Reading vs Arsenal: Alex Pearce aims to 'walk all over' Theo Walcott like he's still 12
Reading defender Alex Pearce remembers Theo Walcott as a ‘very quick’ 12-year-old opponent
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Your support makes all the difference.A rivalry that began in the junior leagues of Berkshire will resume at Wembley this afternoon. Reading centre-back Alex Pearce first faced Theo Walcott 14 years ago, when they were both 12.
“Theo was from the Newbury area and played for the team there,” says Pearce. “I used to play for a team called the Vale of White Horse [in Oxfordshire]. We came up against each other a couple of times. I think he remembers me; I’m not sure.”
Pearce certainly remembers Walcott. “I walked all over him,” he jokes, before adding: “He was quick, very quick, and technically good as well. He did stand out, I’m not going to lie.”
Pearce joined Reading at 12 and, other than a few brief loan spells, he has been there ever since. Walcott went from Southampton to Arsenal for £9m and went to the 2006 World Cup before he had even played for them. But the two players are yet to face each other in senior football.
When Reading were in the Premier League in 2012-13, Pearce was an unused sub for one game against Arsenal, and missed the other. He was also on the bench for Arsenal’s 7-5 League Cup win at the Madejski Stadium that season.
Reading, incredibly, were 4-0 up before Walcott’s goal just before the break turned the game. “I remember thinking, ‘I hope that doesn’t come back to haunt us,’” Pearce says, “and unluckily for us on the night it did. It was probably the weirdest game I’ve ever seen.”
Steve Clarke, it is safe to say, does not want a game like that today. The manager who is trying to turn Reading around after a difficult few years puts an emphasis on shape and discipline, and he will play tight football today.
For Pearce it is a chance to show that he and his team deserve to play on the biggest stage. “You always have to believe in yourself,” he says. “As a kid I always believed I could make it to a certain level, and I’m still trying now.”
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