Sent Off From The Bench

Surprise, surprise another draw against a fellow relegation rival. On the whole disappointment reigns after another promising start only to tail off in the second half. Rotherham were pretty content to sit back in the first half - which let Reading play their football. Culminating in a goal that is pretty much the definition of Gomes football. The majority of the team touched the ball in a flowing, counter-attacking move from back to front which Ejaria finished into the top right corner. That meant that in the second the away side needed to show more impetus, and they took control of the match. Reading dropped deeper and deeper until the inevitable happened. While Rotherham may have earnt their title as route one specialists, their goal was well worked. A beautiful ball in the from the centre-right nodded down to Ajayi who finished from within the six yard box under Martinez. Both sides had chances to win it - in fact Reading had numerous. Oliveira missed from two yards following...

While the game itself may not have been the talking point of Saturday's fixture, Reading battled to a good point against a disappointing Villa side.  On paper the visitors have a side to trouble the automatic places, from Croatia's first-choice goalkeeper Kalinić, to perennial Chelsea loanee Tammy Abraham but their gameplan of pinging it up to the big man never really looked like paying off. Admittedly they had chances - El Ghazi forced a decent save by Martinez, but Tammy Abraham nodded the follow up wide from 6 yards. He was racing to get there ahead of Blackett and Miazga but probably should have done better. Equally our new GK probably should have tried to tip it further wide but in the end no damage done. On another occasion the crossbar helped save him when Elphick beat him to the ball from a corner. That said he more than redeemed himself when Abraham met a beautiful El Ghazi cross. You could argue he got slightly too much on it, which directed it closer to Martinez...