This is my fourth match report on the bounce now, and Reading remain undefeated during the entirety of this period. I’m not taking all the credit for the upturn in results – the players and coaching staff obviously did their bit – but we can’t deny my contribution to the cause here!
We’ve become accustomed to a pretty settled starting line-up in recent weeks, barring any injuries, but there was no Charlie Savage in the starting line-up today, instead finding himself on the bench. That was something
of a surprise because he seems to start all of the games, but this could have been due to the face injury he picked up against Peterborough United.
This meant Liam Fraser came into the double pivot alongside Lewis Wing. Mamadi Camara was also dropped to the bench, with Matt Ritchie coming into the side – slightly frustratingly, if you’re asking me, instead of Andre Garcia being given an opportunity. We also saw Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan back on the bench, as well as Ashqar Ahmed making a return to the bench, in place of Kelvin Abrefa.
Reading (4-2-3-1): Pereira; Yiadom, Burns, O’Connor, Dorsett; Wing, Fraser; Ritchie, Doyle, Kyerewaa; Marriott
Subs: Stevens, Ahmed, Stickland, Garcia, Savage, Ehibhatiomhan, O’Mahoney
Burton Albion came into this game 18th in the table, one point outside of the relegation places, and 19th in the form table, with only one win in the previous six league games. In short, with Reading having picked up three wins in the previous six, this was a game that they would be expected to win, particularly from the home comforts of the SCL.
Prior to the start of the game, there was a minute’s applause to remember Royals who didn’t make it to see in 2026. A theme of this site has always been to talk about the virtues of Reading as a community club, and this minute’s applause was a poignant reminder of that.
Kick-off came at 3pm and, as is becoming tradition, we saw a player pick up an injury and go down in the opening stages of the match, leading to a couple of minutes of delay.
I can’t imagine that was ideal for those kitted in thin layers on the pitch, in the two-degree cold. In the early exchanges, Jack Marriott was identified as the main danger from a Burton perspective, with two defenders doubling up on him.
The first attack came from Burton, which led to a wonderful claim from a high Burton cross by Joel Pereira. This then saw an incredible, quick throw wide to Daniel Kyerewaa to turn defence into attack. Kyerewaa did what he does and ran the ball well into the Burton half and just placed a central pass to Doyle half a step behind him, with the attack fizzing out after this.
However, it was positive intent and something of an avenue you wanted to see Reading explore more often during the game, and Kyerewaa certainly proved to be an outlet for this side.
A great phase of Reading play started in the eighth minute, with Wing carrying the ball forward in the Royals’ half and sending a long ball out to the left, which found Kyerewaa perfectly. Kyerewaa’s cross into the box found Wing again, who had run forward, and with Ritchie to his right, he used this distraction to slide a great line-breaking pass through to Yiadom, who slipped the ball across the face of the goal.
With Marriott arriving late, it fell to Kyerewaa on the left side, who had an almost-open goal in front of him. However, he skied his effort well over the bar and failed to take advantage of the opportunity to establish an early lead.
In the 11th minute, Paudie O’Connor switched off and was beaten by a threaded ball around the back of him that made its way to the Burton attacker, whose shot was saved by Pereira. Burton reminded us that they still posed a threat and we needed to see better from O’Connor. However, on the upside, this led to a Reading counter where Doyle went down in the box under pressure for shouts of a penalty, which were waved away by the ref.
Reading had their first properly sustained passage of patient, passing play to pass and move the ball around in the 18th minute.
This led to Ritchie receiving the ball out wide on the right, just outside of the Burton area, with a left-footed cross finding its way to Marriott in the middle of the box, who did fantastically to win the header and bury the ball into the far left corner of the goal. 1-0 Reading.
Not long after, O’Connor got himself back into my good books with a good block from the following phase of play to cover for Finley Burns, who put the ball out for a corner.
