Match Report - Away VS Luton Town

Division One
27 February 1996

LUTON TOWN 1 READING 2
(Booty 45, Lovell 80)
Att: 6,900

First a bit from Compuserve posted by: Adam Lloyd...

Reading grabbed three vital points in their bid to escape relegation with a 2-1 victory at fellow division one strugglers Luton. But it was Luton who got off to a flying start with a goal after only five minutes. Bontcho Guentchev slotted home his ninth goal and sixth from the penalty spot past fellow Bulgarian international Bobby Mikhaylov after Jeff Hopkins fouled Guentchev.

Luton could easily have been three up by half-time with Tony Thorpe and John Taylor both hitting the post, and Mikhaylov twice racing off his line to prevent Thorpe from scoring.

And Luton paid the price for their misses right on the stroke of half-time when Michael Meaker's deep cross found Martyn Booty unmarked and running in to head firmly past Ian Feuer at the far post. Stuart Lovell added salt to the wound in the 78th minute when he nipped in ahead of Julian James to flick Phil Parkinson's low cross past Feuer for the winner.

Then a little bit from Lewis Williams who went to the game...

In summary we were probably a bit lucky to go in 1-1 at half time. On balance we deserved to win the second half. The big difference from my perspective is that they really looked like they WANTED to win, which is a VERY encouraging sign. I missed Saturday's game, so seeing Meaker play well was a pleasant surprise; his cross for the first goal was a peach. I agree that Holsgrove cannot cut it in midfield; he takes too long to get any sort of control, but I think he's done OK (no more) as a sweeper. Somebody asked how Gilkes played... he came on after Darius (I still can't spell the surname) limped off in the second half.... it looks like he may be crocked again. I thought Gilkes played well and he had a big hand in the second goal.

The BIG news was Dylan Kerr, who was sitting in the middle of the Reading crowd and not only joined in most of the chants, but initiated many of them (at one point standing on his seat). At the end of the game he initiated a reprise of the "Mark MCGhee's a w***er" classic (so no love lost there obviously). A most enjoyable diversion!