page_title: Brian Howard (footballer)
section_title: Reading
hierarchical_section_title: Brian Howard (footballer) / Club career / Reading
caption_attribution_description: English: Brian Howard playing for Reading in 2010.
context_page_description: Brian Richard William Brotherton Howard is an English footballer who last played as a midfielder for Whitehawk. He made more than 300 appearances in the Football League, and also played for Bulgarian club CSKA Sofia. Internationally, he represented England from under-16 to under-20 level.
context_section_description: Howard began the 2009–10 season in Sheffield United's starting eleven, but on 2 September 2009, he signed for Championship rivals Reading on a three-year contract for a fee of £500,000; James Harper went the other way on loan.
  He scored his first goal for the club on 20 October against Queens Park Rangers, a late consolation with Reading already 4–0 down. During the match against Derby County on 28 November, Howard suffered mild concussion and a fractured jaw in a clash of heads. He was out for several weeks recovering from surgery to insert metal plates in his jaw. In the FA Cup fifth round against West Bromwich Albion, Howard volleyed over the goalkeeper only to hit the crossbar before scoring a 94th-minute equaliser; Gylfi Sigurðsson's "brilliant curling winner" in extra time put Reading into the quarter-finals for the first time since 1927. He stood in as captain for four matches towards the end of the season while Matt Mills served a suspension.
  Howard was sent off against Middlesbrough in September for a late tackle. In mid-March 2011, he was linked with a move back to Southampton. He remained at Reading, making 28 appearances over the season and contributed to their reaching the play-offs, but was an unused substitute in the semifinal second leg and the final, as Reading lost to Swansea City. He then stated that if Reading were unable to give him regular football, he would prefer to leave. Howard spent three months on loan at Championship club Millwall in the first half of the 2011–12 season. He said he expected to leave Reading in the January transfer window, but no move took place, and he was released when his contract expired in June 2012.
caption: Howard playing for Reading in 2010
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