Bristol City Fans Verdict: Royals Battle To Victory

For much of the week it didn’t look like Paul Clement would survive to see his team face Bristol City. But, sure enough, he was in the dugout as Reading battled to a crucial three points. Yakou Meite, Liam Kelly and Leandro Bacuna grabbed the goals for Reading, with Kelly’s being particularly eye catching.

However, no Reading game is complete at the moment without a few pieces of dodgy defending as the Royals once again gifted two goals to the opposition. It wasn’t the prettiest performance, but it was a vital three points. Like it or not, it’s a result that has bought Clement a bit more time as manager as well.

Here is how the Reading fans reacted to some of the key talking points from Saturday afternoon...

Andy Rinomhota

One of the many things Clement has been criticised for is the lack of academy products being brought through under his reign as manager. But he handed Andy Rinomhota his first league start on Saturday and the 21 year-old fully justified that decision.

Particularly in the first half, everything good that Reading did seemed to involve the young midfielder. He looked composed on the ball, wasn’t afraid to put his foot in and was full of energy.

The Reading fans certainly enjoyed the man-of-the-match display from the academy graduate...

Fight from the players

All we ever ask for as fans is for the players to leave blood, sweat and tears on that pitch after every 90 minutes, but that has been consistently called into question regarding this current crop of players.

Too many times these players have gone behind and completely dropped their heads, probably because they are so used to losing. But on Saturday it was a completely different story.

The attitude of the players was summed up by a typically full-blooded tackle from Liam Moore early in the second half that set the tone for the rest of the game. Show that kind of heart and determination every weekend, and combine it with the obvious quality we have going forward, and results will start to turn.

Here’s how the Reading fans reacted on Twitter after the game...

Clement lives to fight another day

Whatever you think of the manager, that three points has given Clement at least another week as the boss. He will surely be thanking Sam Walker for a crucial save in the last minute to not only save the win, but his own job as well.

Whatever Clement said to the team in the run-up to Saturday afternoon certainly did the trick, and more of that on a consistent basis will see his job get safer by the week. Whether you want Clement in or Clement out, we all want the same thing and that’s for Reading to win games, and they did that on Saturday.

The manager was once again a talking point after the game on Twitter...

Conclusion

There’s a long way to go before we are out of the mess we’ve got ourselves in, but that was a massive three points nonetheless. Similar thoughts have been said many times already this season but this result NEEDS to be backed up next weekend against Ipswich Town.

It’s probably the perfect game for Reading to get their first back-to-back league wins of the season, and if we show the same spirit, character and fight as we did on Saturday, we are giving ourselves a huge chance of doing just that.

URZ