The sun was out, the RMT were on strike, Europe were on top in the Ryder Cup (just a thought what was our Captain Fantastic doing at the Ryder Cup and not battling the old enemy with us) and Reading only had 10 men for the adjusted late start. The omens were good.

With superior numbers we wanted to hit them hard, unfortunately they had not read the script and had other ideas keeping the ball and making it look like they had the additional player. We were rarely in the opposing 25 and not in the D for the first 10 minutes at which point their missing players turned up.

Reading continued to push and we defended stoutly and even on occasion troubled their defence, eventually Reading’s pressure paid off with their extremely Grumpy player rounding a couple of defenders and pulling the ball back for the goal.

The Titans were distraught. Although Reading had the ascendancy they had not really looked like scoring. This led to more effort and the game became scrappy, then out of nowhere the Titans put 6 passes together. The ball came left then unbelievably went back right, up to Jatin who worked his magic for a short corner. Zig Zag was the shout from Wiz on the bench and a beautiful example of the called for move was executed, Jatin left standing with the goal empty bar the Reading left post man. In an unusual show of compassion, Jatin somehow managed to miss the 80% empty goal and put it on the post man’s foot. Never mind, step up Joergen 1-1 with an excellent flick into the roof of the net. Half Time.

Early in the second half our midfield maestro Nigel was on the wrong end of a wild swing and down he went, please not the same hand but alas yes and he took no further part in the game. The club’s surgeons have yet to give the final diagnosis but unfortunately Nigel looks to have taken over from Mike Poulton as the punching bag for the opposition.

It all became a bit end to end with neither team able to string passes together, Grumpy became the difference with a couple of weaving runs resulting in a short corner and an open play goal. 1-3.

The game was now being played in slow motion and was a little attritional with Laurence going off with a head injury, fortunately not too dangerous as it was nowhere near his brain.

Titans for only the second time ran through a string of passes, Joergen making himself available and laying it off to Jatin and the result as it often is, was the ball hitting the backboard. 2-3.

With the game becoming more desperate as Titans pushed for another goal the ball was given away. Grumpy again on the ball two against one and they put it in. It all ended 2-4 which was a fair reflection of the game. We could and should do better.