Much like a bottle of champagne being opened and left on the table, this game lost its fizz after the goal. However, Reading came to life again briefly in the 32nd minute when Marriott received a long ball that came in low from the Reading half and was able to beat the two defenders to get a shot away from outside the box, leading to a save and a corner. The corner was scrappy and led to some six-yard box pinball, but the Burton ‘keeper eventually claimed it.
Pereira went down “injured” in the 34th minute to give Leam Richardson the chance to call over the outfield players and have a tactical chat. Pereira is generally excellent at enforcing the dark arts to Reading’s advantage and he’s not often given the credit for this side of his game while he is busy keeping goals out.
In the 37th minute, Reading launched another long ball forward to Marriott, who took the ball down well and carried it forward. He passed the ball out to the left with Doyle making a determined overlapping run to get into the Burton area, and cross the ball into Kyerewaa, who was central as per the usual 4-4-2 off-the-ball shape that Reading use, and his first touch directed the ball into the back of the net, making it 2-0.
It was a far more difficult finish than the one he missed earlier in the game, and credit where it is due for taking the chance to make Reading’s lead more comfortable.
This somewhat killed off Burton’s energy for the remainder of the half. There was some excellent hold-up play in the 44th minute from Marriott, who won the ball on the right-hand side of the halfway line, and carried the ball back into the Reading half to evade the Burton players, and cut back inside to take the pressing midfielders out of the picture to find Wing, who sent a ball very long out to Kyerewaa, who ran towards the Burton area and a deflected shot led to a corner.
This seems to have been an oft-used and quite effective outlet for Reading, and if we can coach Kyerewaa to have more of an end product then we could really reap the rewards during the course of the season.
Four minutes of extra-time were added on and, in the 49th minute, Reading saw a Wing pass miscued and hit Burns outside the Reading area, which led to Burton having an opportunity from range that hit the post. Spoiler alert: this was pretty much as good as it got for Burton.
Reading broke quickly from this and had a chance to score from Doyle, but Burton had a lot of people behind the ball to shut out the counter.
The half was brought to a close after this. Reading looked pretty comfortable for the most part, but almost a little too comfortable at times and allowed passivity to seep into their play. However, what Reading did do was exploit a more ruthless edge to their game today. Reading had a few chances but made more of them count than they have done in previous games this season and this helped to keep Burton at arm’s length.
Half-time: 2-0
There were no changes from either side to kick off the second period. Kyerewaa started the half with real intent and his tenacity to chase the ball and put Burton under pressure really caused them problems. The second time Kyerewaa applied pressured, Reading were able to build a sustained phase of play that led to a Wing shot going into the side netting.
For a while after this, pretty much nothing happened. It was like the game had been switched to power-saving mode. However, in the 52nd minute, Burton made a substitution to change their shape from a variation of 3-4-3 to a 4-4-2. For a period of around 10-15 minutes, this change gave Burton a bit more of an edge to their play.
In the 57th minute, Doyle received the ball centrally, pivoted and played Marriott through on the left, and he got off a strong left-footed effort which was saved.
Not long after, there as a Reading corner in the 59th minute from Ritchie on the right side of the pitch, which both Jeriel Dorsett and O’Connor competed for. Dorsett probably should have left it for O’Connor, who was better positioned to steer it into the net at the back post. Dorsett got his head to it though but was unable to direct it towards the goal.
There was a dangerous ball in from the Burton right in the 63rd minute which Burns was alert to, being able to stretch to win the ball and allow O’Connor to kick it away. I choose this moment to recognise Burns was excellent again today. So much so that, when Derrick Williams returns, we could see a Burns/Williams centre-back pairing. I know I’d like to see that.
Another Burton attack came about in the 66th minute, when Dorsett lost the ball, leading to an attack and dangerous cross, which was unable to find the Burton player. Dorsett does seem to have these moments at least one time in every match – when he just seems to either switch off or misread the game.
I’m not sure if this is still him becoming accustomed to his left-back role or something ingrained in his style of play, but I’d like to see the coaches help him to remove this from his game, now we have a really good staff in place.
