The Royals continued the festive cheer with an excellent 4-1 victory against Plymouth Argyle at Home Park on Boxing Day.
Plymouth went down to 10 men early doors, which also resulted in a penalty that Lewis Wing slotted home. He then doubled our lead four minutes later, followed by Kamari Doyle scoring to put us 3-0 up in 20 minutes.
The hosts threatened in the second half, scoring in the 68th minute, and then had the chance to really put the pressure on with a penalty, but it was saved by Joel Pereira.
Jack Marriott scored our fourth to secure an important three points away from home.
The win moves us up to 11th, four points away from the relegation zone and seven off the playoffs. Here is what manager Leam Richardson had to say, he spoke to Royals TV.
Richardson on the start
“Yes it was a great start. We knew we’d done a lot of work on our consistency, our habits, how we manage games etc.
“Like I said, they’re a group that hasn’t been together long, which I’ve said before, and at Home Park, the crowd get behind them very well, even at 3-0 – it’s something we’ve got to manage around the country and I thought they were really good. The ways we started the game was excellent and I thought we took the goals really well too.”
Richardson on winning the toss and shooting towards our fans in the first half
“Yes, because at home they’ve scored a number of goals and a large percentage kicking towards the main stand.
“It’s the little percentages that we want and when they fall like that, and we want to kick into our fans as well, they defended the goal for us at the end. It’s the little percentages, made up again for the fans, the players that take all the credit today.”
Richardson on Lewis Wing
“He was chasing his hat-trick at the end! The quality is undeniable. You’ve got to be a certain person, have a certain calmness about you and technique.
“You back Lewis all the time. Thankfully he took the pressure away from everybody, stepped up and followed it with a good goal as well.”
Richardson on the overall performance
“I thought there was a lot of passages of play, that were really really thoughtful and methodical with what we want to be. We controlled the game again without the ball at times really well.
“I thought we had some really good passages of play with it as well, especially when you’re away from home, you want to control certain parts, and there’s not many times you go away from home on Boxing Day and win 4-1. Full credit goes to the staff and players.”
Richardson on the Plymouth fight-back
“You’d expect that. They’ve got a good manager, fantastic players on the pitch. They were the relegated Championship team, and you can feel that. You’ve got to be respectful.
“Sometimes it’s really dangerous playing against someone who has nothing to lose, we had everything to lose there and they had everything to gain.
“We had to weather that, and your big players have to step up. Joel stepped up and saved the penalty and then we took the game away from them which was pleasing.”
Richardson on the Plymouth penalty
“I think every moment is huge, the first goal was huge, the second goal, the penalty save and then obviously the fourth goal. We could have possibly scored again if we’re ruthless but that will come, we’ll get better, because we want to be a really consistent team.
“Whether we’re at a Home Park or the SCL we want to be a really methodical team around the country.”
Richardson on Marriott’s goal
“Some finish, I think on the move at pace as well like that with the control he took. We had a little joke inside, I think he made 3,456 runs today, and I was going to take him off from 60+ minutes, if he’d have had a good chance or a goal, a really solid action I was going to take him off but we had to wait until 80+ minutes.
“But that’s what good strikers do, they keep knocking on the door, they keep going and doing a really good job for the team. When it comes they’re the assassins aren’t they, pull the trigger and game over.”
Richardson on the fans
“To travel hundreds of miles and travel the furthest out of the full EFL. 900+ fans here so I’m absolutely made up we gave them something like that to go home with. I thought the credit again goes down to the players with how they started the game and saw it through with the result.”
Richardson on the quick turnaround in games
“It is a quick turnaround, what we do from now is important. How we leave the dressing room, how we replenish, nutrition, sleep, recovery, tactically etc, because we know we are going into another really tough game and opponent and we need to be a really strong version of ourselves again.”
