Match Report vs IPSWICH TOWN

The turning point in this game was the sending off of Bobby Mihaylov just before the half time break, and although Andy Bernal did a great job as replacement keeper he just couldn't keep out the Ipswich defence. Reading battled hard but after the break Ipswich really made their extra man advantage count.

Ipswich started the scoring on 12 minutes with a glancing header from a corner which fell into the corner and past Bobby Mihaylov. On 26 minutes Reading equalised with a superb Booty cross from the left finding Lee Nogan running in through the middle to head it powerfully into the net. 1-1. The drama that was to change the balance of the game came on 45 minutes.

The Ipswich forward found himself clean through with Mihaylov the last line of defence. As the forward went past, and about to score, Bobby had no choice but to pull him down inside the area for a professional foul and Readings second red card in as many games. Quite an interesting statistic for statos is that we've already doubled our tally for red cards last within with just two games of this league season played. With apparantly no keeper as a sub on the bench (?) Andy ÔInternet Royals Sponsored' Bernal pulled on the keeper shirt to face the resulting penalty. Bernal got down well but his outstretched hand just missed the ball. The ball thumped against the post and across the goalline - just crossing the line to make it 1-2 in Ipswich's favour. Couldn't fault Bernal for that one.

Reading came out for the second half determined not to give in and produced a great end-to-end second half entertainment although Ipswich just held the edge. In fact it was against the run of play when Barry Hunter scrambled the ball in for the equaliser in a crowded Ipswich area. The keeper got the last touch as the ball came in from Hunter: off his head and into the back of the net. 2-2.

Eventually Ipswich pressure paid off as they regained the lead on 67 minutes. The Royals defence failed to clear the corner, a forward went up on the far post and his header found the net despite the efforts of Booty to volley off the Reading line. Ipswich increased their lead on 72 minutes when the Ipswich full back was left unmarked in front of goal. His diving header beating Bernal.

To Reading's credit they kept going and didn't give up - still pushing forward looking for some way back into the game. We kept winning a series of corners but failed to make them count. We could have scored towards the end of the game, but with the extra man Ipswich just looked that bit more dangerous. And Ipswich made it 5-2 with just 2 minutes of the game remaining. The Ipwich sub turned the defence on the edge of the area, turned and shot low into the right bottom corner of the net. Again Skippy dived well but just couldn't reach it. So with goal chances at each end it was always going to be Ipswich putting them away. Quinn was just not pacey enough to make the difference and despite looking like we could snatch a point it wasn't to be. Just to bump the record up a bit more Hunter, Gooding, and Sir Jimmy all managed to pick up yellows.

After the game Sir Jim voiced his opinions about the shite refereeing and the number of bad decisions. However it seemed Bobby had to go and we would still have struggled to get some points even with the ref on our side. Still 3 points from 2 games can't be bad and we're in the top half of the table!

Graham