Soooo…..

By: Prederick | September 23rd, 2008

….anything interesting happen this weekend?

So no, that wasn’t actually a goal. It actually wasn’t even close. And it’s another reminder that video replay is needed and will not cause games to take as long as the Self-Transcendence 3100.

While part of me did wish the Reading players had stood up and said “Erm, no, you’ve got it colossally wrong”, i’m not surprised they didn’t. These kind of professionals are hyper-competitive people who will do anything within the rules (and sometimes outside of them) to win. Nice as it was to see Mr. Coppell say he wouldn’t mind a replay afterwards, given FIFA’s own recalcitrance towards such changes, don’t hold your breath. That said, it’s only fair to Watford.

Through all of this, I do feel badly for referee Stuart Attwell and his assistant Nigel Bannister. It’s one thing to screw up during a game, it’s another to pull one of those historic screw-ups that’ll be included on bloopers DVDs hosted by Mark Lawrenson. Not that he should be absolved of blame, even as a rookie ref. It was a atrocious decision.

As for the match itself, there’s not really anything to be impressed about. We would’ve lost if not for a late penalty, and if you remove the ghost goal as well, Reading lose 2-0. One would hope we’d show a little more gumption in the following fixture, and we did, but just not enough.

On the upside, we were entirely the equals of Stoke, but that ’s not really saying much considering that Stoke are a Championship side that happen to be playing in the Premiership. Good to see James Henry play so well, and penalties are a lottery, but the team should rightfully feel disappointed. They were every bit the equal of Stoke, and if not for Stoke’s lone strength (set-pieces) they might’ve won. Of course, set-pieces are a integral part of the game, one that Stoke obviously do a bit better than Reading right now. It was nice to see Leroy Lita slamming the ball 25 miles over the bar again in a Reading shirt. Have I mentioned i’m not enamored with him?