(Nogan 5, Taylor 10) Att: 9,800
Ok... here are a couple of details I got off me Dad...
Reading were back to their normal form during the first half, playing some good passing football and actually creating chances and looking like scoring. We dominated the first half and we could have been more than two up at half time after hitting the bar a few times as well as the two goals themselves. At half time Burnley were booed off by their fans. The second half Burnley came back into it a bit more and looked a bit dangerous and managed to pull one back, but we hanged on in there and won 2-1! This victory lifts us back up into a play-off position again and its great to see us back in form.
The first goal was a tap in for Lee Nogan (his first for the club - one goal in two games for the R`s), and the second by Scottie Taylor was a simon Osbourn style goal - a real nice blasty one from outside the area.
Whats Viveash doing playing for us again?
Heres something that Chris Price send to the mailing list - its a report from the Burnely web pages but I thought I would stick it here...
The weather conditions might be described as somewhat inclement, after the recent Port Vale abandonment, the London Clarets decided to run a sweep as to when the match would be called off as we nestled snugly in the Sparrowhawk pre kick off. A combination of gale force winds and heavy rainfall made conditions difficult, and the holes in the Longside roof and high winds ensured that I got reasonably moist standing halfway up the terrace.
The match kicked off with the Clarets attacking the Bee Hole but the first significant action occurred at the CFE, when Davis squared the ball to Parky, who instead of playing a line ball passed back to the somewhat surprised Russell for his first touch. His second was to pick the ball out of the net as he was robbed by the alert Nogan, after a poor piece of control. It would have been a first time ball for the left footed Beresford who must have empathised with the hapless Russell after his similar gaff last week, however Parky hadn't done his homework and engaged brain before using feet.
To make matters worse another combination of poor defensive play led to goal number two. One of the disadvantages of upholding the passing game tradition is that you need good control and movement off the ball to do it. The Clarets exhibited neither when Winstanley was robbed advancing towards the Reading half and the ball was quickly dispatched to Taylor in the inside right position He advanced to about 20 yards out with Hoyland content to spectate from a safe distance 5/10 yards or so, leaving the forward bags of room and he gratefully unleashed a well hit but distinctly stoppable shot towards a badly positioned Russell, the ball seemed to avoid his flailing arms, hit the roof of the net on the near post side and the Clarets were two down after 10 minutes.
So after all the hype about the extra training & "commitment" etc by Jimmy in the prematch press, the Clarets were left with a mountain to climb, with injury hit Reading ( 7 of their tiny squad out injured) looking more likely to add to their lead. The Clarets only effort in the first half was a longe range shot by Robinson which the keeper spilled, not surprisingly in these nightmare conditions for goalies. Clearly the Reading players had adapted to the conditions much better, pressing forward to protect their keeper and sensibly getting the ball out when necessary but playing it out when given the time & space.
No changes at half time meant that the game drifted on in the same way until a substitiution after 55 mins when the Tinman came on belatedly for Harper, about 45 minutes too late in my view, or maybe 55 minutes.
Prior to this Reading had the chance to put the game beyond the Clarets reach when Armstrong made an almost identical cock up to Parky's which led to the first goal when he failed to find Russell with a back pass. This time the Reading player hit the foot of the post from a narrow angle with the net wide open.
These were ideal conditions for Ted and his presence inspired Parky to whip in a low cross which looked fairly harmless until Viveash guided it past his own keeper on the near post. This was the cue for the anticipated kitchen sink job and the Reading defence came under severe pressure. However a combination of luck, poor finishing and valiant last ditch defending kept their goal intact. The best chance fell to Robinson who showed us why he is a 250k striker when he hit the ball against Hislop when clean through.
Reading weathered this particular storm, to meet another one ten mins from time when Jimmy threw caution to the wind and brought on Saville, for Armstrong. This resulted in more goalmouth scrambles with Hoyland heading on to the top of the bar in the last minute. Reading also fashioned a close range header in this period but Russell got down well to save.
Despite lots of pressure and possession in and around the Reading box the Clarets trudged off defeated yet again. There was no shortage of effort, "character" and so on but despite all the "experienced' players on view, the Clarets don't know enough to survive at this level on this showing and too many are short on ability and "nous".
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