The departure of Nigel Adkins and the arrival of Steve Clarke helped to dispel the cloud of pessimism which has been hovering over the Madejski Stadium for the past couple of months, but in spite of a much improved performance in the first half, Reading again lost their way and were narrowly beaten by a strong Watford side reduced to ten men on the stroke of half time. In the space of a few days Steve Clarke rightly focused on tightening up the defensive side of the Royals game with immediate success. It would seem however, he faces a greater challenge getting his new team to find the back of the net.

It was an evenly contested first half as the Royals matched a Watford team, widely acclaimed as serious promotion candidates, in every department. It was noticeable how well Reading kept their shape defensively particularly in midfield. Reading were happy to allow Watford’s back four time and space in their own half to establish a classic ‘two banks of four’ which is very hard, as Watford found, to penetrate. Offensively Reading started brightly, opening up the Watford defence down the left flank for Blackman to produce a deep cross to find Murray at the back post. With time and space Murray opted sensibly for a side foot volley which unfortunately lacked conviction and accuracy. A striker on top of his game would have at least hit the target. Murray made a significant contribution winning and holding up the ball all afternoon but his finishing was just not sharp enough. Federici diverted a Pudil header for a corner although it may have been going wide. Then the Reading ‘keeper had to work harder to block a ferocious long range strike from Abdi. Apart from that neither ‘keeper was troubled in the first half. As half time approached Reading began to exert some pressure on the Watford defence and the home fans finally found their voice. McCleary was beginning to go past Watford defenders, and just before half time he got the better of Angella who was panicked into handling the ball and, having already picked up a yellow card for an earlier foul, was dismissed. It should have given the Reading an advantage required to push on win the game, but that was not how it appeared at the beginning of the second half.

Watford managed to push the Royals back in to their own half after the interval and some timely interventions by Norwood prevented the visitors from creating scoring opportunities. On the break, Murray got behind the Watford defence but with only Gomez to beat he curled his shot wide of the far post. McCleary was showing signs of returning to his best form ably supported down the right by Gunter who seemed rejuvenated without the burden of captaincy. Ironically it was McCleary’s enterprise which led indirectly to Watford’s unexpected winner. With other options available, he decided to take on players in his own half and ran into trouble. Watford quickly took advantage of possession and set up a chance for Abdi to score calmly from the edge of the box. There followed a lot of huffing and puffing. Reading had chances, notably Blackman needed only a touch at the far post to steer the ball in to an empty net but somehow he managed to miss it completely. Obita was seeing a lot of the ball wide on the left but, as we all know, he does not have the pace to go past defenders. In spite of this he was left isolated facing two defenders on several occasions, which begs the question - where was Blackman supposed to be playing? There were half chances but Watford dug in and hung on for three points.

The official attendance was boosted by a large travelling Watford contingent but judging by the large numbers of empty seats, there are still a lot of season ticket holders opting to stay at home (or perhaps go Christmas shopping). The ray of hope came from the manger’s post match interview. It was a refreshing change to hear the Reading manager speak coherently about what went well and what he intends to put right on the training ground next week. His tone and manner inspires confidence. Now it is time to see if the players are able to raise their game to produce the results.
John Wells

Unlucky today rather than shit. Back four were very good. Dealt with some heavy pressure in the first half. Gunter better without the weight of captaincy. Blackman needs to be told he's not as good as he thinks, and Williams wasn't brilliant.

First half was the usual turgid affair, but from 5 mins into the second half until the goal we made more noise then any point in the season so far. There was actually an atmosphere for once. Cooper as a striker at the death was almost a masterstoke from Clarke.
A defeat yes, but more positive.
Royal Ginger

The pain continues!! Once again we dominate possession and have more attempts on goal and more corners than the opposition and we end up losing! I really don't think any one player (or group of players) is to blame. All the players showed some good touches at times and all had some dire moments.

I was prepared to forgive the opening season blues. After all we had so many good players injured - particularly McCleary and Williams. But we managed to get some decent results with the youngsters and a makeshift team so the future looked bright-ish! Well we have McCleary and Williams back now and the results are far far worse. What do we do now? Pin our hopes on the returns of Jem and Ferdinand?

I thought we controlled the first half and Murray should have scored in the first minute by using his head rather than his feet to direct a high ball. We continued to squander chances. Watford looked surprisingly vulnerable but we missed chance after chance. They did look dangerous on the counter though but we looked more solid in defence. Pearce was given the captain's arm band in place of Gunter and I think he is a more natural leader although he is so slow and does make mistakes at the back.

Although Watford were down to 10 men they started the second half more brightly in my view! But we weathered that 10-15 minute storm and from then on it was all Reading as Watford defended in numbers. I'm not sure how they scored but Abdi was given all the time and space in the world to power his shot past Feds who stood no chance. McCleary has been blamed for losing the ball but the defence had time to cover this.

In short we are low in confidence and Clarke's big task is to restore that. It won't be easy if we continue to spurn chances and lose matches like this one.

As for the Watford support - it was louder than our fans and certainly noisier than at any other match I have seen this season at the Mad Stad!!
marlowuk