And then there were two…

Just incase anyone hadn’t seen Toby’s posts recognising and, understandably, celebrating Wolves’ return to the Premiership since their debut season in 2004, the Wanderers confirmed what had been obvious for most of the season on the weekend with a 1-0 victory over QPR. Now I won’t going into details of that match so let’s travel back…

It’s been 4 games since we last spoke, and on the back of our disappointing 1-0 loss to Sheffield United, I wasn’t particularly sure quite how we had got to the point of still not being entirely certain of any chance at promotion. Before Christmas we had been scoring for fun, even letting Cardiff believe that had won at the Mad Stad before Federici decided “No actually, I don’t like the Welsh” and went up for the last corner of the match and popped one in. But then, from January onwards, the team’s form took a downward turn. No longer were goals going in, or even near. Then came the times of bore draws, lost points and low team and fan morale.

But still, despite the negatives (and there are a LOT), Reading have still left themselves in the slightest contention for Automatic Promotion, with play-offs looking the more likely. After the 1-0 loss to Sheff Utd, arguably our closest rivals at the time, the next matches panned out the following;
Blackpool 2-2 Reading (A) [Noel Hunt and Karacan gave us the lead, we let it slip after the break]
Reading 0-0 Barnsley (H) [Nothing exciting, poor match in truth]
Derby 0-2 Reading (A) [First half looked sketchy, second half goals from Kitson and Long secured the points]

Results have been kind to us too. Two weekends ago, Preston hammered destroyed battered Cardiff 6-0, which gave their playoff hopes a shaking. This was further enforced by their loss at the last game at Ninian Park to new boss Roy Keane’s Ipswich (anyone backing the Tractor Boys for promotion next season?). And this weekend, our next closest rivals Sheff Utd and Birmingham had different games. United won against Swansea, who are surely a force to be reckoned with next season. But perhaps most satisfactorily, those boys again, Preston beat down the Brummies 2-1.

So, to Norwich! A win would really bring the last day of the season an added clench, an added tension. Can we do it, can we return to form for the run-in?

And so, with two games left, many Royals supporters find themselves peeking from behind closed fingers. The team have played beatuiful ‘joga bonito’ football, real sketchy football, jumpy-cheering football, and head-in-hands football.

C’MON ROYALS, LET’S GO RIGHT BACK UP!

Category: Team News

Tags: Team News

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