Before kick-off, most people seemed optimistic when they heard Nigel Adkins’s team for this match in the cold North East. There was, of course, speculation about what exactly “personal reasons” meant in the explanation of Royston Drenthe’s absence, but I’ll leave others to pontificate on that. But the general consensus seemed to be that this team was approaching the best available to Adkins, with Sharp and Pogrebnyak up front in a 4-4-2, and McAnuff and McCleary on the flanks.

So, apart from the lunacy of the Middlesbrough stewards forcing all the travelling Loyal Royals to sit crowded together in one single block when they had the whole away enclosure of a massive but half-empty stadium to choose from, hopes were high at kick-off. But how wrong we all turned out to be…

Read the full article : http://thetilehurstend.sbnation.com/2013-14-match-reports/2013/12/29/5254656/middlesbrough-3-0-reading-down-and-out-by-the-riverside