Reading 0-3 Swansea City: Remember, it's only pre-season

Phew, it's a good thing this game was only pre-season. The penultimate pre-season friendly for the Royals was held at the Madejski Stadium and presented loyal fans with the chance to catch a first glimpse of the new-look Adkins side which hopes to gain promotion this coming season.

It's hard to take anything seriously away from this game, with the Swans being blatantly stronger than the Royals in all areas of the pitch. Their midfield passed brilliantly, Vorm was his usual fantastic self in goal and new striker Wilfred Bony was a real handful.

Reading, however, were sloppy at the back, toothless up front and lacked penetration from midfield.

The game started with some jousting between the teams, with both teams passing across the back line and switching play every so often. The first goal came as a bit of a surprise, with last season's bargain of the summer Michu playing some neat stuff on the edge of the box before toe poking towards goal, a nasty deflection beating McCarthy in goal and giving Swansea a lead to build on.

The Swans had a number of chances, noticeably a Michu shot from a Davies cross and one of many dinked balls over the top to Bony almost making it two.

One moment of joy for the Royals was a neat ball played forward from Bridge, with McAnuff taking a neat touch to beat two players and get into the box, only for Williams to slide across brilliantly and dispossess the Royals' skipper.

Bony again made a handful of himself only to be denied by Alex McCarthy, who looks to have started this season in the same way that he ended the last - in top form.

The second half started with Akpan coming on for Robson-Kanu, who was making a step towards fully recovering from an injury. Akpan went in behind the striker, whilst McAnuff moved left.

Akpan made an instant impact, his presence in the box giving him the opportunity to flick the ball on from a Bridge cross, only to be blocked by a Swansea body.

Hope was again involved in the next attack, after good work by McAnuff gave Drenthe the opportunity to whip a ball in, with the Nigerian midfielder seeing his header go just over.

The home side had started well, bit it was Swansea who went further ahead, after a neat ball forward saw Shelvey burst into the box, go shoulder to shoulder with the final man and power a finish in off the bottom of the post to make it Reading 0-2 Swansea.

Akpan, again, was in the box but shot high and wide of the goal when taking the opportunity to shoot.

The lively Bony then slid a ball through to the Spaniard Hernandez, who made no mistake to give Swansea a third goal.

Everything good up front for Reading was going through Akpan, who took a shot from 20-odd yards out only to see it go harmlessly away from goal.

Bridge tried to give the near 7,000 in the stadium one last thing to enjoy with a shot at the end of the game, to no avail.

The game finished, with Swansea looking fully prepared to kick off their Europa League campaign next week against Malmo.

Reading, however, looked out of their depth and if there is one thing that needs to be taken away from this game it's that they are in desperate need of a striker who is capable of playing up front on his own. Le Fondre, for all his efforts, was ineffectual and on the fringes of the game.

Guthrie looked excellent throughout and Akpan made a big impact when coming on, but for more details of the Reading players during the course, read the match ratings.

Did you go to the game? What did you think? Let us know below.