Next Game – Reading (home)

Scott Murray

He was angered that Pardew had walked out on his contract and had been poached by another club but the tables were quickly turned as he first tried to get the legend Peter Taylor from Hull before succeeding in persuading Steve Coppell to leave Brighton.

Coppell was Stan’s old boss from Palace in the late 1980s at a time when Pardew was a player at Selhurst Park.

Reading won promotion from the 2^nd Division in 2001/02 season finishing in second place but 16 points behind Champions Brighton. But once up they had different fortunes with Brighton going straight back down again whilst Reading reached the play offs before going out to Wolves in the semi-final.

There was certainly some interest for Burnley fans as they looked to win a place in the Premiership and that came about when Glen Little was transferred to the Madejski on loan on transfer deadline day.

The move ultimately didn’t work out for either club. Reading didn’t go up and Burnley lost season ticket sales because of their decision to loan out a player to save on his wages.

In fact Glen missed the crucial first leg of the play offs with injury and was replaced by another loan player in Manchester United’s Luke Chadwick. Glen returned for the second leg and was substituted with five minutes to go with Luke coming on to replace him.

Little and Chadwick teamed up again for the 2003/04 season but not with Reading as their fans had hoped although it remains to be seen whether both will play against them for the Clarets.

Instead Alan Pardew signed Scott Murray from Bristol City for £650,000 and also added a former Bristol City player to his squad in the summer in KKMC’s Shaun Goater who cost £500,000.

The only other signing was Omar Daly who arrived on loan from Jamaican club Hazard (now called Portmore United) and he is one of the reasons the game was put back. Along with Steve Sidwell and Adie Williams he was called up for international duty, in Daly’s case with Jamaica.

Reading started the season well, they were expected to be one of the front runners, but the wheels came off when Pardew ripped up his contract and walked out. Kevin Dillon took over as caretaker but the club had been hit badly by Pardew’s decision and suddenly the results suffered and only one of the next six games were won.

Eventually Steve Coppell arrived and after a short time he has started to get some good results. He has added Wolves’ Ivar Ingimarsson to his squad and although there have been a couple of hiccups they find themselves in seventh place and out of the play off places on goal difference.

They haven’t conceded a goal in the last three matches with a couple of 1-0 wins against Wigan and Millwall followed by a 0-0 draw on Saturday at West Brom.

Ingimarsson and Ricky Newman were in outstanding form for Reading but they were thankful for some woeful finishing from the home side particularly from Bernt Haas who missed to sitters in the space of a minute. Coppell was happy enough though and said he is looking for his side to develop a mean streak and keep clean sheets.

They lined up: Marcus Hahnemann, Graeme Murty, Nicky Shorey, Ivar Ingimarsson, Ricky Newman, Scott Murray (Bas Savage 67), Andy Hughes, Steve Sidwell, James Harper, John Salako, Nicky Forster. Subs not used: Kevin Watson, Jon Macken, Nathan Tyson, Jamie Young.

Reading have only lost once to Burnley in almost 22 years – about time for a change.

Click HERE to see all Reading's results this season.

Past Results in the last 20 years

Click HERE to see more results against Reading.

One from the past

Promotion chase back on track

Burnley 3 (Hamilton 2 Young) Reading 0
Football League Division Three – Saturday 3^rd April 1982

Billy Hamilton - with the Division Two Championship trophy won by the Clarets in 1981/82

Burnley went into their home game against Reading in April 1982 in sixth place in Division Three and had just drawn their last three games.

The last of those three had been a significant draw with a last minute equaliser giving us a point at league leaders Lincoln courtesy of a Trevor Steven goal.

There was some good news for the club before the game although some news that reflected very badly on former Chairman Bob Lord who had passed away four months earlier.

The good news was that the cash strapped Clarets had been involved in a £100,000 business deal with Read based haulage firm R. Rawcliffe Ltd. selling the firm 28 acres of land around Lowerhouse Lodges.

Chairman John Jackson said that the deal would give the Club some breathing space and would enable them to keep the current squad of players together for a further year.

However, Bob Lord had done a deal with the Club that would give his family a third of the proceeds of any sale and this deal was done when Lord threatened legal action against Burnley Football Club – yes stand up all those who thought he was wonderful for Burnley FC. Lord had originally sold the land to the club.

There was also news of a new director at Turf Moor in Alan Hutchinson owner of Hutchinson Leisure Group. His company owned the Sparrow Hawk in Church Street and Moorhouses Brewery and he was to take charge of the Club’s commercial activities. Sadly Alan was not to be a director for long and he passed away suddenly.

To the game and the Granada Television cameras were at Turf Moor with commentary from Martin Tyler now the top man on Sky and he highlighted the emerging young talent in the two sides.

Three teenagers on the field that day went on to play for England in their careers, Trevor Steven and Reading’s Kerry Dixon and Neil Webb.

Brian Miller issued a ‘Go for goals’ cry after two 0-0 draws and a 1-1 draw in the previous three games and he was answered very early in the game and what a good goal it was.

It owed a lot to Paul McGee who chased a lost cause down the right hand side as Burnley attacked the Bee Hole End and caught Reading’s Steve Hicks in possession. The loose ball fell to Phil Cavener and his cross was met by Billy Hamilton who headed in superbly.

The Clarets were very much in the driving seat and it was 2-0 ten minutes later and an even better header from Burnley’s Irish international striker. This time it was Brian Laws who crossed and Hamilton was stretching but got in a looping header that beat the keeper all ends up.

Burnley pushed forwards and twice Billy came close to completing a hat trick and we could have rattled up a cricket score during that first half but had to settle for 2-0 at half time.

The second half was a more even affair but Burnley were still the better side and added a third with a late strike from Kevin Young and the only bad news for the Clarets was an injury that forced Vince Overson off the field, an injury that was to keep him out for a year.

The promotion chase was back on and another game against Lincoln coming up next.

The teams were,

Burnley: Alan Stevenson, Brian Laws, Vince Overson (Colin Anderson 74), David Holt, Martin Dobson, Andy Wharton, Phil Cavener, Trevor Steven, Kevin Young, Billy Hamilton, Paul McGee.

Reading: Ron Fearon, Jerry Williams, Martin Hicks, Steve Wood, Alan Lewis, Gary Donnellan (Jon Cullen 74), Steve Hetzke, Neil Webb, Stuart Beavon, Kerry Dixon, Mike Kearney.

Referee: George Courtney (Spennymoor).

Attendance: 6,622