I’ll preface this match report by saying that the last two games I went to before tonight were the calamitous loss at AFC Wimbledon and the torrid game of football that was the draw at Port Vale, so tonight’s result is not to be unexpected.
Notwithstanding that, after the injection of optimism the last two games have given the fans – particularly last time out at Kenilworth Road – tonight’s almighty thud back down to earth is dejecting, deflating and a tad depressing.
Yes, the gusty conditions of the East
Midlands didn’t exactly provide conditions conducive to good football, but time and time and time again we were the masters of our downfall tonight.
Reading (4-2-3-1): Pereira; Nyambe, Burns, O’Connor, Ward; Wing, Fraser; Doyle, Savage, Williams; Ehibhatiomhan
Subs: Rhone, Abrefa, Yiadom, Ritchie, Lane, Patton, Keane
Maybe the game would’ve panned out differently had, in a moment that in hindsight perhaps foreshadowed the hesitancy, confusion and bafflement to come, Saturday’s hat-trick hero decided not to step over an early ball in from Williams and instead despatched it to put us into an early lead. Alas, that wasn’t to be.
Moments such as that Long Kelvin chance came and went throughout the first half – Charlie Savage saw a shot that he should’ve done better with blocked, and a goalmouth scramble akin to the one in the first minute could’ve ricocheted more fortuitously for us just before the break.
In between those couple of moments, Mansfield had spells of pressure and forced Joel Pereira – who was exponentially better with his hands than he was his feet this evening (more on that later) – into two or three much-needed stops.
The first half in general was a bit gritty. At risk of sounding like Captain Obvious, it was the kind of 45 that you say is a good one if you go in leading, but a bad one if you go in behind. It was okay. The real issues tonight came after the break.
Half time 0-0
Yes, Saturday’s win at Luton came, ultimately, via two errors from the home side. But we were there to capitalise on that luck. We earned that luck and punished our opponents: a sign of a team finding their groove – which makes tonight’s debacle all the more frustrating and confusing.
Mansfield had nine shots in the second half and I would put a healthy sum of money on near enough all of them coming as a result of a misplaced pass, sloppy touch or a bit of both from a Reading player.
The aforementioned Pereira, who to his credit continued to pop up with crucial saves throughout the second half, had another nightmare with the ball at his feet.
The amount of times one of our defenders turned over possession while trying to play out from the back was quite frankly unacceptable. And when even Lewis Wing’s first touches are getting away from him, you know it’s just one of those days.
One symptom of that haphazardness at the back, away from the obvious one of constantly conceding unforced pressure on your own goal, is that we weren’t able to build anything substantial going forward.
As previously mentioned, the wind was blowing a bit of a hoolie in Nottinghamshire tonight, and kicking towards the home end was a substantially trickier task than kicking towards us in the away end, when you had a healthy tailwind to help you.
But that’s not really an excuse. Away from a Randell Williams effort that was dragged wide of the post, I’m struggling to think of a clear-cut chance we created in the second half.
As a punishment for that, and the shambolic sloppiness of our overall play, we were punished with 20 minutes to go by a deflected effort by Louis Reed – 1-0 to the hosts.
As cruel as it always is seeing a goal go in off your own man, it was no less than we deserved. If you constantly give the ball to your opposition in the middle and final thirds, you can’t have too many complaints when you finally get punished.
Full time: 1-0
This is a different kind of frustration to the one I had after the Port Vale game for example, when it was an overly negative mindset that cost us the game. I don’t think we had that tonight – we showed glimpses in the first half and if we’d managed to just keep it tight at the back, and show a nudge more ruthlessness going forwards, I’m pretty sure we walk away with all three points.
Tonight it was just unforced error, after unforced error, after unforced error. It was like a contagious disease; as soon as one player misplaced a pass, they all seemed to catch it.
So, whilst the two games prior to this one spread some much-needed optimism and positivity through the fanbase, tonight was a reality check that reiterated the size of the task that’s still at hand.
