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 0 Bristol City 2, as bad as it gets

We were awful, suprised? No!

We have not actually put in a decent performance since before Christmas despite the excuses.

Today it was :

The Pitch

The Ref

The two week break

The fact that we are playing like the Wimbledon of old and we have players that are chosen regardless of how they perform of course has nothing to do with it!

The time has come to try and win a game instead of trying not to lose, use the midfield as a midfield not just an extra layer of defence(even when 2-0 down) The time has also come for the stubborn loyalty shown to certain players to end. Please remember that this type of loyalty got us relegated last season!

My thoughts on the team for Notts Forest

Goalkeeper

Marcus Hahnemann

Has his faults, but can organise and chastise the defence when required.
We also need to stop being reliant on Adam's big thumping kicks forward.

Defence

Julian Kelly

Liam Rosenior is just way off form.

Chris Armstrong

Only player to emerge from the Bristol debacle with any credit.

Michael Duberry

Playing well enough

Stefan Andre Bikey

Just play him, gives us an extra set piece threat, more experience than Alex Pearce who has done well.

Midfield

Kalifa Cisse

Will be OK if James Harper is out of his way, also carries a goal threat.

Marek Matejovsky

We need a play maker not a back passer, take the risk!

Steven Hunt

Will be OK if Marek in the side to provide service

James Henry

Adds some youth and fire, also can score goals

Forwards

Kevin Doyle

Start with him as he plays well with Noel Hunt, however if his apparent interest level does not improve...

Noel Hunt

Has some craft and plays well with Kevin Doyle

Food for thought

"If the bank called in our overdraft we would be in severe difficulties."

Sir John Madejski

Reading FC BBC Article

You can find an excellent article here on Reading's adjustment after relegation from the Premier League, and the push to get back again.

Kevin Doyle OK after head injury scare

Kevin Doyle Ok after nasty collision with the Preston goalkeeper on Saturday in the 0 - 0 draw

Bore Draw 269 minutes without scoring!

Reading 0-0 Preston

Reading again failed to find the net as they were held to a goalless draw at home to play-off hopefuls Preston.

After a great first half of the season, where they averaged two goals a game, the Royals have now gone 269 minutes without scoring.

Despite dominating they could not score and were denied a penalty when Youl Mawene appeared to clear Jimmy Kebe's cross-shot off the line with his hand.

John Parkin had a chance to win it for Preston he blasted his shot wide.

This is starting to look horribly like a few seasons back, no Christmas refresh, ran out of steam!

Luckily the Wolves and Brum results have not damaged us too much (so far)

I hope I'm wrong?

Bye Bye Bobby and Graham ???

Sad news today

Bobby Convey has left the club by mutal consent, I would like to wish him good luck for the future.

He was a major part of our initial Premier promotion team and in his pomp was an excellent player!

Still a young man, perhaps moving back to the States and becoming a major star in the MLS and rebuild his confidence for another go in Europe?

On another interesting note, Graham Murty has extended his loan at Charlton.

Liam Rosenior has looked very shaky over the past few week, and it was thought that Murty may return to the side when fit?

Perhaps there is a coaching job going at Charlton:-)

Reading Hanging In!

After a disappointing 2-0 FA Cup loss away at Cardiff and then an easy 4-0 home win against Watford, followed by a 2-0 loss at Swansea it has been a mixed few weeks for the Royals.

The signing of Jay Tabb I think is a positive step, a bustling, strong and hard working player is a good addition to the squad.

Now let's get ready for what could be a season defining game against Wolves on Tuesday at the (Sir) Mad Stad!

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...

Reading FC and so it goes on!

Despite the pre season loss of a number of key players, we are doing very well and are sitting a comfortable third with a great goal difference.

Kevin Doyle has kept on banging them in and has signed a new contract, he is being ably supported up front by Noel Hunt.

Jimmy Kebe is now striking fear into the hearts of fullbacks, despite being s figure of ridicule last year.

Jem Karacan is proving to be a real find, although he is being rested at the moment.

At least if/when he goes we should get a decent fee!

The match away to Bristol City last week was one of the best performances for a number of years. BBC Report

I haven't seen us control a game like that for some time, cracking goal from Cisse also.

Today's game wasn't as good a performance, but as they say it's the results that count.

Great 20 yard effort from Doyle was a highlight of the performance, a downside was the really poor performance of the officials, particularly the yellow flag assistant who could have cost us the game. Two what looked like perfectly good goals disallowed and some phantom offsides ...

I'm really starting to worry about the general level of officiating in the English game, inconsistent and gutless are just two thoughts that come to mind :-(

Derby were really awful, they look as bad if not worse than last season!

Just looking at the report on Sky's web page, and apparently John Oster came on as sub in the 60th min !!!

http://www.skysports.com/football/match_facts/0,19762,11065_2861226,00.html

BBC report

Lets keep it up!

Looking a lot better...

Well, it's looking a lot better for Reading (at least at home:-)

Lots of goals and the football's not too bad, however we are not great away from home still.

The games at Notts Forest, Ipswich, and freak goal Watford were painful to watch!

Off we go then !!

Off we went to see Reading v Notts Forest in the Championship yesterday.

As expected we were terrible!

Forest were by far the better team, thankfully they had no clue where the goal was:-)

As you would assume we have leaked several of the quality players that we had from last season and it appears that several of those left behind don't want to stay based on this performance.

Considering the complete absence of a midfield during the game, the fact that we almost snatched a result speaks volumes for the division we find ourselves in

If we don't deal with the physical nature of the championship and quickly forget the premiership we will be here a long time, added to the fact we need players and now Messers Coppell and Hammond!

Please unload players such as Cisse and Matějovský as they appear to be little use at this level, stop wasting Hunt and get a left back! You knew Shorey was going as you did with Sidwell, please don't repeat the same misplaced loyalty that cost us last season.

BTW are we ever going to see any payback from our much vaunted youth system?

You hear tell of Henry's, Karacans etc etc and and never see them in the first team, next you read that they are either out on loan or gone....

In fact if you don't want to change before it's too late why don't you both consider your positions and let someone else have a go who is not scared to fail?

A little strong maybe, but you had to be there and see how bad it was, it looked like they picked the team in the car park and had never met before!

Onto the Plymouth game and hopefully a turning point:-)

Tommy Burns RIP

Very sad to see the passing of Celtic and Scotland legend Tommy Burns.

Tommy had a spell as Reading FC Manager, always struck me as a good honest guy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mMORSrr-sg

Finally, on a sad note

Off we went to Derby last week full of optimism that we might make an undeserved escape from the Premier League trap door. In the end a header from that towering powerhouse Danny Murphy kept "Woy's" Fulham up by outjumping the supposed giant Pompey defence(cheers Harry!) and down we went :-(

A real shame really because I'm pretty sure we would have stayed up next season due to the quaulity of what is coming up!

Where do you start:

• Lack of investment in players

• The ones we did buy were awful and a real waste of money

• Tactical errors and conservatism when a gamble was required
  

• Players signing lucrative contracts and then not performing once the money was in the bank

• Players once gaining a little recognition than thinking they are too big for the club!

• Others also refusing to play for the reserves when requested by a manager who basically created one of said player from scratch!!

• A forward being loaned out when we needed goals!

However when it comes down to it, the players just didn't perform.

Lets see how many of the "loyal" players jump ship

The manager should stay and correct the situation

But what do I know :-)