Pardew keen to prove first rate

Reading are heading for status to match their stadium. By Ronald Atkin

Someone who is prudent, businesslike and successful is what all football chairmen, not to mention prospective mothers-in-law, covet. In Alan Pardew, Reading have a manager who fits the bill a treat. In two-and-a-half seasons Pardew has turned Reading from the strugglers he inherited into strong contenders for a place in the First Division, and he has saved money while doing it.

Though Pardew was a player of some distinction with Yeovil, Crystal Palace, Charlton and Barnet, it is in management that he has found his true billet. This is the man who scored the winner for Palace in their 4-3 FA Cup semi-final victory over Liverpool in 1990, yet promotion for Reading, he says, would cap that.

He nearly pulled it off last season. Having just missed automatic promotion because of a late sprint by Rotherham, Reading got to the final of the play-offs and led Walsall 2-1. They then suffered a bizarre own-goal equaliser, heads dropped and they were beaten 3-2. So it is testimony to Pardew's skills that they are again thumping on the door.

"The start of this season was particularly tough," said Par-dew, who bears a strong facial resemblance to the Republic of Ireland's manager, Mick McCarthy, the ski-slope nose excepted. "I had to get players who thought they should be in the First Division to realise they were still in the Second. It was not difficult to pick myself up, but it did take the players a little time."

The storm over ITV money is not likely to saturate Reading, who shelter under the generous umbrella of John Madejski, the chairman after whom the club's superb, purpose-built stadium is named. "If we get promoted and the money doesn't come through from ITV it isn't going to affect us. We will be OK," Pardew insisted.

There are, inevitably, pressures of another sort. Reading have a wonderful stadium. What about a team good enough to grace it and fill it? Pardew has been working on that one since October 1999, when he stepped up from reserve-team manager as caretaker in the wake of Tommy Burns' dismissal.

Reading had lost their place in the First Division in 1998 and another relegation looked on the cards, but an immediate upturn earned Pardew confirmation in his first job as manager. In September 2000 recognition as manager of the month brought a three-year contract as he took the club to the top of the Second Division.

"Promotion is a natural expectation at a club of this size," said Pardew. "The first full year I was in charge I felt the burden of the stadium, but I came through it. Since I have been in charge we have tried to be sensible. I have reduced the wage bill, not a great deal, but when you look at the likes of Cardiff, Stoke and Wigan, their wages are certainly above ours. And our staff is smaller. I'm down to about 24 players at the moment and whether we go up or not there will be a couple of additions, so we will be looking at a squad of 26."

Pardew's prudence followed a spell when Reading had tried to buy success; "throwing money at it and hoping it would work" was how he described the reign of his predecessor, Burns. "Tommy had a fair bit to spend and though he brought a lot to this club, by his own admission he didn't quite gauge the division correctly. He bought young players he thought would get better but they weren't up to standard."

The training ground, at the Reading Cricket and Hockey Club in Sonning, is a friendly location, open to the fans, with the signing of footballs, shirts, autograph books and scraps of paper cheerfully undertaken. There is heavy symbolism, too, with neither of the two clocks registering the correct time. The one on the tower stands forever at five to eight, the other on the side of the pavilion is stuck at 10.15.

The finish to Reading's season is similarly in need of co-ordination. Though they have lost only one of their last 22 matches, they have drawn six of the last seven, and victory is an urgent requirement today at Tranmere. "We have left the door open a bit," Pardew admitted. "We are in good health and good form but need to put a win on the board."

It could yet come down to the season's last game, a visit to Brentford, their closest challengers (with Brighton) for automatic promotion. "That would be ironic," said Pardew, "because my old manager at Palace, Steve Coppell, is at Brentford. So it could be the sorcerer against the sorcerer's apprentice."

Pardew, straight of gaze and firm of intent, will not shirk that challenge if it comes. Careful observation as a player of what went on at Palace and Charlton prepared him for the work he felt he was destined for. "I have always geared myself to doing this job. I took my coaching stuff early while I was playing, took management courses. But nothing can prepare you for this job until you do it.

"I don't mind the constant pressure, I don't get fazed easily. But the worst thing is the criticism. You get criticised as a player, but not quite in the same manner. Criticism off people I respect was hard to get used to, but I honestly feel I have put things in place here. The club is in a great position, whether we go up or not. But promotion will make us go forward quicker, and that's what all clubs want." Especially a club that has Madejski Stadium for a home.