Paul Nash writes a guest post after the 3-1 win over Coventry City
Reading managed their third league away win of the season and it was a comfort to realise there are worse sides in this division than us. That’s not to say the Royals didn’t play well for most of the game, but Coventry were poor, poor opposition. After the shock of the goal within the first minute, the Sky Blues put up about as much fight as Barnsley catering staff in the face of thirsty Mancs, and Reading took full advantage to ease out of the relegation places.
Two of Rodgers’ signings combined well to craft that early goal, as McAnuff crossed for Rasiak to rise unopposed and nod home and they went on to share the rest of the scoring between them. Jobi McAnuff, in particular, caused the home defence no end of problems all afternoon and Rasiak, whilst appearing slow off the mark, got himself into good positions and deserved his second strike of the game, snapping up the rebound from Long’s shot against the post to seal the victory.
Eastwood got Coventry briefly back in contention when he hit a brilliant strike beating Federici low down, but that aside the back five stood firm. Before the game, it was a concern whether a centre back pairing of Ingi and Pearce would cope with the pace of Eastwood and Morrison, but both defenders were largely at ease with the long balls down the middle and Morrison grew increasingly frustrated as the game wore on.
In midfield, it was Matejovsky’s kind of game. He was given space and time and mostly chose the right pass. He’s the type of player who will always take a risk to try and unlock the defence and, inevitably, he gave the ball away cheaply on several occasions where he left a team-mate with too much to do. Given Brendan’s professed predeliction for playing the passing game though, it could be argued that Marek’s name should be first on the team sheet every week. Along with Kebe, Matejovsky can frustrate the fans when moments of brilliance come to nothing, but it’d be a crying shame if this potential to lift the spirits and elevate the match above the mundane were left to fester on the fringes.
It’s up front where the major problems lie. Yes, Reading scored three, but few defences are as generous as Coventry’s. Church was a willing runner, but largely ineffectual, and his replacement Long is more supersize than supersub these days. He is painfully off the pace that is his chief (some would say only) attribute, and struggled to keep up with the game. As another ball eluded him, you had to wonder if he’d have got on the end of it had it been a Burger King queue. So a striker with a wee bit of quality and the right sort of hunger is a priority.
We’ve heard a lot about luck this season. We’re told that once we start getting it, we’ll turn that corner and reach our rightful status in the championship. Unlucky against Leicester – debatable. We couldn’t score nor defend over ninety minutes, they could. Lucky against Preston? The woodwork played a blinder for us. I’d rather we trusted in astute acquisitions, consistent team selection and proper preparation and motivation than something as nebulous as luck, because we won’t be meeting teams as limited as Coventry every week.
