A Halloween game then! Certainly a horror for the loyal Reading contingent, all 1,350 of whom made the long journey over to Plymouth to witness the early kick-off.
However, some treats were provided: we got to see Josh Knight make his league debut for Reading and Jack Marriott returned from injury to be named on the bench.
Subjectively, some other horrors were the thought of Jeriel Dorsett playing at left-back after seeming much more settled in the centre of defence of late, with Haydon Roberts on the bench
– though I’m not sure why.
The rest of the line-up was as you would expect, with Jamie Reid restored to being the starting number nine, with Randell Williams on the left to deputise for the injured Paddy Lane.
And, of course, the thought of playing a Plymouth Argyle side in good form and one place above us in the table away from home was enough to send a shiver done the spine of any Reading fan. The laboured puns will cease now!
Reading (4-2-3-1): Pereira; Godwin-Malife, Knight, O’Connor, Dorsett; Wing, Rinomhota; Lisbie, Stokes, Williams; Reid
Subs: Stevens, Roberts, Savage, Fraser, Kyerewaa, Marriott, Brown
First half
Plymouth started the brighter of the teams, and throughout the first 10 minutes they seemed to threaten to turn the screw and apply the more pressure. It was not at all a comfortable watch for Reading fans during this spell.
However, a free-kick from Lewis Wing deep in the Reading half in the 12th minute saw the header won in the Plymouth box by Dorsett (I think?) and the most bizarre thing happened.
The Plymouth goalkeeper, a debutant, caught the ball as you’d expect, but seemed to lose his balance and sort of fell into his back post, proceeding to drop the ball back into the six-yard box (either intentionally to avoid a corner or by accident, I’m not sure) and nearly present a tap-in to an onrushing Reid, who just wasn’t able to get there in time.
The goalkeeper then held onto the ball too long and Reading won a corner, and Williams saw an opportunity to target the goalkeeper from his delivery.
In the 16th minute, Williams won a header in the centre circle which sent Kyreece Lisbie through in the middle, and he managed to take a touch to get past the defender. However, with two other Plymouth defenders closing in on him, he took a shot with his weaker left and put the opportunity wide of the post – having done the hard work already, with the fans expecting a goal that the chance probably warranted.
These opportunities demonstrated that the momentum had turned in Reading’s favour after that difficult opening 10 minutes, possibly caused by the nervousness of the Plymouth goalkeeper unsettling the rest of the home side.
Lisbie had another half chance, put through by Wing, and Williams almost won the ball after pressing the Plymouth goalkeeper as the game approached 20 minutes.
However, the momentum slowly began to shift back towards Plymouth to create a more even affair, and they had a few long shots that didn’t particularly trouble Joel Pereira.
Reading had a couple more half chances in a game that was now much more end-to-end, with some set-piece opportunities from Wing’s free-kicks, Williams’ long throws and Lisbie trying to break through the middle but getting flagged offside – but Reading weren’t able to find a way through.
Paudie O’Connor seemed to take an elbow in the head in the 30th minute, which led to him going down for a little while and receiving treatment, taking a minute off the pitch due to having received the treatment.
However, the referee didn’t seem to see any foul play from the Plymouth player involved, which Reading’s backroom team and O’Connor argued over.
In O’Connor’s minute off the pitch, Josh Stokes gave away a free-kick on the edge of the Reading area in the 33rd minute. Fortunately, it hit the wall.
The rest of the half played out with a similar level of intensity – both teams being competitive but also displaying vulnerability, which made it quite an entertaining affair to watch.
The first 45 fizzled out with Reading’s last actions being a poor cross from Williams, which went high and wide, and Reid unsuccessfully chasing a long ball from Knight.
Half time: 0-0
Unsurprisingly, no changes were made by either side during half-time, but you felt Marriott would come on at some point, because he is inevitable.
Plymouth had the first opportunity of the half in the 49th minute after Williams was adjudged to have fouled an Argyle attacker, giving them a free-kick from the right. The ball came in high and Reading struggled to deal with it, with the ball bouncing around the box, but eventually Reading were able to get it clear.
Shortly after this, Lisbie mistimed his run from a good Wing long ball and was called offside. If he can time these runs better, he really would have had the time and space to punish this Plymouth defence. It’s just a simple case of remembering the basics: curve your run when receiving a straight pass and run straight to meet a curved pass. Either this or Lisbie is so quick that he forgets to hold his run.
The first 10 minutes of the second half were much like where we left off in the first half: a very even game between two teams playing with intensity but remaining vulnerable.
As if to remind us of this in the 54th minute, Udoka Godwin-Malife demonstrated excellent defending by timing a run across from the right side to get into the centre and block Will Evans, the Plymouth number nine receiving a through-ball, preventing him from having a free shot.
In the 60th minute, Williams’ poor corner (essentially hit too low, into the first Plymouth man on the near post) accidentally caused a bit of nervousness in the Plymouth box when they failed to clear the ball. This led to calls for a handball against Plymouth, which the referee was not having any of.
