MATCH REPORT: 2004/2005 Season

4 December 2004: LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP
WOLVES 4 READING 1
goals
Reading: Morgan (47 mins).
Wolves:
Cameron (31 mins), Olofinjana (45 mins), Clarke (77 mins, 90 mins).
Half Time: 2-0
Attendance: 25,572

CHAMPIONSHIP 4 Dec 2004
Pos Team P Pts GD
3 Sunderland 22 40 +12
4 READING 22 38 +8
5 West Ham 22 37 +4
teams
Reading: Hahnemann, Murty (Newman 20), Sonko, Ingimarsson, Shorey, Little, Harper, Sidwell, Hughes (Convey 81), Morgan, Kitson (Owusu 45). Subs Not Used: Brooker, Young.
Wolves: Oakes, Lowe, Craddock, Lescott, Kennedy, Cameron, Olofinjana (Naylor 69), Andrews, Cooper, Cort, Sturridge (Clarke 60). Subs Not Used: Murray, Seol, Miller.
bookings
Reading: Shorey
Wolves:
-
Referee: S Bennett (Kent).
report

Reading took a sound beating at Wolves - making it four away trips without a win. Wolves, struggling at the other end of the table, recovered from a good start from Reading to win 1-4. Reading looked the better side early on, playing some good football and creating some chances - Sidwell had a couple of efforts that needed saves from the Wolves keeper and Kitson put a header wide of goal. The promising start fell to pieces when club captain Murty was stretched off midway through the half, with what appeared to be a serious injury. Soon after Wolves took the lead and the home side took firm control of the game with a second on the stroke of half time. As Reading emerged for the second half there was more bad news with Kitson being replaced, after clearing suffering from further problems with his hamstring injury. There was a glimmer of hope two minutes into the half when Morgan pulled a goal back after keeping onside to run free and take the ball past the keeper. However, Reading failed to pull level later in the half when Owusu might have done better with just the keeper to beat, and instead Wolves finished Reading off with two goals late on.


FANS' POST MATCH OPINION

This could, and perhaps should have been a classic. It turned out to be the game that exposed our weaknesses. It was the day that our defence looked suspect, our attacking play looked good and our finishing without Kitson and Forster, was poor. We started brightly and created more shots on target in the first twenty minutes than we had done in total against Wigan and Forest. Kitson missed the target with a header, Sidwell had two good strikes and Morgan had a good effort. In fairness Wolves did not look bad up front and it was a much more open game than we are used to seeing. Then Murty delayed in an easy situation and got carried off on a stretcher - the ref didn't give a foul and we seemed to take a while to recover. Sonko was beaten in the air by Cort and the ball ended with Cameron who calmly put the ball in the corner of the net. I thought he was a class act today and we let him have far too much time on the ball. Cort was also a handful and Sonko struggled against him, as would most centre halves. Their second just before halftime was too easy as they cut through our defence. When Kitson failed to reappear for the second half we feared the worst. Those fears were soon eased as Morgan scored soon after the restart - I thought that Morgan had easily his best game today although he really should have added to his total in the second half. That might have happened before they got their third and Owusu, twice failed to covert when through with just the keeper to beat. That is why it should have been a classic, but we did not take our chances. In order to succeed we need to score, and for that to happen we need the three most creative players on the pitch, Little, Kitson and Forster. We also need to stop the opposition and in fairness for most of the season we have done that. Today showed what happens when we don't.
Ken C

What is it about the bloody Midlands and Reading? Derby, Coventry, Forest and now Wolves, all four away defeats against teams well below us in the league. With that thought nice to know we visit Leicester next week! This ended up a right tonking today though the result did flatter Wolves. We defended woefully today and paid the price with poor ol Sonko having a right plonko of a game. Both Wolves second and killer third goal were cause by Sunday league defending when the ball should have been put in row Z of the stand. How much longer do we have to suffer with a blatantly obvious weak squad? Kitson was clearly not fit though did well in the first half . Morgan did real well I thought and his goal immediately after the start of the second half set us up nicely for a classic come back. For the next twenty minutes or so we battered Wolves and their dreadful fans were starting to get on their backs, yet again lady luck was not with us and the ball would not find the net, the rest is history. This was the poorest Reading performance for a long time, so disappointing after last weeks second half display against Wigan, and now must get something next week to remain in a good position in the league. Finally the Wolves fans. I had the pleasure of sitting right on the end next to the dividing line of fat ugly stewards and the old bill and their lot. Well I've travelled all over, north, south, east and west, and with the exception of Cardiff, this lot really are in a class of themselves. The vast majority of their fat drunk ugly smelly scruffy fans spent the whole game hurling abuse in our direction and making ludicrous pathetic gestures to meet outside and have a scrap. These are not kids, they are grown men many in their forties and fifties. They are a disgrace, nothing less a disgrace to their club their town and all the other good people in Wolverhampton. Nothing typified them more than a crescendo of boos being aimed at poor Murty who was stretchered off in front of them. Nowhere else do you not see true fans applaud as a clearly badly injured player is stretchered off. Wolves deserve nothing as long as that shower of shite is associated with the club.
Nick Newbury

This result and general performance clearly demonstrated that we do not have quality and depth of squad which I said at the start of the season was to be vital for promotion. You have to feel for the manager as now carries so much "DEAD WOOD"in the form of Goater, Fozzy and Convey all who are drawing fat salaries weekly and playing no useful part. Injury prone players and players who are out of their depth in this Division are no good to us and should be transfer listed now! it will not do for Steve Coppell to simply announce we must buy or loan another defender. It is scoring goals at the other end and from all over the park that takes pressure off the defence.Dave Kitson desperately a good co- striker- remember the success of Butler/ Cureton? Sorry but the slide could be on the way! unless brave decisions are made urgently.
Terry, Isle of Wight.

OK, so I'm probably going to get abuse for this, but I'd just like to respond to comments about us clapping off the injured Murty. I can't speak for the rest of the ground, but certainly with me and others around me, the clapping was out of respect. Whilst we are fans of full blooded tackles, we don't like to see players injured. With regards to a lot of the abuse aimed at your fans, there seems to have been a build up of hatred between certain sets of fans on message boards. This certainly did not help the atmosphere, and meant that there was an ugly atmosphere from the beginning. Finally, I would like to apologise for the element (and I'm not going to say 'small element', cause it's not, unfortunately) of fans who insist on causing trouble and abuse.
Christian

Yet another poor result against opposition in the lower reaches of the table. Although 4-1 might slightly flatter Wolves (Owusu had missed a good chance to level things before the 3rd Wolves goal went in), it again undoes all the good work against a top side like Wigan the previous week. Perhaps Wolves are a better side than their league position suggests, but like Forest & Coventry they are a team struggling in the lower reaches of the league & one that Reading have again been fairly convincingly beaten by. If we fail to get into the promotion mix this season it will be results like these, as ever, that come back to bite us on our proverbials.
Caversham Royal

Nick Newbury sums everything up perfectly in his match report. Although I do wish he wouldn't sit on the fence and would say what he really means sometimes!
Y24East

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