Exeter City 1-2 Reading: Breaking The Away-Day Duck
Goals before the break from Jayden Wareham and Michael Craig were enough for a first away win of the season, despite a second-half Grecians fightback.
The Grecians versus The Royals on a Tuesday night sounds more like a dramatic end-of-season war affair for a TV box set than a football match between two League One sides. However, a football match it was, and 750-800 brave Reading fans made the journey down to watch the game.
The starting line-up announced before the kick-off piqued interest in the occasion too. Ben Elliott was dropped to the bench, along with Sam Smith. This meant that, it would seem, Jayden Wareham getting a first league start of the season up top, presuming Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan would continue playing off the left.
As well as this, we saw a welcome return to the line-up for Joel Pereira and another start for Andre Garcia (not surprisingly) on the left. I suspect these changes were made for the purposes of rotation, but nonetheless, it created the most excitement for me in a starting line-up since the opening day, especially given Smith's recent struggles.
Despite even our iffy away form – 23rd in the league table based on away form only – some fans may have been hoping for a repeat of another magical Tuesday night, 13 months ago, when we saw our (mostly) academy team record a historic 9-0 win. You may have heard this mentioned once or twice during proceedings!
It seems that both teams got the memo about the sound of this tie being more of a box-set epic as a opposed to a “cold night in the rain away at…” affair.
Perhaps Reading fed off the vibes of last season. Perhaps Exeter wanted to seek revenge for the humbling. Either way, both teams came out to attack and, before fans had time to get settled in their seats, Wareham hit an effort in from the right-hand edge of the box, across the 'keeper, to make the score 1-0 to the ´Ding.
That'll do nicely, and surely a confidence booster for all Royals, most especially Wareham, looking to claim a stake in the starting XI.
The first half of the first half followed quite an entertaining pattern where both teams were looking to press high, win the ball and attack the space. In particular, the Exeter number 15, playing at left-back, Johnly Yfeko, looked constantly vulnerable to attack when one of Chem Campbell, Harvey Knibbs, Wareham or Michael Craig ran at him. Unfortunately, a consistent theme throughout the first half was that Campbell could just not make anything stick.
Too often, he found himself losing the ball, making the wrong decisions, being out-muscled or reading the incoming pass wrong. He still looks cut adrift from everyone in this side, and it was fair to say that, given Exeter's left-back's struggles, the directness and pace of Adrian Akande would surely have caused more even more problems and created more for Wareham and others to feed off.
Campbell just had no end ball to provide his teammates, despite the fact our most dangerous attacks were being focussed down the right-hand side of the pitch.
There was one moment around 19 minutes in when Exeter's goalkeeper miskicked the ball to Campbell, who was lurking on the right-hand edge of the 18-yard box, only for Campbell to scuff the ball into Wareham, which meant Reading were unable to capitalise on this moment. A shame, as our press was causing an Exeter side determined to play out short passes from the back all kinds of trouble.
Make no mistake, these attacks needed to count. Exeter were a dangerous proposition going forward for the most part. Though Reading had more of the ball and looked more effective going forward in the first half, Exeter still had a lot of threat when attacking us. I am not sure if it is because of the nature of the high press that their front three were deploying or because we were just disorganised defensively, but we never looked secure at the back during the first half.
Amadou Mbengue in particular didn't play well – often playing too many stray passes or putting others into trouble. He took up the left-centre-back position today, swapping with Tyler Bindon, presumably to offer the experienced head of all his 22 years to his 16-year-old counterpart Garcia.
Two examples of this were around 16 minutes in, when Exeter were counter-attacking forward down the left-hand side of Reading's defence and Mbengue made a late tackle, so late in fact he was incredibly fortunate not to receive a booking for it. This led to a dangerous free-kick from Exeter which was eventually cleared thanks to an excellent punch from Pereira, coming into the crowded box and clearing the ball away.
