Away Day Tales: Episode 9 - Highfield Road (26th Dec 2002)

the-gorilla (74)modModerator WOX 🍌in WORLD OF XPILAR • 3 years ago

With Reading playing away at Coventry City this weekend, I thought I'd dig into my archives and write about my first away trip to Coventry back in 2002. Regular readers are probably bored of hearing that 2002/03 was the season that I went to every Reading game both home and away but seeing as I'm settling myself into World Of Xpilar now, I'm hoping to find another audience 🙂

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Younger football fans might not remember Highfield Road due to Coventry City moving to the Ricoh Arena in 2005 (I'll have an away days tale for the Ricoh at some point too) but I remember my trip there back in 2002 and 1 player in particular (who I'll get to later).

Both us and Coventry were doing fairly well in the league at the time. Our return to Division One had seen us pushing for the playoffs and Coventry were only 3 points behind in 10th.

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Official figures say that 2,062 away fans travelled that day for a total attendance of 19,526, boxing day often attracting better crowds.

The journey to Coventry is fairly uninteresting which is probably why I can't remember it. I also remember very little about the game but what I can remember, I remember very clearly. We were sat to the side of the pitch and had a whopping great pillar blocking one of the corners and being on the side, we had a prime view of Liverpool loanee Richie Partridge absolutely destroy us.

Richie Partridge's career never really took off - he was voted Coventry Fans Player of the Season that year and given his performance against us, that didn't come as a huge surprise. I can't remember hearing about him after this but his career appears to have rapidly declined through Sheffield Wednesday, Rotherham United, Chester City, MK Dons, Stockport and then a stint in Wales. I can't help but wonder what went wrong.

Partridge was incredible all game, his pace constantly causing us problems as he crossed for the 1st goal and scored the 2nd, condemning us to a 2-0 loss (another Away Days Tale that ends in defeat). His 2nd goal in particular was superb and the highlights below don't show the run that ended in the ruthless finish.

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After the game was probably the highlight of the day for me though - a friend of mine's family owned a Chinese restaurant in Coventry so we all went there afterwards and stuffed our faces free of charge. Yummy.

If you enjoy reading about my Away Days, please let me know in the comments, especially if there's a ground that you'd like me to write about (assuming I've been there).