The London Underground on a Saturday afternoon teems with football shirts. London’s thirteen clubs in the top four divisions draw fans from all of the country, shirts and scarves of every colour tucked inside jackets as they haul themselves across the capital. Most of the time, the travelling fans are a spattering of one colour, amid a sea of the local loyalists. But FA Cup games at Wembley are different.
Entire tube platforms and train carriages were coated in royal blue and white hoops, as Reading fans made the pilgrimage. Tens of thousands of Arsenal fans made a similar journey, but the capital is always awash with Gunners shirts; it’s rare 30,000 Reading fans get to be in the same place more than once every ten years.
Reading’s road to the semi-final was a relatively uneventful one. Three Championship clubs drawn away from home, dispatched with little fanfare – up until the Quarter Final, many watching league games at the Madejski this season may have switched those three cup wins for nine more points in the league. That Quarter Final was another away draw, this time to giant-killing Bradford, where the Valley Parade pitch was the main opposition. A replay earned meant the home supporters finally seeing some cup football and beginning to wake to the significance; a 3-0 win set up a first semi-final since 1927.
Reading’s league season has been a disappointment. Nigel Adkins made way for Steve Clarke in December and the team had managed just 18 goals in 21 league games leading into the semi-final. Olivier Giroud has as many goals for Arsenal this term.
Yet, as is often the way in football, through the mist here was something to get excited about. The league season may have fizzled into nothing, and the long-term future direction of the club may remain uncertain, but here was the best cup run since between the wars.
On the field too, the team seemed different in the cup. The same starting eleven might pull a little harder, combine a little better, create a little more. Championship opposition in the third, fourth and fifth rounds showed this. Reading managed a point from two games against Cardiff in the league, Derby had already scored five past them this season in league and league cup, Huddersfield had beaten them home and away. Not so in the FA Cup: three wins from three.
The new Wembley – for it will forever be the ‘new’ Wembley – is a fantastic stadium that is starting to feel like it has a place in football folklore. The iconic towers may be gone, but the arch is an icon of its own, one which was turned blue and white the night before the match. The crowd was turned blue and white too, as Reading handed out shirts to the fans – the effect only broken up by the band of ‘Club Wembley’ seats that make up the second tier of the stadium.
The Royals struggled to sell their allocation of tickets, the result of the disappointing league season and a misjudgment of the level of demand, initially restricting season ticket holders to just one ticket before later offering them additionals – you might get a part time fan along to sit with a full timer friend, not so likely to sit by themselves, a block of loners like some awkward football-themed singleton speed-dating event.
The club managed to shift most of their allocated tickets, although not before dropping the requirements for purchase as far down as those who had attended a single home game. Still, they didn’t have to give them back. And on the afternoon, the atmosphere was vibrant, almost none of the muttered grumbling that has characterised recent weeks at the Madejski. That grumbling a sound that surely bites deeper than booing to a player who has misplaced a pass, speaking as it does of thousands of people hardly surprised that last one went out for a throw.
Reading gave Arsenal a fright – taking them to extra time, with excellent defensive performances, from centre-back Michael Hector and midfielder Danny Williams especially, and creating a host of chances to snatch a win. Goalkeeper Adam Federici – so often his team’s saviour this season and a front-runner for player of the year – left the pitch in tears, his mistake deciding factor, letting a tame Alexis Sanchez effort through his legs at the end of the first half of extra time. It is worth reminding all those who forget of the full-stretch finger-tip save from a Gabriel header that kept the Championship side level towards the end of normal time.
Reading fans had plenty of time to ponder the future as they shuffled back along Wembley Way. A starting-and-stopping walk back to the tube, as a starting-and-stopping season draws to a close.
There is lots that needs addressing in the off-season. Several first-team players with contracts expiring are still without new deals – including ‘keeper Federici and club captain Jem Karacan. Much of the talent this season has been in the form of loan signings. Glenn Murray remains the club’s top league goalscorer, four and a half months after he returned to Palace, and forward Jamie Mackie – still running and closing down clearances at Wembley after 120 minutes – has been a consistent performer and a frequent attacking threat. The contribution of these two, as well as the steadying influence of Chelsea’s Nathaniel Chalobah, will need to be replaced. More talent is needed all over the pitch. A league goal difference of -20 is not a healthy place from which to launch a promotion challenge next year.
In the board room, there at last seems to be stability. On the touchline, Steve Clarke is promising, but still has something to prove. On the pitch, there’s a lot to prove.
The summer beckons, and the clear-out and rebuild job that Clarke must surely undertake beckons too. This will be a crucial time for Reading, and if the pieces can’t be put together, it could be a long, long time before blue and white hoops get to do that walk down Wembley Way again.
