Not a game the young goalie will want to remember. His distribution wasn’t up to his usual standards (although the weather can be blamed in part for that) and he had one kick go straight out. He’ll be very disappointed to have spilled Chris Maguire’s weak effort for Benik Afobe to tap in.
Chris Gunter: 4
Bit harsh to judge a player when he’s forced to fill in out of position but he really struggled to deal with Afobe’s strength and never looked comfortable at the back
Alex Pearce: 1
After such a good performance last week the former captain had the worst 10 minutes of his career. The penalty and red card may be debatable but the ease with which he was turned in the build up was alarming. He’d not made a single header before and was all over the place
Reading needed the Latvian to really step up after Pearce’s dismissal and whilst he didn’t put in a bad shift, he could have supported Gunter a little better. He will need to up his game for QPR next week.
Jordan Obita: 6
The youngster was one of the few players who looked to attack throughout the game and picks up a mark for his lovely bit of skill and pace in the first half to beat two men. He really seemed pumped and despite still not looking wholly comfortable at left back, he did well given the lack of cover he was getting from the midfield
Jobi McAnuff: 2
A really poor performance from the Reading captain. Off the ball he was completely anonymous in the middle, getting completely bypassed. His passing was all over the place and his set pieces really disappointed. In a match when the side needed their leaders to step up, McAnuff was nowhere to be found and was very lucky to stay on as long as he did
Hope Akpan: 4
Struggled in the middle and looked like one of the players whose confidence was badly hit by going a goal down. His decent form in the last few weeks will probably not be enough to keep him in the side for the trip to Loftus Road
Reading’s man of the match before being bizarrely substituted for Nick Blackman. The American was the only midfielder who looked to run at Wednesday through the middle. He was perhaps guilty of holding on to the ball too long at times but he was one of the few who looked to try and inject any kind of pace into the game.
Not a natural right back and probably shouldn’t have been playing there. Being so deep completely negated his attacking threat and on the odd occasion he was able to get forward he was so isolated that he had no option but to slow the game down again.
Reading’s top scorer just wasn’t suited to this game. He spent the majority of the game jumping for headers that he was never going to win. He probably should have done better with his early opportunity and had he buried it then the game may have gone a very different way.
The Russian cut a very frustrated figure for much of the game. Like Le Fondre he never had the ball in areas that he wanted it and was never able to have so much as a sniff at goal.
Subs
Did Nick Blackman come on? I can’t say I noticed
Danny Guthrie: 5
Back from his calf injury Guthrie tried his best to influence the game but it was too late in the day for him to change the flow
See Nick Blackman
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