Around 32 minutes in, Mbengue let a pass run in behind him and he galloped to try and chase it to win it back and was just about able to. However, there was some calls from fans for a handball against the Exeter player, though this would have been harsh. Mbengue was fortunate again that this led to nothing.
Perhaps the Mbengue/Bindon swap worked as Garcia looked confident and, despite occasionally being caught in between space by darting runs from Exeter's forward players, Mbengue chose these moments to thrive in the chaos and come to the rescue.
A word about Garcia too – he really looked threatening going forward. There was one moment especially with some lovely interplay, after he dropped a shoulder and made a run forward, between himself and Charlie Savage which led to Savage putting a dangerous ball into the six-yard box which Reading were unable to capitalise on, with no one there to make the run in.
Garcia also had a couple of good moments defensively – in particular around 25 minutes in, when a dangerous ball in from Exeter's left went to the back post, and Garcia, under pressure from the striker, had to time the block and clearance very carefully given how close he was to the back post. This could have easily been a miskick and ended up as an own goal, but Garcia stayed calm and put the ball out behind the goal for a corner kick, helping to relieve the pressure.
However, most of the attacking moments were coming from Reading and it wasn't long before the second goal came in the 35th minute.
Wareham, I believe it was him anyway, took a shot which was blocked by the Exeter defender and the goalkeeper was already committed. While being on his feet, he has all his weight planted to his right. On the right edge of the 18-yard box, of all people, Craig popped up and slotted home a lovely strike to the near post, which the keeper was not able to deal with. The keeper should have done better, but you will not find me complaining. At this stage, Reading were 2-0 and cruising.
Exeter offered nothing going forward for the rest of the half, and their defence were struggling to cope with the Reading press, energy and passing moves. This isn't to say our passing was as crisp as it could be – too often there were times when we weren't knitting moves together as well as we should have done – but when it came together, it caused all manner of problems for Exeter. The only complaint for us was wanting to get Akande onto the pitch to take over from the ineffective Campbell.
Going into half-time, BBC Berks pundit Ady Williams, who is one of my all-time favourites, spouted a bit of nonsense, which, it seems, he is prone to doing all too often. He told the commentators: “And I'll tell you what – this game is won.”
Now – anyone who has followed Reading for… a year or more... will know that is an absolute fallacy. Nothing is ever certain until the final whistle is blown. All too many times we have seen this. Too often this season we have been a different team in each half of a game. Unfortunately, today was one of those games and I hope Williams will try not to jinx us again!
Exeter couldn't have been any less energetic in the first half, so it was no surprise to see them come out in the second half with rockets up their backsides and looking to attack the disorganised and vulnerable defensive unit of Reading.
However, we still had our moments. Around 47 minutes in, Campbell managed to get a cross in from Reading´s right after a nice run that sort of just…trickled its way past the entire defence.
It seemed to confuse everyone, and nobody really reacted to it from either team, despite the ball just being sat there giving everyone sad eyes. Eventually, Savage darted in and took a shot which was directed at the keeper. There was a suggestion of handball from Exeter in the build-up to this, but I think this would have been harsh as well.
After this, we saw Exeter really dominate for the next 15-20 minutes or so. Crosses were coming in from out wide and deep, and our defence just didn't seem to know what to do. There always seemed to be a free man in the box, left unchallenged. The defence all seemed very static when the ball landed in the box, or if the ball arrived at the edge of the box, there didn't seem to be anyone tracking the run or trying to close the man down.
This happened on many occasions throughout this period of the game. Fortunately, Exeter were quite profligate for the most part and if we were playing against a team with their shooting boots, we really could have suffered for it. Perhaps our defenders were deliberately told to stand off the Exeter players taking long shots, given how ineffective they were.
However, despite this, Exeter still caused us a lot of problems. Too many, in fact, for anyone of a Reading persuasion to feel comfortable. Such moments like in the 55th minute, when an Exeter player running down the left of Reading´s defence broke into the box and was one-on-one with Garcia, and shoulder to shoulder, Garcia won the ball cleanly but the player went down claiming a penalty. It seemed to me the striker was looking for it, but we've seen these given before so it was a scary moment.
