After last week’s performance, it’s fair to say that Reading fans were optimistic about a visit to Hull.

However, the Jekyll and Hyde performances that have plagued the Royals not only this season, but in reality for a number of years, reappeared. After a stunning opening goal by Lewis Baker, the second half performance was back was another insecure defensive display that we have seen far too often.

To maximise our annoyance, all the teams around us picked up points, so now Jose Gomes’ side are back to sweating on a one point gap above the bottom three and decent goal difference. The key thing now is to match or better Rotherham’s results or it could be a long summer and even longer season next time around.

So over to the social and the press side of things, which is basically the Hull fans dreaming of the play-offs and wanting a new owner!

Social

The stars aligned quite well here!

So what’s changed?

This shouldn’t ever be a “thing” from a fan.

So I take it that the Hull fans don’t like the man at the top...

Ouch! Building for the future then...

Always does.

Media

There wasn’t a huge amount around with regards to the game post match, column inches are precious (what with digital layouts these days!) and a certain Donkey Derby probably stole a few inches/pixels.

However just to summarise what there was, the Yorkshire Evening Post suggest that Hull should have scored more, with Reading having the audacity to take the lead.

Sky Sports have the usual coverage and a similar report to the YEP. There’s a few interesting soundbites from Gomes about playing “direct teams” - I prefer the term “effective”.

Hang on, what’s this? The BBC are being nice to us! Their phrase “what might have been” is apt, especially if Marc Pugh’s header on the half hour mark had gone into his net rather than onto the crossbar, then 2-0 is a mightily different score line.

GetReading have their usual summary, and there is a decent question raised on substitutes making little impact on the game, which is also something I raised a few weeks ago. Maybe something to look into?

Summary

I was trying to keep up with the game over 4000 miles away, which was always going to be tricky! I did expect Reading to get something from the match, because along with next weekend’s meeting with Brentford, this was in reality one of the easier fixtures that we have left. The Birmingham game is another one you could probably point to, but with it coming on the final day, it could still have some meaning for the Blues.

The situation that we’re now in couldn’t be much different to last week - where I was being positive and looking forward, now I am nervous and looking over my shoulder. Ultimately they say that the league table doesn’t lie and that you finish where you deserve to finish. We have been talking about the potential of this team for a couple of years now and what’s blatantly apparent is that the players don’t have the capability to move up the table or improve – or our scouts didn’t do their jobs properly in the first place. Either way, for a number of years now we’ve have had the same plan, same recruitment philosophy and the same outcome – I am removing the play-off season as that basically has proven to be a “blip” in the consistent state of this team.

If Gomes stays next season, regardless of what league we are in, there needs to be a cull in this team. Now I know that everyone says you need a buyer to sell a player, but what I am calling for is a statement of intent from our Chinese owners. Let’s see how much they really want to make a fist of this promotion lark! We need a huge investment, so much so that we can rip up contracts for under performing players if we can’t sell them before buying some quality. Let’s see how long it takes the squad to work out that they need to sharpen up and quickly if that happens!

Let’s face it, if we get promotion then we gain at least £120 million in income and even if we get relegated instantly then there’s parachute payments. I’m sure that the owners wouldn’t mind having a chunk of that!

We now face a really tricky game against Norwich - one that on current showing will either end in a creditable draw or a cricket score. Hopefully the former rather than the latter and then we can start to breathe easy!