There's nothing better than a win away from home and yesterday Reading thoroughly deserved all three points against a pretty poor Stoke side. That takes nothing away from the win as we played well. I must admit when I heard Ade, Sidwell and Forster were all out, effectively the backbone of the side. I wasn't that confident and would have taken a draw before the game. Yet again though Reading rose to the challenge and all bar one produced a real gritty gutsy performance to come away with the win. Defensively we were outstanding, Hahnemann pulled off a couple of outstanding saves in the second half right in front of the good turn out of travelling fans, Sonko had a tremendous game hoofing all afternoon long but that was what was required most of the time, and Murty, what a captains performance. The man should be proud of himself, he took a right hard knock in the first half and was limping badly but simply ran it off, second half Asaba reject nearly took his leg off with a dreadful tackle, but Murty simply got straight up and jogged away leaving Asaba to be rightly booked. Harper and Hughes worked their socks off and never stopped running and Kitson worked hard up front, but sadly lacked no support from nanny goat, who couldn't even be arsed to jump and challenge for balls half the time. I thought he was a liability most of the time and adds nothing to us up front. He's simply not going to get the service that results in six yard box tap ins at this level. He should be off loaded. Shoreys free kick was a cracker, with half the Stoke team fussing over their wall Shorey curled the ball into the top corner much to the delight of the away fans behind that goal...brilliant. Credit where it's due to the ref for letting him take in quickly. With other so called big clubs losing it was a good weekend and we remain in lofty second place with a tremendous chance to push on with two home games coming up. Yesterday was a double three pointer for me, three points at Stoke and three points off Mr Plod on the way up, but that's another story! Leeds will be a cracker and we should see 20,000 plus, lets make sure we make some noise and lift the roof off... URZ!
Nick Newbury

What a result! Going to a ground where we have not done well recently and without three of our leading players, this was just terrific. It was a good team performance where everybody contributed to the team success. We passed the ball with confidence and Harper had an outstanding game. Personally I would have liked to see us get better balls into the box, but Little was struggling a bit to get into the game in the right areas and Murty's crossing is not the strongest part of his game. Mind you I think that Murts did have three shots which must be some sort of record! The defence played well and Marcus brought off one particularly good save from Akinbiyi who might have done a bit better with the chances that he had. Sonko did well again and played a sensible game, nothing too fancy on the floor! Brooker was the most inventive in the first half and just lacked belief with the final ball and with a chance at goal. I thought the Goat did OK and he too nearly scored. The goal was a classic Shorey free kick. It was quickly taken and hit the post on the way in. It was no less than we deserved. It was another game where there was not much between the teams, but we just seem to have the knack of winning them. Well done to all concerned!
Ken C

A well deserved win and an excellent all round team performance. This game demonstrated that we do have quality depth of squad and to come away with all three points from this game was an indicator to the whole Division that we are a team to be seriously considered for promotion this year. Stoke themselves have had a good start to the season and as we all know it is a very difficult ground to come away with any points where a very loyal and partisan crowd prevails. Nickey Shorey produced an excellent goal at a time when the home advantage was looking likely. Our strength will be to produce goals from all positions and I believe that this season we have just this quality and it will be seen to be our strength in the long winter months as injuries take their toll with all teams. How delightful it was to at last hear the media and in particular BBC radio 5 sport acknowledge that Reading are now a team to be reckoned with at top of the Championship.
Terry, Isle Of Wight

A very good all round team performance saw Reading get 3 points from a potentially tricky away fixture. In the 1st half they were easily the better team & deserved to go in ahead thanks to a great strike from Shorey. It's good to see someone who is starting to consistently look threatening from such positions as we haven't had a decent free-kick specialist since Caskey left. In the 2nd half, Stoke were a different side & Reading had to defend very well to keep ahead. Despite a but of luck with one or two of Akinbyi's chances, I reckon we defended very well to deservedly hold out for the 1-0 (and were unlucky not to pinch a 2nd on a couple of occasions too). Everyone played their part, with the back four (+ keeper of course!) deserving special mention. Sonko is staring to look a much more solid proposition, even if his hoofs upfield continue to be a danger to low flying air craft. I feel I must mention Goater having stood up for him a lot on this site. Although I wouldn't be quite as damning as some, I have to admit he needs to improve a lot on this performance if he wants to justify selection whilst Forster is out. On the plus side, his lay-offs & touches to bring others into play were there as usual & he was very unlucky not to score with a good opportunist strike in the 2nd half. But for the most part he did look rather slow & lethargic to put it mildly. There were quite a few instances where we needed someone quick & nippy to harry at Stoke's back line (as Forster can & does). Now Goater is never going to be as quick as Forster (or Morgan for that matter), but needed to at least show some urgency & keenness to chase folk down. Kitson caused problems for Stoke all afternoon by doing just that & his persistence created openings on a few occasions. Having said that, Goater will probably get the winner on Tues. I hope so, as we can't rely on Kitson to be our main goal threat all season. More on the same vs. the 'mighty' Leeds please. COME ON.....
caversham Royal