Reading 1 Fulham 0 (14th April 2007 3:00pm)
After a comfortable first half, Reading made hard work of finishing the game off and in the end hung onto the victory as the relegation strugglers hit the bar.
There was a very relaxed atmosphere at the Madejski Stadium as Reading were comfortable midtabling with very little to play for. Fulham on the other hand were clearly nervous and for the first 15 minutes this showed. Reading pressed and passed well, Fulham gave the ball away and when given a good chance put it well over the bar from close range.
The pressing and passing ended with a goal. Good work from Seol on the wing led to a cross which the Fulham defender dealt with. However instead of clearing, he dwelt on the ball and Kitson stole the ball off him. He fed Seol who put a ball into the alert Doyle, who turned and passed across the 6 yard line for Hunt to kill from close range.
However, this was it was as good as it got for Reading. Leading 1-0 they became too comfortable and let Fulham back into the match. They scored but it was discounted for off-side but threatened far more in the 2nd half. Coppell made changes and brought on Oster and Long to liven it up. It partially worked and Reading had a goal disallowed for offside. At the death, Fulham hit the bar and nearly got a deserved point.
Special praise for the Fulham fans who out sung us. Of course, they were desperate and we were coasting. As I said there was a real relaxed atmosphere and the Reading fans kind of sat back. In actually I think this passed to the players who ended up sitting back as well.
Sidwell had been dropped so that Gunnarsson could get some playtime alongside Harper and whether this caused the sitting back, I don’t know. Gunnarsson played well and had a shot well saved by Neimi, who looks to be a very good keeper.
I think Fulham will stay up. There are a big physical team who will pick up points. The only problem they have is that they have a lot of hard games to play, but they are better than both Charlton and West Ham.
Final word to the grey hard linesman nearest the the South Stand. You are rubbish or blind or both. It isn’t bias, because he was equally wrong to both teams. Both Shorey and Helguson were booked because they lost their temper with him. Quite understandably as I counted 7 mistakes on easy decisions in the first half. Sometimes, you just shouldn’t be in football.
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