birmingham drawing and Burnley losing.

A haul of 17 points out of a possible 21 over the Christmas period and retaining second place is not at all bad.

Manager Steve Coppell was disapointed with the first half performance, but pleased with the resolve that Reading showed in coming to earn the draw.

Team P Pts
Wolves 25 57
Reading 26 51
Birmingham 26 51
Cardiff 26 44
Burnley 26 43

Reading v Cardiff and Andy Hall!

Adam Federici comes to Reading's rescue!

Was going to be the title of this post as the Reading goalkeeper scored an equaliser deep in extra time to earn Reading a draw against a well organised and very physical Cardiff City side.

However due to some questionable refereeing by Mr Andy Hall the game took on a very sinister undercurrent from the earliest few minutes.

I believe Mr Hall used to be on the Premier list :-)???

A clash beween Reading's Noel Hunt and the Cardiff right back resulted in the afore mentioned Mr Hall pushing players and sprinting into the situation as if there was a full scale brawl in place!
Cardiff sensing the referees weakness of course took full advantage for the rest of the game (who could blame them).

Mr Hall of course was not really interested in this as he had to be sure that the throw ins were taken from the right place(far more important!!)

The worst challenge of the game (please check the video Mr Hall) was the horrendous challenge by Chopra on Adam Federeci the Reading goalkeeper, makes you think a little about what Stephen Hunt was vilified for a couple pf seasons ago, as this was far worse !

Guess who score Cardiff's goal in the 89th minute?????

However a draw was probably the right result as Carfdiff had Reading pretty much worked out from the start. Perhaps Steve Coppell might have introduced Jimmy Kebe a little earlier as he caused Cardiff problems from the moment he came on.

Ah well, a draw is better than nothing and it might not look as bad later in the season, as I think Cardiff will be there or thereabouts.

There appeared to be some nasty scenes at the end between some Reading player and the Cardiff fans, but not too sure what went on..

Reading remain in second place behind Wolves and above Birmingham.

1	Wolves	25	24	57
2	Reading	25	29	50
3	Birmingham	25	11	50
4	Burnley	25	6	43
5	Cardiff City	25	10	41
6	Palace	25	11	40

Reading Move On Up!

Reading strolled to an easy win against Birmingham at St Andrews at lunchtime today, with goals from Noel Hunt, Kevin Doyle and Kalifa Cisse.

Birmingham's goal came from Kevin Phillips after a loss of possession on halfway.

The result was never really in doubt, Noel Hunt was suffering from concussion after an early clash of heads. The clash however didn't stop him from opening the scoring with an excellent free kick.

One of the other highlights of the performance was the distribution of Adam Federici in the Reading goal.

1	Wolves	24	24	56
2	Reading	24	29	49
3	Birmingham	24	10	47
4	Burnley	24	7	43
5	Cardiff City	24	10	40
6	Sheffield Utd	24	10	37
7	Palace	24	9	37

Reading Now Within One Point!

Stephen Hunt after scoring Reading's first from the spot, making up for his miss on Tuesday :-)

A fine headed second goal came from Shane Long after a cross from James Henry.

After a 2-0 win over Norwich on a really poor playing surface, Reading are now one point behind Birmingham and play them at St Andrews next week!

After also scrapping a 1-0 win over Blackpool on Tuesday it has been a pretty good week.

The quality of the last few games however shows that the number of games in the Championship ensures that the quality is not great.

Table

Table - December 13 2008

Pos	Team	P	Pts
1	Wolverhampton Wanderers	23	53
2	Birmingham City	23	47
3	Reading	23	46
4	Burnley	23	40
5	Cardiff City	23	37

And on, and on and on

Despite yest another strange sending off, Reading gain a 1-0 away victory at Barnsley.

Steve Coppell's side dispatched Coventry City on Monday night and made it six points from six at Oakwell thanks to Brynjar Gunnarsson's winner.

A defensive howler from Dennis Souza gifted the goal to Reading, although the visitors had to battle it out a man light in the second half following Jimmy Kebe's dismissal.

The visitors did take the lead in the 64th minute after a defensive mistake from Souza left Gunnarsson to knock into the empty net.

Despite some late pressure from the hosts, Reading held on for a deserved victory.

Barnsley: Muller, Hassell, Foster, Guedes, Van Homoet (El Haimour 78), Campbell-Ryce, Colace, De Silva, Whaley (Odejayi 67), Macken (Rigters 87), Cureton.
Subs Not Used: Mostto, Coulson.

Booked: Foster, Macken.

Reading: Hahnemann, Rosenior, Duberry, Ingimarsson, Armstrong, Kebe, Cisse, Harper, Stephen Hunt, Doyle, Noel Hunt (Gunnarsson 56).
Subs Not Used: Federici, Matejovsky, Long, Henry.

Sent Off: Kebe (35).

Booked: Cisse.

Goals: Gunnarsson 64.

Att: 11,938

Ref: Clive Oliver (Northumberland).

Let's just wait for the normal Wolves implosion and see what happens !!

Keeping the pressure on them and Birmingham...