Reading Draw In First Game Back As Fans Locked Out

20 June 2020
By Hob Nob Anyone?

Championship football is back with us again and The Royals got off to a flying start. Joao opened the scoring after seven minutes with a delightful finish from Meite's cross, which I missed as the ifollow system predictably struggled to cope with everyone logging in just before kick-off. After a bright thirty minutes, the Reading striker unfortunately was forced to leave the pitch with a significant looking hamstring injury. Morrison might have extended Reading's lead early in the second half, but was blatantly fouled in the box in the second half. The referee somehow failed to notice the infringement. To round the afternoon off, a stoppage time equaliser from Stoke denied Reading their first win behind closed doors. It's good to be back!
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Championship football is back with us again and The Royals got off to a flying start. Joao opened the scoring after seven minutes with a delightful finish from Meite's cross, which I missed as the ifollow system predictably struggled to cope with everyone logging in just before kick-off. After a bright thirty minutes, the Reading striker unfortunately was forced to leave the pitch with a significant looking hamstring injury. Morrison might have extended Reading's lead early in the second half, but was blatantly fouled in the box in the second half. The referee somehow failed to notice the infringement. To round the afternoon off, a stoppage time equaliser from Stoke denied Reading their first win behind closed doors. It's good to be back!
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<a href="https://www.royals.org/matchreport/200620/Reading_1_Stoke_1"><strong>Read More...</strong></a>

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<li><a href="https://www.royals.org/matchreport/200620/Reading_1_Stoke_1">Reading 1 Stoke City 1</a></li>
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Discussion On This Story:

  Westwood52

» 20 Jun 2020 17:16

Not much change really after four months off.Missed Miazga.Zonal marking why ?

IMHO
Rafael 7 Little to do really.The really great goalies dominate the box.

Gunter 6 Usual service.Very much a mixed bag.Still backs off too much.One terrible cross when totally under no pressure.

Richards 6 Nothing much going forward,struggled a bit at times.Very much normal service.

Moore 9 Near enough 10 MOM.Obviously kept his levels up during lock down.

Morrison 6 Struggled against Vokes.Normal service again.

Swift 7 Tired.Not surprising really.Unlucky with the free kick.

Ejaria 4 Very disappointing.Right off his game.

Olise 7 Very promising,will get better and better.

Obita 7 Back to his old position.Some good crosses.Didnt put a foot wrong.

Meite 6 Usual really.Bull in a china shop.Tired badly.

Jao 8 Great goal.We will miss him.
Puskas Thought he looked reasonably sharp.

Rino Looked a bit rusty.

Macca Yeah looked sharp.

Adam Gave away the crucial corner.Looked his age.
Ref.Forgot how bad they are.Missed a clear penalty,then missed the foul when Swift was about to shoot.Mc Clean and Powell consistently fouled,but did little about it.

Crowd poor.Very disappointing attendance.

  CountryRoyal

» 20 Jun 2020 17:21

Meite is toilet. Just doesn’t have a footballing brain. Any talks of playoffs is stupid, even if we managed to get in we’d be destroyed by any half decent side.

  royalp-we

» 20 Jun 2020 17:22

Poor to not see that game out. Negative tactics going 4-5-1 against a team lower than us at home. Stoke had 4 CB’s out there and expected us to take the game to them. Which we did for a while with João driving at them. Puscas lacked service when on, I think he needs a 4-4-2 with out and out wingers when he’s on the pitch.
Understand that Bowen may have opted for experience to see the game out In the 84th and brought on McLeary and Adam - the changes unsettled us further though. Would have just liked to see Masika to exploit their slow wing backs.
Disappointing but sod it. Reading FC are back!

  Jagermesiter1871

» 20 Jun 2020 17:33



What like Fulham?

  Hound

» 20 Jun 2020 17:34



The same Fulham side we beat, Forest side we drew with twice or Preston side we doubled?

  Jagermesiter1871

» 20 Jun 2020 17:35

Thats probably one of the best performances from Moore I've seen. Thought we looked very good in spells and then had spells where we let Stoke play too much. Olise looks very promising - tried too much on a lot of occasions today but is a real talent. Swift, Rafael, Obita good.
Didn't think anyone was poor really. Just switched off at the end, very frustrating. Hope Joao isn't too injured.

  Snowflake Royal

» 20 Jun 2020 17:37

Cabral - 6 didn't have a lot to do to get a higher score tbf

Gunter - 7 occasional Gunter moments but generally decent

Richards - 6 fine, bit wobbly in defence not much in attack

Moore - 8 top draw for the most part

Morro - 7 solid, good fall over foul at least once.

