Why Did Reading Fall Just Short Of A Playoff Place?
Reading’s 2024/25 season ended in failure to get into the top six, but still counts as a success overall.
What is the meaning of failure? Surely it is falling short of the objectives set, but in a season when those targets became ever more ambitious as we moved away from the summer and towards Christmas in 2024, the marker with which we judge our Reading team seems to get a little unclear.
This time last year, most fans wanted a top-half finish, yet when Ruben Selles left and we were teetering on the point of the playoffs in sixth place ahead of Bolton Wanderers on goal difference, it felt like we had to aim at holding on.
Noel Hunt’s side - against all odds - were able to take it to the final day, but Leyton Orient took the final spot and deservedly so after a renaissance in the second half of the season. It definitely doesn’t feel like failure; maybe a bit of disappointment among the players that’s bled into the mentality of the fans, but I like many fans couldn’t be much happier with what has been produced on the pitch this year, given all the circumstances.
However, considering it was such a small margin that we came short by, there’s always a part of me that thinks: what if?
So, here I’ll be looking at what it was that cost Reading their ultimate ambition, and asking if, in some alternate universe, it really was feasible to get into playoffs and maybe even go one step further.
The first place to point to is our attacking output. Our most regular midfield combination in the second half of the season - Charlie Savage, Lewis Wing and Harvey Knibbs - produced 49 goal contributions between them in the league, while Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan, Jayden Wareham and Chem Campbell - which is what most fans would agree is our strongest front three in that same period - got just 20.
In fact, out of our attackers across the season, Billy Bodin scored the most goals with six. Indeed, he had the best goals-per-90 ratio, albeit four of those were scored for his parent club Burton Albion before he joined us in January.
It’s very hard to be fighting for promotion at the top of the table without a true goalscorer, and since the departure of Sam Smith in January, we haven’t really had anyone who can stake a claim to being that.
It’s easy to work from ifs, buts and maybes after everything’s said and done, but I think if we had retained Smith until the end of the season, we’d have got into the playoffs. Still, at least he’s not being wasted in Wrexham.
Next, I want to look at our style of play. Under Selles we did feel one-dimensional at times, but as shown in the latter part of his first season, and the beginning of the next, it came good when given time. We were the masters of a specific game plan and could comprehensively destroy some teams, while being smashed with no hope by others.
Hunt came in with effectively zero time until his first game in the dugout, with no opportunity to implement any new ideas, and he had to hit the ground running straight away. A prolonged run of performances akin to those at the start of Selles’ reign would not have been acceptable after our start to the season.
I think under Hunt we became multi-dimensional, but mastered none of them. We’ve seen Reading play out, go long, work from set-pieces and defend resolutely, yet not exactly form an identity around a style of play, which I think has harmed us in those games where it seems the opponents have an answer for every question we ask of them. And at the end of the day, every great team has a way of playing that everyone knows about, and no one can stop.
In a way, I suppose frustrating the opposition and nicking goals here and there - especially when we play under such trying conditions - is a style of football in itself. However, when you think back to the most galling examples of dropping points - such as against Shrewsbury Town, Exeter City, Stevenage and Lincoln City at home, and Crawley Town and Northampton Town on the road, one can wish we had a clearer formula for breaking down those not-so-strong sides.
The only other place to look really is the injuries we’ve suffered. I don’t want to dwell on this too much as every team faces problems in this department and, had we not had such a thin squad from the get-go, it wouldn’t have mattered so much.
Although the “fill in players” we’ve used who wouldn’t usually be starting - such as Andre Garcia, Tivonge Rushesha and Michael Stickland - haven’t produced too many performances of great quality, I can’t think of many occasions when I believe having a stronger trio of players in their place would have benefited us sufficiently enough to make up the gap between us and Leyton Orient.
In the end, 75 points is not to be sniffed at and, in many other years, would have got us into playoffs. I think Hunt and his players have done an unbelievable job this season and deserve everybody’s, including Rob Couhig’s, vote of confidence for next year.
It was a failure to get into the playoffs yes, but in building a squad that the fans can love and one that gives absolutely everything every single game too? Not at all.