Reading: Hahnemann, Murty, Williams, Mackie, Shorey, Hughes (Igoe 66), Neil Smith, Jones (Parkinson 66), Salako, Cureton (Rougier 45), Forster. Subs not used: Harper, Ashdown.

Wigan: Filan, Green, De Zeeuw, Jackson, McMillan, Kennedy, Kilford, Cook, Teale, Haworth, Liddell. Subs not used: Nolan, Dalglish, McGibbon, McCulloch, Roberts.

Bookings: Kennedy, McMillan (Wigan).
Referee: Steve Tomlin (Lewes).

What a load of absolute crap. No imagination, no skill, no flair, no entertainment, no ideas, no will to win, no ambition and no midfield. Total bollocks and over 15,000 suffering hypothermia . We're just a typical old fashioned division two side without a blinking clue on how to get out of this division. Pardew out!
-- Nick Newbury

It is an obvious thing to say, but the result turned on the penalty miss. It gave Wigan hope and us doubts and the result became inevitable. It was a strange game in many ways. Yet again I felt that we did not come out quickly enough. It is important when we are at home that we get at teams early on, but we continually fail to do so. It was a relief that we got the early goal. Credit to Salako for a good finish and to Cureton for knocking the ball to him. What we were unable to do was to push on from there and to get a second and there were several reasons for that. Firstly Wigan are a better side than their position indicates. They had a disastrous start to the season, but they have bought in some good players and I would not be surprised to see them make the play offs. We are a team which is suffering from too many key men out. We do have a good squad, but the limits of it were exposed today. If Cureton and Forster are to play up front then we know that they are not going to hold the ball up. They need the ball played to their feet, in the space between the keeper and the back four or into the channels. Today we did not have a quality passer of the ball in the side. It is the midfield that have given the greatest concern this season. Whilst Salako showed class on the left, Hughes showed himself to be a shadow of the player from the start of his Reading career. Smith is useful but Jones does not create, and so in midfield we were outplayed. I thought that Pardew did the right thing in replacing Cureton with Rougier who had an excellent second half. He was able to hold the ball better and won the penalty. When Igoe came on he produced the best cross of the match, which surprised me that noone managed to divert towards the goal. He also seems to have a better understanding with Murty than Hughes does and so we see more attacking options with Igoe that with Hughes. It might have been a bit more positive to bring on Harper for Jones but nonetheless it was good to see Parkie back. However, unlocking defences is not his skill and that is what we are struggling to do. We only had six shots and that is not enough. A draw was probably a fair result. The facts are though that we missed a penalty and, I think that their equalizer was a bit of a fluke. Had we won two one, then we might not have been overjoyed with the performance but the result would have been good. It was just the penalty that made the difference!
-- Ken C

A very poor performance. Great goal from Salako, but a dismal display thereafter. Hughes just does not seem interested, Cureton did nothing, Jones was a passenger, and frankly, the only reason that the whole team were not substituted is that only three changes are allowed. The 8 that played 90 minutes only survived on the pitch for the whole game because the rules didn't allow any more substitutions. Our season in terms of auto promotion looks over. It is not the fact that a draw with Wigan is a disaster, it is more the way we under achieved. We are still in touch points wise, but any optimism previously held was wiped away by a totally inept display of negative football. Changes are essential. I do not think sacking the manager is sensible, but something has to break soon, or the play offs will become our only chance. The chairman must make up his mind whether he really wants it. It is not good enough to say that he has given sufficient funds to get us up, if things are still not working. We still need a couple more qualty players, without which we will fail. It is pointless doing half a job. Either Reading go seriously for promotion, or he might as well lose the few quality professionals we do have and resign himself to chairing a second rate football club.
Stoke, Bristol City, Cardiff, QPR, and even Brighton and Brentford look much better prospects.
-- Kevin, Worthing Royal.

The phone in to BBC Berkshire summed it up. Callers complained the game wasn't even up to Park Football standard. We need a midfield. There is absolutely no link up play from defence to attack. It's easy to see why Cureton has gone off the boil, it seems nobody in the team has figured out how to play to his strengths. Hughes was once again crap. I thought Forster only looked useful when in the second half he started attacking their full back. But as usual he refused to look around him to see what options he had. And as for his penalty effort. PATHETIC.
Until we start playing as a team from defence through midfield to attack we will continue to look average. We had some good individual performances, Salako, Rougier, Igoe, Hahnemann but we never played as a unit. Unfortunately that seems to be the script for this season, our top players are not performing and when we have a bad day our management lack the ability to take us forward.
I took a kid for a quid on Saturday, even at that price I felt cheated.
-- Paul Little

Saturday was one of those frustrating afternoons, when for all our possession we created very few goal scoring opportunities and worst still, we continue to be prone to leaking a goal to a team who put up a solid performance, but can hardly be described as dangerous. For most of the game I thought we defended well, but there still seems to be occasions when there is panic in defence, a lapse in concentration and confidence. Readings problems are obvious to see, we lack any authority in mid field and we create very few clear cut chances which I feel is down to our tactical naivety. Poor old Cureton, no wonder he is out of sorts, he never gets a sniff and is always chasing a hopeful or impossible ball. I am tempted to state the obvious and call for Pardews head, as I feel tactically he has made mistakes which we can ill afford. Given time Pardew will learn and may turn out to be a great manager. Is the club however patient enough to wait for this to happen, if so I fear we might have to right off another season to his learning curve. With Pardew having done a reasonable job so far and acknowledged to still be learning his trade, would it not be better to speed up this process and bring in an assistant with some experience to help him become the leader the fans crave. There are plenty of coaches and managers with great credentials who could step in and help Pardew secure automatic promotion. Thinking ahead, if by hock or crock Pardew did get us promoted, how would he fair in the first division? Huddersfield found it tough and are suffering now in the second division. Sacking Pardew now would not guarantee anything as despite Reading having one of the largest squads in the league, we are still deficient in a few vital areas of the pitch. Mr Madejski may not have 100% confidence in Pardew, as he has given him enough money already and allowing him to spend more may just mean more signings like Hughes and Harper. Pardew will argue he has brought in some good players like Shorey, but why did we have to wait so long for him to get picked? When he did it was due to Robinson's injury.
Mr Madejski should either sack Pardew or appoint a number two who can help win promotion this season and speed up Pardew in his development as I can't see the current team the way they are playing going up. If it works great, if not sack Pardew and you have a ready made manager already to take over. I am not going to suggest who, but I wonder whether the issue crossed the mind of Mr Shreeves on Saturday when he picked the golden Gamble ticket. Talking of Gamble, surely he can't be as bad as Hughes and Jones! I would at least expect to see him on the bench, leaving him out is sending him the wrong message and undermining hi self belief. Talking of belief, mine is wearing thin, come on Reading shape up.
-- Paul Finch

I loved the quote from another correspondent about his taking "a kid for a quid" and feeling cheated. The best passes that Wigan received during the match came from Reading players - and something is seriously wrong if professional players cannot do the basic skills of the game. There was little bite or direction from the midfield until Igoe and Parky came on - we cannot expect Fozzy or Curo to do the biz when they don't get decent, regular ball. We are sorely missing midfield players with vision who can also tackle and lay off good quality ball. Until we get those players the defence will always be under pressure and the attack will always be under resourced. It could well be that we do have those players but leadership is the problem, whatever, it needs sorting and Pards has had a lot of time and resources put his way .... If people took a kid for a quid and felt cheated .. how must the Chairman feel?
-- Andy - Exiled Leicester Royal