Coming into today, this was a crucial match for Reading, in the opinion of this writer.
Playing against an MK Dons side that had yet to win in the league presented Reading the best possible opportunity for the recently named September League One manager of the month, Leam Richardson, to get the “not yet won away from home” monkey off our collective backs – backs today adorned with Reading’s away shirt for what I think was the first time this season in the league.
The XI was much as we would expect,
with Jack Marriott and George Earthy still out. However, the only uncertainty was who would be starting up front for the Royals today and today’s pick was Jamie Reid, for his first league start for the club since joining in the summer. The correct decision, in this writer’s opinion, as Jacob Brown’s impact is better from the bench.
Reading (4-2-3-1): Pereira; Godwin-Malife, O’Connor, Ward, Roberts; Wing, Rinomhota; Lisbie, Stokes, Lane; Reid
Subs: Stevens, Masterson, Savage, Fraser, Williams, Kyerewaa, Brown
First half
Neither side took control of the game in the early stages, with it resembling something more like a chess game in terms of the “you move, we move” tactical approach.
The first of the only two notable moments during the opening 10 minutes was when Reid took an elbow to the head on the edge of the box, after winning a flicked-on header to get the ball to Haydon Roberts on the overlap on the left in the seventh minute.
This gave Reading a good free-kick opportunity in prime Lewis Wing territory. However, his effort was directed well over.
Another free-kick was won in the ninth minute just inside MK Dons’ half, but this didn’t lead to a clear opportunity.
The first clear (open play) opportunity for Reading came in the 13th minute, when MK Dons struggled to maintain control of playing the ball out from the back and Benn Ward was able to win the ball in the centre circle and play in Reid, who ran at the defence.
His shot from the edge of the box deflected off the MK Dons goalkeeper, leading to a corner. That preceded another corner, when a low ball in from Wing saw Ward get involved again with a shot on target, which was accidentally blocked on the line by Lisbie, before the referee called for an offside against Lisbie.
The first opportunity for the opponents came from a rather slow counter-attack that was thwarted by a fantastic Wing tackle from behind to win the ball and get it to Udoka Godwin-Malife to clear in the 16th minute.
The next meaningful attack, in the 22nd minute, led to a poor Josh Stokes clearance. That set up an MK Dons cross into the area where shouts came for a penalty, but they were rightly dismissed.
In the 25th minute, we got an opportunity to see some training-ground work applied to a real game-time scenario, with a really well worked corner routine between Paddy Lane, Stokes, Andy Rinomhota and Lane again to get a cross in that was flagged for offside.
Wing’s corner in the 27th minute went right through the box and nobody got a touch on it, leading to an MK Dons counter-attack, when Roberts picked up a yellow card for gamesmanship in trying to halt the break away, with Stokes eventually shutting down the danger.
There was a poignant minute of applause in the 31st minute in the memory of George Baldock from all fans around the ground, marking his age at his untimely passing two years ago.
In the 38th minute, an innocuous passing move started from Paudie O’Connor in the centre circle, playing the ball wide to Dokes, which led to Reading’s opening goal of the game.
Dokes brought the ball forward a couple of yards and whipped in a cross from the deep right, with Lane inflicting upon MK Dons what’s been inflicted upon us too often recently: making an instinctive run at the back post to win the header and put the Royals in front. 0-1.
MK Dons woke up a bit after this and went forward, which led to a passing move on the edge of our box in the 41st minute. Dokes did brilliantly to throw himself into a challenge to win the ball and get it clear from danger, albeit only briefly, with MK Dons getting a header on target in the 42nd minute – their first in the game – which Joel Pereira very comfortably dealt with.
In another moment of defensive solidarity, Stokes stopped a move forward from MK Dons in the 43rd minute with a fantastic sliding challenge to win the ball and help Reading keep possession. It was genuinely brilliant, from both the perspective of the execution and the work rate.
Two minutes of extra time were added on for the first half, which Reading saw out in a solid and uneventful manner.
The Royals weren’t exciting in the first half, but nor did they need to be. Today required a professional performance and this first half was an indication that they could deliver that.
The only slight concern was that Reid was struggling to make much of an impact in the game at this stage, though there may be some mitigation for that due to the fact he’s not had many minutes yet in this set-up.
Half-time: 0-1
The second half started – as expected – with no changes made.
Reading started brightly, albeit confusingly. In the 47th minute, Reid was able to win the ball out on the left and play a quick ball through the middle to Lisbie, who appeared to be knocked over by the defender tracking his run, which caused a lot of fans to appeal for a penalty.
Lisbie tried to get the shot away, but, due to falling down/being felled, he didn’t connect cleanly, which saw the ball hit the MK Dons goalkeeper, and the rebound deflect off the previously mentioned MK Dons defender, with the ball simply bobbling over the line.
Eventually, the referee decided against awarding the appeal and played the advantage. 0-2 Reading – not a goal you would imagine Reading have practiced on the training ground, but we’ll take it all the same!
The following minutes saw a Wing effort from outside the box directed over the bar and Reid contributing again by winning a ball deep and playing it out wide to the oncoming Lisbie, which showed Reading’s intention to continue to seek another goal.
In the 62nd minute, MK Dons won a free-kick from an accidental handball from Stokes outside of their area and they immediately broke down their right with great effect, getting a dangerous low ball into the box which Pereira did well to anticipate by coming out and getting a strong hand to, getting the ball away from danger.
