Here we are then, November. October has flown by like a witch on a broomstick and it feels like it will be some time before we will get to bask in some sunshine while watching a Reading game.
The cold creeps in, more layers will be required and attention can turn to what to buy loved ones from the Reading gift shop for Christmas, or possibly during the Black Friday sales (I myself have got an eye on that delightful black jacket with the third-kit colours).
However, that is the future and this is a reflection
on what has happened – reflections accompanied by reactions that are considered knee-jerk, because they could all unravel as quickly as the opinion has been formed by this writer.
So, what of October then? Well, dear readers, with all said and done, it’s been a bit of a “meh” month. Have any real notable things and moments happened? It’s all just kinda been one game to the next and then the next without event.
I guess a couple of years ago, besides escaping from League One (upwards, obviously, not through relegation), that was about all we could have hoped for.
As a result, a month with three wins, two losses and two draws didn’t make any significant splashes. Though, one result early in the month did threaten to.
Leam Richardson
I’ve been mulling over this for some time now, and in the last couple of knee-jerk reactions, I’ve mentioned that X month is the one when he really needs to lay down his claim for being the person who can lead us to where we want to get to.
I think I’ve come to a conclusion here. He’s made us better as a team, through delivering a good pre-season (though, not up to the level of a Ruben Selles pre-season), a clear style of play and a clearly defined pecking order within the squad, while providing opportunities for players outside that starting 11 to make their claim through rotation, particularly in cup competitions.
We’re a much better attacking team – a change we all pleaded for after the eye-bleedingly bad football we saw at the end of last season – and we are currently the fourth-highest scorers in the league, despite having missed our leading marksman for essentially the entirety of October, and we find ourselves in sixhth place, where we’d reasonably expect and want us to be.
And let’s also consider that we’ve managed to get into this position not just without Jack Marriott, but also without George Earthy, Benn Ward and partially without Paddy Lane. That’s three or four first-teamers, and that’s not nothing.
Richardson’s also notably gotten much better in his press conferences and his way of speaking has become much better, much more personable and easier to listen to and agree with, or at least see his point of view.
This is all great progress. But. But… I’m still not convinced he’s the man to lead us long-term. And this is based on one very glaring issue: his in-game management. It’s just so, so damn poor. His decisions are copy-and-paste, his tactics copy-and-paste, his substitutions… everything.
It’s so frustrating because this is a division that is very, very even and just a few tweaks can be made during games which would help us turn draws into wins and losses into draws. And just an extra couple of points could really catapult us up the table.
If, somehow, we do get promoted – and it’s something currently not outside the realm of possibility – he will get found out pretty quickly at a higher level and that return season to the Championship could be a really long old slog.
Things looked promising in the MK Dons game, but after some reflection, while you can only beat what is in front of you, this was an MK Dons team that essentially beat itself and we just added the gloss on with the goals.
As soon as we come up against a team that is well coached – Bradford City and Wigan Athletic were examples of this during October – we seem to just have no ideas or response.
And this is so very frustrating when we are in a division where Jack Wilshere’s Luton Town can pick up four wins in a row to drag themselves from the lower end of the table to be above us in fourth. And, with the greatest of respect to Wilshere, I haven’t seen anything to suggest he’s a generationally good manager, or even one of the better ones at this level.
I want Richardson to succeed, because if he does then we do. But my word, he makes it so much harder than it needs to be sometimes.
The quick wins are there – why not take them? Just a little bit of in-game coaching and we could be one of the teams to beat in this league. And November’s schedule, featuring games against similarly high-flying Oxford United, Stockport County and Sheffield Wednesday – ALL away from home – could really make or break us.
And all the indications are, despite the resilient defensive display against Plymouth Argyle to close out October, we’re going to struggle. I hope I am wrong.
That MK Dons game…
TL;DR: it feels like a false dawn now, really, doesn’t it? Or is it just me?
I said the games against MK Dons and Wigan were a real benchmark for us to get the monkey off our collective backs about our away form, given these were two teams in the relegation places. And MK Dons basically, on reflection, just rolled over and let us tickle their bellies. It could not have been easier for us.
However, we still had to take our chances and be patient. We didn’t really get going until around the 30th minute and, in previous away games, we’ve seen Reading get easily discouraged by this. However, this didn’t happen and getting the opener actually allowed us to do something we rarely, if ever, had done during a league game this season: have a dominant, ruthless second half.
And ruthless we were. We took our chances, forced MK Dons into errors and skip home with five goals scored. All this without Marriott. Not a bad afternoon’s work, really. Certainly a lot of positives to be taken from that game.
