This was much better from Reading after the recent run of poor form. It was even more satisfying to end the run of seven games without a win with an away win at a place like the City Ground. A decent turn out of travelling Royals easily created more noise than over 22,000 home fans - many of whom had filtered out long before the final whistle. It must have been a frustrating afternoon for the home fans who saw their side increase their run without a win to twelve games and slip to just one point above Derby County and the relegation zone. Forest were clearly a side hugely out of form and out of ideas of how to end their run. There wasn't a lack of effort from Forest but they just couldn't work out how to break down an excellent Reading defence and despite a large number of balls crossed into the Reading area, which Hahnemann dealt with ease, they never looked likely to find the equaliser after Reading took a first half lead.

There were plenty of signs the three points were going to Reading early on as Reading looked a lot less shakey than recent performances and settled down the quicker of the two sides. There was still plenty of misplaced passes from the Royals and a few moments of confusion but generally we looked a much better side working as a team. The improvement was without doubt generated by huge changes across the Reading side. It was hard to disagree that this was an ideal starting eleven for this game with only Goater likely to be excluded from most fans first choice eleven. Goater had another below average game, but the rest of the side looked good. Reading won the game with a superb midfield of Murray, Watson, Sidwell, and Salako that gave us plenty of power in the middle, the ability to pass the ball forward and get plenty of width. For me Sidwell and Murray probably deserved man of the match awards. Sidwell worked impressively hard to win the ball and keep Reading possession and Murray scored an excellent goal and didn't put a foot wrong.

Forest won the first corner of the game within the opening minute and as a sign of things to come it was easily cleared by Williams in the Reading defence. The opening exchanges were pretty even with few early opportunities until Reading started to take a hold on the game. Hahnemann was called into action to collect a few Forest crosses but the home side clearly lacked an attacking force. The first real attempts on goal came from the Royals and saw Goater again frustrating as he failed to find the target. He put one shot wide from a Shorey cross and then, mid-way through the half, seemed to be clean through on goal after a great ball from Scott Murray only to fail to control the ball and effectively play a pass back to the Forest keeper. Goater struggled with his control all afternoon and looked at his most useful when playing a few neat and tidy balls to Forster to allow us to build going forward - however Goater seems to have simply lost it in front of goal.

Nicky Forster was a very welcome return from injury and he also could have put Reading ahead when he found himself clean through against the keeper. He seemed to be taken down inside the area with plenty of calls for a penalty from the Reading end - but it was probably hard to see exactly what had happened from our end and the referee had an excellent game for most of the afternoon. Thankfully it didn't matter as Reading scored the only goal of the game just four minutes before the half time break. It was a decent goal as well with a great move forward - Goater played one of those neat balls to Forster and Forster opted to stay on his feet when fouled to play a great ball to his right and to Murray. Murray outpaced his marked and put the ball across the advancing keeper into the bottom left corner of the net. An excellent finish and it was to be enough to win the game.

Reading spent most of the second half simply keeping Forest shut out. The home side probably enjoyed a better share of the possession during the second period but again weren't sure what to do with it. Brown and Williams put in some excellent crunching tackles inside the Reading area when Forest did threaten but we had few worries until the closing ten minutes when Reading started to look like they were hanging on. Hahnemann was needed to make a couple of decent saves but Forest struggled to get in close and their frustrations were clearly building as they smacked a few shots well over the Reading bar. After perhaps their best period of pressure, again without making an impact, Adie Williams appeared to go down injured and was judged to be wasting time. It certainly broke down Forest's last bit of solid pressure and resulted in a Forest player dashing across the pitch to bundle Williams over when he'd just got to his feet. The home side were lucky to end the game with their full quota of players after seeing half their team dash into an angry bundle after they conceeded a foul. Two Forest bookings later and it was all over - Reading had certainly done the job.
Graham