Jack Stevens: 6
After a pretty torrid time of it in the last outing in the Jersey Mike Bassett: England Manager cup, Stevens needed a less eventful evening tonight. For the most part he got that.
While he conceded two, there was little he or any of his teammates could really do to prevent them; they were both top finishes.
Ashqar Ahmed: 5
Not often Ahmed is the most experienced outfield player on the pitch, but that was the case this evening. With that came an expectation, albeit not a huge one, that he should’ve looked the most at home
player on the pitch for Reading.
In reality, there were others who impressed more. What Ahmed had to do defensively he mostly did well, but he was unable to impact the game going forwards, and we saw few if any of his galloping runs down the right-hand side.
Boyd Beacroft: 6
Sometimes the clearest sign that a centre-back has had a good game is when you don’t notice them all that much. At the least it means he didn’t do anything majorly wrong; at best it means he looked like he belonged at this level.
Philip Duah: 6
With centre halves as inexperienced as Duah, you’re never really looking for the finished article, more so that they can mix it physically with more experienced strikers and don’t look too out of place. Duah passed both of those tests in my opinion.
He also popped up with two vital interventions late on: first, stretching to cut out a through bal, and secondly steering a menacing cross out for a corner.
Callum Cliff: 6
The first we’ve seen of Callum Cliff in the first team, and while he got caught out a couple of times defensively (most notably for the Gas’ second goal) he did produce a few bright moments going forward, forcing the ‘keeper into a couple of saves from long-range strikes.
A good experience for him, but I’m not sure if this performance will propel him into the first-team picture. But I don’t think anyone was really expecting that to begin with.
Kevin Mfuamba: 6
It was the hosts who dominated the ball, so the midfield wasn’t able to get on the ball as much as they would’ve perhaps wanted to. But out of possession, and in possession when he got the opportunity, Mfuamba looked really assured.
Tyler Sackey: 6
I’m pretty sure this is the first time we’ve seen Sackey in a double pivot in the first team – he seems to me to be more of an advanced midfielder. But he carried out his duties adequately enough.
He’s been around a little while now, and after signing a three-year contract in the summer, should we be expecting him to be pushing for a first-team spot more than he currently is? Maybe. Let’s see how the rest of the season pans out for him.
Emmanuel Osho: 5
Compared to his counterpart on the left-wing, who we’ll come to in due course, Osho was unfortunately ineffective tonight.
The more success we had down the left-hand side, the more any of our attacks were aimed down that side, which left Osho struggling to really get involved in the game.
Luke Howard: 5
The empath in me always feels bad giving lower than 6/10 ratings to academy products.
And it’s not as if Luke Howard did anything majorly wrong today, the game just seemed to pass him by a little – but that’s not the first time that’s happened to the number 10 in a Leam Richardson Reading side.
Jerae Jones: 7
We could have a player on our hands here, ladies and gents. Obviously that comes with the usual caveats of him being raw, unrefined and in need of time to mature into a more complete player, but Jones was seriously impressive this evening.
Not only did he show the kind of directness and pace that Richardson likes from his wingers, he produced the end quality to match.
Twice he set up Patton in the first half after marauding runs down the wing, and then he obviously scored a peach of his own in the second.
Sean Patton: 6
Yes, he got his goal, but he himself will say that was a tad fortuitous to say the least, and he should’ve done better with two other chances in the first half to get us further ahead.
It’s hard to be too harsh on him though; he’s still learning his trade, recovering from an injury and, like I said, he did get on the scoresheet.
Subs
Joe Barough: 5
Struggled to get involved in the game at all after coming on, as after drawing level it was the hosts who looked most likely to go on and win it.
Matteo Dashi, Scofield Lonmeni and Torin Ntege: N/A
All of them came on after the 80th minute, so get an automatic N/A.
Average: 5.75/10
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