ENGLISH LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP PLAY-OFF SEMI-FINAL, SECOND LEG: Cardiff City 0 Reading 3:NO ALL-WELSH play-off final then, Reading, helped by two Shane Long goals, instead going to Wembley on May 30th to take on Swansea.
Without the injured Craig Bellamy, Dave Jones’s team were ordinary at best, gifting their grateful opponents the all-important goal with which Republic of Ireland striker Long opened the scoring.
He added a second from the spot and Jobi McAnuff a late third as Cardiff’s promotion bid failed for the third season in succession, leaving Jones to consider his future after six years in charge.
Long, taking advantage of defensive indiscipline by Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, shot into the side-netting early on while Cardiff’s Michael Chopra claimed for an unlikely penalty.
Cardiff threatened after 17 minutes when Jay Bothroyd played in Chopra who was foiled by a sliding, last-ditch intervention from Reading skipper Matt Mills.
Bothroyd saw a drive deflect off Zurab Khizanishvili and wrong-foot Adam Federici before sailing just wide. From the resulting corner Dekel Keinan headed straight at the goalkeeper.
Reading went ahead after 28 minutes with what for Cardiff was a self-inflicted wound. Keinan’s backpass hit his centre-back partner, Kevin McNaughton, on the head and Long’s presence lured Stephen Bywater out of his area. The goalkeeper thrashed the ball into the oncoming striker who controlled the ball and lobbed it into the unguarded net.
Bad went to worse for Cardiff after 45 minutes when Keinan pulled down Mills at a corner and Long tucked home the spot-kick.
Cardiff should have had a goal back in the 50th minute but Emmanuel-Thomas blazed wide. Ten minutes into the second half McAnuff, a former Cardiff player, shot against the upright.
Noel Hunt almost struck for Reading in the 80th minute when he fired wastefully wide but, three minutes later, McAnuff added a fine solo goal to seal the victory.
Guardian Service
CARDIFF:Bywater, McNaughton, Keinan, Samuel (Matthews 68), Blake, Whittingham, Burke, Olofinjana, Emmanuel-Thomas (Koumas 60), Chopra (Parkin 64), Bothroyd. Subs Not Used: Heaton, Naylor, Rae, Hudson. Booked: Keinan, Koumas.
READING:Federici, Griffin, Mills, Khizanishvili, Harte, Karacan (Tabb 90), Leigertwood, McAnuff, Cummings, Long (Church 87), Hunt. Subs Not Used: McCarthy, Gunnarsson, Howard, Pearce, Manset. Booked: Long.
Att:24,081
Ref:Howard Webb (S Yorkshire).
