All matches
Championship · 2014/2015
Millwall 0-0 Reading
Away

Match Report

Reading
No goals
Millwall
No goals
It was a frustrating night for Reading as they failed to beat a struggling Millwall side that played the entire second half with ten men. Millwall's Sid Nelson was sent off just before half time with a straight red card, after a scrap that followed a late challenge on Hector, but the Royals failed to take advantage of having the extra man. Instead of piling on the pressure in the second half Reading failed to create chances and allowed the game to drift to an uneventual and uninspiring 0-0 draw.

With Gunter out injured, Kelly started back in defence. Reading's real problems were further up the pitch however. Simon Cox, surely Reading's best available striker, found himself on the bench again and had to wait an hour before making an appearance. Chalobah again started but was also swapped on the hour for McCleary as Reading attempted, but failed, to shake the game up with time running out to find a goal. Pogrebnyak was again not popular on the night and he failed to get even close to scoring despite playing the entire ninety minutes.

It seems there is plenty of hard work ahead for Reading manager Steve Clarke, who has already overseen eight games. He has had some success in the FA Cup so far, but this result means that he has seen his side pick up just a single win from his six league games in charge. The return of just six points has seen Reading drop from 16th, when Adkins left the club, to our current position of 18th. The FA Cup draw was not kind but the cup remains Reading's best chance of making something of the season - but there is an increasing danger of getting dragged into a relegation battle.

League Position — 2014/2015

Post-Match Fans' Opinion

Complete lack of quality, totally insipid and predictable. No urgency and did not look like 11 v 10. Clarke set us up to not lose, even against ten men. Set the tone with no subs at half time and meandered meaninglessly for 15 minutes.

None of the subs had any real impact. McCleary huffed and puffed but offered very little. Needs to stick to the byline more. Clarke's honeymoon period well and truly over.
Carlos

Well that was a load of tosh, A bit like our forward line. (Oh how we miss someone with Murrays nous and eye for goal.) Millwall /Handball (You had to be there) were a very poor side and we were not much better. Feds made a good save and Cox forced their keeper in to another. That aside they had a player sent off for trying to decapitate Hector and they had a number 8 who kept falling over. Thats was about as exciting as it got folks.
Royality creeps In

A quite stunningly frustrating game of football. I've only been to about 5 games this season but the story has been the same almost every time, just a complete lack of quality in breaking teams down. Not sure about the omission of McCleary as he was literally our only attacking outlet at Fulham, but what a job he did of it. Millwall went compact and were scrapping for their lives, but our lot simply have to do better than what we saw last night. I can't understand for the life of me why the wingers keep going central when we are chasing games, leaving fullbacks to punt it into a completely overcrowded box, which is bread and butter defending at this level.

On that theme, I'm sick of posting in these threads about how ineffective Pogbrenyak is. We simply cannot stretch teams when he plays. There's no pace, no movement, nothing. Obviously he's not the same player but it makes me want to tear my hair out watching him lumbering about compared to the job that the likes of Doyle, Long, N Hunt used to do in moving defenders around, chasing balls into channels etc. The really daft thing is that the likes of them were also better with their back to goal holding it up than the Russian is. His game was summed up in the last moments when he took the ball down in the box and ambled about slowly turning away from goal until he had it nicked off his toe. Even at the horrific level of football I play at I reckon I would enjoy marking him - he never goes anywhere and never looks like getting on the end of anything. He can't jink and create a space to get a shot off, or commit a defender. Cult hero to some he may be but he has been a terribly ineffective player for us and I can't wait to see the back of the big, expensive wardrobe. FWIW it's not his fault we offered him the contract we did though.
Royal Tezza

Quotes from the Press

Millwall dropped deeper into relegation trouble in the Championship despite battling with 10 men to earn a goalless draw against Reading. The Lions were a man short for the second half after defender Sid Nelson saw red for a late challenge on Michael Hector in first-half stoppage time. But Ian Holloway's side could have won had Lee Gregory and Jos Hooiveld converted chances after the interval. Rotherham's 4-2 win over Bolton leaves Millwall five points from safety.

Reading remain 18th, seven points above Millwall, as the Londoners missed the opportunity of dragging the Royals into relegation trouble. Holloway named five of his six January transfer window signings in the starting line-up as both sides created good chances in an open first half.

Millwall's evening got tougher when seconds before half-time, 19-year-old Nelson, making only his fifth appearance for the Lions, launched himself into a reckless late tackle on Hector near the halfway line and was sent off. Reading, sensing the chance to ease their own fears of the drop, forced goalkeeper David Forde into saves from Jordan Obita and Daniel Williams. But Millwall had chances to secure an unlikely win with Gregory heading Dan Harding's cross wide, and debutant defender Hooiveld nodding Shaun Williams' free-kick off target after joining on loan from Southampton.

Reading manager Steve Clarke: "I'm frustrated more than disappointed. Millwall defended really well in the second half. We got into some good positions, but couldn't create anything clear-cut."
BBC Sport

This Championship game took place 4176 days ago in the 2014/2015 season.