I really enjoyed the game, it was a shame that the ref seemed to want to wrap Reading in cotton wool and blew every time one of them hit the deck however innocuous the challenge had been!
Plus points - Oxley, Elvis, the central defensive pairing and Bridge
Negatives - Klass (very disappointing) and our inability to properly stamp any authority on the game
Interesting to note that Brown was about to bring Nathan Bishop on for Oxley with 5 minutes to go, before Glash went down injured. Bit brave I thought, at only 1 nil. I'd like to know a bit more about Ted Smith's injury as I felt he was one who should have definitely started last night in the normal course of events.
Oxley - 8, composed and some great saves
Elvis - 8.5, MOTM, love this guy, does the job and does it well - decisive, committed and brave
White - 7.5, good, solid performance
Kyprianou - 7.5, looked much more comfortable alongside JW, loved the way these 3 all covered each other when one was caught out of position on more than one occasion
Hendrie - 7, thought he did ok, couple of mistakes which people were quick to get on his back for, but also showed some good passing and got forward well
McGlashan - 7, some good runs, lots of defensive cover, still missing the quality in the final ball which is what McLaughlin generally is better at, and why he's the preferred starting option
Yearwood - 7, did ok, but not as well as I'd hoped
Klass - 6.5, pretty disappointed, one moment of , well, class but over whelmed most of the time. For me, Timlin should have started alongside Dru to put some authority in there
Bridge - 7.5, pick of the midfield, didn't understand why he was subbed out of all of them, some good runs, some good challenges
Robinson - 7, scored but possibly should have had more, some good runs, didn't link with Fortune enough
Fortune - 7.5, some sublime skill at times, turned his man several times, possibly should have shone more?
Subs:
Ba for Bridge - 7.5, boy this lad has a turn of pace, thought he came on and looked quite good
Cotton for Robinson - 7, nice debut for Nico, got stuck in
McLaughlin for Glash - barely had time to touch the ball
I thought Reading made a good game of it and was particularly impressed with their #39, Josh Barrett. Looked much older and wiser than his 18 years would suggest. What on earth was the abuse of their player, Holmes, about from the direction of W block?