Reading Football Club News: April 2019

John O'Shea Confirms Retirement

30 April 2019
By Hob Nob Anyone?

John O'Shea may have played his last game for Reading after officially confirming his retirement from playing. O'Shea has had an incredible career but only came to Reading at the start of the season on a one year contract as a back-up player. As a result, he only featured for the Royals ten times this season, playing eight Championship games and two league cup games. His last appearance was when he came on as a 72nd minute substitute in our 1-1 home draw against Rotherham on 23 February 2019. O'Shea will be expected to use his long and varied experience in the game to take up a coaching role in the future.

His time at Reading will be easily forgotten after his success in the game came much earlier in his career with Manchester United. He played more than 250 times for the Red Devils and earned 118 caps for the Republic of Ireland. While with Manchester United he won 14 trophies, including the Champions League, before moving to Sunderland in 2011. At Sunderland things gradually went downhill as he was part of the team relegated to the Championship and then relegated again to League One. As Sunderland went down O'Shea took the opportunity to move back to the Championship with Reading but found his opportunities to start matches limited, despite Reading struggling at the wrong end of the table.

Safe After Entertaining Draw With West Brom

22 April 2019
By Hob Nob Anyone?

Reading virtually guaranteed their place in the Championship next season with a gutsy performance against promotion chasing Albion. The point gained in such a spirited manner coupled with a Rotherham's home defeat at the hands of Birmingham City left Reading six points clear of the Yorkshire side with only two games remaining and a goal difference thirteen goals inferior to Reading. Make no mistake about it, Reading are safe and deservedly so. The celebrations which greeted the final whistle were certainly not premature. Relief and joy were evident in equal measures amongst players and fans alike.
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Another Big Step Towards Safety

13 April 2019
By Hob Nob Anyone?

Buoyed with confidence gained from a magnificent away draw against league leaders Norwich in midweek Reading raced into an early lead with two superbly taken goals from Yakou Meite in the opening fifteen minutes. Typically Reading settled for consolidating that lead instead of pushing on for third goal and almost paid the price after Brentford's hopes were revived by a disastrous sequence of events just before half time which allowed Maupay to slot home his twenty-sixth goal of the season. The second half saw a familiar scenario for Reading fans as they watched their team hanging on desperately to claim three absolutely vital points. However, all is well that ends well, and it was a deserved victory overall although Reading made hard work of beating an average Brentford side they looked capable of blowing away before half time.
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