Hull City

Hull City v Reading

Sky Bet Championship
KCOM Stadium
Saturday 10th August 2019

3pm

Journey Time to the ground: 6 hours 15 minutes.  During pre-season it had been announced that Reading would be providing free coach travel to the furthest 15 away games of the season, as long as you were a member of the supporters club.  At a cost of £10 for the season, this felt like too good an opportunity to miss and a chance for me to complete visits to all the Championship grounds.  We left home at 7:30am for the coach-pick up at 8am and arrived at the KCOM Stadium at 1:15pm after a 45 minute stop to grab a KFC at Woodall Services on the M1.

Ticket Price: £30

Programme Price: £3

This was my first visit to the KCOM Stadium and the early arrival gave us plenty of time to look around.  Unfortunately there isn't much to do around the ground as it is set in a park so after looking in the club shops we headed into the ground.  We had tickets in the away end which is the North Stand.  This is a single-tiered all-seater stand.  The view of the pitch from our seats was good as was the leg-room.

To the left of the North Stand is the East Stand, another single-tiered all-seater stand and seemed to be the area where the most vociferous Hull fans congregated.  Opposite the North Stand is the South Stand, which is identical to the North Stand being another single-tiered all-seater stand.  To the right of the North Stand is the West Stand.  This is the main stand at the KCOM Stadium and is a two-tiered all-seater stand which houses the team dug-outs and player's tunnel at it's front.

A busy end to the transfer window had filled Reading fans with hope for a decent season and the trip to Hull had been eagerly anticipated as a chance to see the new players and how good the team could be.  However Reading went behind after just six minutes when young goalkeeper Joao Virginia let Kamil Grosicki's shot squirm underneath him and onto the post before Jarrod Bowen smashed home from a yard out.  Hull doubled their lead ten minutes later when Jackson Irvine was left unmarked in the middle of the box to head in Bowen's right-wing cross.

With a first-half display that had sucked the optimism out of most of the away support, Reading finally started to play some football in the second-half.  Reading pulled a goal back in the 66th minute when new signing Lucas Joao, who had scored for Sheffield Wednesday against Reading the week before, scored his first goal for the Royals, collecting a cross-field ball from John Swift before cutting into the box and firing a low effort past George Long in the Hull goal.  Reading pushed for an equaliser and came close when another new signing, George Puscas, smashed an effort off the bar from about three yards, but ultimately a poor first-half had cost them.

Attendance: 10,673 with 530 Reading fans.

Atmosphere:  The atmosphere wasn't bad.  Although the crowd wasn't massive, the Hull fans in the East Stand made some noise.  The atmosphere in the away end was alright, although slightly subdued because of conceding the early goals.  It would be interesting to see what the atmosphere would be like when the ground is full.

Journey Time home: 5 hours.  The coach left around 5pm and dropped us into town at 9:45pm after a quick 20 minute stop at Warwick Services for some food.  It was about a 15 minute walk home so we were home just after 10pm.

I enjoyed my trip to Hull as the coach travel element made it different to any other ground I'd been too.  However the KCOM Stadium seemed to be quite run-down considering it is only 17 years old.  The cladding on the outside reminded me of the old Wimbledon dog stadium and there was anti-Allam graffiti which they had obviously tried to clean up unsuccessfully.  The game wasn't great from a Reading point of view, although there are such fine margins in the Championship that anyone can beat anyone.