Harps Ends Losing Streak

Reading finally broke their abysmal record of eight straight defeats with a last gasp win at the Riverside.

Boro had been in pretty decent form going into the game, having only lost once in their last ten, but it was the out of form Royals who nicked it in an otherwise uneventful afternoon.

Middlesbrough were the better team for much of the game but neither side really looked like scoring.

On another day Boro could have had a penalty, but Stuart Downing failed to con referee Howard Webb, after a disgraceful dive in the Reading box earned the Boro winger a yellow card.

Just as the game looked to be heading for a stalemate, Reading broke down the left. Stephen Hunt’s cross just eluded Dave Kitson’s outstretched leg, falling kindly for James Harper, whose first time placed shot found the back of the net.

You wouldn’t have known it, as Steve Coppell casually sipped his water, but that goal ended a run of eight straight defeats, gave Reading their first points of 2008 and their first away win of the season.

Although the Royals are still in the relgation zone on goal difference, this win will have taken a huge amount of pressure off the players and the coaching staff and could well be the turning point in the season for Reading.