Swift - 7 so close, in and out the game

Ejaria - 6 decent, some lovely inter play at times but only patchy and didn't deliver

Olise - 8 just a joy to watch. Sometimes flashy, sometimes simple. Still a bit naive and weak at times, but some of our best moments came through him. Always looking to produce

Meite - 7 always a threat and unsettled teams. He's not pretty but he's effective

Obita - 6 didn't have the legs at the end, couldn't quite get a couple of crosses in, but decent

Joao - 7 looked dangerous and was linking with Meite fairly well. Real shame about the injury, would score higher if he played longer
Puscas - 7 still seems on his heels too often, but much better passing and touch

McCleary - 7 almost a great through ball, some nice moments

Rinomhota - 6 solid, but couldn't quite make a couple of breaks happen

Adam - 6 a couple of moments of good experience but also gave away the corner and a couple too many ambitious forward balls
Ref - 5 few major decisions wrong, but not great.
Overall disappointing, but always felt vulnerable at just 1 and could almost feel it coming at that corner. Pretty good display on the whole. Joao a big loss though.

  Simmops

» 20 Jun 2020 17:46

Didn't watch it but I'll just say +1 to what Ian Royal says as he is normally right on the team board (not so much AE :wink:)

  Hound

» 20 Jun 2020 17:52



Tbh I’d go pretty much with all he says in that post.

  Franconian Royal

» 20 Jun 2020 17:56

Watched until the 75th Minute. We looked good. Didn’t see either of the goals.
I hope Joao isn’t injured, hopefully it was cramp. Looked really sad when he came off.
If we could see out games, then we’d be in with a higher position. If we play some slick footie against Derby, we could win.
Agree with comments that we need wingers when puscas is on.

  windermereROYAL

» 20 Jun 2020 18:16



Dont think he would have had an ice pack for cramp, and his reaction after he went off tells us all we need to know, certainly his hammy again.

  Royal_jimmy

» 20 Jun 2020 18:30

I still can't believe we didn't win that. Should have really been 2 or 3 up before the end, that's how much we were on top in the game. Maybe without Joao's injury we would have done.
Thought we were solid and Stoke hardly troubled us at all until the end when we went to sleep and got sucker punched. Very frustrating when we should have won that game today. It does reinforce the reality though. Our squad lacks quality in a few areas and we'd have no chance in the playoffs anyway. We need to try and address those weaknesses in the summer with whatever limited transfer kitty that we do get. We really do lack quality up front to finish teams off, like when we got held by Hull. We may have to sell someone valuable, just hope it's not Olise as he played very well today.
Very frustrating but not a massively surprising result when you don't take your chances like Swift's freekick, that's 5 draws in our last 6 league matches with Stoke now!

  Stranded

» 20 Jun 2020 18:33

I completely forgot the game was on.
Ah well. Annoying only in as much as if we had held on we would only be 6pts off play-offs but hey ho. We're going to finish about 12th anyway - which is about right.

  Zip

» 20 Jun 2020 18:51

We have some of the most skilful players in this division but they don’t create anywhere near enough chances given their talent. We overplay. The sucker punch at the end would have been avoided by a promotion chasing side. We have to be more organised than that.
Rafael 6 Had nothing to do all afternoon

Gunter 6 A real mix of good and bad

Moore 7 Played really well but loses a mark for not organising the defence for that corner

Morrison 6 Was fine until Vokes came on and then wobbled

Richards 6 Got a let off in the first half. Struggled to push forward

Obita 6 I thought he was ok but he did tire towards the end

Swift 6 Slow start but improved. Great freekick

Ejaria 5 Disappointing and really faded after the break

Olise 7 MoTM Did really well, Involved in the goal, lovely cross, good effort on goal etc

Meite 6 Good assist but should have passed to Obita in the second half

Joao 7 Took his goal really well and looked a threat
Puscas 6 One very poor pass but worked hard. Had no service

Rinomhota 5 Quiet

Adam 5 Conceded a really soft corner

GMac 6 Looked lively.

  RoyalBlue

» 20 Jun 2020 19:00



Dont think he would have had an ice pack for cramp, and his reaction after he went off tells us all we need to know, certainly his hammy again.

According to Bowen he didn't experience a real pull and the associated pain, just a tightness, so sensibly taken off. Fingers crossed it's largely psychosomatic.

  Torbay Royal

» 20 Jun 2020 20:01

Obviously it was disappointing to not take the three points but from 75 minutes I think you could see the players tiring and starting to sit deeper and, more worryingly, refuse to try and keep possession.
Positives

Moore was strong at the back

Joao was a threat and had the Stoke defence panicking when he ran at them - shame he had to go off

Swifts free kick was so close

Obita put some really good crosses in during the first half

Olise shows immense promise and I think he could be a real asset next season
Negatives

I think the substitutions played to Stokes advantage

Swift sometimes didn't see the easy ball and tried too hard to "make something happen"

Ejaria delayed his pass too many times and needs to mix it up a bit and not try to dribble past the defender "one more time"
Overall I thought it was a decent performance but the mindset has to change when we're a goal up with 15 to play. We must learn how to shut games out.

