We had to survive a torrid opening 15 minutes. Reading had 5 corners and a free kick by the corner flag, put in another dozen or so crosses and broke quickly through Bobby Convey, Lita & Doyle. They were clever, whenever Woody and Welsh pushed on, Convey drifted in from the left and took up a position between our midfield and back four, every clearance out of defence found him. Great football.
We eventually settled, the two in midfield worked very, very hard. France got forward when he could and Ellison and Green supported the front two well.
In terms of chances, there weren't as many clear cut as the game deserved. Myhill made two great saves, one from Doyle, and one from the dirty number 6, while Burgess fired wide in injury time and Lita missed a sitter early on in the second half. We scored from a corner, Cort headed Woody's cross onto the bar, the ball came back to Woodhouse and he crossed for Brown to poke home. Equaliser was sloppy, Cross from deep on their left, Little out-jumped one of our centre backs to head home.
The defence is becoming quite frustrating. On paper, it's one of the meanest in the country. In reality, we've given sloppy goals to Luton, Stoke, Norwich, Wolves, Millwall, Reading & Leicester. Added to that, Boaz Myhill already has all Player of the Season awards tucked in his back pocket. The lack of continuity won't be helping, we've already used Lynch, France, MJ, Coles and Wiseman at right Back, plus Dawson & Edge playing job share at left back. Maybe it's the amount of pressure we're under, but we're losing markers at least once a game. We shouldn't be conceding from crosses when our centre backs are as good in the air as they are. If we sort it out, we'll be more then OK.
A couple of blips aside, the back four did very well, Boaz had a pretty quite night. Woodhouse and Welsh were excellent again, although I do agree with most observers that a leader is needed in there somewhere. Ellison worked hard but never looked likely to trouble them, he's quite rash on the ball too. Green was mixed, some great touches, some miscommunication and a coupe of odd choices of pass. Brown was superb, lead the line well, held up the ball, brought others into the game and score. Just one moment when he failed to play a simple pass to release Ellison was annoying. Fagan was quite, but worked hard. A decision was made to replace him with Burgess, it seemed a strange one though, surely you want Fagan on to play of Big Ben, whether Brown has scored or not. We ended up with a line o four up front, unfortunately none of Elliott, Brown, Burgess and Ellison have any pace so we ended up on the back foot instead of going for the jugular.
Still, Reading are a good side, and it's another tight game against a fancied side who've spent a load of money, just like at Saints, Palace, Norwich and Wolves. Also, four games unbeaten, so something to build on, lets start on Saturday.
On the radio, they were speculating about a possible old head in midfield on loan. it may not be possible, but that guy has surely got to be Matty Holland from Charlton. Someone bust a gut to get him in.
Ratings: Bo 7, France 7, Cort 6, Delaney 7, Lynch 6, Green 6 (Elliott), Welsh 7, Woodhouse 8, Ellison 6, Brown 8, Fagan 6 (Burgess).