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Reading Football Club, sitting sixth in the First Division battled bravely against Premiership Chelsea who were able to call upon £38m worth of talent in the second half as the going got tough for them.
The Royals, on the other hand, had just £500,000 worth of footballer available to them. The contrast was extreme.
Whilst Reading battled bravely they were always going to be out-punched by the might that Roman Abramovich's billions bought. Chelsea had no fewer than twenty-one shots on goal, but on all but one of those occasions they were foiled by bad luck, good defending, the woodwork and freebie goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann.
But after such a display of force against the biggest in the business, Steve Coppell had reason to feel proud of his side who were watched by a record 24,107 strong crowd at the Madejski Stadium.
"I was delighted we had a go. When you see the Chelsea line-up you think - what a great experience, to be up against a squad of players like this," Coppell enthralled.
"All our players want to be in the Premiership, and this was a real opportunity to see how good they are individually. It was great for them to see the best team in the country at the moment and I think they can draw plenty of positives from the performance.
"We were aggressive, positive and played a full part in the match and that was good. We didn't get frightened, we created a couple of chances and we kept going forward."
On the hour the inevitable Chelsea goal came. Coppell was disappointed with the way the solitary strike came around as it followed an attacking mix-up at the other end of the field.
Andy Hughes and Nicky Forster both got in each other's way as they attempted to pounce on a loose ball outside the Blues penalty area, allowing the visitors to break and score what was to prove a decisive goal.
With a hint of disappointment in his voice, Coppell added: "It was a shame that when the goal did come it was the result of a miss communication between my lads, 70 yards from our goal.
"Then Crespo found some space and we had two defenders around him, so that was disappointing. But even then we didn't lay down and die," he said.
But the final word was left for Chelsea boss Claudio Ranieri. His side have smashed down all before them in recent weeks, hitting four and five past Lazio and Newcastle respectively. But surely no keeper this season has so fiercely resisted the Chelsea firing squad as Marcus Hahnemann.
The Reading number one kept out the Blues time and again. After the game Ranieri threw superlative after superlative at the 'fantastic' goalie.