106 Day has arrived! 20 years (and 10 days) after promotion to the Premier League was confirmed for the first-ever time, it felt right to celebrate a wonderful achievement, a wonderful team and the peak of being a Reading fan.
20 years is a long time in all walks of life, but possibly none more so than in football. Our last game was only on Friday, three days ago, and that feels like an absolute age.
Fittingly ironic for Reading Football Club, the 106 Day event came against the backdrop of a grumbling
fan base after the side conceded (for the THIRD time since February) a 96th-minute equaliser to drop points against Huddersfield Town.
Today, with the backdrop of such festivities, we needed to see a result. Indeed, more than a result. We needed a real team performance to show the fan base that this is a club going places and can get things back on track.
Today was not the biggest game of the season for Reading – ranking behind Stevenage away and the aforementioned Huddersfield match – but it was the biggest home fixture of the season.
It would have been nice to welcome an out-of-form side battling relegation, but nope. Instead, we faced top of the league, best team in the league, unbeaten in 23 league games and one point away from guaranteed promotion to the Championship: Lincoln City. Gulp.
The Reading side starting the game contained no big surprises, but with one change: Finley Burns in for Derrick Williams, due to injury. The shape appeared to suggest a 3-4-2-1, but this side could also, comfortably, switch to a 4-2-3-1. Perhaps this suggested some scope of in-game tinkering and/or fluidity from Leam Richardson, but this was wishful thinking.
While the starting XI was as expected, the bench contained a couple of surprises. The lesser-spotted Kadan Young returned and – swoon – Andy flippin’ Rinomhota made a special guest appearance! Finally! Given 106 Day is also Easter Monday, there are some tongue-in-cheek parallels that could be made about resurrection here.
Reading (3-4-2-1): Pereira; Burns, O’Connor, Dorsett; Nyambe, Wing, Fraser, Kyerewaa; Doyle, Savage; Ehibhatiomhan
Subs: Stevens, Yiadom, Roberts, Rinomhota, Lane, Young, Keane
However, what needed more resurrection was Reading’s playoff chances. Already hanging by a thread, today was a win or bust. So how would this side start the game?
First half
Well, conceding in the fifth minute from a header won from a free-kick delivery certainly wasn’t on the road map for today, but it happened.
Conceding the set-piece from an incorrectly awarded foul definitely wasn’t – somehow, the lineman two yards away from Charlie Savage winning the ball fairly with a high foot didn’t see it. The referee had to make a guess and guessed wrong. This was something of a theme for today.
Lincoln exposed our poor training-ground work by lining up behind the defence in a long line, then drifting in just before the ball was expertly whipped in from Reading’s left, finding a free Lincoln header. Joel Pereira got a touch, but wasn’t able to stop it, with the defence completely static. 0-1 to Lincoln City.
This initially seemed to wake Reading up a bit, and shortly after, we launched our first counter-attack down our left through Daniel Kyerewaa, whose effort was blocked, followed by Kamari Doyle, whose effort was also denied.
Lincoln then went on a counter-attack, running up Reading’s right and playing a ball to the far left, with the Lincoln winger in a world of space, despite the receiving pass being poor. A shot/cross was poked in by an offside player: a let-off as, if the attacker didn’t poke it in, it would have been 0-2 and we would have been in real trouble.
Summary of the first 10 minutes? We looked like lambs to the slaughter.
Lewis Wing had a couple of long-range efforts in the 13th minute – the first scuffed effort was deflected for a corner, the second (also a bit scuffed) barely got past the first man. A better response to the first 10 minutes, but Reading needed to make the most of the momentum and get a goal, because Lincoln looked dangerous.
Almost as I wrote that, Liam Fraser gave the ball away in the middle of the park, just outside the area in the 14th minute, which led to Burns making a last-ditch sliding tackle to win the ball back around the penalty spot, to prevent a goal.
This five-or-so-minute spell of Reading dominance didn’t last, and Lincoln continued their onslaught through long throws and high balls, which we didn’t seem able to deal with.
