Growing To Love Noel Hunt’s Reading
Tom uses the story of a broken mug to explain how he feels about Noel Hunt’s Reading, and the Royals’ season more broadly.
A couple of years ago, I was gifted a mug for Christmas by a relative who’ve I’ve forgotten (who it was that gave me the mug, not their whole identity). It features a graphic with all the Reading kits from 1871 onwards, with home, away and third kits included. I’ll attach a picture below (I promise this gets relevant soon).
It resides on a table by my bed to serve as a source for some nighttime hydration and, in those very early morning times of need, the water never misses.
Anyway, the other day I placed my mug on the side of my bathroom basin before refilling it, but unfortunately the ledge was too narrow and the mug too wide, meaning it fell into the basin and the handle smashed off.
At first I was disappointed - it looked way worse and arguably performed its purpose worse. However, after a few days of sustained use, my opinion has completely flipped.
The handle’s purpose is to prevent the user from burning their hands when drinking hot drinks, while I only used it for water, and when I did hold it with the handle I found it too thin to be comfortable and more getting in the way than anything else.
The two points where it has broken off have even created a finger-shaped indent to grip the mug, and the handle will no longer give the mug imbalance when I need to poise it on the side of my basin.
And that mug inspired me to write this. Because - hear me out here - that mug is Reading FC before and after our mid-season managerial change.
With Ruben Selles (the handle) it looked way better, and it performed the purpose well with hot and cold liquids, but felt just a bit uncomfortable and unstable.
Then there was the resignation and move to Hull City (the smashing of the mug). At the time it felt devastating, the beginning of the end, ripping the heart out of the club even. I wrote this very soppy article on it back in December.
But then came the renaissance. Noel Hunt arrived, and the disappointment of Selles leaving stuck around a little bit, but we found new purpose. Was it less aesthetically appealing and perhaps less flamboyant? Undoubtedly. But for what we needed it to do, it was perfect.
Now, on the pitch, I feel we’re more stable and look more comfortable than we ever were previously. With just one loss in the last 15, as a fan you can go into practically every game knowing you’ll see a resolute defensive performance, usually a few quality passages of play, and one more step towards Wembley.
Judging on how we started the season under Selles, I’m tempted to say we’d be in a similarly strong spot if he didn’t leave, but honestly I think we’d be worse off.
Managing in his final game for Reading, Selles’ squad included Michael Craig, Jeriel Dorsett and Ben Elliott, all of whom have hardly played under Hunt, as well as Amadou Mbengue, Tyler Bindon and Harlee Dean, who’ve featured but much more sporadically than they did at the start of the season, all due to injury. Add Sam Smith’s departure on top of that and it seems even more miraculous that we’ve managed to sustain playoff-worthy form.
Hunt’s football has not been without its downsides; it’s very frustrating seeing us draw against Crawley Town, Northampton Town, Shrewsbury Town and Exeter City in games that were just a bit drab and boring, but there’s more than one way to get points out of a football match and they aren’t all exciting.
And he’s managed to pull it off with a Reading side that, on paper, is arguably the weakest we’ve seen for certainly my lifetime, which is 18 years, although I’m sure all you readers agree these articles show I’m wise well beyond my years.
The defensive solidity his stewardship has brought is even more impressive given the team selections he’d been forced into. Players such as Tivonge Rushesha, Mamadi Camara, Michael Stickland and Jayden Wareham - who hadn’t started too many games previously - have been introduced seamlessly to the first XI, and although I wouldn’t say any have set the world alight, players that do a job is what’s needed and that’s what we got.
So, how can we do heading into the end-of-season run-in?
We have four games remaining in the league, the hardest of which I think is Lincoln City on Friday. I’ll take a draw there, but we could really do with six points from Mansfield Town and Bristol Rovers to take the pressure off the final day. Even if we lost to Barnsley then, that would leave Leyton Orient and Bolton Wanderers needing 10 points to catch us, with the latter requiring a healthy improvement in goal difference too.
In one of his first few games since being appointed, Hunt oversaw our 2-0 loss to Lincoln on the road. A depleted team and a red card wrote that one off quite early, so with the players we can select now, we can give the Imps a proper game.
So I suppose the post-smash mug isn’t objectively better or worse, but it’s definitely different. However, it’s different in a way that I much prefer. And I think I feel the same about Reading Football Club now too.