THERE’s a sweet irony about Gianni Zuiverloon facing Reading this afternoon.

It was against the Royals last season where his stuttering Albion career appeared to grind to a halt.

In the two FA Cup fifth-round games, the full-back was twice accountable for costing his side goals.

His dithering on the ball allowed Jimmy Kebe to score after nine seconds in the first game, before his mistake in the replay contributed to Albion throwing away a 2-1 lead to lose 3-2 at The Hawthorns.

He was to play just three more games that season.

That was then, but, with his Albion career seemingly over, he has been given a second chance.

Injury to Steven Reid and the suspension of Gonzalo Jara (not to mention his poor form) forced Roberto Di Matteo to bring Zuiverloon back from his loan spell at Ipswich.

He performed well against Manchester United when he came on and did a reasonable job from open play when forced to play at centre-half against Fulham, despite testing circumstances.

He is pleased to have a ‘second chance’.