You want to win every game, of course you do, but while Leam Richardson has spoken many times about his desire for his team to play without emotion, some games you just want to win more than others. Away at Three Stand United is one of those said games.
Such is the cruel mistress that is life: with that added burning desire to win comes the just-as-burning desire to not lose.
The end result of such yin-yanging emotion – from players, staff and, most notably, the fans – is more often than not exactly
what we got tonight: a bitty game, without much quality, that is decided by a few moments at either end. Moments to which we will come in due course.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a performance like this on the road though, far from it. At this stage of the season, it is no coincidence that our home and away performances, broadly speaking, are so chalk and cheese.
It has to be a directive from Richardson and his staff: at home, take the shackles off, go for it. Away from home, keep it tight, the number one priority is not to lose.
My main question is: why? Perhaps that isn’t a question to try and answer now (but it is one I will come back to later, because I am angry).
Back to tonight, then. Let’s get the formalities over and done with. The big news was that Jack Marriott came back into the starting lineup and, having been part of a solid defensive performance against Plymouth Argyle on Saturday, Josh Knight dropped to the bench.
Reading (4-2-3-1): Pereira; Godwin-Malife, O’Connor, Dorsett, Roberts; Wing, Rinomhota; Lisbie, Stokes, Kyerewaa; Marriott
Subs: Stevens, Knight, Fraser, Savage, Williams, Brown, Reid
First half
The first half was a cagey one, but one in which we had the better chances.
Daniel Kyerewaa could’ve, perhaps should’ve, done more to convert an early cross from Kyreece Lisbie, Marriott had an acrobatic effort saved and then a slightly more standard shot saved as well.
The hosts had very little themselves to get excited about, except for one moment which probably should’ve seen them go into the lead, but somehow a combination of Jeriel Dorsett, Haydon Roberts and Joel Pereira managed to snuff out.
Whether you thought the first 45 was a well organised away performance or one in which we could’ve done more to try and get ahead was always going to depend on the end result – and, well, we all know the end of that story.
Half time, 0-0, and it was looking a game between two teams who didn’t want to lose, more than they wanted to win.
Second half
Evidently, the second half wasn’t as eventless as the first. And the chaos started at the Oxford end.
A wicked ball in from Roberts was met by a glancing Paudie O’Connor header, before hitting the woodwork (spoiler alert: this will become a bit of a theme) and bouncing out only as far as Dorsett, whose back heel was saved on the line by Eastwood.
Then came a more innocuous chance. Kian Brown – own goalscorer the last time we visited this car park – skewed a clearance over his own ‘keeper but was spared by the crossbar (told you).
We weren’t playing incredibly, but we were keeping it solid at the back(ish) and the big chances were falling our way. So, reasons to be positive, right?
Ha, wrong. A quick-thinking Cameron Brannagan slipped a neat pass into substitute O’Donkor, who slotted past Joel Pereira. 1-0 to them. A sucker punch.
But it was by no means over. And after their opener came our best spell of pressure for the entire game, ending in Jacob Brown shaping a lovely volley into the top corn… oh, no, it hit the crossbar agai, didn’t it?
And just to open those wounds, grab a nice handful of salt and rub it all in there, another set-piece down the other end saw O’Donkor turn provider this time – nodding across for Mo Missanga to turn home. 2-0. And this time, it was over.
Yes, literally. After that second goal, that was pretty much it.
You go two goals down to your biggest rivals, and muster one singular shot on goal before full-time. Pathetic would be an understatement.
Whether you want to blame the lack of autonomy from the players, or lack of instruction from the sidelines, the outcome’s the same – and it stinks.
Full time: 2-0
Look, there’s a very high chance Richardson comes out after this and says it was a game of margins. We hit the woodwork three times; if either one of the first two go in it’s a completely different game.
The fact of the matter is that we’ve lost the one game you absolutely cannot lose.
If the second half had played out the same as the first, I’d have had my qualms, no doubt about it, but you bet there would be more than a small part of me thanking God we didn’t lose and just moving on.
But two lapses in concentration, a few licks of paint at the other end of the pitch, and a gutless reaction to conceding have cost us dearly tonight.
There’s also a broader, more holistic issue at play here, which is that I just don’t understand the disparity between our tactics and performances on the road, compared to at the SCL.
At home we’re brave, we go at teams, and we keep going at them. The quality may not always be there, but you can tell we’re trying to score, trying to win the game.
Away from home, priority numero uno is not conceding. The cliché is that a point on the road is never a bad one – Richardson clearly takes this extremely literally.
My problem with this is twofold.
One, we have the players and quality to not have to play like that.
Two, it leaves you so, so open to nights like this. All you need is a touch of bad luck, and your opponents to eventually find a way through, and you’ve left yourself with a mountain to climb.
I suppose that’s what mountains are there for though, right? But the players didn’t seem up for that fight.
The fact that tonight’s performance and result have come against this opposition is a second, much harder kick in the nads after finally recovering from the first one.
In isolation, it’s a rank feeling. The additional fact that this isn’t the first time we’ve seen performances like this on the road needs to be addressed, sharpish.
