Early Storm Drowns Royals

Tuesday night`s FA Cup fifth round replay proved to be a bridge too far for the valiant Royals, as an early collapse attested to settle an exceptionally entertaining encounter.

Sir Alex Ferguson admitted that his side were fortunate to escape the Madejski Stadium with the scalp of a Reading side that had no less than eight changes to the team that started the previous league game, and revealed he was preparing for extra-time after a pulsating late onslaught from Steve Coppell`s troops.

The Premiership leaders raced into a 3-0 lead within six minutes of the kick-off, and a place in the FA Cup quarter-finals appeared assured.

But despite the Champions League experience of players such as Rio Ferdinand, Louis Saha, Gabriel Heinze and John O’Shea in a United team whose starting line up had cost more than £60m to assemble, United were not impervious.

Unfortunately though, Brynjar Gunnarsson`s last minute volley came crashing back off of the crossbar with United goalkeeper Edwin Van Der Sar soundly beaten.

The Royals began the game in quite disastrous fashion, and Argentinean defender Gabriel Heinze opened the scoring with just two minutes on the clock.

John O`Shea broke into the Reading area after some neat work on the right, and his cut-back alluded everyone in the box. The ball fell kindly to the Argentine, who struck a low drive goalwards. His shot travelled through a crowded area, but despite seeing it late, Australian goalkeeper Adam Federici, who was the Royals` hero in the reverse leg, should have done better when he allowed the ball to squirm under his body and into the net.

It went from bad to worse though, as Rio Ferdinand punted one long just two minutes later to find Louis Saha.

The Reading defence stood off the Frenchman and allowed him to take a touch just inside the area. He was very wide, and caught his shot extremely well, with Federici perhaps caught a little unawares positionally as it rifled in at the near post.

The game was still only six minutes old when it became 3-0. Ivar Ingimarsson stepped forward from defence with the ball, but was dispossessed by red`s midfielder Kieran Richadson.

The winger played an instant long ball forward, and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was just onside as he raced into a one-on-one situation. The Norwegian got into the box and beat Federici with a disguised finish into the corner with the outside of his boot.

The scoreline could have increased further still in the eleventh minute, as Luis Saha again wriggled free of the Reading backline. He found space on the edge of the box, but he was put under pressure from Gunnarsson, and his low drive clipped the outside of the post as the Royals breathed a sigh of relief.

Midway through the half, and the Royals made their first offence of note. Kevin Doyle did well to win a corner on the right-hand side, and the crafty midfielder John Oster elected to take it. Oster’s delivery was flicked on by Ivar Ingimarsson at the near post, and after a few clever steps, Dave Kitson was free of his marker at the back stick to apply a simple headed finish and restore some credibility to the first-half score.

Kitson later dedicated the goal to his late friend Gerald, who he knew from his days at Arlesey Town.

Saha then did incredibly well to shake off a challenge from Andre Bikey, and hit a rasping drive from the edge of the area but Federici made a low diving save.

Kevin Doyle tried his luck with a flicked header, before the combination of Kitson and Gunnarsson smashed a good chance over, but were together ruled offside anyway.

Reading were getting on top of the contest, but unfortunately they found the Dutchman Edwin Van Der Sar in inspired form.

First he saved from Steve Sidwell’s long range shot, then he got a great fingertip on Oster’s cross to deny Bikey a headed effort as the Royals invaded in search of a second goal.

He then kept out Seol Ki-Hyeon’s excellent curling long range drive with a superb diving save, and from the resulting corner he got up brilliantly to tip away the cross as the pressure mounted.

Reading ended the half on the up, but after their disastrous start there was still an all-mighty mountain to scale for the men in blue and white.

The eagerly anticipated second period started surprisingly flat, with only a couple of wild long-range shots from the explosive Steve Sidwell to report.

There was some confusion when Bikey debated a yellow card with referee Howard Webb midway through the half, with many observers thinking he had already been booked. In fact, it was his defensive colleague Ulises De La Cruz who was shown the initial card in the first half, and as a result, Bikey was safe.

Federici pulled off a very smart low save to deny Richardson from range, and at the other end Reading had a penalty shout waved away as Kevin Doyle was clumsily sent to ground, but their appeal was in vain.

Exciting winger Glen Little was introduced in place of Seol, and his first contribution of note was a cross that was brilliantly cleared by Wes Brown as fellow substitute Leroy Lita looked certain to nod home at the back post.

The excellent Luis Saha`s night ended prematurely when he was withdrawn in favour of the talented Wayne Rooney, and the Englishman looked all set to score as he broke clear of the defence, only for Andre Bikey to seemingly come from nowhere to produce an absolutely wonderful sliding challenge to win the ball cleanly in the penalty area, before impudently turning away from the superstar to retain possession.

The Royals were again busy at the opposing end, but the in-form Van Der Sar was on hand once more to tip an excellent effort round the post. Dave Kitson had picked the ball up in the penalty area with his back to goal, and with a defender paying close attention, he swivelled and hit a powerful effort towards the corner of the net from twelve-yards.

Van Der Sar`s effort only delayed the inevitable though, as the battling Royals eventually found their second of the evening. Kitson`s new strike partner for the night, Leroy Lita, did amazingly well to direct a diving bullet header into the bottom corner from Ulises De La Cruz`s early cross from the right.

With just six minutes of the ninety remaining, the Red Devils predictably started to run the clock down. Oster’s goalbound shot came off Lita and flew wide, before the striker soon broke down the wing himself, but his over-enthusiastic touch was too strong and he carried the ball out of play after turning Rio Ferdinand superbly.

With only seconds left on the referee`s watch, John Oster found Gunnarsson on the edge of the area, and the Icelander unleashed a thunderous vollied drive. It had Van Der Sar comfortably beaten, but with the entire stadium on their feet, it agonizingly came back off the crossbar and bounced away to safety.

The match had a real mixture of emotions, with Reading going from absolute disaster to the brink of one of the best comebacks ever.

Unfortunately, Royals fans went home feeling disappointed to be out of the competition, but they were immensely proud of a gargantuan attempt full of pride and determination from their young team of ‘second string’ players.

The focus will now be entirely on the season’s Premier League campaign, and with the prospect of Europe a lot more than just a distant dream, every league place will be fiercly battled for.