This was followed up by an effort around a minute later when a more confident-looking MK Dons side, having moved into what seemed to be a 4-1-4-1 set-up, fired off a shot that hit the Reading bar, though Pereira may have had it covered.
However, Reading still sought an opportunity to counter against the pressure and, in the 64th minute, they did exactly that.
O’Connor went down to the ground to block an MK Dons pass outside the Reading box and get the ball to Wing. Wing played the ball forward to Lane, hovering more centrally near the outside of the semi-circle in Reading’s half, and Lisbie (once more) made a run through the centre.
Lady Luck smiled on Lisbie and Reading, with a mix-up between the MK Dons defender and goalkeeper presenting Lisbie with quite literally an open goal and nobody there to challenge him. 0-3.
Reading’s old nemesis of a back-post free runner nearly threatened again in the 68th minute. However, showing that the game is played not just on the pitch but in your head too, the confidence of the lead appeared to give Ward the encouragement to jump in to make a challenge and clear the danger.
MK Dons continued to threaten in the following minutes, sensing an opportunity, with a moment in the 72nd minute proving the most dangerous.
Poor defending from Reading allowed a cross into the box and the MK Dons striker found space between O’Connor and Ward, to be presented with what would essentially have been a tap-in, except for the fact the attacker just made a mess of it and failed to convert.
At this point, Richardson should have been considering how to shut up shop, given the threat MK Dons were consistently presenting, having made no substitutions of his own yet.
Reading showed there was still gas in the tank with Reid running onto a forward pass from Rinomhota, holding the ball up while slowly bringing it forward, to bring Stokes into play on the edge of the box. That saw Stokes slip a ball through to Lisbie on the right, whose shot was directed over the bar in the 78th minute.
This momentum continued in the 79th minute with Wing winning a ball in the Reading half and bringing it forward to find Stokes, whose ball out to the left found an onrushing Lane, whose tame effort was directed straight at the goalkeeper.
However, this momentum kept building and Stokes – having an excellent second half – intercepted a ball on the halfway line in the 80th minute to immediately set both Reid and Lisbie through the middle.
Credit to Reid, whose movement took the attention of the last remaining MK Dons defender caught between him and Lisbie, which helped Lisbie to direct another run through the middle and unleash a fierce effort into the goal. 0-4 Reading.
The Royals finally made a change in the 81st minute, with Brown coming on for Reid, whose performance was more akin to a false nine today, using his hold-up play to held bring Lane, Stokes and in particular Lisbie into the game during the second half.
Reading still continued to attack, with a Lane ball into the area in the 84th minute, which found Lisbie – again, operating more centrally – presented with a free shot on goal, but he was unable to control the awkwardly bouncing ball and hit it over the bar. A shame, as it would have been great to see him get the hat-trick.
In the 85th minute, MK Dons finally got the goal they were threatening to deliver earlier in the half, with Aaron Collins given the freedom of the city on the right of Reading’s box to smash in a low effort. 1-4.
More subs were made by the Royals, somewhat belatedly in the 86th minute, with Roberts coming off for Randell Williams (because obviously), seeing Lane drop to left-back and Daniel Kyerewaa replacing Lisbie, who received a rousing applause from the travelling Reading faithful.
This was turning into quite an eventful 10-minute period for the match, with Reading almost immediately looking to counter. A cross from the right from Stokes – who I think was Reading’s best player today, and there are many who could lay claim to that – found Brown, who continued his super-sub role by getting another goal in the 87th minute. 1-5.
Five minutes were added on for extra-time. In the 91st minute, Rinomhota came off for Liam Fraser. I don’t disagree with this, but with Charlie Savage also on the bench, why not give Wing a few minutes rest?
Reading used the extra-time to keep pushing to score another goal, and genuinely played a lot of good, quick passes to cut open a clearly dispirited MK Dons defence, but the game closed out without another goal.
Full-time: 1-5
What to say about today? Firstly, it was fun. It’s just genuinely good fun to watch this Reading team.
The first half was what you would call a professional performance from the Royals – being diligent, limiting opportunities for MK Dons and being clinical with the chances presented.
The second half? A rout. We’ve waited a long time for both a league away win and a performance to match it, but equally, it feels like we’ve waited a long time for a really good second-half performance from Reading. Today delivered that.
There were a lot of notable performances today. Stokes was excellent, particularly in the second half.
Perhaps connected to this, Reid had a really good second half too, playing a selfless role leading the line to hold up the ball and play in Stokes, but also Lane and Lisbie, who seems to have been given more license to drift centrally to make runs. They were rewarded with their efforts today with well deserved goals.
Roberts managed nearly a full 90 minutes today too, which is good to see, and Wing turned in one of his better performances of the season, though he still has some way to go to reach the heights of his capabilities.
The only negatives to take from this were that, against a better side, we would have conceded more goals, and Richardson’s in-game management was once again lacking. It really seemed to have been left up to the players to figure out how to break MK Dons’ spell of heavy pressure in the second half after their change of shape, rather than any instructions or personnel changes from the coaching team.
The expectation is that we will see a heavily rotated side play the cup match against Chelsea’s under-21s on Tuesday. Now we wait and see if Reading can build on the momentum gained from such a positive away victory, continuing this form on the road against another struggling side in Wigan Athletic.
Based on today, we should have nothing to worry about.
