Heartbreak. Absolute heartbreak. After eighty-five minutes Cooper reaches across Bolasie, and the Crystal Palace man takes a tumble inside the box. After a couple of seconds Mike Dean points at the spot. Cabaye converts, even with Al-Habsi managing to get a hand to it and Palace proceed to Wembley. At the ground I thought it was a penalty, from replays it's the definition of soft. After Benteke's tumble last weekend Palace may feel like things have been set right, but from Reading's point of view it was just the solidification of how awful a game Dean had. Palace were the better team, and really should have been out of sight, but a string of excellent Al-Hasbi saves, alongside some goalline clearances, and Palace's profligacy generally - in total they had twenty-three shots - kept the home side in it. In fact if Ola John had kept his composure when Hennessey flapped at the ball and it fell to the Dutchman, then The Royals could have gone one-nil up. Instead he shot wi...
From the man who's still convinced that Nick Blackman is a good player.