1-0, Reading. Forster cleans up the rebound after Preston keeper Lucas made an excellent save. Chadwick the main person in the build-up, Hughes with the saved shot.
Reading's Salako hits the crossbar. Then Lucas stones Forster. All Reading, all the time at this point. Reading needs to pour it on for goal differential.
PNE's Alexander falls, Little takes the ball around Lucas, keeper takes him down. PK, Lucas sent off with a straight red, PNE down to nine men. And the penalty...left back Shorey takes and scores his first of the season. 3-0.
Question is...will Reading try to run it up, or save energy for their showdown with Forest on Friday night?
4-0. Forster takes a ball over the top, beats Lucketti, and then sub keeper Gould. Hat trick, with Murty getting the helper.
Forster off, Henderson on--leading scorer gets a rest. Second sub, Cureton on for Chadwick. Two moves for Reading.
I could be wrong, but it looked like he gave him a yellow first and then a red. It was in no way a straight red card foul.... he just did your typical late challenge when the player is running down the line. The goal of the night was Preston's only goal though. What a cracking shot from 30+ yards it looked like. Even the home support gave applause for the goal. Marcus didn't have much to do the entire match other than pick the ball out of his net and make one save late on. Eddie was playing pretty far back... some times i couldn't tell if he was supposed to be part of the midfield or if he was the left back. didn't make too many runs, but his crossing wasn't too bad. He did set up a nice ball in the first half, but it was cleared. I'll try to put up some pics soon.... I also shot a short video clip of the penalty.... if you want it, go ahead and PM me and i'll send it to you.
PNE had a player named Michael Jackson sent off. I wonder if moonwalking is actually a card-able offense!
I just read the match report... it was 2 yellow cards that got MJ sent off. from my view behind the goal (for the 2'nd red) it looked like the reading player did have a bit of contact on his leg, but made a huge meal out of it.
Strange game. Reading didn't really play that well. Apart from our five goals (oh I'd love to be able to say that more often) Reading didn't have a huge amount of clear cut chances. Preston's kamikaze sending offs helped hugely, although oddly Reading were better 11 v 10 than 11 v 9. Preston's goal did look like it ought to have been saved, but I'll reserve judgement until seeing it on TV. Generous applause for the goal, but it's easy to be generous at 4-1 up. For the first time I might have started a chant (albeit a small one) at a match. With Preston having pulled the one back some of their fans were singing (tune - blue moon) "9 men, we've only got 9 men" to which I replied (same tune, loudly, to no-one in particular) "you've only got one goal" ...which was instantly picked up by some blokes behind me. Made my evening. Well the 5 goals helped I suppose.