London Calling: When Reading welcomed the capital's elite in the EFL Cup

The Royals have crossed paths with the West Londoners at various significant moments in their history; many fans will remember Jamie Cureton’s goal to gain promotion to Division One in 2002, fewer will remember the visit of the Bees for the match which set the Elm Park attendance record in 1927. One need only look at the Brentford line-up and coaching staff from 2002 for an idea of how many players have played for both sides.

The meeting between the two will be the 99th head-to-head clash between Reading and Brentford, including every competition from the EFL Championship to the Leyland Daf Cup. Yet, never in the previous 98 have the two been separated by two divisions. Since match 98 in February 2021, Brentford have established themselves as a Premier League side, becoming the blueprint for how to run a football club properly. Reading have fallen to League One, and are recovering from becoming the blueprint for how to run a football club into the ground.

A gulf in class should exist between Keith Andrews’ side and Leam Richardson’s boys, and though upsets in cup football are always on the cards, a four-match winning run for the Bees against Reading is hardly a confidence boost. Neither is Reading’s record in the League Cup – victory tonight will see the Berkshire Boys reach the Fourth Round for just the 11th time in the competition’s 66-year history.

Getting to the last 16 will require Reading to do something they haven’t managed in the EFL Cup for 25 years: win at home to a Premier League team from London. Brentford will be the fourth such team to come to the Madejski Stadium in the competition, and today, we’re looking back at the previous three.

Second Round, 11th September 2001 (21,173)

A quarter of a century ago last Friday, Reading fans gathered at the Madejski Stadium with the events of earlier in the day in New York overshadowing the build-up to a second round match in what was then called the Worthington Cup against West Ham United.

Future West Ham manager Alan Pardew took charge of Reading, with former Hammer Martin Allen as his assistant. Former Royals goalkeeper Shaka Hislop was between the posts for West Ham, one of his final games as first-choice ‘keeper, as new signing David James recovered from injury.

Hislop was one of several household names in the away team’s line-up that night, yet Reading managed to keep the top-flight side at bay, limiting them to a Don Hutchinson free-kick and a chance for Jermain Defoe in the first half, but Phil Whitehead was equal to both. Whitehead was called upon again in extra time, denying thunderous efforts from Hutchinson and Trevor Sinclair. But Reading were by no means hanging on, as headers from Darius Henderson and Adi Viveash brought the best out of Hislop.

After 120 minutes without a goal, penalties were needed to decide the tie. Hutchinson, Laurent Courtois, Michael Carrick and Sinclair scored West Ham’s first four, and though Alex Smith, Graeme Murty and Tony Rougier responded to the first three, James Harper became the first player to miss with the Royals’ fourth spot-kick.

That gave Defoe the chance to win it, but despite sending Whitehead the wrong way, his penalty struck the post. Sammy Igoe scored to send the tie to sudden death. Christan Dailly and Henderson both scored, before the pressure got to Scott Minto; his effort was saved and Viveash slotted into the bottom corner to win the shootout 6-5 for the Royals.

Reading’s reward was another tie against claret and blue Premiership opposition in the form of Aston Villa, but they succumbed to a 1-0 loss at Villa Park. The season would end in positivity for both sides; as Reading would secure that Cureton-inspired promotion at Griffin Park, while the Hammers finished seventh in the Premiership.

Fourth Round, 3rd December 2003 (24,107)

For the first time in what was then 132 years of history, Reading would play the team sitting top of the English football pyramid. A quite remarkable fact, and Reading could hardly have timed this “first” so well, especially as so few table-topping sides had caused as much intrigue and debate as Chelsea did in 2003.

The previous summer, Roman Abramovic’s takeover of the Blues had seen Chelsea rip up the rulebook regarding transfers, spending between £15-17 million on Juan Sebastián Verón, Adrian Mutu, Hernán Crespo, Claude Makélélé and Damien Duff, while Joe Cole, Wayne Bridge and Scott Parker were among the plethora of other arrivals on smaller yet significant fees.

Claudio Ranieri’s side’s “failure” to win the title in May saw the Italian sacked and replaced by José Mourinho. Six months earlier when safely in his managerial position, Ranieri brought “Chelski”, as they were vomit-inducingly dubbed, to Berkshire for what was surely the highest-profile match in the county since Manchester United came to Elm Park in the FA Cup eight years earlier.

Chelsea made half a dozen changes from a match with United the weekend before, but still started the likes of John Terry, Frank Lampard and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink alongside new men Cole, Crespo and Johnson. In front of a packed house, Steve Coppell’s side acquitted themselves brilliantly, only a matter of weeks after Sir Steve replaced Pardew in the dugout.

Like Whitehead before him, Marcus Hahnemann was key to Reading keeping the score down, as he thwarted chances for Jesper Gronkjaer, Lampard and Crespo, with the Argentine also denied by the post. However, the American could do nothing to stop Chelsea finally making the breakthrough, which arrived 12 minutes after half-time, when a long ball forward was knocked down into the path of Hasselbaink, who powered his shot past Hahnemann and into the bottom corner.

Reading were very much in the game against their free-spending opponents – Bas Savage forced a brilliant stop from Neil Sullivan in perhaps his finest game in a Reading shirt, while Nicky Forster continually stretched the Chelsea defence. John Mackie was another standout performer on the night, and he came closest to equalising late on, but his looping header was cleared off the line by Frank Lampard, and the Royals fell to a narrow and admirable defeat.

After a trophyless first season of the Abramovic era, Chelsea won their first Premiership title a year later, while Reading missed out on the play-offs on the final day in both 2003/04 and 2004/05, before things clicked like never before the following season.

Fourth Round, 30th October 2012 (23,980)

A Halloween fright like no other came a day early for Reading when they welcomed Arsenal for an all-Premier League encounter 14 years ago, in what was then called the Capital One Cup, appropriately enough for this feature!

3-2 wins over Peterborough United and Queens Park Rangers in the previous rounds had been Reading’s only wins since promotion, and few gave them a chance against Arsenal, who were still a force despite a few trophy-barren years under Arsene Wenger, and had never fallen to defeat at the hands of the Berkshire side in history.

But in front of the Sky Sports cameras, Reading looked to be writing their own history with consummate ease – Jason Roberts turned in a low cross to put Reading in front, before Chris Gunter’s centre was bundled into his own net at the near post by Laurent Koscielny. Reading fans were looking around at each other in disbelief when Mikele Leigertwood’s strike was palmed up and in by new Gunners goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez (who surely would amount to nothing either at the Mad Stad or in world football) for one of the most unorthodox goals one could wish to see. Dreamland was reached in the 37th minute, when Noel Hunt rose highest in the box to head in Gareth McCleary’s cross and put Reading 4-0 up.

Oh, would you look at that! This post has gone on long enough. If you want to find out what happened next, you’ll just have to watch the video above. Spoiler alert: the referee indicated four minutes of added time at the end of the second half, there were no additional stoppages, and Theo Walcott scored in the 96th minute.

Niall Quinn, on Sky Sports, said after the match that, "at least Reading fans can say 'I was there'!" Which I've always taken as a great comfort...