Millwall 1-0 Reading: The Alternative View

A lot has changed over the last few weeks, somethings haven’t though – Reading FC lose away from home (well Reading FC lose is probably more apt). Relegation rivals are always keen to pick points up from us, and after throwing two points away against Rotherham, Reading FC followed this up by giving three points to Millwall with two red cards, although Blackett’s was maybe a little harsh.

The Millwall bunch are fairly quiet on social media, but they are in the same boat as us and the over-arching feeling was this: don’t let three points against nine men distract from a shoddy performance. As with all teams down at this end of the table – reinforcements in January are a must.

Social

At this stage of the season it’s all that matters

Cracks - we got chasms

You won, c’mon man

First win since October - Reading FC the gift that keeps on giving

This has been an issue for a while

Barca really - you need to get out more mate

Simple things etc

Media

Yeah, never going to attract a lot of media attention this one, but for what there is most of it is either at Football.London or London News Shopper. The former, from the Reading FC side, paints a pretty bleak picture with Mick Gooding presenting a damning assessment of the team and our relegation chances.

Over at the News Shopper and to be honest the reporting ain’t that much more optimistic, with their report calling it a nervy game and again looking at recruits for January, as well as calling back a few loanees that are setting the world alight at lower divisions.

A quick scout around the rest of the outlets, and PortuGoal carries an analysis on the game and an interview with Gomes. I get the feeling that could be a regular thing!

On to SkySports and there is two minutes eight seconds of coverage on this game, which has been a lot more than in recent weeks! Most of it is around Blackett’s red (which I still think was slightly harsh) and Bacuna’s moment of madness (which he wants a slap for).

Surprisingly the BBC report is fairly upbeat with the BBC reckoning that Reading FC had more of the play during the game, but struggled to actually create anything – how often have we heard that this season!

Summary

Well if Jose didn’t know the extent of the job that he has at Reading FC – he does now. There have been some interesting comments coming out from Gomes after the game, firstly that Bod was out for tactical reasons, and secondly that he didn’t hide behind the red cards as a reason for the defeat.

Will he be the saviour of Reading FC? That is to be seen, but you can’t judge the man after one game and one training session. The formation he picked is a throwback to his style of management with two midfield pivots - the question is though, do we have the players to play his system?

January will be an interesting month for Reading FC, as I am fully confident of some signings and some decent names. Why, do you ask? Easy - purely as what manager would have signed in December for a team in the situation we are in, that hasn’t been promised money and lots of it?

There is only one positive this season so far, and that’s the impact the Academy has made on this team. We have seen a number of debuts this season with some excellent performances. The standout here is Rinomhota’s who, if you didn’t know better, you would put money on him being in the team for a few years. He needs to build on this now, and drive forward as he has a potentially excellent career ahead of him. Will this be at Reading? That’s doubtful as, if he carries on like he has been for the rest of the season, he will be in demand.

On to QPR and another tricky game. Rangers seem to be heading for that wonderful thing of mid-table obscurity, so with a bit of luck we can get something from this game - one thing that’s blindingly obvious – we need to start picking up points and quick.