Reading suffered yet another late goal against Lincoln City on Monday. The two games over Easter should have been four points for the Royals, cementing their playoff hopes, but just one point being taken due to two 96th-minute goals is a massive sting in the teeth and ends the playoff run, in my opinion.
However, going into this one, Doncaster Rovers are a team not in form of late, with two losses on the bounce seeing them drop to 17th place, only four points outside the relegation zone.
Luke Molyneux
is the star player at Doncaster, getting eight goals and seven assists this season. Owen Bailey is another who is instrumental to the way Doncaster play and his 12 goals and three assists have him nominated for player of the season – unlike Lewis Wing, who has 11 goals and 11 assists this season from midfield, and didn’t even get a sniff.
The head-to-head between the two sides is in Reading’s favour with the Royals winning 30, drawing 10 and losing five games. The last encounter was a 1-1 draw with Kamari Doyle cancelling out ex-Royal Billy Sharp’s opener.
In this preview I will mention Jack Marriott’s return in the upcoming weeks and what that may do for Kelvin Ehibatiomhan for the rest of the season, and I will give my predictions.
What? League One matchday 43
Season? 2025/26
Who? Doncaster Rovers
Where? Eco-Power Stadium
When? Saturday April 11
Time? 15:00
Opposition manager? Grant McCann
Jack Marriott
He’s very close to returning from injury, looking to come back into the side for the Cardiff City game next week. Earlier in the season this would have been a no-brainer, with Ehibhatiomhan in awful form as a number nine, with even me saying he shouldn’t be there.
I’m not going to go into detail about Ehibhatiomhan as I did that last week, but what should Leam Richardson do when both strikers are fit? There are three options in my opinion.
The first sees Ehibhatiomhan drop to the bench and replaced by Marriott in a like-for-like swap. I don’t think this is particularly fair as Ehibhatiomhan has just won player of the month for March with six goals in six games, finally becoming the striker he said he can be. But you can’t have a 16-goal striker sat on the bench.
The second option sees them play together in a two-striker formation. Switching to a 3-5-2 gives them the opportunity to play together to see what they can produce as a pairing.
Howeverm it means someone else gets dropped. Knowing Leam Richardson it will be Charlie Savage or Doyle that gets dropped, when I think it should be Liam Fraser. Savage can play in his position and Doyle, albeit taken off injured on Monday, is crucial for everything we do.
The final option is to move Ehibhatiomhan back out wide. We know he can have a massive impact coming off the left wing and drifting inside. This is the option I think will suit the team the most.
He’d replace the injured Doyle and operate in the false 10 position, drifting out wide but playing a more central role behind Marriott. If Doyle is OK for the game against Cardiff then I would move him to Savage’s position, keep Ehibhatiomhan in his spot and then move Savage back to play alongside Wing.
My lineup
Joel Pereira starts in goal. The Portuguese ‘keeper had his weakness exploited on Monday: he is below-par when it comes to one-v-ones. Although good at everything else for this league, that is something he really needs to improve on.
The defence will be Paudie O’Connor, Finley Burns and Jeriel Dorsett. Burns had a cracking game against Lincoln: his attacking runs were outstanding and at times he looked like the only player to want to get the ball forward for the Royals.
The midfield will be Ryan Nyambe, Wing, Fraser and Daniel Kyerewaa. Kyerewaa is another who I thought had a good game against Lincoln. He is always thinking positively and it looks like he can become a cracking player.
The attack will be Paddy Lane, Ehibhatiomhan and Savage. As much as I would like to see another start for Kadan Young, I think Lane will be Richardson’s choice.
Score prediction: 3-1 Royals
Good luck to those travelling to see Ehibhatiomhan score two goals in this one.
Come on you Royals!
