Division One

READING TEAM: Hislop, Jones, Kerr, Holsgrove, Hopkins, Viveash, Taylor, Parkinson, Nogan, Hartenberger (Williams 82), Lambert (Quinn 77)

As normal theres a few reports here...

A victory at Notts County would have seen us go second in the table (even if only overnight), but as it is the defeat sees us fall to sixth in the table with both Wolves and Sheffield United moving above. The thing is the majority of those above have gam es in hand. Its not a good time of the year to be dropping points to such shite teams.

Adrian Williams made his comeback appearance - for all of two minutes. He came on as a substitute for Hartenberger on 82 minutes and managed to get sent off in the 84th minute for elbowing some Notts County player in the head. The referee judged it as d eliberate and off went Williams picking up a nice automatic suspension. After the match Gooding lept to the defence of Adie claiming that it was accidental.

Graham

Heres a report from Chris Price....

Notts County 1:0 Reading

Appalling! One of the worst Reading displays for a long time. Turns out that my pre-match pessimism was fully justified. Passing was terrible with no exceptions, I can't think of a single player who did themselves justice. It was a great shame because once again we had travelled away in numbers.

We have two basic problems, ineffective wide players and no pace up front. We hardly ever looked threatening, that is the most worrying aspect. To be fair to County they hustled Reading into a lot of mistakes. Whenever we did get posession we just gave it away. Hartenberger and Nogan seemed completely devoid of any ideas. Jamie Lambert is too small, and Scott Taylor wasted a lot of good positions.

We didn't deserve to lose to be fair but hopefully it will kickstart a revival.

As for Williams, what a twat! I'd happily agree that it was not malicious but he should know that if your elbow makes contact you are going to have to walk.

I never thought we would do so well this season anyway so even if we don't make the playoffs I'll be delighted.

This will probably be my last report for a while as I'm changing jobs. Getting Internet connection is first priority!

Chris.

Final position prediction :- 8th.

This next report from Jerry Morley...

I attended the match wearing my (Orlando) magic hat but it did no good. The highlights were the relay race between Magpies kids and Reading kids before the match and the Williams sending off. He had only been on the pitch TWO minutes, I don't think Adie had touched the ball when he jumped like a gazelle on the half way line and some County (Magpie) geezer crumpled to the floor. The ref raised the red card and Adie exited stage right without any complaints from anyone, not even Phil Parkinson !

Unfortunately it was too far away to be able to tell you anything definite but Mickey Gooding said on (Meridian) teletext that it was without intent to injure. However there doesn't appear to be any argument that elbow and Magpie connected.

One swallow doesn't make a summer but I came away feeling that the forwards had played like big girls blouses and not shown any real desire to win. Had they decided that it would be any easy win because of Notts. lowly league position ? Haven't they yet learnt that any team can beat any other team in Division 1 ?

I am not a pessimist, however, and I look forward to Lee "0.25 million" Nogan scoring a hat trick against Watford on Saturday.

Thank goodness we don't have a stupid mascot like "Mr Magpie" at Elm Park ! Their stadium is something that Reading should aspire to for when we get promoted to the Premier/become renowned as a solid Division 1 outfit about to be promoted to the Premier.

Jerry

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