Not enough blue
whitener
Reading 0 Burnley 0, 24 November 1999
Lynn Woods
I fixed a business meeting for Wednesday to be
in Reading for this one. My oppo Pat Rogan had never been to a football match so he was
invited as my treat. His eleven year old supports the Royals but preferred to do his
homework. Wise lad.
We arrived in good time and surveyed the largely
deserted stadium. Nice ground, no fans. Not surprising at £14 a shot. Our end was well
populated and made all the noise. I explained to Pat that the chorus of "who the
****ing hell are you" wasn't directed at him, but he still felt a bit exposed. He
applauded when Burnley took the field.
Now, call me a traditionalist, but if we're
going to turn out in claret and blue shirts it has to be with white shorts. Not claret or,
as on this occasion, blue, but white. The combination didn't look right, and nor did much
of what followed.
A forgettable first half was highlighted only by
a driven pass from Davis in midfield to Payton on the edge of the penalty area. An
immaculate lay-off was met by Mullin in stride and his low drive was blocked by the
keeper's legs. Payton would have passed it into the net. That was just about the first and
last time in this encounter that we attempted to breach Reading's defence with a ball to
feet. Hopeful punts up the channels were never going to get us anywhere and didn't.
In contrast Reading looked lightweight. A few
neat moves early on created a chance or two, but the fact is Crichton didn't have a shot
to save in the whole contest. Davis and Thomas were solid, but they will rarely have so
little to do. Trouble is you could say much the same about the Reading defence.
As widely reported, Mullin engaged in some
private retribution after being flattened off the ball and was lucky not to be sent off,
but I thought the referee handled that incident and others very well. It didn't stop him
being abused by both sets of fans. During a first half interlude a motorised buggy entered
the fray in the hope of making off with an injured player. The crew looked well
disappointed when the ref told them to poke off. Bernal can't be maiming so many people
these days.
The second half was tolerable mainly because Pat
had brought some Bisodol. The football was dire. Reading set out to hang on for a point.
Burnley were too cautious to recognise that the game was there for the taking. Cooke had
withdrawn and Payton was left on his own. Crosses were either too long or too short.
Little battled gamely against double-marking and created a few situations but then lacked
close support. Payton scuffed one half chance. Lee came on and won two free kicks about 20
yards out. Entirely predictably in the context of this game, Davis and Cook put them both
over the bar. That was that. Compared with the Cambridge showing, we missed Johnrose. And
Pat thinks we're all mad.
Team: Crichton,
West, Armstrong, Thomas, Davis, Mullin, Mellon, Cook, Little, Cooke (Branch 46), Payton
(Lee 79). Subs not used: Brass, Jepson and Johnrose.
Links - More from this game, the home match and
this game last season
