I had a sensation this season was going to be the kind where Reading do a Championship imitation of Arsenal. Not neccessarily in the sense of attempting 75 passes too many before scoring, or being utterly prepared to deal with scrappy ex-Championship sides featuring Irish missile platforms in midfield. I mean in the sense that, when Reading win, it’s usually of the cutting the opposition to pieces variety. Meanwhile, when Reading lose… well, I imagine it’s better to lose games by scores like 2-1 and 1-0 rather than lose 5-4.

So, Assistant Manager Kevin Dillon thinks there’s too much fixture congestion. And surely he has a point, five games in 14 days is immense. That said, it’s just as bad anywhere else in the Football League, where teams have to play 46 games to decide who goes up and who does down, not counting the FA Cup, League Cup, and the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy (for League 1 and 2). So it’s entirely reasonable that some teams may play in upwards of 60 fixtures. In essence, meh.

That’s not the best part of that little story though.

Despite having a shorter journey on Saturday, travelling down the M4 from Reading to Bristol, Dillon said even that was not a problem-free journey.

“We travelled up on the day of the game for the first time in many years and we were late.

“The coach driver got lost on the way to the stadium – we thought it was Halloween and they were winding us up.

“Liam Rosenior, who played for Bristol City for quite a long time, took us completely the wrong way and got us lost.”

I can imagine this scenario in my head, and it plays out exactly like when you go on a school trip and the busdriver gets lost. Steve Coppell is the harried teacher just trying to ignore this problem until the bus gets back on track, Stephen Hunt’s loudly singing filthy driving songs, and the exchange student (Jimmy Kebe) has no idea what fresh hell he’s been dragged into and can’t wait to get back home.

Meanwhile, Norwich, feel free to hang onto him for a while, with my blessing.

This weekend, Reading clash with Derby County, who, after a disastrous continuation of their putrid form last year, have finally remembered they are, at least theoretically, a proper football team. But noone’s managed to off the Royals at Fortress Madjeski so far this season, so a 3-1 victory should be a reasonable ask.

After this run of form, Reading are far and away the most rampant team offensively in the Championship, and I cannot overstate how much of a statement that going to Molineux and pulling off the quintessential smash-and-grab job against Wolves. Marcus Hahnemann was at work all day, and we only managed three shots on target all day. Thankfully, two went in, and Wolves gave us a third early on to set the tone, that being us defending desperately and hoping to snatch one at the other end.

Yesterday’s fixture against Burnley was a great deal more even, and yet again, the three times we managed to put a shot on net, it went in. Noel Hunt managed to nearly knock himself out scoring the first game, and Stephen Hunt managed to replicate the feat after the interval, albeit without the self-harm.

Are Reading the best team in the Championship? Well, no, i’d say the statistics and the table bears that out. Birmingham are still the team to beat and Reading, while winning, haven’t managed that extra little boon of winning while being consistently impressive.

But, after the pundits favorite point of the season, the 10-game mark, Reading are 3rd, and looking like we should, at the very least, be in the playoffs at the end of the year. Anything less would certainly be a failure now.

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?

One week into the future, and Reading still aren’t looking quite like a side destined for a return to the Premiership. Yet, they certainly aren’t looking like a team that’s going to sit by in mid-table and consider themselves satisfied with a finish of 13th.

Let’s be frank, the game against Ipswich sucked. After Kebe’s early chance, Reading never really threatened again, at least not like we need to, and Ipswich took their chances clinically.

Follow that up with a mauling of Sheffield Wednesday, Kevin Doyle smacking in another hat-trick to give us a crushing victory to the tune of six-nil and the Royals are sitting in fifth place with 10 points after six matches.

Thus far this season, it’s been very much “Fortress Madjeski” as the team has a 100% record at home, scoring 12 and shipping only two. Away from Berkshire, however, the story’s been less pleasant, 0-1-2 the record.

So what can we draw from the season so far? Well, keeping Kevin Doyle around come January is going to be important, that’s reasonably obvious. Moreover, I feel the team could use to try and find a “water carrier” for the midfield, but that’s obviously secondary to keeping Doyle around. For now, if we can go out Saturday, and get at least a point from Watford, that’d be just fine for me. And if we can be within touching distance of the automatic promotion spots come September 30th and a visit to Molineux, that’d be grand too.

Oh, and has anyone else seen the trailers for FM 2009? Between that, a (hopefully) re-worked Pro Evo and FIFA 09, this will be a fun fall for footy fans (Alliteration! It’s great!).

Oh yeah, the game. Do we have to?