In the 22nd minute, Kyerewaa made a run into the box and had his run blocked off by the Lincoln defender. There were understandable calls for a penalty, given the block looked unfair, but the referee wasn’t looking in the direction of play at the time and the attacking moved fizzled out.
Shortly after, the token tactical break occurred while Doyle went down injured. Not “injured” but actually injured, with Paddy Lane introduced as his replacement in the 28th minute.
In the 31st minute, Fraser nipped in high up the pitch to win the ball and play through Savage, who took an early, long-range shot from around 25 yards out. Unfortunately, this drifted harmlessly wide. Not long after, Savage whipped in a free-kick from deep that almost caught the goalkeeper out, who came far from his goal to claim it, winning Reading a corner.
Some good passing movement from Kyerewaa and Savage in the 36th minute on the left of the box teed up Wing for an effort, which was blocked by the Lincoln defender. Shortly after, this led to an Imps counter down Reading’s right, but Jeriel Dorsett and Burns teamed up well to stop the run, and Dorsett was able to clear the ball.
Wing played a delightful ball from his own half, outside of the centre circle, in the 39th minute to find Long Kelvin breaking free through the middle. The ball was inch perfect, but Ehibhatiomhan wasn’t quite able to find the necessary touch to get it under control, while under pressure from the Lincoln centre-back.
Lincoln came back with a few attempts, and then Reading seemed to find a route to success: long balls. Another such pass from Wing in the 43rd minute found Kyerewaa in space on the left, but he wasn’t able to get a final ball away to play someone in or get a shot away. However, it’s worth noting the success Reading seemed to be having from Wing’s long balls forward.
Lane had a chance to make a breakaway in the 45th minute, receiving a loose pass from Lincoln on the halfway line in space, but he didn’t seem to either have the confidence to break forward with a run or play the ball through. Instead, he came under pressure and passed the ball back to Lincoln, on Reading’s right. A chance to attack wasted.
Four minutes of extra time were added on by the officials, after which, Savage was knocked over by a Lincoln elbow on the edge of the box and no decision was awarded. Reading ended the first half in the ascendancy, knocking the ball around comfortably and looking threatening, though the first 45 ended without Reading being able to get a shot or cross away.
Half-time: 0-1
So closed out the first half. It started poorly and, after the first 10 minutes, you felt that this could turn into a bit of a hiding for Reading.
However, the Royals grew into the game and had flashes when they were able to string together some good passing triangles to break the midfield lines. This, however, was as good as it got really as there was no end product in sight.
It would be easy to talk about the impact of the referee’s decision-making at this point, but the focus needs to be on the Reading players. Yes, Doyle coming off was a real shame and Lincoln are clearly a very good team who look dangerous going forward.
However, Reading were capable of getting something from this game – if they stopped playing so narrowly and giving so much time and space to Lincoln down the wings, and they really needed to find an end product to their passing moves – whether they were short passing triangles between Fraser, Savage and Kyerewaa or long balls over the top from Wing.
Again, Lincoln are a very good side but we weren’t helping ourselves either.
Second half
No changes were made for the second half, and Reading started brightly with a Lane run down the right and a Wing shot from the edge of the area, once again blocked. This was followed up by a couple of Savage crosses from the left, as Reading looked to bring the game to Lincoln.
Reading continued to dominate possession, which shouldn’t have been a surprise since Lincoln have the lowest average possession in the league (40%), but seemed unable to break down a well-drilled, stubborn defensive line.
Lincoln either struggled to get much joy with breaks down the wing, or (more likely) were content to sit back, knowing they had the tools to keep Reading at arm’s length.
Indeed, one Lincoln player went off injured and delivered such a master class in time-wasting (aided by the referee not getting involved to tell him to get moving) that famous ‘master of the dark arts’ Pereira would have been taking notes from. This was followed up by two Lincoln subs, which were dragged out over an inordinately long amount of time.
While all this time-wasting was going on, you couldn’t help but wonder why Reading weren’t looking to their bench to inject some energy into the side, to offer support to Long Kelvin toiling away unsuccessfully up top.
