Reading: Whitehead, Murty, Williams, Whitbread, Robinson, Harper, Parkinson, A Smith (Jones 46), Igoe (Forster 69), Butler, Cureton (Henderson 46). Subs not used: Ashdown, Viveash.

Stoke City: Ward, Thomas, Handyside, Shtaniuk, Clarke, Gudjonsson, O'Connor, Gunnarsson, Vandeurzen, Cooke (Thordarson 75), Hoekstra. Subs not used: Cutler, Henry, Iwelumo, Neal.
 
Bookings: Jones, Parkinson.
Referee: E K Wolstenholme (Blackburn)

It started well enough. Mad Dog came into the stand and said how fed up all the Stoke players and fans were because they had sold Thorne and asked us to be very noisy from the start. Good we thought, we are going to go for them from the first whistle. That is exactly what we did. Butler had two half chances early on. The first it looked as if he might have been better going round the keeper and the second was an excellent attempt which the keeper saved comfortably. That was it. From then on we looked like a team who had only just met each other. Whilst Murty and Igoe tried to get things moving, without a great deal of success, Robinson and Smith just did not know what day of the week it was. Harper and Parkie were outclassed and Whitbread lacked his recent assurance. Stoke were able to pass the ball around our midfield, through our midfield and over our midfield. The only thing that prevented this being a complete humiliation was Whitehead. He gave an outstanding display. I lost count of the number of times that he saved what looked like certain goals. He was as brilliant as the rest were abysmal. Hoekstra was their outstanding player, but this was a performance to give great concern. What has happened to Matt Robinson. Whilst he did not have an easy outlet and therefore his passing was made to look even worse than usual, his defending seems all over the place. Having said that it was in midfield, again, that we were lacking. Smith did nothing and was rightly taken off at half time. Igoe was not as effective as he has been recently, but he was one of better performers on the day, as was Forster when he came on. The combination of Harper and Parkie just did not work. No complaints about effort from them, but on the day they were not good enough. If you do not control midfield , you do not win football matches unless your strikers get you out of jail. At the moment they are not doing that and so the midfield is exposed and they in turn expose the defence too easily. Brilliant Whitehead, but we need those performances to keep us in a game not to stop a thrashing. A thrashing is what we got at Stoke, but at least the score did not show that. Those of us who were there know just how poor we were.
-- Ken C

Thank you Hammers for letting us play, but back to reality. Good start to the season maybe but now its 0 out of 6 points in a week. With two homes games coming up nothing less than 6 points will do if the team and the town is to be convinced that this week rather than the start to the season was the blip. It keeps being said but when we have a central defence that is a little immobile especially on the turn, how can we afford a defender like Robinson who spoils the shape of the team by making the midfield cover for him. So when we face attackers who are quick, as we did at Stoke or awkward as we did against Cardiff then we get get caught flatfooted with no cover in the the wings. A good fullback would not only be in the right position to defend but also be able to sweep across the defence to help out the central defenders. Thankfully, Murty is looking the most improved player of recent times but how can we have kept looking to buy attackers and midfielders over the last few months but never a fullback. Our defence continues to play deeper and deeper and the midfield gap gets bigger, so its no wonder that Parky and the not yet consistent Harper fail to control it. Why not put Whitbread at fullback and Vivash back in the middle. Not perfect but at least we would have three defenders out there. I want to beleive they will make it this year, but even more I wanted a Millwall or Fulham type performance where everyone would be asking who else would be going up. Its still early but John Mad, can we have just a little more money, but dont let Pards buy an attacker.
-- Roger, Wargrave Royal

I did not go to the Britannia Stadium yesterday, but instead listened in anticipation of another good result following Tuesday nights good showing against West Ham. Obviously not being there to see the action, I can't comment on the match other than to say that the season will be long and hard this year and perhaps the high position reached last year should not make us all feel as if we have a right to automatic promotion. (Although I do!) I will say from what I have seen this year, that Reading are lacking an ingredient which is only partially being fulfilled by Murty and Igo at the moment. We seem to be lacking a play maker, someone who controls the pace of the game and links the defence and attack to midfield, at his best Casky did this, only without consistency. The player Reading last had who really made them tick and purr on a regular basis was Mick Gooding and perhaps this is why we are not scoring goals and are defending indifferently. We need a player with his steady influence to impose Reading on our opponents as it was obvious against Cardiff and from the radio it seemed to be the case against Stoke that the game was being dictated to us. In this respect, I would disagree with Pardews comments that our attack has been blunt and it is the inability of the front men to find the net which has led to the poor performances recently.
Before Cardiff I thought we were lucky against Huddersfield and I would put the lack of goals mainly down to lack of service. Pardew and Allen are going to have to improve the delivery and service to the front players, you can't hoof long balls to Cureton, he is too small and from the radio commentary that's what Reading resorted to after the first 25 minutes no wonder they are not scoring!. I feel Harper is a fantastic prospect, but he is not yet mature enough to really stamp his authority on the match, Pardew has not rushed out and spent money over the summer and I have seen very little of Hughes who lets face it was more or less a straight swap for Casky.
Reading need a wise head, a player who will control a match, someone with experience, perhaps a player coming to the end of his premiership days but with a few good years left. Jones is obviously in this mould and possibly what Pardew had in mind when he came to the club, he just does not have the presence or perhaps Reading are playing the wrong system to suit him. I also feel that under Pardew Reading have not looked a real solid unit since Goreman left the coaching staff and had the team shown a little more resolve and resilience last season we would have gone up automatically. When Burns left the club and Pardew took over, the team had its most successful run without some of the excellent signings Pardew has made this past season. Its too early to make any judgement on how this season will pan out, but with some of our best players only having a short time left on their contracts we need to go up to build on the current squad and not loose players like Cureton and Butler. Tactically we need to improve and I will be looking to the coaching staff to deliver as I feel we have the players to do the job. Come on Reading you did it against West Ham, you have got to take the confidence from that performance and impose your game on the second division.
-- Paul Finch