I’ll start this by saying that, when I usually do a match report, I like to take down notes of things that happened and when they happened to create a storyboard that I can bring to life through the medium of written word. Sometimes, these scribblings may even make sense.
However, for reasons unbeknownst to me, I forgot to do that tonight. So I’ll have to do this all from pure memory. Time to enter my mind palace!
Reading welcomed Luton Town to the Select Car Leasing Stadium this Saturday afternoon…
Wait, what? Thursday night? Again? Is this right? Checks notes. Well, whose idea was that then? The EFL? Sky? Both of them? Let me tell you something about that [REDACTED: INSERT 1990s BBC OFF-AIR PICTURE WITH THE GIRL PLAYING TIK TAK TOE ON A CHALK BOARD].
All jokes aside, this being the last home game of 2025 for Reading, you’d imagine that they’d want to end things with a bang, not just for the good pre-vibes for 2026, but also to rectify some worrying form in recent games.
The club certainly wanted to bring the vibes, with a supporter-engagement-fuelled, Christmas-themed event pre-game. Which… didn’t really bring in the supporters, truth be told. It was something of a damp squib (weather pun intended, given it was non-stop rain up until around 6pm), and even the reindeer on display seemed a little worn out. Though they might have possibly had to have sat through the Bradford City game too.
It’s not really the fault of the club – this clearly wasn’t an ideal day to do such an event with it being a school night, but there was no other time for them to hold it while we waited for the team sheet to be released to see if there was going to be a response to the Bradford [insert B-word of choice here].
The team sheet did see a very standard line-up in place, but with two notable exceptions. Jack Marriott, making his way back from injury, earned his first start since some ‘fella called Noel (inadvertently continuing the Christmas theme there) was manager, with Long Kelvin demoted to the bench, which feels about right given that he has not really seized his opportunity playing as a lone striker.
Kelvin Abrefa also made way for Andy Yiadom, which gave us an impressively old back line of Yiadom, Paudie O’Connor, Derrick Williams and Jeriel Dorsett. Seriously, when was the last time we had such an old back four?
Reading (4-2-3-1): Pereira; Yiadom, O’Connor, Williams, Dorsett; Wing, Savage; R Williams, Doyle, Kyerewaa; Marriott
Subs: Stevens, Abrefa, Burns, Garcia, Fraser, Ehibhatiomhan, O’Mahony
Luton really made an effort to bring the noise and the attendance up today, with the fullest-looking away end I’ve seen for some time in a league game. That probably makes sense, given the relatively short distance, but on a Thursday night when the game is available on Sky, credit where it’s due.
The other side of the stadium, however, in the Dolan, was about as sparse as the mince pie section of a supermarket on a Boxing Day.
First half
Reading started the game with aplomb, coming out of the traps quickly, and some notable things were immediately… ermm… notable. The shape of the system was different, much more like a 4-4-2 out of possession, with Kamari Doyle leading the line a lot of the time that Reading were off the ball with some insatiable pressing.
This makes sense, since not only is Marriott coming back from injury and a bit rusty, but it’s a well established fact within the footballing community that any footballer over 30 is held together by duct tape and magic sponges, and that anything like running or a strong breeze could render them injured for the rest of the season.
Secondly, Lewis Wing was playing higher up the pitch for a large chunk of the first half. I have been the first to complain to the Codpast, Sim, the clouds, a volleyball with a face drawn on it, whoever, that he is no use to us nestled between O’Connor and Williams.
Lo and behold, seeing him in the midfield – often higher up the pitch than Charlie Savage – gave Reading numbers to zip the ball around. It also allowed the aforementioned centre-backs to push further up and play more of the ball (more on this later).
However, the main man in the early moments was Daniel Kyerewaa. He was like a turkey being chased with an oven tray, always looking to take on his man by running directly down the line and using his pace to get past the defender and cut inside.
He was somewhat a one-trick pony (reindeer, perhaps, if we are keeping the Christmas puns going), but it was quite effective for the most part and earned us another notable moment in the early exchanges of the game: a penalty in around the ninth minute.