Shortly after, in the 70th minute, as if the bench had heard my thoughts, Ryan Nyambe was subbed off for Haydon Roberts (nod of approval) and Fraser went off for Will Keane (look of utter despair). What did Kadan Young or Rino do to upset Richardson so much that Keane was the preferred option?
This possibly suggested a shape change, but in reality, Kyerewaa went over to the right, Savage dropped deeper, Lane went central behind Long Kelvin (alongside Keane) and Roberts went on the left. We really needed to introduce more width, and why we didn’t will remain a mystery to me.
Lincoln then woke up a bit and reminded us they had other gears to step up into, with a break down Reading’s right almost resulting in a goal in the 75th minute, with Burns blocking the pass across the six-yard box.
Despite being Lincoln’s only attacking moment for around 20-25 minutes, it was frustratingly much more effective and dangerous than anything Reading had been able to produce in the half. To demonstrate this, at this point of the game – more than 75 minutes played – Reading had had 0 shots on target.
A corner in the 78th minute led to a sustained Reading attack, with the Royals putting in a number of crosses. However, Lincoln were equal to everything we were attempting to throw at them and remained comfortable to clear the ball each time.
Wing made a good cross from the right wing in the 82nd minute but was unable to find anybody. In a moment that was about 20 minutes late, Dorsett was subbed off for Young. The plan for the rest of the game would be for Roberts to drop into the left of the back three and Young to operate as the left-wing-back.
Savage got a good first-time cross away in the 84th minute, which found Long Kelvin under pressure and his back to the goal in the box, but Ehibhatiomhan did well to attempt to spin the ball. Unfortunately, the Lincoln defender was prepared for the movement and was able to clear the ball.
Lincoln cut through the Reading back line like a knife through butter in the 88th minute, but Roberts came to the rescue to stand up the attacker, seeing them wide and clearing the ball.
Eight minutes of extra time were added on. At this point, it was hard to know if it was a good opportunity for us to get a goal back or if we would just end up suffering for the eight minutes while Lincoln enjoyed their promotion party.
Wing then dug deep and found his inner David Beckham. A free-kick was awarded from around 25 yards out, central but slightly to the left. I would like to compare this to something from 20 years ago from the 106 season, but in reality, it was more like 22 years ago for England against Greece.
Wing’s effort sailed in, to the surprise of us all. 1-1. Game on?
With five or six minutes left to play, it was time to urge the boys on. Throw the kitchen sink at this thing. Bring the game to Lincoln and find any way they can to get a winner.
Instead, Lincoln decided to throw an actual player at Pereira. The player was on a yellow card already, and with the ref initially doing nothing, he then decided to call him over. However, the player ignored the ref and the ref just did nothing. It was incredible to watch the lack of control the ref had on the game or players.
Then, as feared, Lincoln found the space down the wing (again), attacking Reading’s left with the freedom of Berkshire and all the time in the world to put the game out of doubt: 1-2. Would you care to guess which minute it happened in? Yep. The 96th minute.
The game basically ended with Wing pinging a crossfield pass to nobody, and the steward reminding the Lincoln fans that they couldn’t enter the pitch.
Full-time: 1-2
The playoff push is now over, with Reading finishing the day in eighth place. People will talk about the referee today, as I mentioned in the first half, and while his decisions/performance didn’t help us, the opportunity was there for Reading to do something with the game.
Reading have played worse this season, but today they still lacked energy and the ability to break lines with attacking transitions, showing no width, and the substitutions came too late to make any difference.
The day started all about Reading, celebrating one of the greatest days in their history. However, today it finished with the focus on Lincoln. And rightly so: they were excellent today, keeping Reading at arm’s length all game, essentially toying with us. This is a side that deserves to go up, and good luck to them.
Ironically for us, this is also a side that shows us exactly what we could be with some better coaching and a few key additions, especially given the similar tactical set-ups. We have a long way to go to be able to get to that point, but it’s far from impossible.
However, today confirms that that’s all to be for next season: our current season will finish on May 2. Congratulations to Lincoln: the team we could be, and the team we should want to be next year.
