Issue 3 - April 1998

The last month has seen the Royals plummet from a precarious 17th to a disastrous 24th and last. Without going into all the gory details, Reading have suddenly become the worst side in the division - you don't lose nine out of ten, conceding 26 goals in the process, simply by being unlucky!

On the other hand, if Reading really were this bad, we would not have picked up a single point all season. Something must have happened around the end of January as the team went right off the rails and into the buffers. Ex-boss Bullivant blamed injuries and a tendency to concede needless goals; some fans simply blamed Bullivant! The real reasons, however, are surely a bit more complicated.

Firstly, the two cup runs must take their share of the blame. Replays, penalties and the energy-sapping game against Middlesborough left half the squad carrying injuries and the other half physically dead on their feet. Given Reading's obvious lack of quality, we had relied heavily on fitness and battling qualities to get us through - with a knackered squad, we could no longer do this and had nothing else to fall back on.

Secondly, our inability to breach opposition defences. Looking at 3-0, 4-0 scorelines, the tendency is to argue that the defence should take the blame. How different some of these matches may have been, however, if we'd only scored first. Is it really a coincidence that the Man. City game was the only one of the last ten that we managed to do this in? Failure to put the opposition under pressure inevitably leads to pressure on yourself - our pathetic attempts to attack have simply resulted in a loss of possession, making the game easy for our opponents.
This inability to score also results in a massive loss of confidence - we know if we concede a goal then the game is lost. The whole team are terrified of making mistakes and consequently don't want the ball. Try playing football when no-one moves into space and no-one calls for the ball.

The final piece in the jigsaw was Bullivant's apparent unwillingness to drop Asaba, Bowen and Houghton no matter how poorly they played. With Lambert and Hodges injured, the team cried out for some width as all our attacks were straight down the middle of the pitch - not bad if Dion Dublin's your centre forward but hopeless if your forward line is as good in the air as Gary Numan. All the time, Meaker sat on the bench or in the stands - now Michael Meaker is no David Beckham but he does at least pull the defenders wide and cross the ball. When it comes to full-backs, Jason Bowen must be agoraphobic - terrified of going outside. The Huddersfield game was a marked improvement in the general play mainly because the whole team had a better shape.

When the fixture list was first published, it was immediately obvious that if Reading weren't safe by the end of March then we would probably go down. That now seems almost certain to the case because although the arrival of Tommy Burns and a host of new players should give the team impetus, it is probably too late to stave off relegation.

The last few weeks have been as dramatic and traumatic as any in Reading's recent history. A soul-destroying series of performances, a managerial resignation followed by accusations of conspiracies and then half a team of new players in a day!! This season may have disastrous on the pitch but it's been anything but dull!