By Tim Hodges from the Amex
Brighton & Hove Albion 0 Reading 1
Albion lost to a deflected goal by dead ball specialist Ian Harte at the Amex this evening.
The former Leeds defender scored from a free-kick with 15 minutes gone.
The Seagulls had the chance to pull themselves level early in the second half but Ashley Barnes failed to convert a penalty.
Reading scored with almost their first attack of the match. Prior to this it had been all Albion. Vicente Rodriguez was again at the centre of all the Seagulls’ best moments.
The Spaniard had a shot from 25 yards beaten away by Adam Federici in the Reading goal. A little later he swept the ball out to Gonzalo Jara Reyes with superb precision but Barnes was unable to convert Jara’s inviting cross.
It was soon after this that Reading scored. Gordon Greer was penalised for a tangle with Noel Hunt. Harte swept the ball across the penalty area and it looked like Alan Navarro’s head that diverted the ball past a wrong-footed Peter Brezovan.
Within minutes Albion had a great shout for a penalty, when Will Buckley’s cross appeared to strike the arm of Alex Pearce in the area. But the referee, Mick Russell, waved play on. Almost immediately Kaspars Gorkss got none of the ball and all of Craig Mackail-Smith but again the referee waved play on.
As Reading were being pinned back, Albion tried patiently to work the ball into dangerous areas. Vicente, the orchestrator again, picked the ball up near halfway and hit a sublime pass to Barnes, who just failed to connect with the goal at his mercy.
All the while the battle between Adam El-Abd and Jason Roberts was hotting up. El-Abd had already shown Roberts who was boss in the first minute with a crunching shoulder barge.
But now Roberts was indicating to anyone who would listen that El-Abd was holding his shirt. At one point the former Blackburn forward came across to the assistant referee to tell him how many times El-Abd had fouled him and what to look out for.
Before the half was out Vicente and Buckley played a quick one-two in the area but the Spaniard whacked the return pass against the bar from inside the six-yard box.
Albion had a great chance to equalise early in the second half. First Pearce pulled Barnes over blatantly but again the referee was unmoved. Seconds later Gorkss shoved Albion’s top scorer in the back and Russell, perhaps mindful of previous worthwhile appeals, immediately pointed to the spot.
Barnes stepped up himself but his shot was weak and low and Federici saved down to his left. Seconds later Jara swung in a cross that Barnes headed goalwards but the Reading keeper palmed it over the bar.
As Albion continued to dominate, Mackail-Smith appeared to scuff a shot when well placed. This was pushed wide by Federici.
With Kazenga LuaLua on for Buckley, Albion looked more and more likely to score. But the ball just would not fall for Albion in the areas where it mattered.
Navarro tested Federici with a stinging 25-yard drive which the keeper did well to hold.
Sam Vokes and Gai Assulin repalced Barnes and Mackail-Smith with ten minutes to go but neither got much of a chance. Assulin appeared to partner Vokes up front in these latter stages. But Vokes only half chance came from a LuaLua cross which was just out of his reach.
Roberts tormented Albion towards the end with some clever possession play. He really is the type of player who would compliment Mackail-Smith – strong, quick and intelligent although a little too verbal.
Before the end Pearce hit the bar for Reading with a powerful header that had Brezovan beaten. And Inigo Calderon incensed Harte for not returning the ball to Reading after Harte had kicked it out, believing incorrectly that Gorkss was injured.
In injury time, and similar to the Cardiff game, Albion saw a training ground free-kick go spectacularly wrong.
Gary Dicker took far too long to subtly play in LuaLua while El-Abd and Greer created a diversion in the box. LuaLua fired over from 25 yards.
The referee suggested that the shot had taken a deflection but blew for full time before Albion had a chance to take the corner that he had awarded.
The Seagulls are two points shy of the play-off places with four games remaining.
Albion: Brezovan; Calderon, Greer, El-Abd, Jara Reyes; Navarro, Dicker, Vicente; Barnes, Buckley, Mackail-Smith. Subs: Ankergren, Painter, Assulin, Vokes, LuaLua.
Reading: Federici; Cummings, Gorkss, Pearce, Harte; Kebe, Mullins, Cywka, McAnuff; Hunt, Roberts. Subs: McCarthy, Gunnarsson, Church, Afobe, le Fondre.
Ref: Mick Russell (Herts).
