Reading F.C. 1-1 WBA

live text replay



almost immediately upon my return to canada the baggies winning-streak - the longest in five years, i believe - came to an end. although by virtue of a draw with the royals, they remain unbeaten in six now. while this was not one of their best performances, the albion still seem to be peaking just at the right time.

we shall see what we shall see, but the royals have really been the baggies toughest opponents all season. but then, there was a special relationship that these clubs developed in a tightly scheduled set of cup fixtures (including a replay) and a final league encounter at the madjeski stadium. all in all, these teams had a total of four matches, and three of them within the space of a month!



when the baggies won at home 3-1 earlier in the season, reading had gone from a once top championship side to a team that looked in danger of flirting with relegation. an unexpected cup run, which saw them knock out liverpool (among others) seemed to re-invigorate their season. this led to a run of good form in the league, and although it would appear too little too late, they are looking more like playoff contenders than anything else these days, and their poor start to the season has been well and truly banished.

unlike the first league encounter between these two earlier in the season, the royals seemed like they had the baggies figured out; and attacking mid-fielder, jimmy kebe, was in great form and thoroughly menacing throughout this tightly jammed little set of cup and league fixtures between the two clubs. much like swansea, crystal palace and QPR, reading knew that the key to stopping west brom was to disrupt the midfield, negate the lone striker, not let anyone get a good look at goal and be ruthless on the counter.



despite several chances falling for the baggies throughout the course of the the match, the royals' tactics seemed to work well enough. gylfi sigurdsson scored early on just past the 6 minute mark in what was reading's first real attack of the game.

playing the ball down the left flank several reading players swarmed the albion penalty box, getting completely behind the unprepared albion back-four. it was an inevitability when the cross came in and fell as an easy tap-in to the icelandic mid-fielder, sigurdsson.

but the baggies have the advantage of a team where individual skills are very high, and the albion have scored a lot of goals this year quickly and out of nothing but the skill of the particular individual(s) involved. today - and with the midfield and strikers thwarted - it was centre-half, gabriel tamas' turn to snatch a point for the baggies with an opportunistic strike as the ball came back off the crossbar from a giles barnes header following a late albion corner-kick.

i know that there are baggies fans for whom this will have appeared a disppointing, negative result and sure indication that some catastrophic slip-up in form is just around the corner. but, if the baggies win their friday home fixture against leicester, the full significance of this point - and the continuation of their current unbeaten streak at such a critical juncture in the season - will begin to make itself evident.