Royals leave it late to deny Stoke Victory

After weeks and weeks of waiting, finally the football season returned for fans this weekend but it wasn’t to be a dream start for Stoke as Adam Le Fondre’s late penalty denied Stoke 3 important points in the first game of the season. Stoke now have to face Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool within the next 7 fixtures leaving even the most optimistic fans struggling to predict wins in many of those fixtures.

The game itself started with Reading the stronger side and Danny Guthrie bossed the midfield in the early stages of the game against an increasingly frustrated Stoke side who were irritated with referee Kevin Friend. The official even had to pull captain Ryan Shawcross to the side and tell him to calm the team down with a lot of unnecessary fouls from the likes of Dean Whitehead. The majority of half chances fell to the home side with Kaspars Gorkss heading wide from a Guthrie corner on 25 minutes. It was in fact Stoke though that opened the scoring on 33 minutes through Michael Kightly slightly against the run of play. Adam Federici in the Reading goal made a total mess of Kightly’s mis-hit shot from 12 yards out as the ball was driven into the ground by Kightly before evading the hands of the Austrailian. Chances were few and far between and neither side seemed able to create anything notably dangerous for the rest of the first half.

After the break, both sides were once again failing to create anything and barring a Jonathan Walters header, it was once again the wingers who were pulling the strings for both sides. Stoke began to sit back and let Reading into the game with substitute Garath McCleary looking dangerous on the wing, Stoke soaking up any pressure with ease. Unfortunately, Tony Pulis then made an error of judgement in the eyes of many by not bringing yellow-carded Dean Whitehead off the pitch. Pulis had already substituted both wingers and then failed to bring off Whitehead who unfortunately felled McCleary in the penalty area in the 89^th minute to allow Reading the chance to equalise. Whitehead was given a red card and Adam Le Fondre stepped up, his calm & collected finish providing entertainment for neutrals in a particularly dour game.

It’s always disappointing to concede late on, but on reflection a point was a fair result for both sides in a fairly lacklustre game. We can now look forward to the visit of Arsenal next Sunday in what is one of the more exciting fixtures of the season for most Potters. American Geoff Cameron is in line to return from the States and make an appearance against Arsenal with manager Tony Pulis saying post-match that “we’ll need him” for the game next Sunday. I for one am excited by the hype around Cameron, and am very excited to see him play! Here’s hoping for 3 points next week!

Reading: Federici, Gunter, Pearce, Gorkss, Harte, Robson-Kanu (McCleary 67), Guthrie, Leigertwood, McAnuff, Pogrebnyak (Hunt 77), Le Fondre.

Stoke: Begovic, Wilkinson, Shawcross, Huth, Wilson, Kightly (Jerome 75), Whitehead (s/o 89), Whelan (Palacios 86), Etherington (Delap 80), Crouch, Walters.

Report submitted by: Ross Hancock