Almost immediately after this, in the 61st minute, Reid had a chance to break away. He showed his pace to bring the ball forward, but he wasn’t able to get it on his favoured right and his left-footed effort – under pressure from two Plymouth defenders – deflected wide for a corner.
The first delivery found Williams lurking on the edge of the box and his goal-bound effort was blocked for another corner, which led to nothing.
Reading were looking threatening at this stage and had been the dominant team of the two for the majority of the second half up until this half. However, it was clear that the Royals needed a little something extra to find a way to turn the balance in their favour.
Leam Richardson looked to the bench in the 63rd minute and answered fans’ passionate calls to bring on Daniel Kyerewaa for Williams. He also brought on some fella called… checks notes… Marriott, for Reid. Game on?
However, the first chance since Marriott’s introduction fell to Plymouth. Fortunately, Dorsett was alert and did well to intercept the low cross and get the ball away for a corner. It was an excellent piece of defending.
A chance eventually came for Reading in the 69th minute – Stokes got a call from the wide right across the pitch to find Kyerewaa roaming on the left, who cut inside and calmly rolled the ball into the middle of the pitch to find Wing lurking on the edge of the box. He calmly collected the ball and almost kind of chipped an effort towards the back post, which clipped the woodwork.
Reading were officially in the ascendancy at this point and you felt they needed to get a goal now, or they never would. Marriott had an effort on the edge of the box in the 72nd minute which was blocked and Stokes couldn’t quite get there in time to win the loose ball.
In the 76th minute, Stokes won the ball with a sliding tackle in the attacking third and played a neat triangle of passing with Marriott and Wing, which led to a shot.
Reading were knocking on the door, but the question was always whether Reading could find the goal. The momentum was with us, Plymouth looked short of ideas and the atmosphere in the stadium was teetering on the edge, with the Plymouth fans demonstrably negative about what they were seeing.
There was, truthfully, no better time for us to have found a way through at this point of proceedings.
Plymouth made substitutions in the 80th minute which roused their fanbase again, which made you wonder if this was an ominous sign for Reading. In the 85th minute, Knight and Stokes came off, with Roberts and Jacob Brown coming on. A like-for-like change with Brown for Stokes, and Dorsett moving across to centre-back with Roberts coming into left-back.
The game still seemed to remain balanced on a knife’s edge at this point, and it really could have gone either way – though Reading did seem to be carrying a little more impetus.
Roberts got a quick cross away from deep in the 89th minute, which found Brown, whose poor touch led to Kyerewaa collecting the ball on the edge of the area, but he failed to get a meaningful effort away.
Reading still had a threat but really needed to do something to get that goal in the four minutes of extra time that were given.
Lisbie somehow won a foul in the 90th minute on the wide right, giving Reading a free-kick. However, Wing’s ball wasn’t able to find a Reading head, with the Plymouth defender winning the ball before Brown could get to it.
Plymouth had a free-kick in the 92nd minute which led to a Reading counter, where Lisbie broke forward and – rather unusually – instead of taking a shot from the wide left position he found himself in, he squared a ball to Wing. Unfortunately, Wing, who was in a central position just inside the box, fumbled the touch and lost possession.
Shortly after, Godwin-Malife played in Lisbie, who was lurking inside the box, for an effort which was blocked and led to a Plymouth break, which saw Andy Rinomhota shoulder barge the Plymouth attacker and collect a yellow card for his efforts, alongside cards collected a few minutes earlier by Dorsett and Lisbie.
The game then finished pretty much on the stroke of the four extra minutes awarded by the referee.
Full time: 0-0
So, what to make of it? Overall, this was a positive result and a positive performance. Indeed, Reading could perhaps feel slightly aggrieved that they were unable to find that killer goal, particularly during the second half.
However, I think that, if you’d offered us a draw before the game, most fans would have taken that.
What was particularly pleasing about this performance was that it didn’t feel like a typical Reading away performance, barring the opening 10 or so minutes.
However, even during this time, Reading were able to hold firm and keep Plymouth at a reasonable arm’s length and then, even more impressively, switch the momentum back in our favour to take back the initiative of the game.
There were some notable performances today as well. Williams deputised well for Lane, Kyerewaa came on and looked bright, Knight looked at home in the centre of defence despite his limited game time in this side, and Lisbie looked like a constant threat.
Pereira, after being on the receiving end of criticism about his slow distribution last weekend, was much quicker at moving the ball today as well.
However, best of all was Jeriel Dorsett. I was worried for him coming into this game today but, defensively, he was absolutely solid, whether at left-back or in the centre of defence.
It wasn’t a perfect performance – his passing, for example, was poor – but he was a key part of keeping the barn door closed today and deserves credit for this.
Marriott getting some minutes is encouraging too, and while it was clear that he was a little rusty, that’s completely understandable.
Next up is another tough away game, this time against an Oxford United side, who, at the time of writing, are level on points with us, though having played two games fewer.
Simply put: a game we need to win, and one where we will hope for the continued positive defensive performance seen today and Marriott continuing his comeback from injury by looking even more dangerous.
