Saturday’s game boiled down to Reading’s inability to get the job done, so it’s only fair to focus on the opposite being the case tonight. First and foremost, the Royals needed to react well to the weekend’s surprise defeat at Wigan Athletic and get the points. As a bonus, to do that in convincing fashion.
It’s a pass and a fail respectively.
On the former point, the big danger for tonight’s game was of Reading again fluffing their lines, dropping points and Saturday’s result being compounded. That’s
been avoided thanks to Paddy Lane’s excellent 52nd-minute winner and a resolute-enough defensive display from there on in.
The bottom line is that we’re back to winning ways, back into the top six and back into a positive mindset. Sometimes you just need to keep things ticking over by grinding out results however possible, and we’ve done that.
Reading (4-2-3-1): Pereira; Godwin-Malife, O’Connor, Dorsett, Roberts; Wing, Rinomhota; Lisbie, Stokes, Lane; Reid
Subs: Stevens, Knight, Fraser, Savage, Williams, Kyerewaa, Brown
This was however a relatively rare instance this season of Reading being comfortably outshot (9 to 23, or 1.41 to 2.8 if you prefer xG – that coming from FotMob) and generally having to do a lot of defending. A polar-opposite win then to, say, the 5-1 thrashing of MK Dons, the Royals’ previous victory.
The bulk of that defending came in the second half, with – stop me if you’ve read this before – Reading sitting off too much after taking the lead. For far too much of the final 20 minutes or so of the game, the Royals were reacting to what the visitors were doing, not proactively looking to impose themselves on the game.
The manner in which the Royals went ahead was a great instance of proactivity though. Lewis Wing did well to win the ball back in midfield, Reading pushed forward and moved the ball out left to Lane, who lashed the ball into the near top corner for 1-0.
However, Orient came close to securing what would have been a well earned point. Joel Pereira in particular will be counting his lucky stars after his poor pass gifted Aaron Connolly a late, golden chance to level the scores… only for the resulting lob to fall the wrong side of the post. Well, the right side from our perspective.
All in all, while not terrible (Lane had a chance at the back post to make it 2-0), the second half was eerily reminiscent of what we had to put up with last season. Too negative, too passive, too reliant on hoping the opposition wouldn’t come up with a telling moment of quality.
That’s extra frustrating given the first half was noticeably better (although, conversely, not brilliant). Reading were the better side before the break, with more of the ball, more of the territory and more of the chances.
It should have culminated in a lead, too. Udoka Godwin-Malife’s burst into the area led to him being taken down – penalty given – but Wing didn’t look confident in stepping up for the resulting spot-kick. Poor penalty, easily saved.
Then again, Orient had a nearly moment of their own too. Pereira did excellently shortly before the penalty to keep out the visitors with a close-range double save. Yep, this was a classic Pereira evening: one howler, one moment of quality.
That feels like an apt summary for Reading’s evening overall, really. Some bad points cancelled out by some good points – enough for the result we needed, if not the performance we wanted.
While this wasn’t the display of a team that’ll finish in the top six, any side with serious ambitions of being up there at the end of the season will need to be able to immediately react to a bad off day and keep the points tally ticking over. Job done, and onto Barnsley at the weekend.
