Today we hear from Andrew Mathewson – STAR Board member
Reading v Coventry City, 19 February 2012
Reading playing Coventry is a special game for me. Coventry was where I started going to football, back in the 1976/77 season, when the Sky Blues were in the old First Division. Indeed I first saw Reading play at Highfield Road. The story of Coventry City’s troubles off the pitch over the last few seasons has been sad for any football fan to see. I’m delighted to see City back in the Championship and doing the best of the three promoted teams to put down roots here. My only regret is that they took three points from us in doing so. That wasn’t in the script.
That defeat at the end of October led to a bit of a wobble in our form, and we’ve been struggling with injuries pretty much since then. But we’ve been resilient and go into this game in sixth place, only three points behind second placed Swansea. The emergence of more players from the Academy over that period has been one of the stories of our season.
We’ll be looking for a win not only to avenge our defeat at St. Andrew’s but also to consolidate our place in the play-off places.
If only we could be there to see the game! But it’s still not to be. Whether we can get back to the Madejski this season remains to be seen. I’d rather hope that my football watching this season amounted to more than two home defeats! But I fear that might be our lot. In the meantime we’ll keep on backing the boys, if not making much noise, from a safe distance.
And for added spice we’ re now in the middle of the transfer window. As I write there’s been no comings or goings. I’m sure we’re all hoping for some arrivals to strengthen the squad, but equally nervously hoping that we keep the players who have done so well this season, especially the exciting young talent.
Whatever happens from here this should be considered a good season. Let’s hope that we can kick on now under Pauno and really press for automatic promotion or at least a play-off place.
Come on URZ!