Hindsight in football is an unavoidable yet dangerous thing. Once the raw emotion drains from another road trip that yielded nothing, you can almost convince yourself it wasn’t all bad. In isolation, this was actually a good performance.
We created more chances here than in several previous games combined. The passing was sharper, the movement more fluid, the intent noticeably stronger. On another day, Nathan Trott wouldn’t have had the kind of game where the ball seemed magnetised to his gloves.
But, and there’s always a but, we gifted away two ridiculous goals that once again decided the outcome.
The first was a calamity of half-measures. Charlie Savage – not once but twice – stood off and allowed play to unfold without laying a glove on his man. The resulting shot took a deflection off Finley Burns and squirmed under the body of Jack Stephens, who was standing in for the injured Joel Pereira.
The winner came from a familiar flaw: our inability to deal with crosses. It’s been our nemesis for eons. Burns was distracted by Callum Robinson, leaving Yousef Salech free to finish unopposed. Paudie O’Connor’s disgust said it all – he clearly felt Burns should have dealt with his man. Yet in fairness, it’s hard to pin all the blame in one place.
And here’s the galling bit: why don’t we score goals like that? We never seem to benefit from defensive chaos or mis-marking. It’s always us on the receiving end. Bad coaching? Bad technique? Bad luck? It’s certainly not the latter.
Instead, we got another highlight-reel strike from Lewis Wing – a quite absurd ping from distance. In isolation, it was a stunner. But, as ever, we couldn’t hold the lead.
Much like against Exeter City, we went ahead and then suffered a mental collapse. As I wrote after that game, this team just doesn’t seem capable of learning from its own lessons. Taking the lead, especially away from home, should strengthen you. Somehow, it weakens us.
That’s not to say we should park the bus and cling on – we don’t have the mental make-up for that – but there’s a chronic lack of urgency to spot danger before it becomes fatal. Only the coaches can truly understand why that persists. It’s beyond my ken.
At the other end, on another day, the story could have been different. Paddy Lane had two one-on-ones and fluffed both, the second cleared off the line by Will Fish, who was in the right plaice at the right time. Jack Marriott also failed to beat Trott. Wing rattled the bar with a free-kick, Matt Ritchie hit the woodwork too, and Savage saw another effort clawed away.
All ifs, buts and maybes for the Royals – again. In isolation, there was more craft going forward, even if Kamari Doyle remains underused and Ben Elliott’s ongoing absence is puzzling, particularly when chasing a game.
If Noel Hunt is to raise his stock among the faithful, he has to coach the repeatable fragility out of this side. He must sharpen their defensive awareness, teach them to stop danger before it starts, and to show tangible improvements in a job under constant scrutiny.
Errors are part of football; they’re what make the game tick. But our failure to learn from them is becoming terminal. That’s why we are where we are – in the relegation zone, with only hindsight for comfort.