Two minutes later, a cross from Exeter's left-hand side was not blocked by any of Craig, Wing or Knibbs and caught everyone in the box by surprise as an Exeter player made a run in at the back post and scored the inevitable goal that Exeter had been pushing for, and honestly, had deserved. Things felt a lot more uncomfortable for Reading with only a one-goal cushion, and we didn't seem to have any answers at this point. However, heads did not go down.
Just after the goal, the change for Campbell coming off and Akande coming on was made. Also, something of a surprise, Wareham came off for Smith. If I'm honest, I thought we missed Wareham's energy up top. Maybe given our propensity to play a long ball to get out of trouble meant we needed more of an aerial presence to hold up play.
On a few more occasions over the next 10 minutes, we saw more instances of Exeter attacking and oud defence looking a bit flat-footed. However, Exeter were not able to exploit this. Around 72 minutes in, another cross came in from a similar position as before, perhaps a bit deeper, and Exeter won the ball on the left of the box and took a shot before anyone could react to it, which beat everyone but came off the inside of Pereira's far post.
A scramble ensued to get rid of the ball, which they eventually did, but this was an absolute let-off and we could have had no complaints had that gone in. We need to get better at closing down crossing opportunities.
Just prior to this, Sellés made two more substitutions. Surprisingly, Garcia came off for Harlee Dean, with Mbengue shuffling over to left-back and Savage also came off, with Elliott being introduced in his place.
Perhaps the thinking was a bit more defensive stability and resilience with Dean´s introduction, though in his first few minutes, he did look a bit shaky. Not long after the Exeter goal, a ball came in again from their left to the back post with no Exeter players and three Reading players. A no-pressure situation. Dean actually miscued the header, but it still came off him and went out for a corner.
However, for balance, in the 77th minute, after a Reading attack led to a corner, Dean was found in the position of a right winger and he put a beautiful ball into the box, which Exeter hurriedly cleared for a corner.
Despite Exeter's dominance, they were still shaky at the back and, at this stage, Exeter were beginning to tire. It is worth noting that Reading were already deploying game-management techniques at this stage to wind down the clock. It must have been frustrating for Exeter and their fans, but it was done well by Reading and it was sensible game management in challenging circumstances.
For a while now, neither team really had an attack and it became more of a slog in midfield, but with Reading seeming the more energetic of the two sides and the more likely to make something happen. In the 82nd minute, the final Reading substitution was made with Ehibhatiomhan coming off after a quiet game, to be replaced by the returning Mamadi Camara from injury, which was great to see.
The game was on a knife-edge, but there was no tension in the air until the referee signalled four extra minutes of time. The first two of these minutes saw relentless Exeter attacks, which Reading repelled time and time again.
From one in the 93rd minute, a Reading clearance saw Camara break into space with Exeter having committed all their players forward. Camara ran to the edge of the Exeter box, spun round and cut in a ball from the right towards Smith. However, Smith and Akande - who had both made the runs up to support while Camara held the ball up with the spin - got in each other's way and Smith struggled to get off a meaningful shot. Somehow, we didn't score.
From here, Exeter sensed the space had opened up and went on the counter-attack themselves. A ball went into the box, Exeter made the shot from the left and Pereira saved, then Reading cleared.
It was hard to describe how mad those 90 seconds were, having seen the 94th minute pass us by without the game stopping, but it really was a stressful ending to the game and had the sense that anything could possibly happen.
As it was, the unlikely did happen. Reading collected their first away league win of the season, which pushes us up to a nice seventh place in the table.
We still have work to do defensively, making our unit a bit more solid and less prone to errors, and if Exeter had scored instead of hitting the post, we couldn't have had much to complain about. However, a win is a win and we will take them however they come, and it's just rewards for the hundreds of fans who made the journey tonight to come back home with the three points.