News Every Day | 25 January 2025, 22:45

Leyton Orient 2-0 Reading: Player Ratings

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A decent first half but a desperately flat and passive second leads to the Royals losing on the road for the first time this year.

Joel Pereira: 6

Made a couple of big stops in the first half: one from a tight angle initially before also stopping Dilan Markanday one on one later. I wouldn’t fault him for either of the goals. Decent distribution too, seemingly more often going long in the first half before playing shorter in the second.

Michael Craig: 5

Had a reassuringly quiet first half on his return to the starting XI, with most of the home side’s attacks going down the other side. However, a lot of Reading’s initial build-up play in the second half involved him and he just didn’t do enough with the ball.

Harlee Dean: 5

Not a terrible performance, but he doesn’t suit a contest when Reading’s backline gets stretched and his lack of pace gets exposed. Tested the ‘keeper with a decent header (saved) in the first half from a Savage delivery.

Tyler Bindon: 6

Stood up pretty well to the pressure Orient threw at Reading in the second half, putting in some important blocks and interceptions, showing his usual composure.

Jeriel Dorsett: N/A

Injured after a few minutes so I can’t reasonably give him a grade. Hopefully he isn’t out for too long, but this constant stop-start nature of his season much be so frustrating for him. We need a fully fit Dorsett back ASAP.

Harvey Knibbs: 4

In the first half I thought he looked a lot more involved all round, with Reading looking to engage Orient in their half and disrupt them more aggressively and physically. Knibbs was a useful part of that. Added nothing creatively in the second half though

Lewis Wing: 4

Besides some good set-piece deliveries in the first half he didn’t contribute a lot today. In games like today’s, with Reading struggling to create in the second half, I wonder if it would have been worth pushing Wing up closer to goal to use his creativity in a more dangerous position - or at least get him in shooting range.

Charlie Savage: 5

For the most part he wasn’t that much more impactful than the other two, but his set-piece deliveries in the first half were probably Reading’s most reliable threat today, with a number of free-kicks and corners causing problems. Also put a shot straight at the ‘keeper from the edge of the area, failing to get enough power on his strike. Withdrawn for Tivonge Rushesha in the second half.

Chem Campbell: 4

Added little offensively in either half and his wastefulness with one attack after the break prompted him to be replaced by Mamadi Camara on the right wing.

Sam Smith: 5

Starved of quality service for most of the game but did create Reading’s best chance of the afternoon, linking up nicely with Garcia before putting a low cross into the area that the young left-winger couldn’t quite do enough with. Decent hold-up play before the break, maybe should have had a penalty when the ‘keeper appeared to barge into him (Smith was also backing into him a bit to be fair), and had nothing to work with after the break.

Andre Garcia: 5

A quiet first half as Reading’s threat tended to be from set-pieces, though he did part-create and ultimately spurn the best Royals chance of the game. It was the right call to move him to left-back in the second half and he did have one or two quality moments going forward, but he wasn’t used enough.

Subs

Abraham Kanu: 4

I hate having to say this every week but Kanu’s not up to it defensively at the moment. Too easily exposed today and showed poor positioning at times, with Orient getting in behind him for the opening goal. Taken off in the second half as Noel Hunt put Garcia there in an attacking swap.

Mamadi Camara and Kelvin Ehibatiomhan: 4

Came on in a double swap for Campbell and Kanu with just over half an hour to go, added nothing of significance out wide, although the game was already going well against Reading by that point and they did struggle from a lack of service.