It was almost as if the EFL and the club didn’t want anyone to know this game was taking place tonight. Yes, I understand a competition called the EFL Trophy (I refuse to call it by its sponsored name out of respect for the kings over at SCL) involving Premier League under-21 sides – and every game that ends in a draw going to penalties for a bonus point, as if it’s some kind of weekday early-afternoon quiz show – is enough to make most fans turn their noses up at it.
But a 7pm kick-off is quite frankly
ridiculous, and the lack of advertisement for the game from the club in the preceding days was odd. To go from Saturday, i.e. the loudest I’ve heard the SCL for a long time, to tonight, i.e. one stand open and almost being able to hear the subs chatting on the bench, jars me a little. As you can probably tell.
Alas, such is life. Leam Richardson hinted at changes being made and it was only Jeriel Dorsett who kept his spot from the weekend, albeit shifting inside to centre-back. It was good to see Haydon Roberts back in the side, and Charlie Bloomin’ Savage was skipper for the evening.
Reading (4-2-3-1): Stevens; Ahmed, Beacroft, Dorsett, Roberts; Fraser, Savage; Osho, Williams, Lane; Brown
Subs: Rowley, Duah, Sackey, Saint-Louis, Howard, Kyerewaa, Jones
Although changes were made, that’s still a line-up heavily made up of players who should be playing a big part in the first team this season. You’d only really class Emmanuel Osho, Ashqar Ahmed and Boyd Beacroft as inexperienced.
First half
Truthfully, I can never quite attach to these kinds of games as I can a standard league game, or FA Cup tie. On a spectrum with pre-season friendly at one end and play-off final at the other, tonight was a lot, lot closer to the former than the latter.
However, we were definitely the better side in the opening 45 minutes. Barring an early chance for the visitors that Jack Stevens comfortably saved, it was one-way traffic.
It was no surprise that it was our wingers who were heavily involved. Left-winger Paddy Lane looked sharp off the left, forcing the ‘keeper into a save or two, as did striker Jacob Brown and Emmanuel Osho, who looked exciting yet still a little raw out on the right-hand side.
I’m not saying we were fantastic by any means, I mean it never got to the point where I was so engrossed that I lost track of time and burnt the roast potatoes in the oven, but the signs that this is becoming a Richardson side continued to show themselves.
Out of possession, we sit off and wait for the right moment to pounce (at least against teams who try and play out from the back a la Luton Town and Wycombe Wanderers), and in possession we get the ball out wide as quickly and directly as possible.
And ultimately that strategy worked in the opening 45. We had twice as many shots as Wycombe, five shots on target to their measly two, and the only thing missing was that cutting edge to actually get the ball in the net.
There were no strong blows dealt by either team but Reading were just about ahead on points going into the break.
Second half
Disclaimer: This writer’s Wi-Fi went down just as the players were coming out for the second half. I thus preceded to spend the next half an hour trying to connect to different hotspots, turning things on and off again and generally just getting myself into a bit of a fluster. And the first notification I got when it came back again was Wycombe scoring – which as you can imagine was a really nice feeling.
From what I can gather I didn’t miss a huge amount, minus a few substitutions. So, I’m going to pick up right from… Wycombe going 1-0 up after finding space down their right and Junior Quitirna firing past Stevens.
A kick in the guts, yes, but more a gentle pat than the hammer-blow we got dealt in the 96th minute against Luton on Saturday. And to be fair to the players, they reacted well to tonight’s setback.
We have a habit for folding after conceding, so it was nice to see a more positive reaction. After a couple of corners in quick succession, Liam Fraser popped up with his annual First Group Game Of The EFL Trophy Outside Of The Box Goal to draw us level (yes I know last season’s against Swindon Town went down as an own goal, but that wouldn’t work for the bit, would it? Cut me some slack). 1-1.
A quiet period then ensued before Daniel Kyerewaa was gifted a golden opening, before fumbling his lines and losing momentum. An apt metaphor for his slow start to the season.
And that was all she wrote really for the 90 minutes. Enthralling? Not really. Exciting? Meh. A night of progress? Just about.
Now it was time for the only logical conclusion to a Tuesday evening 1-1 draw at home to Wycombe in the EFL Trophy group stage: a penalty shoutout. Reading’s second in the first three competitive games of the season (something about ‘game’s gone’?).
My highlight of the night actually came during the shootout so I shouldn’t be too facetious, with Neville Roach on co-comms describing Fraser as ‘calm as a cucumber’ after despatching his pen. If the cucumber is the calmest of the vegetables, what’s the angriest? There’s a Tuesday thinker for you.
Back to the serious stuff though, we did end up winning the penalty shootout, and with relative ease as well: we scored all of ours, Wycombe scored only one.
Full time 1-1 (3-1 pens)
Whether you decide to draw any hard conclusions from this game is completely up to you. There will be some who see it as a good reaction to Saturday’s disaster, and some who couldn’t care less and probably still don’t even realise we played tonight (both have valid arguments by the way).
There will be sterner tests for sure and tonight hasn’t eradicated our minds of what happened in the second half on Saturday by any means. Far from it. But you can only play what’s in front of you and look ahead. And the players did that well tonight.
Like I said, it wasn’t amazing. I mean, my personal highlight was a cock-up from the co-commentator (and those roast potatoes – they ended up being delicious if you were still wondering). But that probably says more about me than it does the players and their performance.
It’s a win. Well, I think it is anyway. We came away with more points than our opposition so surely that meets the criteria for a win? Who knows.
Anyway, next up are AFC Wimbledon. Or in other words, the proverbial bigger fish that needs frying.
