I had a horrible feeling our run of form was going to crunch to a halt with key games against Marseille and Man Utd coming up this week. I thought we might have got through this game, but Bentiez' team selection was bizarre to say the least - looking like it might be a 4-3-3 on paper but lacking any width whatsoever while the likes of Kewell and Babel (perfect as wide forward players) were left on the bench.
I don't think the selections alone cost us though. Reading went ahead from what the BBC commentators described as an outrageous penalty decision (in the sense 'yes, it was a foul, but it was outside the box'). Sadly we were denied two probably better shouts for fouls in the box on Torres - the latter of which worringly left him in a heap and saw him soon withdrawn (after he'd been praised for standing up to much Reading kicking in the October cup game).
At the end of the day, we were forced to chase the game and, even so, things could have been very different - aside from the penalty decisions, we hit their woodwork twice (Gerrard and Crouch). I guess you can't win them all, so I only hope we can bounce back for our next two more important games.
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