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Reading Legend: Jamie Cureton |
"Jaaaamie Cureton, what a bargain, what a bargain!" Scoring over 50 goals in his three-year stint with the Royals - most notably the promotion-clinching equaliser at Brentford in 2002 - 'Curo' became a cult figure in Berkshire. Ian Biddle pays tribute.When Nicky Forster did his cruciate ligament in a pre-season friendly against Charlton just seven days before the 2000-2001 season began, Alan Pardew moved quickly to secure the cut-price Cureton from M4 rivals Bristol Rovers for a paltry £250,000. His ability to put the ball in the net was evident from the start of his tenure at Reading, scoring in his opening three games for the Royals, including a last gasp equaliser against Stoke and the winner at Port Vale the following Saturday. Perhaps his most memorable goal of that campaign though was the winner in a 1-0 win over his old club, Bristol Rovers. Barracked by the away support from the opening whistle, Curo responded the only way he knew. A cross from the left wasn't cut out by the Pirates' defence and fell to Cureton, who took one touch before sweeping the ball past the visitor's keeper in front of a noisy away end. In celebration, Cureton cockily put both hands to his ears in an act of defiance; a stance that would quickly become known by the Reading faithful as 'doing a Jamie'. On his way to 30 goals in his debut season with Reading that saw the club miss out in the play-off final against Walsall, Cureton formed a deadly partnership with Martin Butler, who himself notched 27 that term with both scoring in the 3-2 (aet) defeat to the Saddlers. The next year both Reading and Cureton started slowly and the Bristolian found himself on the bench for a big portion of the 2001-2002 season. Despite this, he still managed 16 goals as Reading finished 2nd ahead of Steve Coppell's Brentford, a team that contained future Reading alumni in Stephen Hunt, Steve Sidwell, Ivar Ingimarsson and Lloyd Owusu in the starting line up. With automatic promotion in Division Two going to the final day, Reading knew a draw at Brentford would be enough to secure second spot, a defeat seeing the Bees go up automatically and condemn the club to the play-offs again. Having squandered a 9 point lead at the top, largely thanks to a run of 9 draws in the last 10 games, it was perhaps fitting that the 1-1 draw took Reading up. Trailing 1-0 thanks to Martin Rowlands' strike early into the second half, Cureton replaced Sammy Igoe just after the hour. Then with just 12 minutes remaining, Steve Sidwell was adjudged to have hand-balled Adie Viveash's clearance just inside the Reading half. Viveash launched the resulting free-kick towards Phil Parkinson on the edge of the Brentford area and his flick on found Cureton; who's expert control brought the ball down and as keeper Paul Smith rushed out to close him down, Curo calmly lofted the ball over him and it agonisingly found it's way into the corner despite Ingimarrson's last ditch efforts to keep it out. The rest as they say, is history. Reading's first season back in England's second tier wold prove to be Cureton's last as again, despite a good start to his season in which he notched Reading's first four goals, Pardew's decision to employ Forster as a lone front man meant that Curo was consigned to the bench. His contract expiring he decided to take his career elsewhere at the end of the 2002-2003 season and left for Busan Icons in South Korea. After struggling in Korea, old boss Ian Holloway and QPR offered Cureton a way back into English football. His Reading return though didn't pan out the way he had hoped. After being tricked by Steve Sidwell's call of 'Jacks' - used by Reading's players as a way of saying 'leave it' - He lashed out and saw red. Now at Norwich, Cureton will be hoping for a happier memory of his Madejski return when the Canaries travel to Berkshire in December. Ian Biddle Click to view author Ian Biddle's profile Fancy writing for LiveFootball? Click here to find out more. |