And remember how it all started...playing Plymouth off the pitch, but losing. Give 'em 3 points for that one, and...well, I'm sure they've had some go the other way, too.
I predict that Reading will clinch a top 2 finish sometime in March. Those last 6 games in April wont even matter. This could really help Bobby with the USMNT, Coppell should be more likely to release him for March and April friendlies if they have it all but wrapped up. Keep it up.
Apparently the BBC has already promoted Reading: don't think that will be there long... http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_div_1/default.stm
At half-time Leicester looked to charged with the crime of stealing 40,000 buttocks, as they tried to bore the arse of 20,000 people for the second year running. And just as it looked like those missing buttocks might be required for a spell of clenching in the last few minutes, Gunnarson sealed the points with a header that appeared to deceive everyone. Although only 7 people shy of Reading's best crowd of the season, the impact of the new and unique phenomemon of half-season ticket carpet-baggers, people buying the bargain child's £35 half-season ticket purely to guarantee themselves a (upgraded) season-ticket next season, meant that there were more gaps than you'd expect from a sold-out crowd. Sadly for Reading, and those who fancied watching a game of football, there weren't ever going to be the same gaps on the pitch. I can see why they did it, and they were perfectly fair about it, but the footballing chloroform Leicester applied to the match threatened to make it a festival of yawns, perhaps even scaling the heights of lasts year's game, where the highlight was a ball being kicked over the roof for the first and only time since the Madejski opened. After a bright but fruitless start, Reading stumbled, and looked less in their stride than a sprinter with a dead leg. Passes were too slow, and often astray. Plenty of offsides. Convey was finding it difficult to make headway. Oster, in for the injured little, was given the chance to prove himself that he wanted. On tonight's showing, proof of alien spacecraft in the Nevada desert is more convincing, but hopefully it was an off-day. With neither keeper tested seriously, or even humorously, in the first half, it was unsurprisingly 0-0. Like a one-armed heroin addict, Leicester continued in the same vein in the second half, stifling everything except the yawns of the crowd, hoping to catch Reading napping and snatch a goal. Reading were starting to look slightly more lively, although being honest, residents of the graveyard down the road were more lively than the first half. Convey was geting into the game a bit more, and looked like he was trying to recreate the goal he scored at Wolves two days ago. It was bargain of the season, Doyle who scored the crucial goal, after a nice flick on from last year's bargain of the season, Kitson. Doyle raced through from 40 yards and tucked it in more lovingly than a mother putting her nipper to bed. Experience said that gaps would open up as Leicester would have to chase the game. Craig Levein made some subs, but pulled off a tactical masterstroke by playing a formation that prevented these gaps from appearing. The downside was that it didn't do anything to aid their attack, and it took the substitution of convey, a decision as baffling as some of those made by referee Alan Wiley, and a late injury to Kitson, for them to start getting into the game. Just as it looked like Reading could be in for a tense last few minutes, Gunnarson looped in a lazy-looking header from a free-kick, that just seemed to drift in of its own free will rather than by direction, and the game was all but over. Leicester's fans chose this moment to leave the ground, looking like they could have had more fun listening to a Morrisey album while watching a newly painted door-frame obtain dryness. At least Reading fans had two goals, and another 3 points to enjoy, if little else. Convey will be relatively pleased with a few runs in the second half. Hahnemann would have been grateful of a few long range efforts to warm his hands, and he did make one good stop at the end of the first half. Overall, a game best forgotten. Indeed, it'd probably require hypnotic regression to recall any more than the goals in a day or two.
A few images from tonight's match, courtesy of www.readingfc.co.uk Bobby Warms up ... Bobby Shoots into the side netting ... An acrobatic save from Marcus ...
http://football.guardian.co.uk/Match_Report/0,1527,1674763,00.html A cautionary tale in the first paragraph.
I'm confused. The first paragraph is about a greedy top player at a top club and a bargain, what am I missing?
Well, you know its a good season when Richard is putting a win and 3 points as a match "best forgotten." My how times have changed. By the way, Big Soccer should make some kind of rep exception for Richard's posts as I am continually denied giving him rep despite his slew of excellent posts. That said, the one armed herion addict line was just wrong (I'm still laughing).
It is always good to read the typical optimism from Placid Casual that the combination of Leicester and Columbus Crew fandom can cause.
It was a different paragraph when i posted it. Something about not winning for 11 games last season after the new year,
Agreed. I'm giving other people rep at random just so I can spread it around and bring it back to Richard. I'm still envisioning a goalkeeper being tested humorously, rather than seriously