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Wycombe Wanderers Fans Verdict: Royals Edge Past The Chairboys

How the Reading fanbase reacted to some of the key talking points from their penalty shootout win on Tuesday night.

The Reading fans travelled the short journey to Wycombe more in expectation than hope, but the Royals only just managed to scrape through to the second round on penalties - with debutant keeper Rafael the hero.

The 2,000-strong away following witnessed a brilliant start from their team as Lucas Boye came close twice and George Puscas missed a huge chance to open his Reading account - all within the opening 20 minutes.

Wycombe gradually began to grow into the game and it was the hosts who took the lead in the second half, before George Puscas did grab his first goal in the blue and white hoops to draw Reading level.

Jose Gomes’ men ended up winning the tie on penalties - but it’s evident that a lot more work is needed to be done before Cardiff come to town at Sunday lunchtime. The fans had a lot of things to say at full time, including some thoughts on a couple of stand out individual performances...

Ovie Ejaria

Tuesday night saw the return of Ovie Ejaria to a Reading starting lineup, and boy have we missed him. Just from his 80 minutes on the pitch, you could see that he offers something that we need - he’s unbelievably calm on the ball and never seems to lose possession.

He fits perfectly into how Gomes wants to play; the only thing the Portuguese will have on his mind now is how to fit Ovie, John Swift and Andy Rinomhota into the same midfield - because they all need to start.

The Loyal Royals certainly loved his performance, as the former Liverpool man showed a glimpse of what he can offer to this Reading team - just as we saw last season. The fans showed their love for Ovie on Twitter after the game...

Rafael

It’s fair to say that Joao Virginia hasn’t had the strongest of starts to his loan spell from Everton - and Rafael has certainly put even more pressure on that number one shirt with his performance against Wycombe.

He was commanding, produced some very good saves and, of course was the penalty shootout hero, saving two of Wycombe’s four spot kicks. I have a feeling it won’t be too long until we see Rafael starting more and more games.

He has immediately become a fans’ favourite, with 2,000 supporters chanting his name consistently throughout the penalty shootout. The fans took the love they showed during the game straight to social media after the game - and rightly so...

The fans

The other big talking point that had the fans talking on Tuesday night was... themselves. Although it is the shortest possible journey for most Reading fans, it was a great turnout from the Loyal Royals nonetheless.

They backed the team from start to end, even when Wycombe went ahead. Let’s just hope this is a sign of things to come and our away followings really start picking up to help this team reach their potential.

A particularly impressive moment was in-between full time and the shootout when, for some reason, Wycombe decided to blast Sweet Caroline over the tannoy - a song the Loyal Royal’s know only too well...

It was a great away day for the fans - I for one just hope that we take that kind of support into the league, as do many others. The fans were also quick to point out that the relationship between the club and the fans hasn’t been this strong in a very long time - and it’s only going to get stronger...

Conclusion

A dodgy performance, but a win’s a win at the end of the day - and it just helps build that optimism and excitement over what is to come in the coming weeks and months.

I cannot wait to see what this team can do what they finally hit full swing, it could be pretty special. Continue to give them all time, and have patience and we will start seeing the rewards.

URZ