Two goals in the final 20 minutes by Don Goodman gave Wolves a flattering
victory and plunged rock-bottom Reading ever closer to the Second Division.
Goodman, who is being released on a free transfer in the summer, earned his
team three points from a game they often looked like losing.
He made it 2-1 in the 70th minute by chesting down a deep centre from Paul
Simpson and crashing a low right-foot shot past goalkeeper Scott Howie and into
the bottom far corner of the net.
Then in injury time Goodman powerfully headed home at the far post from a
centre by Kevin Muscat to give his side a two-goal cushion they hardly
deserved.
The match was largely meaningless for Wolves after the collapse of their
promotion challenge, although former Reading manager Mark McGhee will breathe a
little easier after this result.
Wolves boss McGhee was under considerable pressure from supporters and there
were signs of unrest during the game, particularly when the players went off at
the end of a Reading-dominated first half.
Wolves had been given the perfect start when Muscat scored his first Molineux
goal, a crashing right-foot shot from nearly 25 yards after Simpson's corner had
been headed out to him in the ninth minute.
Carl Robinson should have made it 2-0 with a clear shot that he sliced off
target but Reading were the brighter side in the first half by some distance.
Hans Segers saved superbly early on from a header by Paul Brayson, who then
went down in the area under a challenge by Steve Sedgley only for referee Terry
Heilbron to wave play on.
But Brayson, a £100,000 pre-deadline signing from Newcastle, got his reward in
first-half injury time when he controlled and fired home from just inside the
area after Segers could only half clear under pressure from a centre by Stuart
Lovell.
It was Brayson's first goal for Reading and might have been followed by
another in a second half in which Lovell and the impressive James Lambert also
went close.
Wolves did not impress, although substitute Steve Bull missed a glorious
chance just after going on in the 57th minute and a flurry of half chances came
and went in the final quarter of an hour.
Teams:
Wolverhampton: Segers, Muscat, Naylor, Slater (Bull 57), Sedgley,
Curle, Simpson, Robinson (Atkins 57), Goodman,
Claridge (Keane 64), Osborn.
Goals: Muscat 9, Goodman 69, 90.
Reading: Howie, Crawford, Gray, Lovell, Primus, Parkinson,
Meaker (Morley 67), Caskey, Brayson, McIntyre, Lambert.
Subs Not Used: Swales, Davies.
Goals: Brayson 44.
Att: 19,785
Ref: T Heilbron (Newton Aycliffe).
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