Firstly, this week I wanted to wish everyone a belated Happy New Year. Let’s hope that 2026 is filled with promotion parties and a complete takeover of The Purple Turtle in May.
So, while Santa delivered bucketloads of points over the festive period, it was somewhat inevitable that The Grinch would come along shortly afterwards and say: “That’s enough of enjoying yourselves, it’s now back to reality,” and reality certainly arrived in the form of an uninspired and quite frankly dull away performance
at Leyton Orient.
There are few things in life that are certain, but death, taxes, Jayden Wareham scoring against us for Exeter City and Dom Ballard scoring against us for Leyton Orient are right up there. Wareham and his TikTok-approved parents continue to grab the headlines in Devon, and if Ballard’s performance against us is anything to go by, it’s certain that he will soon be making headlines of his own in a higher division.
Ballard’s movement in and around the box is exceptional, and he has that natural striker’s instinct to be in the right place at the right time. It’s not often that I wax lyrical about opposing players, but Ballard impressed me so much, and many Leyton Orient supporters will tell you he’s getting better every week.
At this point I think it’s also fair to say he probably won’t have many easier weeks as a striker, as our defence were clearly as impressed with him as I was, so much so that most of the time they stood and watched him perform!
All of which begs the question: why is he in a Leyton Orient shirt and not a Reading one?
While it’s common knowledge that his loan spell at Reading was prematurely ended by a season-long injury, you must question the motives of not trying to bring him back to the club once fully fit.
I’m pretty sure many at the club would have seen his obvious potential in the few games that he did play for us.
Following further loan spells at Blackpool and Cambridge United it was rumoured that we were trying to bring Ballard back to the club, but I guess a permanent deal with a three-year contract was not something we were prepared to offer and instead preferred another loan deal.
Aged just 20 and with the potential to earn the club a tidy sum in future transfer fees, I would have thought it made good business sense, although that’s maybe why I spend my workdays looking at water modelling studies and not Mr Couhig’s transfer-target list and balance sheets.
An awful afternoon in East London
As for the Leyton Orient game itself, it was quite simply awful. I know the players hadn’t played for nearly two weeks, but they looked as if they hadn’t seen each other for two weeks. Our only consistency during the game was giving the ball away time and time again, and there is still a continued frustration with our inability to do the simplest of things correctly.
Let me be quite clear on this: we are not Manchester City, and we do not have players with Premier League ability, which in League One means there are times when you simply need to clear your lines when under pressure and then regroup, rather than trying to be clever with the ball and do things you do not have the ability to do.
All too often we were guilty of over-playing or trying to play passes that were simply not possible, and as a result we continually lost possession. We also seemed to take a step backwards in terms of our shape (which has been good in recent weeks) and again started leaving huge spaces in midfield to be exploited.
The huge spaces in midfield were not limited to when not in possession either, as we were guilty of not being able to support players moving forward when we attacked, which is surprising given that it’s something that has been a huge feature of our play in recent weeks.
While I am certainly not writing off our chances of a continued promotion push, it is consistency that wins promotion, and we need to find a level of it that ensures we produce results week in, week out, as we cannot afford too many more Leyton Orient-type performances.
The biggest concern of all though is the alarming rate in which we fail to stop crosses from wide areas. Against Leyton Orient we were once again guilty in full-back positions of being woefully out of position when Orient attacked, or being beaten easily by the oppositions wide players and allowing them to cross.
I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking that a left-back should be top of our January shopping list, and as good as Andy Yiadom has been at right-back since he returned to the side, he is not a long-term answer to our full-back needs.
NOTE: Having written the above shortly after the Leyton Orient game, it is now very early Thursday morning, and my prayers have been answered with the signings of Ryan Nyambe and Haydon Roberts.
Nyambe joins on loan from Derby County, while Roberts comes in on a two-and-a-half-year deal from Bristol City. With the arrival of Will Keane earlier in the window, I have to say that every signing so far has been a step in the right direction, so let’s keep shopping.
This Saturday we entertain Barnsley, for what will be our first Saturday home game for just over two months, thanks to a few cup replays and the scheduling madness of Sky TV!
It’s fair to say Barnsley have not had the best of seasons thus far, currently sitting in 15th place, although they’re still only three points behind us, so as always, I expect them to be a difficult team to break down. That said, I do think we will get back to winning ways and win this one by the odd goal.
Reading 3-2 Barnsley
(Marriott, Marriott, Wing / McGoldrick, Keillor-Dunn)
12,368
Until next week.
Much love and c’mon URZZZ!
Dixey
