Sent Off From The Bench

A first win in eight as Reading beat a surprisingly dull Leeds side. In many ways the story was not so different to matches within our winless run, but thankfully we came up against a far more profligate outfit. Much like against Norwich the first half was excellent. There was much more cohesion going forward, although there weren't many chances. The best coming from Aluko, who forced a good save down low to the keeper's right. It must be said, at times Leeds made Beerens seem like Messi, but the final ball was often lacking. Perhaps surprisingly with only four at the back, Reading excelled defensively. The most complete performance at the back that I have seen in quite a while - Leeds basically didn't have a sniff. There were a couple of chances that they managed to get behind, but Ilori and Bacuna managed to get back and make the tackle. Bacuna was particularly impressive all game, after half time there was a chance where three Leeds players were bearing down on Manon...

September was not a particularly good month for Reading Football Club. Two points from fifteen see us (quote, unquote) languishing toward the wrong end of the Championship. Poor football has exacerbated the fans' annoyance, but are things really as bad as they seem? Played five, drawn two, lost three. It sounds bad, but when you consider the goal difference over those five matches is only -3 (or the same as our loss away to Brentford last year) it's clear that we're much closer than our points haul makes out. We're not shipping goals in blow out losses like last season. Instead all our problems are at the other end. Four goals in the same period is a serious issue, and thus we come to the start of our bad run - game one, Bristol City at home. Now this, unequivocally, was a game that we should have won. Bodvarsson allowed the critics in with a fairly substandard performance that allowed ex-Swindon centre back Aden Flint to win it late on. Bristol went into the intern...