19 August 2006

Reading 3 - 2 Boro

That's why we're Premier League!

You didn't think you'd get away with me not blogging about this did you? There we were sitting in the sitting room watching Arsenal v Aston Villa and seeing the tickertape updates tell us Reading had gone 2-0 down at home to Boro. "Never mind", I said, "the season's thirty-eight matches long, not just one". Then all of a sudden it was 2-2. Queue some jumping round the room (a bit like Leroy Lita in the picture there) then me yapping my mouth off telling everyone that's why no one should write us off and slagging off all the telly pundits who did. Then news came through that we were leading 3-2. It brought the broadest smile I've had across my face all week.

The result and the nature in which it was obtained will make it infinitely more difficult to get tickets now but I don't care for tonight. It's amazing to have won the first game in such style but, as I said when we were losing, the season is thirty-eight games long. We can't go crazy after only one win. The performance levels have to be kept high until May if we are to stay in the league although I'm sure no one will begrudge us our moment of glory for now.

The annoying thing about the past week has been listening to football 'experts' on TV saying how badly Reading will struggle because we haven't bought big this summer and have no big names and no Premiership experience blah blah blah. I don't doubt that any of those factors are true but what I find odd is that a lot of those 'experts' have never even seen Reading play before.

Andy Gray, probably the most respected footy analyst in England, was asked about us and he talked about how we might be like Sunderland last season and go straight to the bottom. How many times did he see us last season? Probably not very many. In fact, the only Reading match I remember him commentating last year was the FA Cup match against Birmingham when we played our reserves and he got some of our players' names mixed up. Then there are the pundits here in Asia. Matches from the lower leagues don't get televised here so they can't have seen much of us yet they keep saying we are rubbish.

I know I am biased but they really do need to watch Reading before they make a judgement. Anyone who saw the way we romped away with the Championship league last year would know that we are an entertaining team with good players. You don't win a league by twenty-odd points, score ninety-nine goals and break the league points record without having a little bit of quality. It is true that we are still Premiership nobodies but we do deserve a bit more respect.

Anyway, I'll get off my hobby-horse for now and just pray that the rest of the season will be the same and that we can stay in the Premiership. Come on URZ!

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