Reading 0-0 QPR: That's all folks

Reading: McCarthy; Kelly (Harte), Mariappa, Morrison, Gunter; McAnuff, Guthrie, Karacan, Blackman (Robson-Kanu), McCleary (Le Fondre); Pogrebnyak

Reading went into the game unchanged from last week's 2-1 defeat up at Norwich but welcomed back Hal Robson-Kanu and Ian Harte on to the bench.

The game was about as bad as you're likely to see in the Premier League. QPR probably should have taken all three points but a series of misses from highly priced and under performing players left them goalless and relegated.

Reading did have their moments, Chris Gunter marauded down the right time after time and Danny Guthrie was dictating the play well from deeper positions but ultimately they lacked a spark and players of real quality to make things happen.

QPR had the best chances in the first half. Estaban Granero's free-kick skimmed off the bar and a misjudgement from Alex McCarthy gave Jay Bothroyd a chance to loft the ball into the net, only for the former England striker to see his effort just go past the post.

Reading meanwhile were feeding off scraps. Nick Blackman fired one over from 20 yards and a Guthrie ball skimmed across the six-yard box but their only real chance to score came during a goalmouth scramble that ended with Pavel Pogrebnyak's poked effort being cleared off the line by Bosingwa.

The home side also had a couple of penalty appeals waved away by referee Kevin Friend but neither were clear cut and you can understand both decisions.

Into the second period and Pogrebnyak had a great chance to score only to see his header bounce into the ground and over the bar.

Reading's strikers haven't found the net since January and no Reading player has scored a goal at home since the start of February and they didn't come too close to breaking that record as the minutes ticked by.

Nigel Adkins threw on Hal Robson-Kanu and Adam Le Fondre and while both were lively, neither got close to finding the net and it was QPR who were making more opportunities as the game wore on, only for Adel Taraabt to miss two golden chances.

There's little else to recap really as the game looked more like a pre-season friendly than a game where both clubs needed a win to keep faint survival hopes alive.

As if to sum up exactly why we're going down, Nigel Adkins' final throw of the dice was bringing on 35-year-old left-back Ian Harte in place of arguably our best January signing, Stephen Kelly. If that sentence doesn't tell you why we're going down then nothing will.

Still, we'll keep the inquests as to how and why we got to this point for the days, weeks and months ahead.....

Player ratings can be found here.

Are we making steps forward? Maybe. As I said there were some moments of good play and you can see why Nigel Adkins is trying to do but they don't have the players at the club to realise his vision, especially not in the space of a few weeks. I think we'll have a better gauge of things 8 games into next season so there's little point getting too happy or worried based on what we're seeing between now and the end of the campaign.

The crowd were pretty quiet throughout and while the official attendance was over 23,000 in reality there can't have been more than 18,000 in the ground, a sad sign of things to come.

So it's back to the Championship we go. Trips to The Emirates, Old Trafford and White Hart Lane will be switched for Dean Court, Pride Park and the Keepmoat. It's a league we know very well and here's hoping Nigel Adkins and Reading can make it two promotions from their last two seasons in that division.

Even though we've seen this coming for a number of weeks it's still a sad day and effectively ends one of the worst campaigns in living memory. Every relegation hurts but this one has just been miserable and let's hope Nigel and whichever players pull on the shirt next year can put a smile back on our faces.

Whatever happens we'll still be here, if you've picked up on the website since we've been promoted then I hope you've enjoyed it and hope you'll stick with us next season.

It's a bad day but it's all part of why we follow this game.

C'Mon URZ!