Reading 1-0 Wycombe Wanderers: The Increasingly Possible Dream
Strong defence + a Harvey Knibbs penalty = Reading stay in the thick of the race for a playoff spot.
“The bottom line is that the last two performances and results have been below standards. But the bottomer line (is that a thing? Let’s pretend it is) is that those standards are for a club properly prepared to mount and sustain a playoff push. Reading are not that club.”
That felt like fair and accurate analysis when I published it, on March 10. Reading had just drawn 1-1 at Crawley Town, dropping points in pretty tepid fashion for the second time in as many games, following a similarly frustrating 0-0 at home to Exeter City. The resulting five-point gap to the playoffs was hardly insurmountable, but it looked an awful lot like the Royals’ flirtation with the top six was coming to an end.
Yeah... about that...
Fast-forward five games and it’s safe to say that article has aged like milk in the sun. Just to really hammer the point home, some glorious weather was on display in Berkshire to accompany another home win, another positive result against a side pushing for automatic promotion, another crucial Harvey Knibbs penalty and another indication that no-one should underestimate this Reading side.
Reading (4-3-3): Pereira; Abrefa, Mbengue, Bindon, Garcia; Knibbs, Wing, Savage; Campbell, Ehibhatiomhan, Camara
Subs: Button, Yiadom, Stickland, Rushesha, Carroll, Bodin, Wareham
Wycombe Wanderers’ visit was the last of two particularly tough fixtures in the playoff run-in, with Reading having unsurprisingly come back from Blackpool empty-handed in midweek. The Chairboys are in fact the strongest side in the league for away form, so there was a very real risk of Reading losing back-to-back games for the first time since January.
To avoid that you suspected the Royals would have to noticeably raise their game, probably to the level of the Birmingham City and Wrexham showings, which were good value for a draw and win respectively. In reality Reading were off that standard today: not poor by any means, but not at their best either.
What got Reading over the line though were two key elements: a big second-half improvement (which unfolded in multiple parts really) and impressive solidity at the back throughout the afternoon. Let’s take the second of those first.
Bar Blackpool away, the Royals have been impressively tidy at the back in the last couple of months under Noel Hunt, and today’s game was the seventh clean sheet we’ve managed under him. In fact, we’ve played the top three teams in League One four times under his management, conceding just once (at Adams Park in his opening match) and racking up a clean sheet each time we’ve played Birmingham City, Wrexham or Wycombe at the SCL.
Key to the defensive showing today was the return of Amadou Mbengue and Tyler Bindon at centre-back. They had their hands full all afternoon, going up against League One’s top-scoring away team and top-scoring player in Richard Kone, and given how keen Wycombe looked to get in behind Reading today, it was especially good to have Mbengue’s pace available.
Yes Reading had to ride a lot of pressure, with Wycombe managing 17 shots in total. And yes Joel Pereira was called on a few times to make important saves. In the first half he had to be alert to parry an attempted lob after the Royals lost possession cheaply, and in the second he did really well to tip over a Garath McCleary header at close range.
But the Royals were never on the ropes, never desperately clinging on. Of those 17 efforts, only four were on target. And even in the closing stages, with Reading 1-0 to the good, Wycombe struggled to really unlock us.
Onto the other point then, the one that turned a creditable 0-0 into a massive/huge/wonderful/amazing 1-0 win.
Reading had looked disappointingly poor in the first half: sloppy in possession and unable to make many entries into the final third stick. Although the Royals were able to hold Wycombe at bay fairly well, getting any kind of grip on the game, building up momentum and threatening Will Norris’ goal looked beyond us.
Wycombe knew just how to throttle Reading. Their high press meant the Royals struggled to progress the ball upfield on the deck - which is the key to our best attacking moves, as we’ve seen in recent home games - instead having to resort to speculative long balls all too often.
But while we saw Reading’s performance level drop off after the break on Tuesday, this time the opposite happened. The Royals grew into the game slowly but surely in the second half, looking much more determined and capable when it came to imposing their attacking style on proceedings.
What really made the difference though was a couple of changes up top. Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan was again given the nod as the lone centre-forward but again struggled to make an impact, if anything looking particularly sloppy with his hold-up play.
Replacing him with Jayden Wareham shortly after the hour mark gave the Royals presence and tenacity in the final third which previously hadn’t been there. The link-up play was that bit better, and long balls over the top were that bit more successful, with Wareham’s ability to win a corner out of one at one stage - not even a particularly good long ball - emphasising the point.
Chem Campbell hadn’t been all that impressive either to be fair; in fact, he’s the one I’d have taken off at half-time. But moving him to the left after the break seemed to rejuvenate him, and it was his cut infield and confident charge into the box before being hacked down for a penalty that proved crucial.
Was there any doubt when Knibbs stepped up to take the spot-kick? None at all. He’s been tasked with taking four penalties in Reading’s impressive post-January run now - all at home, all in front of the Dolan - and buried each of them. When Reading need a cool head to stick the ball in the net, Knibbs is the man for the job.
When your main positives essentially boil down to Reading being strong defensively and just about ruthless enough to nick a 1-0, it’s fair to describe the victory as scrappy and ugly. But there’s little wrong with that even in the most favourable of matches, and certainly not when it comes to taking points off one of the best sides in the league.
And taking points off Wycombe was vital. Wins later in the day for Bolton Wanderers and Huddersfield Town denied Reading a stay in the top six, underlining how important it was for us to get the victory and keep pace with the competition. We were however rewarded by Leyton Orient and Blackpool drawing and losing respectively, meaning the gap to ninth and 10th extends now to five points.
Onto Shrewsbury Town away in midweek then, and if we can beat third-placed Wycombe at our place then surely we can go to rock-bottom Salop and win there. Surely?