I don’t really know where to begin with this report, so here’s the abridged version of how this afternoon went/made me feel:
- Reading were alarmingly poor against a very limited, badly out-of-form Doncaster Rovers side
- After promise in the last two games, we’ve gone backwards
- While not outright toxic, the home support was overwhelmingly flat and dejected for most of the game, with some very audible booing and anti-Noel Hunt chants in the second half
- Hunt seemed so dejected, beaten and lacking in any real kind of defiance in his post-match official interview that I doubt he knows what the answers should be, let alone if they’d work
- I got far more enjoyment out of my pre-match trip to Waterstones than pretty much anything I saw at the SCL
And to be honest, I’d much prefer to be able to write about The Fall of Rome
and the End of Civilization by Bryan Ward-Perkins or Powers and Thrones by Dan Jones than this game. I’ve only done the introduction for the first of those two books, but it’s already safe to say that topic will be cheerier than anything Reading are able to conjure up on the pitch nowadays.
Reading (4-2-3-1): Stevens; Abrefa, O’Connor, Williams; Wing, Savage; Kyerewaa, Elliott, Lane; Ehibhatiomhan
Subs: Norcott, Ahmed, Yiadom, Dorsett, Doyle, Tuma, O’Mahony
I went into this game in fairly high spirits actually. The last two matches – a really good attacking display in defeat against Cardiff City and an imperfect but solid 1-0 win over Northampton Town – looked to be a good platform for a turnaround in Reading’s fortunes.
If we could look convincing going forwards on the previous two occasions, we could do the same at home to a team in free-fall, right? Right?
Nope.
Reading were flat in the first half: probably the most boring 45 minutes all round of the season (lacking even the drama of going behind), with efforts from range the best we could manage. The Royals then seriously struggled to get going in the second half, with the visitors initially looking the more threatening, which they underlined when Billy Sharp (because of course it had to be him) opened the scoring from close range in the 61st minute.
Even that didn’t spark an immediate convincing reaction. Reading did soon find an an equaliser out of nothing (thanks to Kamari Doyle’s long-range effort and some poor ‘keeping) in the 68th minute, which lifted them for a time, but it was to no lasting avail. The Royals managed one shot (from range, off target) in the final quarter of an hour.
Regardless of broader problems – tactics, personnel, anything – Reading should have been able to lift themselves to give a proper go of it and push for the win in the closing stages. But even that was beyond us.
It’s just not good enough. Reading have no shortage of individual ability for this level and are almost three months into the campaign, but the same damningly frustrating, damningly familiar attacking deficiencies refuse to decisively budge.
Yes, the Royals are having to make do without some important attacking players – Jack Marriott and Matt Ritchie are both big misses – but that shouldn’t be an excuse for how bad it was today. Lewis Wing, Charlie Savage, Ben Elliott and Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan have been here for the duration of Hunt’s time in the dugout, while Paddy Lane (who was good today, to be fair) and Daniel Kyerewaa have had more than enough time to get settled and up to speed.
None of them are used well enough tactically, and perhaps just as significantly, do any of them actually look like they enjoy their football? That was such a defining feature of Reading in the previous two seasons, but nowadays it feels more like the players are going through the motions. That’s on them to a large extent as professional footballers of course, but ultimately the responsibility is with the man in the dugout.
I really wanted him to be able to turn things around, and in the days leading up to this game I was actually pondering at what point it’d be right to leave the Hunt Out camp. That, before today, had seemed to be the direction of travel.
But if a flash in the pan (as it now seems to have been) before an immediate backwards step is the best we can come up with under Hunt, it’s time for him to go. It’s simply not working for him and the only thing that will bring a decisive improvement for this team is a change in manager.
At the same time, the chants of “you’re getting sacked in the morning” that went out from Club 1871 in the second half after the opener weren’t right, in my view. Fans are entitled to chant whatever they want of course (within reason), but putting the boot in so harshly on someone who very obviously deeply cares about this club just felt petty.
I hate that we’ve come to this point, where a season that should have held so much promise is now being dominated by questions over the manager, but the longer Rob Couhig and co go without making a change, the worse this is going to get. (For the tactically astute attacking manager that this squad needs, look no further than the out-of-work Luke Williams.)
Let’s get it done.
