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21 December 2002: LEAGUE DIVISION ONE
NOTTINGHAM FOREST 2 READING 0
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goals
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Reading:
- Nottingham Forest: Johnson (4 mins), Harewood (67 mins) |
Half Time: 1-0
Attendance: 25,831
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teams
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Reading: Hahnemann, Murty,
Mackie, Williams, Shorey, Rougier (Igoe 71), Watson, Harper, Salako (Cureton
71), Forster (Tyson 31), Hughes. Subs not used: Newman, Ashdown. Nottingham Forest: Ward, Louis-Jean, Dawson, Hjelde, Brennan, Williams, Scimeca, Lester (sent off 84), Reid (Jess 89), Johnson, Harewood. Subs not used: Roche, Bopp, Thompson, Doig. |
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bookings
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Reading: Rougier. Nottingham
Forest: Johnson, Lester, Reid. Referee: M Cowburn (Blackpool) |
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report
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Reading suffered another Division One defeat this weekend with a conclusive defeat at play-off rivals Nottingham Forest. The home side entirely outplayed Reading throughout the game - and Reading can consider themselves lucky to escape with just the 0-2 lose. The defeat cemented the end of Reading's recent run of good form - the run has suddenly reversed itself with Reading unable to find the net and starting to leak goals. After a run of seven games without conceeding a goal and the departure of Matthew Upson, Reading have let in four in the last two games. The Royals have also failed to find the back of the net in the last three fixtures. Forest got off to an excellent start, putting Reading under instant pressure, and going a goal up after just three minutes. Reading lost possession in midfield and the defence fell to pieces when the ball was crossed from the right and hit home from the middle. Reading managed just a single shot on target during the whole first half when a Salako free-kick was easily saved. Further bad news followed when Nicky Forster limped off during the first half to be replaced by Tyson up front. Tyson worked hard but suffered from lack of service up front. The second half saw Reading struggle to make any impression on the game with Forest in full control as they always looked likely to extend their lead. It was 0-2 with 67 minutes on the clock and all over for Reading who failed to find a single meaningful shot during the entire second half. |
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FANS' POST MATCH OPINION
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telford royal
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When your main strength is not conceeding goals, letting David Johnson turn inside you and score in the first five minutes is not an ideal start. From that point on the game looked lost for Reading as they created very little against a classy Forest side. Reading looked more lively after the break and took the game to Forest, but I cannot remember a serious threat to their goal. Forest could have won more easily, but 2-0 did them nicely. Reading looked little more than a mid-table team division 1 outfit today. Has the play-off bubble burst? |
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ken c
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We've played half of our games and we are in sixth spot,
that is a terrific achievemnet for a team which basically has not changed
since last year. Yesterday we displayed many of the qualities that have
got us there, and also the weaknesses that prevent us from moving on. We
were compact, showed plenty of effort and commitment, moved the ball across
the pitch well, but failed to deliver in the final third. We never looked like scoring and this was compounded by the loss of Forster. It was asking a great deal of Tyson to play that role although he showed a great willingness, to his credit. I thought that we started slowly which is unusual for us. Forest certainly showed that they were good on the ball as they passed it with great confidence. It was no real surprise that their dominantion should lead to a goal. Although there was an element of a mistake, it was the sort of pass from Williams and clinical finish from Johnson, that we did not see from Reading. I did fear that Forest might go on to win easily but it was us who came back well and had more and more possession as the half went on. At half time I felt that we were still in with a chance but I wasn't sure where the goal was coming from. Their second killed the game and unfortunately the blame lay with Marcus. It was ironic that the keeper, who has added so much to the team with his distribution, should kick the ball straight to one of their players. Later he made some terrific saves as we went forward more and more, but by then the damage had been done. It is hard to see where we are going to get the creative flair. Harper and Hughes need to be more willing to have a go. They were both reluctant to shoot yesterday. Playing one up front has brought us tremendous success, but can anyone other than Forster carry out that role? Butler's touch is not quite good enough and Cureton is too lightweight. The combination of both of them weakens the midfield, unless Cureton can consisitently work harder, but he is still our best finisher. I'm glad I'm not the manager. What is important is that we bounce back against Coventry and I just hope theat the prats who were sitting behind me yesterday will not be there. All they could do was shout obscene vitriol about Pardew whilst his mate just said that one up front would never work! Let's get behind our team, they have had a terrific start. |
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paul cleveland
(plus mikey and robbie) |
We went all the way up to unhospitable Nottingham and I have one question - Why, when Forster, our lone striker, got taken off, did Pardew not replace him with another striker??? No offence to Tyson but he's a winger. Cureton on the bench until 15 minutes to go and only then did anyone start having a shot on goal. Pardew got it wrong today. I hope there's a lesson learnt because the next few games will be just as tough! |
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caversham royal
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After the Pompey game, I complemented Pardew and the squad for their growing maturity in adapting to new tactics and situations. I feel the time has now come for them to really demonstrate this. 4-5-1 has run it's course as a system and the time has come to change it. The evidence is as follows;- the success of this system over the last few months depended very much on our rock solid defence, with Upson very much the key factor. We went on an excellent run going many games without conceding. Since Upson's departure, we have played 2 and conceded 4. The facts speak for themselves; our defence is not the unbreachable barrier it once was. Therefore the onus goes onto attack and how many we can score. These facts are more worrying, and have been all season. We have now gone the last 3 games without scoring. Only 3 other sides (Bradford, Brighton, and Sheff Wed - significantly the last two of this list are the bottom two clubs in Div1) have scored less goals than Reading. That sort of scoring record, especially without the unbreachable defence, does not get a play-off spot. In fact, if the clubs with similar numbers in the 'goals for' collumn are anything to go by, all it guarantees is a bottom six finish. Now I'm not saying that after a couple of duff results that we're doomed to an unstoppable slide down the league, but our lack of goals is something that needs to be sorted quickly. I've droned on many times about the need to play 2 strikers. I don't necessarily think the need is there to buy anyone else. Both Forster (although now injured - I'm sure constantly haring around unsupported up front the last few weeks didn't help his hamstring anyway) and Cureton have proved they are capable of scoring at this level. I'm not sure about Butler yet, and Henderson hasn't had a fair crack due to injury. But there's enough talent to explore amongst the strikeforce. The problem has been there all season, and it's the lack of chances created. Whoever plays up front;- Cureton, Butler, Forster, Henderson, Ronaldo, Quinn, Lovell, Senior, or my blue doll WILLIAM, they need the midfield to do their share of creating for them, rather than having to do the lion's share, as Forster has done, themselves. As I said after the Sheffield game, other attacking options need to be explored and our lack of creativity addressed. We no longer have the unbreachable defence to compensate for our deficiencies in these areas. We've now lost to 2 of our closest rivals, with 3 tough games to come over Christmas. Come on, change things around and turn things around. COME ON..... |
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