Reading's VAR Controversy and Upcoming Challenge Against Notts County
It has been a wretched few days for English officials. Barely had the fury over the VAR chaos in the Manchester derby begun to cool when another storm broke, this time in the Carabao Cup at the SCL Stadium.
Reading thought they had levelled against Brentford in the third round. Paudie O'Connor flung himself into an acrobatic finish, the kind of improvised strike that usually brings a roar and a replay, not a whistle. The ball hit the net. The celebrations started. Then referee Tom Nield stepped in.
With a nod from his assistant, Nield ruled the goal out, judging that O'Connor's boot had been raised too high. No foul on an opponent. No obvious danger. Just a defender turning, for a split second, into something resembling Zlatan Ibrahimovic and being punished for the ambition.
The decision stunned the stadium. It also instantly buried another major talking point: a clear-looking handball penalty appeal later in the game that went nowhere. On another night, that might have dominated the post-match debate. Not this one. The disallowed goal was so baffling that everything else melted into the background.
Leam Richardson did not bother to hide his anger.
"It was in the top three worst decisions I've seen," the Reading manager said, still bristling at full-time.
Midfielder Charlie Savage went even stronger.
"It was one of the worst decisions I've seen in my whole life," he said, echoing the disbelief in the stands.
You did not need to be wearing blue and white hoops to agree. The home crowd left the SCL Stadium furious with the officials after the 2-1 defeat on Tuesday night, feeling they had been robbed of at least the chance to drag a Premier League side into deeper trouble.
And yet, when those same supporters return on Saturday for the league meeting with Notts County, the frustration may begin long before kick-off.
This time, it is not the match officials in the firing line but the power company. Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) have chosen the weekend to replace a pylon near the ground, closing junction 11 of the M4 – the main artery that feeds directly into the stadium.
The impact is likely to be brutal. Reading fans, Notts County fans, racegoers heading to Newbury, and visitors to the Newbury Show a couple of junctions further west will all be funneled into a tangle of diversions and tailbacks. Getting to the football might feel as gruelling as playing in it.
On the pitch, though, the mood inside the Reading camp should be very different from the noise outside.
Back-to-back defeats – in the league at Cambridge last Saturday and then against Brentford – usually sap confidence. These ones may do the opposite. Pushing a Premier League side to the point where Brentford felt compelled to turn to Igor Thiago of Brazil to help close out the tie was no small achievement for a club that has spent the last few seasons scraping for depth and belief.
Reading rattled a top-flight team, and they did it with a squad that finally looks like it has genuine competition across the pitch. That alone marks a shift. For too long, the starting XI has virtually picked itself. Now players are looking over their shoulders, and that edge is beginning to show in performances.
So the club heads into Saturday with anger at officials still simmering, road chaos looming, and a fanbase that might arrive late and frazzled. Inside the dressing room, though, the equation is simpler: if they can bring the same intensity that unsettled Brentford, Notts County will find themselves stepping into a very different kind of traffic jam.
