Five Things From Reading’s Memorable Win Over Crawley Town

Bobbins dissects Reading’s 4-1 win over Crawley Town in the early kick-off.

Memorable

A return to football, after what seemed to be the 84th international break of the season, was always going to be welcome, but what we didn’t expect was a very memorable occasion for more than one reason. The most obvious thing to tick off the list would be that goal, but we’ll save that for later.

What also must be applauded was how the club handled the School and Grassroots Day. With youngsters reading out the team sheets, goal scorers and even the safety announcement, all were very nice touches that would have been heard by all.

It’s initiatives like this that are designed to get our next batch of fans involved and integrated into the fold. The club will have taken its due pelters over the last 18 months or so, but this it handled very well indeed.

Obviously, it helps that we won and scored some really good goals in the process! Outside the ground after the game, proud mums and dads saw how happy their children were that their team won.

They won’t have felt the same feelings as us diehards would have felt, but if a result like this can get the youngsters on board, then glossing over the performance is a bit like keeping the Santa Claus myth alive. Yes, I’m sorry to break it to you. But anyway, well done to the club. Fantastic work, keep that up.

Editor’s note for any of our younger readers: For clarity, Bobbins is joking. Santa Claus does in fact exist and always has.

Second

On the pitch, let’s be honest, that wasn’t great. Aside from the clinical nature of the goals, something which every manager wants from their team, we weren’t at it. The inability to pick up the second ball led us to be second best.

Crawley Town managed to keep possession better, find their passes with ease and generally pull us out of shape a lot. For a team that’s in the bottom three, they caused us a lot of problems, probably more than many that have taken to the SCL pitch lately in all honesty.

It’s difficult to pinpoint what exactly went wrong, however. Whether it was complacency, over-confidence or something a bit more tactical - whatever it was - we struggled to find any momentum or the ability to control the tempo of the game.

Despite the scoreline, which totally flattered us, we could easily have lost this one and not many would have complained. Were it not for David Button with a few crucial saves (yes, really, that actually happened), and a few ridiculous clearances from Tyler Bindon and Amadou Mbengue, the result could have taken a much different flavour: a sour one.

It was quite a special day for Mbengue with his first goal of the season to add to his defensive heroics. His goal-line clearance would have been the talk of many a game, but he was beaten to that accolade by a moment a little later in the match. However, his contribution should be duly noted. He’s now akin to an extra-strong cheese: maturing nicely.

Sublime

Enter the fray, one Lewis Wing. We’ve become accustomed to the pings of Wing ever since his arrival last season, whether they be from set-piece situations or from distance, but none of them have been as finely struck as his sublime strike from what must have been about 35 yards.

It had everything: pace, power, technique; it moved through the air like shimmering bullet. No goalkeeper on the planet would save this one. Not a hope.

It was a hit that took the air out of the stadium as it fizzed over the line. A moment of disbelief from the crowd of what they had just witnessed. A moment to etch into your memory, that we were there when it happened. It was the kind of goal that many more than the 13,000 will say they saw with their own eyes in the future. A proper “I was there” memory.

Few of us will have seen a goal of its like before or again, especially in a Royals shirt. It truly was as clean a strike as you’ll ever want. Bravo, Mr Wing, Bravo. We doff our collective caps to you. Congratulations for winning the Goal of the Season award! It’s in the bag. It’s October.

Furious

Yet strangely, that goal didn’t settle us down. We should have come out in the second half a bit more relaxed and less all over the place, but it didn’t. Ruben Selles was furious at the final whistle after lambasting Mbengue for not doing whatever he was told to do in the last action of the game by the corner flag.

That summed up Selles’ feelings on the performance. Don’t let the scoreline fool you - it was a poor performance. It seems at odds with the scoreline but it flattered us. We were nowhere near as good as some games where we would have lost previously.

It seems at odds with the result, but to have a manager who won’t settle for the three points despite an iffy showing has to be respected. He knows that they won’t get away with it if this happens again, so it’s refreshing to see his meticulous nature coming to the fore. Harsh, but most certainly fair.

Whistle

And finally, a special note to the referee, Edward Duckworth, who managed to stop the game at any given opportunity that he fancied. With a staggering 21 fouls for Crawley to our SIX, it seems there was some sort of (un)conscious bias going on.

We’re getting used to bad refereeing at this level, but man alive, this one’s whistle was wetter than an otter’s pocket. Two players just needed to be in the vicinity of each other for a free-kick to be given and, by the looks of the stats, usually to Crawley.

But who cares? It’s three points, it’s another home win, it’s another step closer to safety. Up next, a trip to the Grecians of Exeter City. They’re doing rather well too, which doesn’t bode well for us as, on the road, we are prone to even worse performances than this showing.

Let’s just hope that there’s another match-winning schwing from Wing in the locker to send us home happy.