…and that Wigan game
So, with a week to prepare, we should have in theory been absolutely ready and equipped for this Wigan side, who were lower in the table than MK Dons at the time and hadn’t scored a goal since the first game of September.
Yeah. Well. Whether it was our game preparation that failed, or maybe we were just simply too arrogant and cocky, believing all we had to do was turn up, we were completely shocked by a Wigan side who pressed high, worked hard on and off the ball and constantly put us under pressure and smothered our attacking outlets.
We simply had no answers. And this is where the frustration sets in, that I have already laid out with Richardson’s game management: we kept the same shape and made the same like-for-like substitutions as we did in the game against MK Dons, roughly at the same stage of the game too.
However, the difference between the two games was simply night and day. It felt like a hopeless throw of the dice, rather than a calculated, data-driven, incisive action to stop the rot and bring the initiative back to us.
And as a result, as soon as we were up, we were knocked back down to earth with a hefty bump. With the difficult November ahead that I’ve mentioned, it remains to be seen how much we will regret throwing away the opportunity to pick up those three points against a vulnerable opposition, and build more confidence and momentum into our away performances.
Jack Marriott
In many ways, this has been a positive month for us. It would have been unthinkable to pick up 11 points in six League One games last season with Marriott sidelined. He is an exceptional player – so much so that, despite the fact the only October minutes he played due to injury were in the final game of the month against Plymouth, he still remains the fourth-highest scorer in League One this season with his eight goals.
October started for him by receiving the September player of the month award (rightly so) and tested Reading’s depth. Can we cope with Marriott? Yes, we can. Is he still the player we ought to be building any promotion push around? Without a doubt.
And credit must go to those who have stepped up to cover his absence. Jamie Reid has shown his ability to hold up play but is still seeking that elusive goal. Jacob Brown has shown he is able to finish games strongly for us. However, one individual has really stepped up this month.
Kyreece Lisbie
The October player of the month winner for League One? Possibly. He has taken on the creative burden for the team, contributing four goals last month.
He’s a fun player to watch, too. Despite the fact that he doesn’t pass so often – anyone who listens to the TTE Podcast on a regular basis will enjoy that fun weekly feature – he is also still second in the league for assists provided.
He seems to be enjoying his football and appears to have been instructed to move more central with his runs. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues with Marriott back, or if he will be encouraged to get chalk on his boots running down the line. For me, I just wish he was given more chance to play off the left and cut in from there.
But that’s just my little rant. He is currently, based on his output and availability, our strongest candidate for player of the season and, if he continues this kind of form, that award will be in the bag.
Conversely, however, if he continues this kind of form then it will become increasingly difficult to imagine that he won’t be making a step up to a Championship club next season, if we can’t find our own way there.
Lewis Wing
He’s not having the best time of late, is he? He does unfortunately seem to be a lightning rod for this side when we don’t play particularly well. Although it must be said that he’s had his best month of the season in October, in terms of his performances. However, also, we have to acknowledge that the bar has been very low.
The thing is… you kind of understand it. On talent alone, he is our best player, so it is hugely frustrating when you don’t see him perform at the levels we know he’s capable of.
This then opens up avenues of frustration: he never gets rested and/or rotated, which leads to speculation about needing competition for his place to help up his game or get some rest to help him find his level again, especially when you have Charlie Savage literally sat there collecting dust.
I think we’ve all acknowledged and accepted his role within the team has changed, as he is not longer the only focal point for creativity and/or goals, and we have been able to share this out among others in the team. And this is great.
But the thing is, he’s not doing great as a holding midfielder as he often goes missing in his defensive work, his passing bounces between putting the ball on a sixpence or frustratingly jogging back with the ball to pass it to a centre-back or sending it miles away from anyone.
And the topic that this has inevitably brought more focus on tha ever before has been his leadership. I, for one, think his leadership is probably better demonstrated and seen on the training ground – indeed, his availability and fitness do set an excellent example for others.
But there are those who call out that he’s not vocal enough on the pitch. For me, we don’t need someone who shouts and bawls. Indeed, football is slowly moving away from that type of leader. However, we rarely see him talk at all. There’s nothing stopping him from giving people an arm round the shoulder, quick chat in their ear or a quick point and direction given to manage the positioning of the team around him.
The one that annoyed me the most – and I think this is possibly just me – is the game against Leyton Orient, when he missed the penalty.
I’m not mad he missed the penalty – that can happen. I’m mad that, as a captain, knowing the confidence boost that a goalless Reid needed, he should have taken charge of the situation and given Reid that chance to take the penalty. What’s the worst that would have happened? A miss? That happened anyway and it all worked out anyway.
