Rants and raves (but mostly rants) about following a 2nd division team.

&*#@! Why can’t we win at home?  In 12 home games at the Madjeski this season, Reading have one win.  Leading 1-0 through Grzegorz Rasaik’s 16^th minute header, the Royals surrendered their lead in the 80^th minute to Scunthorpe’s Gary Hooper.  Scunthorpe started the weekend in 18^th place, just one spot ahead of Reading.  These are the games that we need to secure all 3 points in.  From all that I have read (and I read a lot of Reading news), there is no argument that the Royals were the better side on Saturday.  But that just makes it all the more frustrating that we only took a point.

Rasaik seems to be holding his own (6 goals in 9 league appearances) but no one has stepped up to claim that 2^nd striker role with any consistency.  From all reports, Jobi McAnuff has been marauding down the right wing and supplying fantastic service.  But good service isn’t of much help when you have no one to finish.  Striker Gunnar Thorvaldsson will be joining the Royals on loan in January, and frankly the new year can’t come soon enough.  The Iceland international will provide another attacking option (along with one more name I can’t pronounce) and I can’t see how he could be any worse than what we’ve been putting out there, even though I’ve yet to see him lace up his boots.

Reading right back Jay Tabb was correct in claiming “You’ve got to be good enough to hold off at 1-0 but we’ve also got to be good enough to go 2-0 up.”  The defense has preformed admirably in most matches this season, and it would be nice to see the offense step up and put away their chances to relieve a little pressure at the back.  The Royals confidence at home is clearly very shaky, so a 1-0 lead late in the game is simply not good enough to secure the points.

I am getting very tired of reading these match reports that claim Reading have outplayed the opponent right off the pitch but haven’t won the match.  How many times can that happen without the manager’s role coming into question.  There has to be some belief put into the squad to go out and get a result (I’d gladly take the 3 points in a game we have no business winning than 1 pt from a game we’ve dominated).  So when the opposition fans chant “There’s only one Steve Coppell” and the Reading fans join in, one can’t help remember the good ol’ days.