MATCH REPORT: 2004/2005 Season
29 January 2005: FA CUP ROUND FOUR
READING 1 LEICESTER CITY 2
|
||
goals
|
Reading: Forster (10 mins). Leicester City: Williams (32 mins), Scowcroft (90 mins). |
Half Time: 1-1 Attendance: 14,825 |
teams
|
Reading: Hahnemann, Murty, Shorey, Sonko, Ingimarsson, Little, Harper, Newman (sent off 76), Hughes, Ferdinand (Owusu 69), Forster.
Subs Not Used: Young, Convey, Brooker, Morgan.
Leicester City: Walker, Maybury, Stewart, Dabizas, Heath, Gillespie (Dublin 89), Gudjonsson (Nalis 85), Williams, Tiatto, Scowcroft, Connolly (de Vries 79). Subs Not Used: Hirschfeld, Makin. | |
bookings
|
Reading: Newman (sent off for two bookings) Leicester City: Gudjonsson, Heath. Referee: A D'Urso (Essex). |
|
report
|
Reading's poor recent showings in the FA Cup continued this weekend as we made an exit in the fourth round at home to Leicester City. Leicester eventually won through with a late goal in stoppage time at the end of the game. However, the visitors deserved their win and were the better side for most of the fixture with Reading struggling - particularly in the second half. Despite the end result and Leicester's superiority, it was Reading that looked the more likely team for the first twenty minutes. Had Ferdinand put home the simplest of chances with Reading already a goal up then we might have had a very different result. Ferdinand was gifted an easy chance to tap home into an empty net as the ball came across the face of the goal from the right but somehow managed to put the ball wide.
|
FANS' POST MATCH OPINION
|
Such a disappointing result from a game where we started so well. this Having watched us stifle Leicester at their ground and then score two good goals, I expected something better. The first half hour saw us playing bright inventive football, but it only brought us one goal from Forster. He looked much better and had Ferdinand scored with the simplest of chances than we surely would have cruised through. From that point Leicester got better and better and emerged as deserved winners in a game where they had looked second best. Marcus had another excellent game but few of the others enhances their reputations. The defence looked uncertain with poor distribution (full backs included), Little tried hard, Hughes was his energetic self, but this was a game the we lost. Whether Newman was unlucky with his first yellow, I'm not sure, but he certainly deserved the second. What we must now do is get back to playing as a unit. In Ferdinand they have someone who shows better touch than we are used to and who is aware of what goes on around him. It's a must win on Saturday - again.
Unfortunately this was a typical example of Reading failing to finish off the opposition when they were on top and then being punished. I don't reckon the sending off made an awful lot of difference to the outcome as Leicester were much the better side in the 2nd half regardless of the number of players on the pitch. There were positives;- apart from his astonishing miss, Ferdinand's all round contribution was good and Forster's performance had improved yet again (his goal was very well taken and he used his pace to good affect all afternoon). Now that the team have to 'concentrate on the league', as the old cliché goes, hopefully they can do just that with a win against Plymouth next Saturday.
|
Got an opinion? E-Mail us at opinion@royals.org
Appropriate submissions will appear on match report pages |