By Mark Sugar
April 9 2004

Its been a Good Friday for Reading after Playoff rivals Sheffield United and Wigan Athletic slipped up.United lost 3-0 at Sunderland while Wigan lost 2-0 at top of the table Norwich City.The results set Reading up nicely for tomorrow's match against Bradford City.

Its been a very good Friday for Reading as their near promotion rivals suffered defeats in today's matches.

First up, Sheffield United were soundly beaten by Mick McCarthy's Sunderland 3-0 at the Stadium of Light. Tommy Smith put the Black Cats ahead in the 11th minute after some fantastic build up play. United didn't really get close in the 1st half as the teams went into half time with the score 1-0. Neil Warnock's side started the 2nd half brightly, but went 2-0 down after Gary Breen wasn't picked up from a corner. Warnock was furious with the goal as his side seemed to have lost goals through corner's recently. It was game over in injury time when Kevin Kyle beat the offside trap and nicely finished in front of the helpless Paddy Kenny. The match finished 3-0 which left Sheffield United in 7th place with Sunderland 3rd still.

In the 2nd match of the day in the Division, Norwich responded to the Sunderland victory by comfortably beating fellow promotion rivals Wigan Athletic 2-0 at Carrow Road. In a quiet first half, neither team could create to many openings. In the 2nd half though, Matthias Svensson struck a superb shot from 25 yards out to give Norwich the lead. Minutes later it was game over as Darren Huckerby finished a superb move started by himself. Wigan came close with a Jason Jarrett shot which hit the cross bar. But Wigan will fell harshly done by after Jason Roberts was denied a clear cut penalty. But the 3 points went to Norwich as they stayed top of the league.

	Played	Goal Difference	Points
1.Norwich	40	31	79
2.West Brom	39	24	76
3.Sunderland	39	20	71
4.Wigan Athletic	41	13	65
5.Millwall	39	14	64
6.West Ham	40	15	63
7.Sheffield Utd	41	8	63
8.Reading	40	-1	63
9.Ipswich Town	40	9	62