Coppell the cool realist

Reading manager doesn't need to keep feet on ground - his men have been here before

Actually, that is not true. Those worried need only look to deepest Berkshire and a hardy race known as Reading FC, who have developed something of an immunity to this "Premdemic". It has taken them 134 years of uninterrupted lower League football, mind you, not to mention any number of recent outbreaks that have taken them via the brink of the élite to the very edge of madness.

They have survived, though - so resiliently, in fact, that the Championship's second-placed team will not be letting Ipswich Town at home this lunchtime get to them. The Reading manager, Steve Coppell, ensures it. "Why is this one such a particularly big game then and why d'you say that every game is big from here on in?" he demands of his interrogator.

"Realistically it's not big at all - it's just three points. You've asked the question before and heard all the answers before. Regardless, it's just a case of accumulating points. The grind. Nine months of it. And we're only two months through.

"No, we'll not be talking of the psychology of the season until February at the very earliest. To us it's just Ipswich on Sunday. Can we win? Can we play our best?"

His words hung in the Thames Valley air, but in a city where flattery has long been the deception nobody appeared keen to reply to them. At the Madejski Stadium this doesn't feel like the buzz of expectation so much as trepidation. "We're in the spotlight because we're right up there," said Coppell.

"But if we lose two, three games now it'll be 'same old Reading'. You're forever fighting against that. Look at last season. We've got to Boxing Day when we beat Watford 3-0 and I thought 'blimey, we've got a hell of a chance this year'. And then it was like sand slipping through our fingers. For the next 11 games we never won. So I don't have to keep the players' feet on the floor. They've been here before and seen it peter away before. They're the last ones who need to know where the floor is."

Many feel it is time for Reading to locate where the roof is. A whole diary of dalliances with the ultimate promotion are still, some 10 years later, best bookmarked by Stuart "Archie" Lovell's missed penalty in the play-off final when Reading were already 2-0 up and that most guarded of golden doors was swung wide open. Bang! How cruelly it slammed shut.

Bolton Wanderers' epic 4-3 win in extra time remains the most amazingly bitter memory and is only stirred by the close shaves since when Reading have always managed to cut their own throat.

In the Nineties it was all attack no defence, last year it was all defence no attack, but finally they look to have if not the perfect balance, then at least a winning one. Even Coppell finds this hard to deny.

"The indications are after 12 games is that we've kept our tightness at the back and improved in front of goal," he said, almost loath to admit it. "But that's just in October. The end game is in April."

Almost without exception, nobody knows this "end game" quite like Coppell and, in 21 years of managership, had such a such a ding-dong with it. On one hand the Be-all-and-end-all Brigade nod when they recall how, in 1996, the Maine Road hot seat did for the frazzled Coppell in 54 days flat, but then recoil in befuddlement at the young player Coppell, who chose to finish his degree before turning full-time professional. Or the young manager Coppell, who simply shrugged his shoulders when told he was on an England shortlist and most definitely this mature Coppell, who has at last dug up the nuggets of perspective football buries deep beneath its promises.

"I wouldn't say I'm in love with this game. I enjoy it day-to-day, but that doesn't mean it's a lifelong obsession," said the 50-year-old. "I'm philosophical now. You control what you can and forget about the rest. What you think when you leave the training ground isn't going to affect unduly what will happen."

If that makes him sound like Coppell the cop-out merchant, he isn't. He has merely learnt to accept that however much you want something doesn't count a damn, that's all. For Steve Coppell read Reading, for Reading, Steve Coppell.

Their desire is there all right, but placed in the harshest of reality, not the softest of dreams. "I still want to do things in football," he insists. "I still want to compete at the highest level that I can. Is it an ambition to manage in the Premiership? Well yes, of course. But it's a bit like Colin Montgomerie winning a major. It's my drive but if it doesn't happen it doesn't happen. Sleep won't be lost. Que sera."

DID YOU KNOW?

11 things about the Royals...

134-YEAR ITCH: Founded 1871, played friendlies and cup matches until 1894, when became founder members of Southern League. Turned professional in 1895.

ONE-HIT WONDERS: Won one title in Southern League - Second Division in 1911 - before being elected to join Division Three (South) of the Football League.

THE LONG RUN: Best FA Cup run in 1927, losing to winners Cardiff City 3-0 in semis.

NEAR MISS ONE: Denied promotion to old Second Division twice as runners-up in 1949 and 1952 when only champions went up.

THIRD DEGREE: Founder members of non-regional Third Division in 1958. Spent 14 seasons there until relegated in centenary season.

AND AGAIN: Promoted to Third Division in 1979 when not conceding a goal in 1,074 minutes.

BOB'S NO BUILDER: Relegated to Fourth Division in 1982. Fought off threatened merger with Robert Maxwell's Oxford United.

UP, DOWN AND UP: Promoted in 1984 and returned to Second Division for first time in 55 years. Went down, then up again in 1986 when winning first 13 games.

NEAR MISS TWO: In 1995, first club to finish as runners-up in Second Division and not earn promotion. Still looked like going up when 2-0 up in play-off final. Lost 4-3.

STILL TRYING: Relegated in 1998, stayed down until 2002. Reached play-offs two years ago, but beaten by Wolves in semi-finals.

AND FINALLY: Nick Townsend, the IoS chief sportswriter, once went for a trial - and turned to writing.