If Reading have had it good for far too long, it is perhaps almost time for pay-back. As they stumbled to a sixth successive league defeat, the rows of empty seats and barrage of insults hurled around the Madejski Stadium summed up the whole sorry story. The natives are getting restless.
Steve Coppell, the Reading manager, also. “Does it give me sleepless nights? Of course it does,” he said. “If you want to sleep, you don’t become a football manager. Your mind is always racing, thinking what you can do to help. Then you go home and can’t wait to get up so you can watch the tape and see how to put things right.
“I’m healthy, so it’s not a problem. I always think of the Bill Shankly quote, something along the lines of ‘losing is worse than death because you have to live with losing’. Yes, I heard the booing. It’s hurtful. I also heard some of the comments . . . but I’d prefer that they are made at me than the players.”
Coppell has had a smooth ride since arriving at Reading in October 2003. Now, there is a real fear of relegation. At times, against an ordinary Bolton Wanderers team, Reading appeared clueless. Marek Matejovsky, the Czech Republic midfield player, made an encouraging first start, but too many of his teammates struggled.
Even the let-off of a squandered penalty, when Marcus Hahnemann saved from Matthew Taylor, failed to inspire them. Kevin Nolan established the lead soon after and Heidar Helguson, in the second half, wrapped up Bolton’s first away win of the campaign.



Steve Coppell saw Reading lose 2-0 to Bolton - and admitted his side will end up getting relegated unless performances improve soon.The Royals' defeat to Bolton - Wanderers' first away win in the Premier League in 10 months - was confirmation that they are in real trouble and Coppell was not about to suggest otherwise.
He said: "We can't beat about the bush - avoiding relegation is our only target. With 14 games still to go, or however many it is, we have a real struggle on our hands.
"I haven't had that at Reading but what a great challenge and we have got to rise to it.
"I have felt for a long time that any three from eight or nine could go down. Now we are significantly one of the three."
It was Reading's sixth straight league loss and they were saved from dropping into the relegation places only by Derby's late equaliser at Birmingham, who are now third from bottom themselves.
Coppell added: "We had good spells and bad spells last year but our good spells carried us through. This year we haven't had a good spell of any significance. We have got to score more goals and have more clean sheets.
"If we don't have clean sheets then we don't deserve to stay up."
Coppell was particularly disappointed with Bolton's opener, which saw Kevin Nolan take advantage of Kevin Davies' header across the box after the Reading defence had failed to deal with a free-kick.
He said: "It was the ultimate sucker punch."