Reading 0 Forest 1 – Reds win Royal rumble

By: Tim | March 2nd, 2009

Osbourne joined the Reds on loan today This was never going to be a game for purists. Reading had failed to score in their past three games, including going down 2-0 at home to Bristol City, and the less said about Forest’s recent run of form the better. When you’re in our position, though, who really cares about the purity of football? Make no mistake, this could be a vital three points – mostly because the teams around us, with the exception of Norwich, all had good results too.

After surviving a first half onslaught at the Madejski, that included Jimmy Kebe missing a sitter, and Kevin Doyle having a goal ruled out for offside, the second half turned in our favour. Cohen and McGugan were getting some luck by running at defenders, and so came the game’s only goal when McGugan outmuscled Marek Matejovsky and ran diagonally towards the box just after the hour mark, he turned another defender inside before coolly slotting a low shot past the keeper.

McGugan has been hit and miss this season, but when he turns it on there is no doubt he is a cracking player. Rumour has it that he will get an England Under-21 call up later this month when England entertain France at the City Ground, I’m hoping this will spark a run a good form from him, if only to help us out with the run-in. A more cynical fan on the messageboards suggested he could get a call-up to help sell more tickets for the game, my guess is that Psycho would be happy to play a Forest lad either way.

Anyway, the return of Moussi seemed to allow him some freedom in this match, so we can only hope he comes good for us in the remaining games. As the second half progressed we grew more confident, and Reading less so, as we managed to hold on for a win in spite of an agonising 5 minutes of stoppage time due to the multi-ball time wasting. Watch the highlights here.

There are a few negatives from this match though, Nathan Tyson can now be added to the injury list after he hobbled off with a groin strain, and Big Wes picked up another yellow card, meaning he’ll miss our next match due to suspension. The good news is that Tyson should only be out for a week, but he will miss tomorrow night’s match against Preston at the City Ground, and possibly Saturday’s game against Swansea. With Garner reportedly out with a shoulder injury, and Newbold out too, things are looking pretty bleak up front. It comes to something when you’re even considering Newbold anyway.

Davies is still holding out on loan-signing a striker, and we’ve actually had some success in the market today after we managed to sign Villa’s Isaiah Osbourne for the rest of the season. Davies describes him as a modern holding midfielder who is capable of playing box-to-box, he talks the talk and could come straight in to the side tomorrow night, allowing us to rest the returning Moussi in a straight swap. Something to cheer about at last, then, three points against Preston wouldn’t go amiss either.