This was an actual penalty given, for an actual foul against an actual Reading player in the actual opposition box. I assume the only way this was made possible was by one of the children making this wish to Santa in the pre-game events, so good tactical thinking there from that child and a hearty well done to them.
Wing – who else? – stepped up to take the penalty. The referee had a chat with him, asked him for the spag bol recipe, then went over to speak to the Luton goalkeeper and ask him about how his family were doing, then measured the grass blades to make sure they were regulation length, repainted the lines around the box, called his partner at home to ask if they had remembered to turn off the oven, did some Christmas shopping on Amazon, completed a Sudoku puzzle, got himself measured for a suit, renewed his TV license and went through a Dulux colour chart to select the shades of yellow and red he’d prefer to use for the cards in 2026 and grew a 5 o’clock shadow in all the time that passed between the players waiting for the penalty to be taken and blowing the whistle to allow the penalty to be taken. 1-0 Reading.
Frankly, this was about as good as it got for the first half. Reading looked dangerous if they could get the ball out to Kyerewaa on the left, and seeing Wing pop up more and more often further up the pitch helped give Doyle the freedom to press and harry the defenders and goalkeeper – who, when also dealing with Kyerewaa, often looked nervous.
However, the word “if” is doing a lot of the heavy lifting here, because for some bizarre reason, Reading just didn’t seem to want to go direct with their passing. Often the centre-backs would pick up the ball and, instead of zipping a vertical ball out to the wingers, they’d pass around the back, occasionally to the full-back, and then back to Joel Pereira, who would then punt it long. For variety, sometimes they’d pump it long as well.
Which is all well and good when you have someone to punt it long to. But Reading didn’t and don’t. All of 6ft 3 Long Kelvin wasn’t on the pitch, and besides, we all know he’s a horse jockey trapped inside a tall man’s body, given his inability to use his height to his advantage.
When in possession of the ball, the system would change to a 4-2-3-1, with the front three being Randell Williams, Marriott and Kyerewaa. And those three combined are essentially what happens when the three kids sat on each other’s shoulders pretending to be an adult in an overcoat are when they fall out of the overcoat (short. They are all short).
So going high and long wasn’t really working, though Kyerewaa did surprisingly win a few headers, and we also seemed to develop a reticence to attack down the right, so Williams was often isolated and not left with any ability to impact the game.
Despite Luton being rattled defensively when we did nip at their heels, they seemed to play the style of football in the attacking transitions that we needed our lot to play. They were always looking to pass forward, make runs on the overlap and stretch our backline. And unless you’ve been living under a rock, we all know that this is a tactic we are susceptible to conceding from. They ultimately didn’t have many shots, but Pereira did have to make a couple of smart saves to keep us at 1-0.
Around 25 minutes in, there was an extended break due to a Luton player going down, which gave Leam Richardson a chance to call the Reading players over to the touchline and issue them some instructions. This resulted in…nothing. Well, almost nothing.
We actually seemed to revert to being a lot more passive with the ball, and Wing was notably playing a lot deeper after this chat. Which makes you wonder: is Wing playing deep because it suits him, or because he’s instructed to?
And frankly, not much else happened for the rest of the half, despite five added minutes from two lengthy injury stoppages for Luton and the penalty. Reading closed out the first half 1-0 to the good.
Summary of the first half: defensively resolute with people willing to throw themselves into challenges, make blocks and do the dirty work, but lacking an end product to really test a suspect-looking Luton back line.
Half time: 1-0
The second half started much the same way as the first ended, with the same Reading players in the same set-up being very passive with how they moved the ball, taking two or three touches and playing it sideways in the defence or back to Pereira to go long, rather than trying to be incisive with quick touches and diagonals to get the ball out wide and up the pitch.
This frustrated the crowd and they were often heard to be shouting – at least where I was sat – to get the ball forward and be a bit more progressive with the passing please. I am paraphrasing here, but you get the drift.