That for me would have shown real leadership to support the team. However, whether he is the designated taker or not, the best-case scenario is that he meekly kept his head down to take the penalty. The worst-case scenario is that he selfishly wanted to break his own scoring dry spell, which isn’t a great look for him.
We’re not wrong to expect more of Wing, but equally, we need to see Richardson do more to manage this situation – either by helping him get back to form (playing him back to form isn’t really working at the moment) or just taking him out of the spotlight for a moment to help Wing realign his focus and return better for it.
Joel Pereira
Another player who is suffering a ‘case of the Lewis Wings’ right now – struggling to hit previous performance highs, but also not having a significant amount of competition for his place.
Two clean sheets in the last three games of October will have helped matters, but there are still murmurs about his positioning at the back post, palming shots back into the box instead of into safety and – most pertinently – his distribution.
This has attracted a real ire in the last couple of games, though he was noticeably quicker to move the ball against Plymouth. It seems he’s been instructed to bait the press and then play the ball into space in the midfield. Right. Fine.
But teams know how we play and know we work best on the counter-attack – indeed, I think it was Richie Wellens of Leyton Orient who described Reading as the best counter-attacking team in League One.
As a result of this, teams will sit off us and then this is where Richardson needs to do something different in terms of the instructions he is giving Pereira, or Pereira just needs to take matters into his own hands. The challenge is that Pereira also needs people in the midfield and defence in front of him to move and find space, but we seem to be so very static without the ball.
And this, for me, explains the ire and frustration. Pereira is a goalkeeper who is good with both feet and has an absolute arrow of a throw. Move the ball quickly wide to our very quick wide players when they have space, and we are likelier to cause problems for other teams by catching them a step behind or a bit out of shape. That’s surely how a counter-attacking team should be operating, right?
Anyway, so what am I saying here? I guess that’s it not all entirely his fault, but we know he can do better, so I’d just love it if we saw him do exactly that and take the situation into his own hands.
Paddy Lane
If you ask supporters what they feel has been Lane’s best game this season, you’d likely get the response of the 3-0 win against Stevenage at the end of August in the League Cup.
However, October has been Lane’s strongest month overall for us. He has been an absolute solid presence on the left. So, of course, he picks up an injury during the win against Barnsley.
Lane is a deceptive player to watch – he’s much quicker than you realise and he is also much better in the air than you’d expect. He’s also strong in the tackle and able to defend well – as shown by his frequent showings at left-back during the course of this season.
How many players can claim to be the number one in their position in one part of the pitch and the number two in their position but a little deeper? It’s quietly impressive.
Hopefully hid time out will be brief, and he will be able to return soon. The early indications are that Randell Williams will prove to be an able deputy, though perhaps without quite the attacking output. But Lane has earned the right to be a starter in this side, as evidenced by his body of work during October.
Jeriel Dorsett
As we will remember, Dorsett had a somewhat inauspicious start to the season and, once Haydon Roberts was back to being fully fit, he was hastily taken out of the limelight for a little while.
However, this time away seems to have done him the world of good and, even more pleasingly, with Ward’s unfortunate injury, it’s given Dorsett a chance to go into his natural centre-back role for two/three games in October and he immediately looks more comfortable there.
I think he’s been somewhat cruelly underrated for his performances there – he has been largely fine, and his passing is getting better when he’s able to do it from centre-back, as opposed to left-back.
I was alarmed to see him start at left-back against Plymouth. However, that shows what I know because that was possibly one of his best-ever games for us, certainly the best in quite some time. Good on him!
Now, with Ward still out for the foreseeable and Roberts injury-prone, will this be the start of the Dorsett redemption arc? November will be an interesting month to see how this plays out, in challenging games.
John Ryan
He’s a player I’ve held high hopes for, for a long time. He’s back from injury and is now out on loan for three months. I hope this spell will be productive for him because we really do need some more options at left-back.
Good luck, John!
New academy board
Just a quick note on the new academy board that was purchased and designed by a fan – it’s really nice.
If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth a look. It really will look fantastic on the wall at Bearwood and rightly should be a source of pride. Here’s to hoping we can add a few more names to that list in the coming months.
Book giveaway
I missed the first one earlier in October, but I was delighted to see that, for the Barnsley game, the club had organised a second opportunity – perhaps because I’m not on social media, I wasn’t aware of this, but it didn’t feel like this was widely advertised the second time around?
In any case, I can’t wait to read my newly Rob Couhig autographed book and find out the fascinating back story of the club’s 2025/26 season.
It’s a strange one that the club are willing to give it away for free – though I guess no publicity is bad publicity, and any way to help raise the profile of the club is welcomed, especially when the owner is happy to give up his time to sit and talk to fans and sign the copies.
I can’t imagine many owners would do that.
