Reading frustrated by Bradford and pitch as City earn FA Cup replay
Bradford City 0 - 0 Reading
Reading's Jamie Mackie of Reading goes past a challenge from James Meredith of Bradford City.
Bradford City and Reading had to settle for a replay in a hard-fought quarter-final that failed to produce a goal. There was a great FA Cup atmosphere and a stirring contest, though not a great deal of football to remember and even less in the way of goal attempts on target.
No wonder Bradford keep trying to get to Wembley, it must feel like a holiday from playing on a farmer’s field. This was the surface Gus Poyet tried in vain to object to, arguing that it was unfair to ask Premier League performers to cope with such a rutted and untrue pitch. Neither Bradford nor Reading could afford to be quite so precious, though in recognition that the going was heavy both teams wisely elected to do battle a few feet above the ground. The ball was in the air most of the time, with wrestling contests breaking out to win possession each time it came down to earth.
The difficulty the surface presented was amply demonstrated midway through the first half when Pavel Pogrebnyak played Jamie Mackie in behind the Bradford defence with a neat reverse flick by the right corner flag, only for the ball to take a ludicrous bobble just as the winger was measuring his cross.
“We took a look at the pitch and knew it would be a day when we would have to roll our sleeves up, and that’s what we did,” Steve Clarke, the Reading manager, said. “It wasn’t great to watch but a draw was a fair result on the balance of play.”
Danny Williams forced his namesake Ben into early action in the Bradford goal with a strong run and a shot-cum-cross, before Jon Stead found himself with an all too fleeting opportunity in the opposite penalty area, raising the home fans’ hopes but being quickly shut down by Michael Hector.
Reading were exerting the most pressure, forcing Bradford back into their own half, and they almost took the lead after half an hour when Pogrebnyak managed to control a Mackie cross for a shot that came back off a post. It was a narrow escape for the home side, though given the dearth of clearcut chances it was an opportunity Reading ought not to have squandered.
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That feeling was reinforced just before half-time when Bradford themselves hit the woodwork, this time from a dangerous-looking Gary Liddle cross from the left that beat everyone in the penalty area and ran through to strike Adam Federici’s left upright.
Filipe Morais had a brief shooting opportunity from a narrow angle at the start of the second half and the same player sent over a cross from the right that Federici just managed to reach ahead of James Hanson, before Stead had a penalty appeal turned down after being pushed to the ground awaiting a corner. It could have been given, though in fairness Neil Swarbrick was having to evaluate the legality of aerial challenges all afternoon and the appeal from the Kop behind Federici’s goal was more concerted than that from the Bradford players.
The home side’s bright start to the second half had put Reading on the back foot for the first time in the game, however, and it took a tremendous recovering clearance by Stephen Kelly to prevent Stead getting a shot on goal after Billy Clarke had played him into the penalty area.
The longer the game went on the more apparent it became that a single shot on target or stroke of luck might be all it would take to avoid a replay and Andrew Davies came close to breaking the deadlock when he met a free-kick from Morais, only for his header to clear the bar.
Clarke played his wild card and sent Yakubu Aiyegbeni on for the last 10 minutes but the closest Reading came was an Oliver Norwood free-kick that Williams managed to scramble away with the help of his goal frame.
Nine minutes of added time were necessary at the end due to a facial injury to Alex Pearce that required treatment in stoppage time, but even when playing against 10 men for a short period there was no fairytale for the Bantams. It was just the pitch that was Grimm.
“It’s not going to get any better between now and the end of the season,” Phil Parkinson, the Bradford manager, said. “I would say we are looking forward to playing at Reading but I went down to watch them against Wigan and their pitch was almost as bad. But at least we are not out. We are still alive and kicking.”
Guardian
