Wycombe Wanderers 1-1 Reading (2-4 Pens): The Alternative View Cup Special

Reading travelled the short distance to Adams Park in huge numbers, and we topped the away attendance of the day list - I can’t say that’s happened too many times. Local derbies are always good fun and the travelling Royals attended in decent numbers, topping the away attendance chart on the night with 2,041. That probably wasn’t far off matching the home fans.

Credit has to be given to the Wycombe team for putting up a decent fight and the club as a whole to be fair; decent food at a decent price, beer that’s not £6 a bottle and sensible stewarding should always be applauded.

The game itself was a decent one with chances at both ends and some individually good performances from the Reading side including Rafael (who basically turned into a god in 90 minutes plus penalties), Ovie Ejaria and George Puscas who took his goal well. John Swift also came off the bench and made a huge difference, while Omar Richards had his best game for a while.

All in all it was a decent night’s football, rewarded with a horrible journey to Plymouth Argyle in the next round.

Tweets

Home fans seeing the positives

He really is a decent bloke

Shows the reason why you need an academy

Oh joy...

Wouldn’t say outplayed...

Would agree with this!

Media

As you can imagine there isn’t much. However, what there is, is as follows.

The video from Sky Sports is in this link, and to be fair I am a little bit disappointed as Sky would have had more content than this. Just showing the goals and the penalties is a little frustrating - it’s hardly highlights. Their match report is non-existent, going to show the value they place on the game.

The BBC hardly fare any better, giving us a “Reading survived a scare and now place Plymouth”, which is 60% of their report.

To wrap this section up as, yes, it is bordering on wasting your time, Get Reading have a decent interview around George Puscas and Rafael with Jose Gomes talking about their full debuts for the team. There are other copies of this floating around which do bump up the “coverage” but are largely repeats of the Get Reading Story.

To be honest your best off just following The Tilehurst End.

Closing thoughts

This could have been a banana skin but wasn’t. There were some good performances and ones where you can see potential, but they’re not quite yet at the required standard - also some blossoming partnerships and composure at the back.

All in all it wasn’t a bad night out - it could have been a lot worse - but there are massive positives. Rafael should be the signing of the season, Puscas shows that his workrate is exceptional - and he got a goal as well so that’s a big tick. Ejaria showed why we wanted him back and a massive well done to Tom McIntyre who is probably the calmest youngster on the planet.

Cardiff will be a difficult game, but momentum is king. We need those three league points to start climbing up the table and, you know what, I reckon we’ve got a good chance against them.