Closing In

Reading  1  Norwich City  2

English Football League – Championship

The end is definitely in sight, it’s just a case of deciding when and where.

We’re talking about the 92 Football League grounds here, and with only six remaining (one of which is Spurs and that’s anyone’s guess), it’s now about picking the right opportunity to knock them off one by one.

A chance arose with an overnight work related stay in Milton Keynes, and with Reading being around seventy miles away, playing at home to Norwich City in a relatively low profile game, it seemed like an ideal opportunity to get another in the bag.

My only previous visits to the town have been solely restricted to the railway station. Back in my distant youth as a train enthusiast, if you were sneaky enough you could get away with extending a West Midlands Rover past the allowable limit of Oxford, and this was great because it took you into Class 33 and the fantastic Class 59 territory (there were only four 59’s at the time!), both of which could be spied from Reading Station.

Once that challenging period of my life was over, it was more to do with football and drinking, and on a couple of occasions the pub on the station has proved a handy stop off point for connections elsewhere, in my case Thatcham Town, and of course last season when the Golden Ticket took me to Maidenhead United.

I never went to the old Elm Park, but I do remember both Reading and Derby County both being promoted from the then Third Division in 1986. Reading, if I recall, had a stunning start, winning game after game, and they were ultimately crowned champions, Derby just scraped over the line with a game to spare and got third spot behind a Plymouth Argyle side that came with a late run.

Never considered a big club, from the time I started following football they tended to flit between the bottom two divisions, until of course the aforementioned season above when they reached the second tier. That didn’t last long (two years), but the clubs halcyon years arrived in the mid-2000’s when after moving to the impressive Madejski Stadium in 1998 they won the Championship in 2006 and took a place in the Premier League for the first time ever.

In their debut season they finished in a remarkable eighth place, exceeding all expectations, but it all came down to earth with a bump the following season when relegation hit them.  Four seasons later though and they won the Championship for the second time in seven years and again were back in the big time. This time it only lasted one season and they were relegated. They also made it to an FA Cup semi-final, losing to Arsenal, but with the second relegation has come a period of five seasons now in the Championship, albeit punctuated by a Play Off Final defeat to Huddersfield Town on penalties.

Last season they only just managed to stay up, finishing in twentieth place, while this season so far has been a struggle, consequently I wasn’t expecting too many problems getting a ticket for the game.

The journey from MK to Reading was surprisingly straightforward for a Wednesday tea time. The M1 behaved, as did the M25, while despite some roadworks on the M4 slowing us down to the obligatory 50mph, I was pulling up on a housing estate a fifteen minute walk from the stadium just ten minutes after the original sat nav scheduled arrival time.

The Madejski Stadium is very close to the M4 on the South side of the City, and is now sat adjacent to a retail park that managed to keep me occupied in the build up to entering the stadium. The stadium entrance is flanked by the imposing sight of the Millennium Madejski Hotel that adjoins the ground, but having found the Jazz Café that sits at the top of the East Stand was available for all to use pre-match, I gave the hotel a miss and decided that was the place for me.

As expected, no issues at all getting a ticket, in fact once in the ground you could take your pick from pretty much any seat in your allocated area. The ground was effectively half full according to the official figures, but I also suspect it was slightly lower than that with some season ticket holders choosing not to bother.

The ground is impressive, reminding me of the King Power Stadium in Leicester, albeit slightly smaller seating just over 24,000. I was sat behind the North goal and took a place on the back row, I could have quite easily have had a sleep, such was the complete lack of atmosphere.

When I say lack of atmosphere, that would be harsh on the Norwich fans who mustered several renditions on ‘On The Ball City’ which I’m sure is the only song they know! The home fans were incredibly muted though, and to be fair given what was served up on the pitch I can’t blame them.

In the first half Reading were awful and were deservedly a goal down by the interval thanks to an effort from Teemu Pukki, but Paul Clement’s men showed a bit more spirit at the start of the second period and managed to equalise through Jon Dadi Bodvarsson. This created something of a ripple in the stadium, as home fans woke from their slumber, but it was soon back to normal again because straight from the kick off Norwich went forward and re-took the lead through Mario Vrancic.

And that was how it ended, a deserved win for the visitors, while Reading for me are going to find this season a real struggle.

My car parking space turned out to be a smart move because within five minutes of getting back in the car I was on the M4, however, that was where the good fortune ended. Two sections of the M4 were down to one lane, then on the M25 we had to leave at the Watford junction only to get straight back on again at the other side of the roundabout, before finally the slip road to get back on the M1 was closed so we had a wonderful detour via St Albans. Thank you very much!

So, aside from Spurs, it’s just Charlton, Fulham, Southampton and Portsmouth to complete the 92. Two of those trips (have a guess!) are not filling me with a lot of enthusiasm in terms of the distance, if only the fixture Gods could be kind for once, but I won’t be holding my breath…..