What a win for Reading. Sorry, scratch that. What a deserved win for Reading.
How refreshing it was to see Steve Coppell’s men tossing away the shackles of the relegation battle against Birmingham, attacking from the first minute and getting their rewards.
These relegation six-pointers have thrown up some stinkers in their time. Derby/Sunderland anyone?
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But Reading showed on Saturday that it is still possible to get the ball down, utilise the wingers in John Oster and the relentless Stephen Hunt, and get the crucial three points.
I was heavily criticised earlier in the season for lambasting Reading’s home display against Arsenal, when they showed no intention of attacking for 90 minutes.
My criticism was borne out of the fact that The Royals had captured many a neutral’s heart in their first season in the top flight, producing enterprising football – regardless of the opposition.
Saturday’s win over Birmingham harked back to that first season – and when they play like this there are few who would be happy to see them go down – and even fewer who would expect them to.
There does remain one very worrying statistic for Coppell and the Madejski faithful however, and it surrounds the forwards.
Kevin Doyle and Dave Kitson started against Blues and once again failed to score. Indeed they have managed just one goal between them this year. And this is Reading’s first choice front two.
In Kitson’s defence, he has netted nine league goals this season and is on a dry spell after his pre-Christmas form had prompted calls for an England call-up.
Doyle’s lack of firepower is more concerning, just five goals all season and only three assists to boot, the Republic of Ireland man is a full international – but he is looking anything but that right now.
In fairness, his work outside of the box against Birmingham was decent, creating one blinding chance for John Oster after half time.
But it is goal-scoring that ultimately makes a difference when you’re near the bottom, and Doyle’s bumbling miss from two yards in the first half could have proved very costly.
It should be said he is not the only striker to have failed to score in 2008. Kenwyne Jones and Gabriel Agbonlahor also seem to have made it their New Year’s resolution to avoid the white sticks.
My inspiration for using Doyle as an example is this though: At Anfield Coppell dropped his most useful target man Kitson to play the more pacey Shane Long alongside Doyle.
It seems to me Kitson and Long might prove a more suited partnership, and dare I say it even Leroy Lita (based purely on football rather attitude) would provide more threat than Doyle - the 2008 version anyway.