On May 3 this year, we ended our season in one of the most depressing ways imaginable – losing at home in the torrential rain, with zero shots on target – against Blackpool.
Fast-forward just a few months and, against the same opposition, we were able to celebrate a brilliant, thorough, entertaining win. It wasn’t just the three goals, all of which were fantastically worked in their own right, but just the way we created chance after chance. This team is an exciting watch, and that’s all we’ve ever
really wanted.
Here’s how the fans reacted to another lovely afternoon at the SCL Stadium…
An entertaining win
Even the wins last season were drab. In the last week we’ve seen Reading play twice, score eight goals, have 39 shots (11 on target) and get two wins.
For that, you have to take your hat off to Leam Richardson. He said when he joined that he wants his team to play exciting, dynamic football; it looks like we’re finally starting to see that in practice.
See, fans love winning, of course we do. But really, we also want to be entertained. We want to enjoy going to watch our team play and look forward to the next game. It’s been a while since we’ve had that, but we’ve got it at the moment…
Kyreece Lisbie
You can see why the club wanted him so badly, can’t you?
He is a Richardson player to a tee: a constant threat going forwards but also puts an absolute shift in defensively. And the thing that fans cherish the most: you can tell he absolutely loves playing for us and donning the blue and white.
He grabbed another assist and that elusive first goal on Saturday, and he’s already firmly become a fans’ favourite…
Andy Rinomhota
There are few more heartwarming sights as a Reading fan seeing a completely fit Andy Rinomhota in full flow. He was at his imperious destructive best against Blackpool.
If we keep him available, we’ve objectively got one of the best midfielders in this division. Put him alongside Lewis Wing and George Earthy and that’s a midfield triumvirate most teams in this league would rip up their current starting XI for.
While Lisbie is making his first impressions on the fanbase, seeing Rino in this kind of form is bringing back some wonderful memories…
Conclusion
Simply put, I just love watching this team play at the moment. And it’s such a wonderful feeling as a fan when it’s as simple as that: you go and watch your team, you have a good time, you look forward to the next game, repeat.
It hasn’t been this easy or exciting in a very long time, and we should just cherish this moment in time, however long it lasts.
But that’s also the thing, isn’t it? With the momentum we’re starting to build, the obvious amount of quality we’ve got all over the pitch and notoriously average quality of the rest of the league, there’s a huge opportunity for us to turn this into a very, very exciting season indeed.
