A victory against Stoke would have secured a third placed finish for the Royals and our highest ever points total in Division One, so the resulting 0-1 defeat against the side four off the bottom of the Division was a little disappointing as Reading prepare for the play-off finals. The eventual result saw Reading finish fourth in the table and the Royals will now go on to face Wolves in the semi-finals - starting off next Saturday at Molineux and continuing at the Madejski Stadium for the return leg on the following Wednesday. A different result could have seen the Royals face Nottingham Forest instead - but thankfully it makes little difference with Reading having the second leg at the Madejski Stadium regardless of today's result. The final first Division table is an amazing sight with the Royals finishing nine points clear within the play-off positions - it's been an amazing season and lets hope it continues that way.

In truth the game meant much less to Reading than it did to Stoke City. Reading's concentration must already be fixed firmly on the play-offs. This fixture had little effect on our season, but Stoke were required to pick up at least a point to guarantee survival in the First Division. WIth so much pressure on the home team in front of a massive home support it was always going to be a bit more special for them and their demonstration of effort and determination on the pitch showed this. Reading certainly did not roll over and let Stoke take the points as both sides played hard looking to take something from the game. As a result the entire match saw some heavy tackles as the ball remained locked in midfield for the most part. Stoke got off to the brighter start before Reading enjoyed the best of the possession only to see Stoke City take the lead not long after the half time break. The rest of the second half saw Reading have plenty of play but fail to create enough chances to find the equaliser. It was a game of few chances throughout the ninety minutes.

After the inclusion of a few fresh faces during the week against Watford, Pardew returned to what could be considered a close to first team ahead of the play-offs. The weakest area was probably the defence with Williams and Brown both still rested with injury. The pairing of Mackie and Viveash was generally sound, thanks to an excellent Viveash performance, but looked second choice with Mackie making a couple of non-fatal mistakes during the second half. Murty and Shorey were in their usual full back positions and had decent enough games. It was good to see Harper return in midfield, and up front Forster was back by himself and had some good moments where he caused danger by cutting through the defence.

Stoke got off to the strongest start looking to get the early goal to secure survival. Marcus Hahnemann was in good form to make a couple of early saves - one was hit straight at him but another was a half decent effort. After a shakey looking start the Reading defence got itself together and both sides attempted to play the ball out through midfield with some solid challenges leading to exchanges of possession. Stoke got in a couple of long range efforts but failed to seriously threaten the Reading goal. It took Reading nearly half an hour to get in their first shot when Forster set up Sidwell in the centre of the area - however Sidwell's effort was well over the Stoke crossbar. Reading started to play the ball around quite neatly but never broke through a strong Stoke defence. The last shot of the half belonged to Stoke but was well wide of the target.

Reading appeared to make the strongest start to the second half after Nicky Forster did well to beat a couple of players and get in a shot which was saved by the Stoke City keeper. We won a couple of corners that were wasted as the defence weren't put under any real pressure. Stoke desperately needed a goal to calm the nerves and it came on 55 minutes when Murty was beaten and the ball was crossed in from the left. Mackie came off second best with Akinbiyi who headed home from close range to put Stoke 0-1 up. Shortly afterwards news filtered through that Grimsby had pulled level against Brighton and it became clear that Stoke City were on their way to survival and Brighton were on their way back down to Division Two. The Stoke fans relaxed and started to make some noise - and it was clear that it was their party and not Readings.

Henderson, Watson and Cureton all came on as Pardew switched it around but despite the three strikers on the pitch we failed to turn the game around. The closest we came was with ten minutes left to play when Sidwell hit the crossbar with a long range effort after an extended period of Reading pressure. We had a good spell where we came close, but otherwise the home defence dealt with us. Forster looked dangerous when given the ball but Henderson and Cureton didn't make a massive impression. Stoke really wanted to win this one and it showed. The next time we see Reading play it's going to be a massive play-off game, lets hope our determination gets us the right result like Stoke's did today.