After watching our league win over Leyton Orient – which is a lovely thing to be able to write, particularly given that those around us all seemed to pick up points too – there was one player who really stood out for me during the occasionally rain-soaked Saturday afternoon. No prizes for guessing who.
Matt Ritchie was the final first-team signing of this summer’s transfer window
for us, and I must admit, I was a little puzzled by his addition.There were a number of fans who questioned his age – recently
turning 36 – but I wasn’t one of them. And not just because I’m older than him. This point was counter-argued by others saying that his number of league appearances the previous season (39) at a level higher demonstrated that he still had the legs, and I’m inclined to agree.
It was more that I couldn’t really see how he would fit into the squad, from a playing perspective. It seemed to be that our wingers were Daniel Kyerewaa and Mamadi Camara on the left and Paddy Lane and Andre Garcia on the right. With Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan able to rotate between the left and leading the line, and the likes of Jeremiah Okine-Peters and Emmanul Osho in the youth team knocking on the door, we had the numbers.
However, what we didn’t have was the experience. Of this group, Lane is the most established, the senior head at all of 24 years old. Second to that, Long Kelvin had the next-highest number of appearances at this level, at 22 years of age.
While the aforementioned duo – and Camara – have games in the tank at this level, and Kyerewaa isn’t a stranger to first-team football, albeit in the faraway lands of Germany, we’re not falling over ourselves with experience in this area of the pitch.
It’s something that we’ve seen our squad benefit from with the introduction of the likes of Derrick Williams in defence, and the continued match-squad presence of the likes of Lewis Wing and Joel Pereira, supplemented by Andy Yiadom on the sidelines. But these players play further back in the pitch.
“Experience” is a word that I’ve said a lot in that paragraph, and not because this article is sponsored by that word.
Watching Ritchie come on today, my first instinct was: “But why aren’t we sending Garcia over to that side?” However, it was probably for the best to send him over there given Jeriel Dorsett is probably still building up match fitness and playing 90 minutes with an injury record like his probably isn’t advisable.
This thought was very quickly dispelled because, as soon as Ritchie came on and made his way over to the right-hand side of the pitch, his impact was immediate, and very few people will know why. Jogging over, he turned to face the Reading players behind him and shout empathetically: “Get up, get up!”
I’m not sure if this was an instruction issued to him by Noel Hunt to be relayed on the pitch as soon as Ritchie came on, or if it was an instinctive reaction by Ritchie when drawing on those 400 games plus of experience, but the nail is now buried deep in the wood, given how sweetly it was hit on the head.
We were very deep in our own half, almost inviting Orient to attack us, without any ideas of how to get out past the halfway line, like the players didn’t have permission from their supervising adults to go that far away from home. It’s one thing to see the gap develop between attack and midfield, but when all players are camping in their own half, we stood no chance of getting a chance at restoring the balance in our favour.
When the game went live, his first notable action was to harry an Orient player, like a terrier biting at the ankles, nick the ball away to relieve pressure and urge the Reading contingent further up the pitch. This further played into the hands of the lively Kamari Doyle, whose energy matched Ritchie’s desire to venture further forward, and their interplay together was excellent, supported by an out-of-position Matty Jacob always seeking to push further up from right-back.
And this was the theme for the game: Ritchie shouting, talking, instructing. Constantly talking to those around him, guiding the team and making sure everyone had their heads up. It was like hearing a coach enter the pitch, such was the amount of instructions he was issuing throughout the game. His voice was an absolute ever-present.
This is what we needed: someone who knows their role is to be a leader and a level head who can build up the confidence of those around him by guiding them through the plays, sharing the experience and standing up to be counted. It also helps that it was Ritchie’s ball into the box that led to the second goal.
It’s worth noting that the substitutions from Hunt felt like a final roll of the dice: Dorsett, Charlie Savage and Kyerewaa off for like-for-like replacements in Garcia, Doyle and Ritchie. It’s also worth noting that this was a bold move; we all remember when a similar ploy backfired against Wycombe.
Against Orient, it injected us with much-needed energy that definitively shifted the motion of the game in our favour.
Ritchie was a key part of that, undoubtedly. It was the first time in a long while when I’ve heard a Reading player so active in talking on the pitch. Wing, and Yiadom before him, have always been quiet leaders, leading by example, running the dressing room. A player like Ritchie is the perfect yin to that yan: talking, engaging and connecting the dots for a group still getting to know each other.
It was an impressive first league outing for Ritchie. While Lane is likely to be the continued starter on that side of the pitch, the transfer business of the summer has given us, for the first time in a couple of years, real strength in depth on the bench. Based on this game, Ritchie will be a key player for us this season.
Maybe one day a coaching role will beckon for him. But right now, 36 or not, he has the goods to offer us and then some. A promising start for a potential future crowd favourite.
