was available for selection following his recovery from an ankle injury sustained in the semi-final at Elm Park. Simon Osborn was a doubt with a knee ligament injury, but delayed an operation in order to play. Reading's Shaka Hislop was named the best second tier goalkeeper in the Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year. Madejski had promised to walk to Wembley for Children in Need should his club qualify for the final. The Reading squad spent the week prior the final in Lanzarote, while Bolton prepared for the match in Portugal. Bolton were considered the favourites to win the final by bookmakers, although the defeated semi-final player John Aldridge suggested Reading could cause an upset, saying "If Reading play as well as they did against us they can do it... It's going to be a classic game at Wembley because Bolton are an attractive side as well." Reading sold their entire allocation of 36,500 tickets for the final, while Bolton were provided with 38,500 tickets, but failed to sell a considerable number of them. Bolton's Chief Executive Officer Des McBain suggested fans may have found the financial burden too much on the back of the previous month's trip to Wembley for the League Cup final. The referee for the match was Peter Foakes of Clacton-on-Sea. First half The match kicked off around 1:30p.m. in front of a Wembley crowd of 64,107. In the first minute, a backpass from Stubbs was picked up by Bolton's goalkeeper Keith Branagan resulting in Foakes awarding an indirect free kick inside the penalty area. Dariusz Wdowczyk's strike was on target but deflected off Lovell before being cleared. Three minutes later, Reading took the lead through Nogan. He received the ball from Andy Bernal, beat Stubbs and Scott Green before shooting past Branagan to make it 1–0. Reading's Scott Taylor then shot wide before his teammate Williams scored to make it 2–0 after twelve minutes. Osborn's quickly-taken free kick was met by Williams' well-timed run and he steered it past Branagan to double Reading's lead. Guðni Bergsson's header was tipped over by Hislop in the Reading goal before McAteer conceded a penalty in the 35th minute by fouling Michael Gilkes in the Bolton area. Lovell's spot kick was firm but saved by Branagan, and the rebound was struck over by Lovell from . With three minutes of the half remaining, Lovell missed another chance when