In the 67th minute, in a substitution that was likely pre-planned, there will have been no surprises from any Reading fan to see Marriott subbed off – given he rarely finishes games – and Long Kelvin coming on. I’ll note it here but Ehibhatiomhan was excellent today. He showed strength on the ball to hold off defenders and was good in the air. More of this please!
There was a loose ball from Doyle in the 69th minute, which found a Burton player outside of the Reading box, but led to nothing. Shortly after, in the 70th minute, Wing unleashed a beautiful cross-field pass to Kyerewaa, who seemed uncertain of whether to head it forward to take it on his feet, which led to neither happening and the ball going out for a throw – a missed opportunity for him to run into space and find a third for Reading.
The 76th minute saw a great, albeit rare, attacking foray, with an excellent O’Connor (I think) long ball to find Doyle, who played a pass out to the right to Yiadom, who did well to find Kyerewaa’s run, but he was unable to direct the effort on target.
Immediately after, Doyle and Ritchie came off with Savage and Camara coming on. Again, it was so frustrating to not see Garcia get the minutes. However, it was an interesting change to see Savage come into the number 10 role, which he has not previously been in for Reading.
He was immediately effective, winning a ball in the 79th minute to play Long Kelvin through with a first-touch pass. Ehibhatiomhan had no passing option available, and dragged the right-footed shot wide of the goal.
From around the 80th minute, Reading were playing some beautiful passing movements to both beat the Burton press in defence and work the ball further up the pitch. It was excellent stuff and something we have been longing to see for a while, demonstrating the development of the team on the training ground.
In the 85th minute, a Reading break from Long Kelvin saw him play in Savage on the left, who let loose a first-time cross to find Kyerewaa, who let off a shot which was deflected wide for a corner. A Wing delivery went into the box, cleared by a header which found Camara lurking on the edge of the box – he let loose a shot which went over the bar.
In the 87th minute there more Burton subs but, surprisingly, Reading weren’t looking to make more changes to give players like Wing, Kyerewaa, Dorsett, Yiadom or O’Connor a bit of a breather, particularly with one eye on another game in three days’ time.
Four minutes were added on, and they were entirely non-descript apart from in the 91st minute, when Yiadom finally came off for Ahmed. Yiadom had a very solid outing today, and he seems like he will be a difficult player to remove from this line-up. Immediately after, Long Kelvin did well to win a corner for Reading.
Full-time: 2-0
Overall, this game had a very “New Year’s Day” feel to it. What does that mean? Often quite lethargic, and moments of quality were few and far between.
We never really were made to feel uncomfortable by Burton, and we ought to have been a bit more ruthless to get the goals we needed to get us up to ninth in the table on goal difference. Instead, we remain 10th, which is fine, all things considered. A comfortable win and a clean sheet is exactly how I wanted to see us start the year, and Reading delivered that.
One note I’d like to add: we don’t often talk about referees in the match reports as it opens a whole can of worms because of the head-in-hands moments caused by the decisions made. Today, however, it must be said the game was really well officiated. All decisions were correct and the ref was always quick to allow play to continue if the advantage was there, and call it back when not. Good job, ref.
There were a lot of positive performances. Marriott continued his fine goalscoring form and is exactly the kind of striker this team needs. Wing was excellent with the ball and played a lot of good, direct, forward passes to open up the channels for Reading to attack. Burns and Yiadom were excellent in defence and Kyerewaa and Doyle were constant threats with their running.
The last word goes to Fraser. He’s the sort of player that, if he has played well, you don’t really have any notes for. However, he was absolutely solid in the middle of the park for us, and in the second half he really turned it on to be involved in a lot of excellent passing movements.
We go again on Sunday, once again at home, but to a Stockport Country side positioned fourth in the table. They’ll offer us more of a challenge than Burton.
We must continue to build this momentum and solidarity at the back and, if we can continue to build play well from the back and demonstrate a little bit more end product and/or ruthlessness, there is no reason we can’t hope to get a result against a high-flying side.
