In a league like the Championship, it's not often that you can say that a single game is capable of defining a season, the play-offs aside. Yet this is, in my opinion, the position the Royals find themselves in as Saturday's clash with West Ham draws ever closer. As the edgy 1-0 wins have become comfortable 3-1 victories in style and substance, Reading are in a fantastic position for a fascinating battle.
What makes this upcoming match so intriguing is not just the fact that it has the potential to decide who claims that priceless second place behind Lambert United, but that the sides involved in this struggle for second have reached this fateful moment from completely different angles. West Ham are the Goliath of the Championship; heralded by pundits (mostly because they don't care to examine the prospects of any but the latest Premier League casualties) as the team most likely to lord it over the likes of the Royals, led by the most bullish of managers whose blunt tactics can only be outstripped by the brute force that he deploys on the field in the likes of Cole and Nolan.
But it seems that the Championship nut has proved harder to crack for these Hammers than they might have imagined and, I must confess, the puzzled and confused expressions on the faces of Sam and his mercenary bunch, who must have presumed this year to simply be a sabbatical away from the top flight, have given me almost as much pleasure as watching Reading.
Anyway, enough about the villain in this tale, let's talk about the white knight. Although the 106 Royals team will always hold a special place in Reading fans' hearts, the current crop are rivaling them in my affection. The nonchalance of Jimmy Kebe, the 'Fire and Ice' combo of Pearce and Gorkss and the boundless energy of Noel Hunt make it difficult not to smile when this team play together and to see the results come good for a group rebuilt in the ashes of last season's tragic finale is the sort of experience that makes it a dream to be a Reading fan.
Couple this with a refusal to become unsettled by the hype surrounding teams like West Ham or the casual dismissal of Reading's ambitions coming from the likes of Mark Lawrenson (whose recent forecast that Reading will start to lose a few games has been proved to be as hapless as the rest of his punditry) and we have a team ready to battle with the best ; no-nonsense and more than willing to let its football do the talking while Big Sam huffs and puffs 'til he's blue in the face. In fact, maybe calling us the white knight was a misrepresentation, the Royals are the bouncers of the Championship - sorting out the men from the boys without fuss and showing pretenders to the door whether we get praised for it or not.
So what am I hoping for come Saturday? Another text-book counter attack display from the Royals coupled with another insipid home performance from a team whose best performances have come hundreds of miles from where the majority of their fans are based; another showcase of the Kebe show (whether he decides to do it with or without socks is up to him) and, above all, for the Royals to show West Ham to be what many have only suspected up until now: a team lacking in passion whose players are looking for promotion as individuals rather than for the team.
When the heat gets turned up, it's the passion to succeed for those playing with you, for your manager and your fans that pulls you through. Reading have that in spades but the real question remains do the Hammers? I suspect not and I'm betting on David to topple Goliath at Upton Park for that very reason.
ooof.
But will there be a response?