And would you believe that, when Wing did look up and see Marriott had drifted out to the right, dropping off the shoulder of the last defender, he decided to play exactly that kind of diagonal to stretch the back line of Luton and get Marriott a chance to cut inside, play a one-two with Randell Williams and get a shot away?
And do you know what happened? 2-0 is what happened.
This led to an exuberant Club 1871 politely reminding the Luton following that they were in a spot of bother live on Sky through the medium of song (paraphrasing).
Job done, right? Nope. Come on. You know this because a) we’re Reading and we’ve mastered the art of beating ourselves and b) the scoreline is in the literal title of this piece. Pereira was called into making more saves that I am comfortable with thinking about at various stages, and in a 10-minute-ish spell, Reading’s defensive resolve seemed to melt like the butter base on a turkey.
In what I can only assume is a cry to the leadership for a new pinball machine in Bearwood, the defensive players took this frustration out by playing something like the hybrid version of football-meets-pinball, with the ball bouncing off of many limbs, many Luton players allowed to roam free and Reading players laying sprawled on the floor from sliding into challenges.
In the first such instance of this, I thought it was an own goal, but it seems a Luton player got the credit to make it 2-1. The second goal came from a Luton midfielder being given a gift-wrapped “One Goal Against Reading: Redeem Only In 2025” voucher and cashed it in to make the game 2-2 from being left unmarked outside the box to strike an unstoppable effort past Pereira.
At some point during all of this, Long Kelvin entered the fray for Marriott in what I expect was a pre-planned substitution. Shortly after, Dorsett (not having had a very good game) came off for Abrefa, with Abrefa taking his nominal right-back role and Yiadom switching to the left, presumably to shore things up there.
The quality of the game remained low, and Luton nearly made us suffer the shame of being put on the naughty list with an attack that was born, not in a hay-filled manger, but out of poor passing in the defensive third and switching-off at key moments. However, this did something unexpected: it seemed to wake Reading up.
Long Kelvin, leading the line now, became the north star and the ball was sent to follow him. He won an actual aerial duel, from a second ball admittedly, and some sharp thinking saw him run into the box and tuck the ball away in one of those joyful moments you can’t fully enjoy because you always wonder why he can’t do this more often. 3-2 Reading.
It’s interesting to note that, when we got that third, Wing’s immediate response was to gather Pereira and O’Connor (part of the leadership group) to discuss the plan for what they would do next. I thought this showed good leadership and communication, which is something he has been cited for lacking in difficult moments this season.
Frankly, Reading seemed content to play out for the win and why not? This seemed to be further confirmed when, a few minutes after the goal, Richardson swapped Doyle, Yiadom and Kyerewaa for Mark O’Mahony, Finley Burns and Liam Fraser. Burns and O’Mahony? What festive cheer to see those two get unwrapped and let loose.
This essentially made up a 3-5-2 with Abrefa and Randell Williams playing as wing-backs. This effectively killed the game out, though Luton did continue looking for the equaliser and damn near came close during the seven minutes of added time, but were unable to find it.
Full time: 3-2
Santa delivered Reading a 3-2 win and now the lads can binge on some Quality Street in the heights of 14th in the table before Boxing Day’s trip to struggling Plymouth Argyle.
Despite the length of this report, this wasn’t a game to write home about. Reading had moments when they looked like they could be dangerous, but often seemed too passive in the ability to get the ball up field to counter-attack or stretch the play.
Similarly, we had moments of resolute “leave nothing out there” defending followed by moments of poor decision-making or just switching off at inopportune moments. It’s like watching a “look at what you could have won” and I’m not sure if the instructions Richardson is giving the players are helping or hindering our ability to be more aggressive in going forward.
However, three points are three points. Marriott and Long Kelvin scoring, Randell Williams starting to look a bit more dangerous when involved and Wing getting out of the Upside Down to go forward more often are all nice things.
Going 2-0 up was great, but having the strength of mind to shrug off the concession of two goals to get the winner was an even bigger plus point. It’s hard to know what is the trend here and what’s the anomaly. All we can do is celebrate the win and wait and see what gets served up on Boxing Day.
