Coppell ready to take blame if Reading go down

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2008

DERBY, England (AFP) — Reading manager Steve Coppell says he will accept sole responsibility should his side be relegated from the Premier League on Sunday.

Reading, who play bottom club Derby County, enter the final day of the season level on points with fourth-from-bottom Fulham but with a six goal deficit in terms of goal difference, meaning they require the London club to drop points at Portsmouth if they are to survive.

With Birmingham City, who are below Reading in the table, also still capable of beating the drop, Sunday promises to be a day of agonising tension for Coppell, who admits the pressure has begun to get to him.

When asked whether he feared the sack from the club's flamboyant chairman, John Madejski, should he fail to keep the club in the...