Reading 4-1 Crawley Town: Crawling To Victory
The hefty scoreline - thanks to goals from Amadou Mbengue, Lewis Wing, Charlie Savage and Sam Smith - somewhat flattered a poor Royals performance.
If you missed this game in real time (and that’d be understandable given the early kick-off), you’d be forgiven for drawing an inaccurate conclusion about Reading’s performance from the scoreline. Great! A 4-1 win. So Reading played very well, surely?
Not really, no. While Reading most certainly had their shooting boots on today - especially Lewis Wing, who outdid himself with his first-half effort - the rest of the display left a lot to be desired. Had Crawley Town been the ones to come away with the 4-1 win, it wouldn’t have felt all that outlandish, based on how the game unfolded. They’ll certainly feel hard done by to come away without all three points, and justifiably so.
Not only did Reading struggle to properly get going all afternoon, imposing their gameplan both in and out of possession, but Crawley found it too easy to impose theirs. For some of the first half, and far too much of the second, the visitors knocked the ball around confidently, penned Reading back and found a concerning amount of space in the Royals’ third.
The parts of the match outside those spells weren’t a lot better. Reading didn’t manage dominant spells of extended quality and pressure to rival the ones put together by Crawley, and just generally seemed to lack the composure and authority which were so evident earlier on in the season, but have been in shorter supply in recent games.
To be fair, there are good reasons for that. First-team absences have been mounting, with Kelvins Ehibhatiomhan and Abrefa playing no part today - in addition to Joel Pereira, Jeriel Dorsett, Andy Yiadom, Mamadi Camara and others. The constant anxiety behind the scenes due to the limping takeover process will surely have had an impact too.
Where Reading really came up trumps today though was in individual moments. Even in weaker collective performances such as this one against Crawley, and despite how the squad’s been chipped away at over the last year or so, this side can still count on some true match-winning quality.
Above all that came from Wing, who not only put away an absolute thunderbolt to give Reading a 2-1 lead, but also provided the ball over the top for Sam Smith to make it 4-1. An outstanding goal and a clever assist - this guy can do everything. But we knew that already, didn’t we?
Don’t let other moments of brilliance go overlooked: the striker’s finish from Amadou Mbengue to make it 1-0, the brilliant block on the line from the same man to temporarily keep it 1-0, the cheeky first-time lob over the stranded ‘keeper from Charlie Savage to make it 3-1, and another block on the line - this time from from Tyler Bindon - to keep it 3-1.
Reading shouldn’t have to rely on individual bits of attacking and defensive quality to win a game, but if the broader performance is lacking, it’s a great back-up option to be able to count on.
Ruben Selles made three changes to the side that lost 2-1 at Rotherham United. Kelvin Abrefa (injured), Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan (suspended) and Chem Campbell (dropped to the bench) made way for Andre Garcia, Charlie Savage and Adrian Akande. There was also a knock-on positional change for Harvey Knibbs, who took Ehibhatiomhan’s left-wing spot.
Reading (4-3-3): Button; Craig, Mbengue, Bindon, Garcia; Elliott, Wing, Savage; Akande, Smith, Knibbs
Subs: Rowley, Dean, Rushesha, Spencer, Tuma, Campbell, Wareham
A sign of Reading’s drop-off since the early home games has been how we’ve started games, and the Royals again took their time to make their mark on the contest. Bar Smith forcing a close-range save from an offside position, the first quality chance of the game fell to Crawley, with Will Swan getting past Mbengue too easily in the area before drawing a fine save out of David Button.
Mbengue more than made up for that moment before long though. First, his long ball set up a chance for Adrian Akande, who fought hard to see off the defender before forcing a save out of Jojo Wollacott.
A couple of minutes later, Mbengue gave Reading the lead himself. Wing swung in a free kick from the right wing, Crawley couldn’t clear and the ball bounced around their area until Mbengue, in space, lashed the ball home for 1-0.
Not done there, Mbengue spared Button’s blushes to keep it 1-0, for some time at least. Button got his pass out from the back all wrong, presenting Crawley with a golden opportunity, but Mbengue threw himself in the way of a shot from point-blank range. Cue the scenes of personal congratulations to Mbengue from his relieved teammates.
Crawley got their goal though. Reading had already been given a warning about the visitors’ ability to create chances from a short-corner routine when the ball was fired just wide of the post, but Crawley tried a similar trick in the 30th minute and Harry Forster - in far too much space on the edge of the box - beat Button with a deflected effort.
But anything you can do, Wing can do better. 10 minutes after that equaliser, Wing found space in shooting range - albeit not really shooting range for most players - and hit the perfect strike into the top corner. That strike had it all: power, accuracy and just the right amount of swerve. Crawley gave him the room to pull the trigger and paid the price.
That goal put an awful lot of gloss on an iffy first-half performance from Reading. More flat than outright bad, there was enough to build on if the hosts could come out stronger after the restart.
They most certainly didn’t though. The first 20 minutes of the second half were all Crawley as the visitors outclassed the Royals: 11 shots to Reading’s 0 in that period, 113 passes to 37. Reading struggled to get up the pitch, disrupt Crawley’s play or deny them space in the defensive third.
Of particular concern and annoyance was Reading’s inability to see the danger from short corners. Time and again Crawley had a two-on-one in the corner, as well as a man free on the edge of the box, for example in the picture below, but nobody in a blue and white shirt took responsibility to adjust the defensive setup accordingly.
If it hadn’t been for some good saves from Button (two from range plus a one-on-one against Swan) and lack of quality finishing from Crawley, that 2-1 lead would have been completely overturned.
Instead, somehow, it was extended. At the end of a 20-minute horror show, Ben Elliott spotted Smith running into space in behind and played him in, and although Wollacott was on hand to close down the opportunity, his clearance went only to Savage, who lob-volleyed the ball first time into the net for 3-1.
Selles opted to add some experience to the back line to see that lead out, swapping Harlee Dean in for Andre Garcia while Mbengue went to left-back. But it was Dean’s centre-back partner Tyler Bindon who was next in line for some defensive heroics, repeating Mbengue’s feat of blocking a Crawley effort on the line when Ronan Darcy found too much space in the area.
And barely any time later, it was 4-1 anyway. Wing turned provider in the 73rd minute, cutely floating the ball in behind for Smith, who controlled it on his chest before tucking home from close range past the ‘keeper.
The game was pretty much dead at that point, so Selles took the opportunity to rest Akande, Smith and Elliott in the last 10 minutes. On came Basil Tuma, Jayden Wareham and Shay Spencer, all of whom looked lively late on. Spencer was composed and confident in possession in the middle of the park, Tuma was lively up front, and Wareham snuck in behind to find the back of the net with his finish, only for it to be ruled out for offside.
Selles said after the game that this wasn’t a good performance from his side, and he was right to do so. It wouldn’t quite be right to call this a lucky result - Reading put away four good, valid goals and didn’t have to rely on any glaring refereeing errors - but this was a win that came in spite of the overall performance, not because of it, and 4-1 flattered us.
Next up a trip to Exeter City and, based on today’s showing, Reading will need to significantly improve if they’re to pick up a first away win of the season.