  Snowflake Royal

» 20 Jun 2020 21:09


Think we actually did the reverse of what a lot of people thought as the game came to a close and tried to go too direct to create the second goal rather than hold onto possession and build something, taking the sting out of Stoke, as you commented.
We just weren't very good at it.

  CountryRoyal

» 20 Jun 2020 21:38



The same Fulham side we beat, Forest side we drew with twice or Preston side we doubled?

Easy bite but I know who I’d back if I was a neutral.

  Snowflake Royal

» 20 Jun 2020 22:26



The same Fulham side we beat, Forest side we drew with twice or Preston side we doubled?

Easy bite but I know who I’d back if I was a neutral.

Us if we made the play offs because we'd be on a hell of a good form run combined with a good record against them.
We won't make it though, because we aren't good enough yet.

  Lower West

» 21 Jun 2020 00:22

With no home crowd. There's no longer a home advantage.
Let's get to a secure position. Then start to focus on the future.

  windermereROYAL

» 21 Jun 2020 09:49



3 home wins in 19 league games since the restart.

  bloody Volvo driver

» 21 Jun 2020 10:34

Totally agree with Zip’s first 2 sentences about having some of the division most gifted players but that we overplay.
The problem is we don’t have intelligent players, who know when to twist and when to stick. There are times to play but there are times to move the ball on quicker and 2-3 times yesterday we lost good positions due to poor decision making, alas a trait this has been far too prevalent throughout the season.
Sort this out and we will become a team to be reckoned with.

  NewCorkSeth

» 21 Jun 2020 10:34

We are truly blessed to have Olise. I know we have a past of bigging up our home grown talent a little too much but wow. What a player. Looks so mature. Bowen must be so excited at the prospect of playing him more next season.
Thought Moore was near imperious. Morrison very good too.
I may be wrong as I was watching it in the sunshine so missed a few of the finer derails but did it seem like Puscas has gotten better at his hold up/keeping the ball in our possession when he gets the longer balls played up to him?

  Hound

» 21 Jun 2020 10:49

Yeah puscas hold up was massively improved
Delighted Bowen is playing Olise. Fair play to him for that and he is putting in the performances to warrant it
The midfield 5 - obita, swift, Ejaria, Olise and Meite - all young and with the exception possibly of Obita, all likely to get better with experience
Could be exciting times if we can keep them together with Rino in the mix as well

  Zip

» 21 Jun 2020 11:19



It’s going to depend on who we get to keep from the current squad. I would like to see us sign Miazga and Pele but can’t see any chance of that happening. We will almost certainly offload Gunter, GMac, Adam, Mannone and loan out Aluko again as he didn’t even make the squad yesterday. That will free up some wages but will leave us light at right back especially if Yiadom is ever out injured. Not such a problem at centre back as I think Tom McIntyre can step up. I would give Osho a new deal as I think he is a justified fourth choice centre back.
So if we can keep hold of the rest and bring in a couple of loanees (right back and winger) we will have cut the wage bill significantly without spending too much(Ejaria for £3 million). However we may have to lose one of our stronger players because of FFP so possibly Swift, Puscas or Rinomhota may have to go.
We don’t need another massive overhaul this summer. Lose 8 or 9. Bring in 4 and that brings the size of the squad down to about 25 which seems about right to me.

However we need to get the best out of this squad. When I look at teams like Preston, Bristol City and Blackburn I don’t see sides that are anything special. We have enough talent to be moving ahead of them but Bowen has not found a playing style that suits us at home. He needs to be more positive. Away from home is a different matter. We seem able to soak up pressure, counter and score.

  SouthDownsRoyal

» 21 Jun 2020 11:28



Agree with that, a fair few teams making a play off challenge who are good but nor amazing, we should be in the position with our squad.

  Hound

» 21 Jun 2020 12:04

I’d like to see a few more of the youth lads brought through obviously. Southwood and Holsgrove probably the closest

  Zip

» 21 Jun 2020 12:37



I would have Southwood as our number two next season and take Walker’s wages off the books. Don’t know enough about Holsgrove to comment.

  Snowflake Royal

» 21 Jun 2020 12:42


Yep
The good thing about this season coming to a close in midtable is that we can afford to give the likes of Olise, Richards, McIntyre, Osho, Andresson, maybe East, Frost and Nevers etc minutes to get under their belt.
I think it's safe to say few people would have called Richards, Rino or Olise as the next three to break through before they did. Hell, even after he did in Richards case! So you never know who might surprise you and just fit in well. Rino for example, isn't the most talented player by any stretch of the imagination, he's good sure, but his strength lies in the decisions he makes and his commitment more than his technical skill.

  Lower West

» 21 Jun 2020 12:51

Jordan Holsgrove's loan has been terminated. Expect to see him get minutes before the end of this season.
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