First and foremost, condolences to Kevin Doyle, who found out that his cousin, her husband and two children were all found dead following a house fire in Co Wexford in the early hours of the morning. Doyle chose to play anyway, which was very noble of him, although I don’t think anyone would’ve or could’ve blamed him if he went to mourn with family. Relegation would suck mightily, but it doesn’t compare.

I’d like to call this a “battling display”, but after watching Fulham continue to survive (Huzzah!), the drama of ManU and Chelsea, and Tottenham’s enthralling draw with Everton, let’s be honest.

This game sucked. A lot. If it was a advertisement for the Premier League, i’d buy something (anything) else. But it is a point, a desperately needed point, but not the three needed to keep us safe.

Tottenham may have nothing to play for on Saturday, but they still have the quality to beat us, and it’s becoming increasingly obvious that our last-day visit to Derby is going to decide whether or not we stay up. I’d say I don’t like this turn of events, but i’d hope that’d be without saying at this point. Given how the last few games have gone, I don’t know how this will end. We could revive that desperate, battling spirit that showed in the second half against Wigan and will keep us up, or we could get nervy, sloppy, start lumping hopeful long-balls upfield and go straight down.

I’m searching for more to say here, but what truly is there? We must win at Darby, we can’t afford to lose to Tottenham. A minimum of four points is neccessary, six would be wonderful.

C’mon the Royals! Make us proud!

So we lost. Newcastle dominated pretty much every aspect of the game, their finishing was clinical, et cetera, et cetera. I’m not downbeat though. Newcastle have always been a mediocre-to-good team who love to underperform. Nevertheless, Reading are still six points off the drop and head for the safety of the Madjeski again next week with a chance to almost certainly send down Fulham who never win away.

I’m really caught about this. I’d almost like it to be a draw, but a point does neither team any good. Both could desperately use all three, and as much affection as I have for U.S.A. FC, they’re going down. And I don’t want Reading to join them.

Oh, and Stephen Hunt has a new haircut. This is what qualifies for news at the butt end of the table.

But then again, liking a 0-0 draw is somewhat subjective. I’m sure AC Milan fans ended up greatly enjoying the 2003 Final, largely because they won. And while there may not have been any penalties at the Madjeski on Saturday, I enjoyed it. I enjoyed Marcus Hahnemann really, but it’s still a point.

Nicky Hunt was right after the game to note that he should’ve had three, but the team’s been battling like i’ve never seen this year since they dropped into the relegation places, and despite Matejovsky getting sent off (iffy) Marcus came up large to keep us out of the teeth of the relegation scrap.

So, where does this leave Reading? In a very tenable position, I think. The toughest tests for the rest of the year will be Arsenal and Tottenham, with the rest being games against Newcastle away (A point is realistic, three is possible), Fulham at home (Eminently winnable), Wigan away (Again, a point is realistic) and The Worst Premiership Team Ever away (again, winnable).

Say it quietly, and don’t junk it… but I think we may just be safe.

After last week’s spirited show against Liverpool, I thought we certainly had a chance to beat Birmingham, and that the team should be shooting for all three points. I was hoping for a win, certainly, although I didn’t think the name Andre Bikey would be so prominently involved.

The defender, signed from Lokomotiv Moscow somehow ended up with his name on the scoresheet twice, both times using his noggin to put us into deserved leads. Again, three big points that leave us five points above the drop, and in great form going into our next match against Blackburn who certainly are good, but aren’t invincible. If the team plays like this for the rest of the season, I have no doubts we’ll stay up.

I’m going to sit on this one for a little while, and come back with some more stuff in midweek. Til’ then folks.

Well, who the hell needs a 1-1 draw?

Hats off to Shane Long and Dave Kitson, who finally showed the kind of lethality infront of net we have to have to stay up. Reading only barely outshot City, lost the time of possession battle by a significant margin, and still came away with all three points, which launched the team all the way into 13th place (until Wigan’s 0-0 draw with Arsenal which bumped us back to 14th). We’ve even clambered above Newcastle who, on current form, are more in danger of going down than we are (which, let’s be honest, would be absolutely hilarious. It’d be like Leeds going down to the 10th degree).

Of course, as Coppell has noted, this isn’t a complete reprieve from the relegation zone. The target is 40 points, not 28. And next week features a run-in with a Liverpool side that will (probably) be even more amped after their Champions League tie with Internazionale.

Nice to see them celebrating like that again, isn’t it? Now let’s hope Nicky Shorey will stop hemming and hawing and sign a contract rather than heading for Upton Park.