"In god we trust" and it looks like our faith in Sir Steve and our prayers are going to be answered. It may be at the behest of Fulham and Bolton but who gives a flying toss about that! These relegation dog fights really do test your nerves and in a funny way can, and I emphasis can, be enjoyable, that is of course you avoid the dreaded drop . How many of us celebrated Derby equaliser against Fulham and Boltons wonderful ninetieth minute own goal against the Gooners having been two up against ten men. A month ago I thought we needed a miracle to stay up and March has proved miracles can happen in football, a bit over the top I know, but you know what I mean. The great Mark McGhee once said, an average of two points a game is championship form, he was spot on, and that's exactly what we've achieved in March with a wonderful glorious ten points and none earned harder than yesterdays points against Bolton. Oh Stephen Hunt, five minutes to go, Shane Long does wonders to get the ball charges down the wing , spots Hunty unmarked on far post five yards out, perfect cross, time slows down, like slow motion, we all rise as one, Hunty pulls back foot to slam ball home for three glorious points and....... totally misses the ball! Could you believe it, nor could you believe it when Bikey had his header cleared of the line minutes later , but after another five or so blood pressure rising minutes the useless ref Battenburg blew the whistle and we had a precious point . The sending of was a joke like the ref, and Marek will be missed at Newcastle but will be back for the huge Fulham game. We didn't play that well yesterday with quite a few like Kitson , Hunty and Shorey having poor games, but again Bikey had a stormer, clear man of the match, Oster did well and deserves credit and you have to take your hat off to Coco Hahnemann who yet again saved us, no doubt. If they had of scored when four were about ten yards offside I think the linesman would have been lynched , but somehow USA stuck a leg out just like last week and saved the day. Six games left, four away, but with the possible exception of Arsenal away, all winnable. I think another five points will do it, maybe just four, but we all know there's plenty of time for wicked twists before we can all relax. Fulham have now not won away for 43 games, their next away game is Reading FC, I wonder what you're thinking!! Keep the faith UURRZZZ!!!
Nick Newbury

NO GOALS and nine bookings resulting in one dismissal. This might have seemed like a blood and guts encounter, but bloodless would be a more accurate description, both sides’ fear of losing far greater than any real ambition to carry the day. It was also a match which the referee Mark Clattenburg threatened to lose control of after a display of fussiness that left so many players teetering on the edge of dismissal and led to a harsh red card for Czech midfielder Marek Matejovsky 17 minutes from the finish. Blackburn, despite their need to pick up points in a bid to get into Europe, never took full advantage of that dismissal, though the Reading goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann was by far the busier and had to pull off a couple of excellent saves in the second half to earn a valuable point for the home side. Some of the other results at the bottom of the table didn’t go Reading’s way but, as Steve Coppell put it afterwards, “relying on other results is not a good way of extending a career in football”.
Sunday Times

After a quiet first half the game finally came to life after the break.Matejovsky departed after two bookable offences before Reading keeper Marcus Hahnemann denied Zurab Khizanishvili and Morten Gamst Pedersen. Stephen Hunt should have won it late on, but failed to connect with Shane Long's cross and Brad Friedel pulled off a great save from Andre Bikey.
BBC Sport