By Aston
November 23 2005

Ipswich remained 14th in the championship after being beaten 3-0 by Reading who moved top of the championship.

Town started with 4-5-1 formation to try and combat the Reading midfield, it failed, Sam Parkin does not work as lone striker and the five midfield players all looked a little lost and to be honest the only Town players to come out of the game last night with any credibility at all would Richard Naylor after he was moved from defence to forward and Fabian Wilnis who came on for Horlock as Town went to 4-4-2 with Naylor joining Forster upfront.   

 

The visitors were the better side for the entire game and from the early stages it looked like a backs to the wall affair for Town, even with the 5 men in the middle of the park Reading still managed to create chances, even their defenders had a go from as the early as the third minute when Ingimarsson headed just wide.

 

Five minutes later Reading had the ball in the back of the Town net although Leroy Lita’s header was ruled out for offside against the young striker.

 

Town ‘keeper Lewis Price had to be at his best to keep out efforts from Reading’s Sidwell, Lita and Ingimarsson again before Town were forced into making a substitution when Sam Parkin had to be replaced by former Reading striker Nicky Forster after Parkin injured his ankle. 

 

Ten minutes later Reading took the lead thanks to Steve Sidwell who poked home from inside the six yard box after Sito could only block Kevin Doyle’s effort.

 

Sonko headed just wide with 32 minutes gone before Town manager Joe Royle gave up with the 4-5-1 formation and reverted to a 4-4-2 with Fabian Wilnis coming on for Kevin Horlock while Richard Naylor moved up front with Wilnis replacing him at the back, the change had an effect on the crowd who reacted to change with cheers and chants of “psycho, psycho” the change also effected the team, they did something that looked like playing football but sadly there was no change in the overall game, Reading still had a couple more chances before the half time break that went either just wide or had to be stopped by Price.

 

Town started out the better side in the second half with Naylor and Forster both coming close in the opening five minutes before Reading doubled their lead, Lita scoring from close range.

 

Town did make an attempt at a come back, Darren Currie headed wide and sent a free-kick the same way while Gavin Williams tried his luck from range but could only find the arms of Hahnemann in the Reading goal.

 

The Royals sealed the win with a 3^rd goal with 13 minutes left to play, Doyle volleying home to make it 3-0.

 

Town squad: Lewis Price, Luis Sito, Jason De Vos, Richard Naylor, Jay McEveley, Gavin Williams, Jimmy Juan, Kevin Horlock, Matt Richards, Darren Currie, Sam Parkin.  

Subs: Shane Supple, Fabian Wilnis, Jim Magilton, Nicky Forster, Ian Westlake.

 

Reading Squad: M Hahnemann, G Murty, I Sonko, I Ingimarsson, N Shorey, G Little, J Harper, B Convey, S Sidwell, L Lita, K Doyle.

Subs: G Stack, S Hunt, J Oster, C Makin, E Obinna.

 

	Town 0	Reading 3
Goals	None	Sidwell (29) Lita (53) Doyle (77)
Yellow Cards	None	None
Red Cards	None	None
Subs	Forster on for Parkin (18) Wilnis on for Horlock (34) Westlake on for Juan (60)	Oster on for Little (78) Hunt on for Convey (78)
Possession	45%	55%
Shots	7	19
Corners	3	14
Fouls	10	8
Attendance: 22,621

 

Talk about Town on our Message Board.