If supporting this team weren’t already such an exhausting, depressing, and gloomy experience, it would be humble.
Another game on the road, another loss. Any justifications or attempts to defend the performance of the team, manager, and players at this stage seem foolish, if not recklessly grasping at straws.
Some Reading players put in absolutely acceptable individual performances at Northampton on Tuesday. Lewis Wing appeared respectable, Nelson Abbey performed admirably on a busy night of firefighting, Kelvin Ehibathioman and Caylan Vickers both forced quick saves in the first half, and, um, that’s about it.
Ruben Selles will no doubt feel his 4-2-2-2 has not yet fully germinated with this young squad, and so we’re left to hope that the usual routine of a promising tactic succeeding before being found out by the opposition take place in reverse. Once again here, it was basically a 4-2-4 even out of possession with diddly squat protection for the wide areas where two grossly underpowered full-backs were exposed while the central players were simply outnumbered.
Either the wingers will have to work a lot harder off the ball, the full-backs will have to do everything better or Selles will have to drop a striker into the midfield pack to stop it from dissolving. You suspect at least two of these are absolutely essential and no one could be blamed for demanding all three.
Nine minutes into the game, Tyler Bindon’s airkick left Harlee Dean in no man’s land and Sam Hoskins ghosted past him before firing a low shot at a David Button doing his best Casper the Friendly Ghost impression.
Louis George Appéré then should have made it 2-0 with a free header before Abbey escaped a penalty appeal in a dismal opening 20 minutes. Sure enough, Reading got a grip and improved with Vickers pinging a low snapshot that produced a really smart stop from Lee Burge in the Northampton goal.
It was 2-0 after a short while. A long ball over the top caused Matty Carson to drop to the ground without being tackled or cleared, and the Reading defense, which was baffled, let Appéré score thanks to a second pointless flap from Button.
Following a stretch of play that could be accurately characterized as 2-0 football, Harvey Knibbs and Dom Ballard were abruptly removed from the lineup, and Reading eventually got back into the game thanks to a gift from Burge. Knibbs set up Ballard for a rolling finish, which Burge simply stepped over to make it 2-1 after a long pass forward caused the goalie to stray to the edge of his area.
It was here where the 4-2-2-2 worked a bit better. As Reading have found at home, it suits playing teams which sit back and allow the Royals to pour men forward. Second balls were regularly being won by the visitors and Selles’ last throw of the dice was to remove Ehibathioman for Ben Elliott.
A smart cut-back from the ex-Chelsea playmaker to Wing saw Azeez picked out in a perfect position on the 87th minute, but he scuffed his effort. Say what you like about Azeez, things happen around him and 90 seconds later he went down in the box after losing a foot race – sparking a furious, futile reaction from the Reading bench and unused substitute Andy Yiadom of all people was sent off for his protests.
Button then stopped a breakaway chance but Reading came back in the 93rd minute, a delicate cross into the six-yard box escaping a tap-in from Knibbs because of reasons. Fortunately, there was still time for another hash-up as a third goal slipped through Button’s fingers to confirm a 3-1 defeat and a latest fruitless journey.