Reading fans’ treatment of Cech beneath contempt

LAST season, second only to Liverpool fans, the most hate mail I received was from Reading supporters. Of course they were defending the indefensible, that nasty little scrote Stephen Hunt.

This easily allowed them to replace Charlton in my personal dislike list. Another little or nothing club with the footballing equivalent of short-bloke syndrome.

I can just about understand them backing their player by cheering him every time he touched the ball (although cheering someone who cracked someone’s skull, accidentally or not, would sit rather uncomfortably with me), but to actually boo Cech every time he came into play deserves nothing but contempt.

Cech has behaved impeccably since his life-threatening injury. No dramatic double page splashes in the papers, no sickening self-pity interviews. He’s got back to what he does best a soon as possible. And for this he gets abuse from a bunch of second rate supporters who are happy to be fed a diet of kick and rush football week after week.

This made the result against them all the sweeter. Going a goal down was the cherry on the top as that gave them hope. First half we were awful and the sexy football of the Birmingham game was forgotten as we attempted to out-Reading Reading. Second half it obviously clicked that we needed just to play football — couple of changes and we destroyed them. Two stunning goals and the residents of Royston Vasey were silenced.

Liverpool was a laugh; well, it was after the penalty. Up to then we had been suffocated in virtually all areas. Pennant had the measure of Ashley Cole, Essien was out-jumped again and again and Drogba looked to be having one of his “I can’t be arsed” days. Despite all this the Anfield crowd were quiet — apart from the goal and the whining after the penalty award.

So was it a penalty? I didn’t think so when I was there. Having seen it again, I think its one of those “have seen them given” types, but would have been extremely unhappy if it had been given against us. In the immortal words of Catherine Tate “am I bothered though?’’ Not in the slightest. In fact the only way it could have been any better was if it had been a winning goal. Only United could have less of a case for whinging about dodgy penalties that the Scousers surely?

All that said, I think that Chelsea now have a psychological block when it comes to Liverpool which Benitez, to his credit, has created. It is simple but effective. Give us no time on the ball whatsoever — put in lots of tackles — especially when you have a weak referee like Styles in charge.

Rob Styles had a dreadful game, granted — but to claim that it was only one way was absurd.

Of course following his performance and the incident at Craven Cottage at the weekend we will once again have the open debate (outcry) for technology to assist the referee. I am still against it, and always will be.

So have Liverpool bridged the gap sufficiently to really challenge for the title? Well, considering the money they have spent in the last couple of years they certainly should have.

But seriously, the Liverpool fans obviously think so. I had to laugh on the way home when listening to the phone in; one Liverpool supporter rang in to say that it was great to see Gerrard strolling around the pitch, obviously safe in the knowledge that he was at the best football team on the planet . . . ahem!

Torres is a good player and should get them lots of goals — the fact that he is a diver will not be an issue as he is protected by the magic red shirt. I think the league as a whole will be more competitive — as the “big four” have all already dropped points.

Portsmouth next and this will be no walk in the park. We need to rack up some points while United’s new signings are still finding their feet, especially before January when we will lose our four to the African Nations Cup. We need to sort the right back situation out as Essien is not the answer and we miss him too much in the midfield. Is Alves a solution — no idea, haven’t seen him enough to have an opinion one way or the other. But we’ve put four players at right back this season in three games. Why not just one more?