Tonight Leicester's first half aerial assault was enough to put the game beyond the reach of a Reading side that is still having great difficulty in finding the back of the net. The addition of new signing Sidwell gave the home side a lift as Pardew reverted to the 4-5-1 formation which was so successful in November. I was surprised at the inclusion of Hughes in a midfield that did not appear to include an obvious holding midfield player.

The first fifteen minutes was full of hustle and bustle and did not really give any indication of what was to follow. Rougier got behind the defence and wasted the opportunity by over hitting his cross. Forster missed a half chance by taking a touch when the ball fell to him in front of goal. The ball was whisked away for a corner as he prepared to shoot. It was not to be the last time a Reading player was to be shot shy. Rougier and Shorey were also guilty later in the game.

In the twenty minutes that followed Reading completely fell apart. Two goals were conceded as result of deep crosses being headed back across goal and finished with fairly tame resistance. Size certainly does matter when you are defending against burly centre backs and forwards. Just ask Murty and Shorey. They are good players but simply could not cope with City's power in the air. Not that they should shoulder all the blame. The defence did not react at all quickly enough when the ball was loose in the box, and on the first goal Hahnemann went down like sack of potatoes. The penalty looked harsh to say the least. The third goal underlined City's superiority in the air and killed the game. It is taking Reading a month to score four at present, so it was asking a lot to do it in sixty -five minutes. To make matters worse players started losing their discipline, giving away free kicks and conceding possession in haste.

At half time Newman replaced the injured Brown in the centre of defence and Reading set about salvaging some pride from a game that threatened to turn into a massacre. On fifty four minutes the ball broke kindly to Hughes who stuck his chance away well. He then spent the rest of the game running into trouble with the ball or passing it to the team in yellow. However when the goal went in there was just a hint of a revival. That was soon snuffed out when Pardew immediately changed the formation by replacing Igoe and Harper with Cureton and Butler. I was staggered. Any momentum gained from the goal was immediately lost through the substitutions. The game then became extremely ragged and City comfortably played out time without having to worry too much about attacking.

Leicester used their experience to unsettle Reading, helped by officials that were easily conned. Dickov did a superb job of unsettling the Reading back four, and Elliot was dominant at the back. Reading did not look likely to score a second. One bright spot in another disappointing evening was the performance of Sidwell. As the game wore on, he got more and more involved, and he is clearly going to make the team stronger in midfield, but we desperately need a decent striker. I feel we need to hang on the Forster and Cureton, but surely Butler has to go. His touch is poor, he doesn't score goals and he doesn't have the pace to go past defenders. A high work rate is not enough in itself to win games. It is a time to patient. We are still building, and we are certainly still in with a chance of a play off place.
Report by John Wells