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West Brom Fans Verdict: Pele Shines Despite Loss

Although Wednesday night brought another poor performance and result, there were two particular bright spots for Reading fans.

Still no win in the league since the New Year’s Day then. Wednesday night was yet another painful watch for the Reading faithful. Yes, we came up against the best team in the division, with West Brom looking set on returning to the Premier League at the second time of asking. However, you just feel that they were there for the taking, and in hindsight, Bowen will be very disappointed with the fact that we’ve come away from that game with absolutely nothing.

Things got off to the perfect start as George Puscas rolled home a penalty after ten minutes. However, the players (yet again) just couldn’t capitalise on going ahead and failed to build on the good start. If you do that against the likes of the Baggies, you will end up getting punished, and that’s exactly what happened.

The ever-dangerous Pereira was first to react, smashing home an equaliser just before half time, before Kyle Bartley nodded home the eventual winner minutes after the interval as the Royals started poorly. Then, after that, we just didn’t have the firepower, ideas or creativity to cause the league leaders many problems at all. West Brom showed why they are where they are in the league with a professional performance.

Here’s how the fans reacted to some of the key talking points to come from another loss at the Madejski Stadium...


Andy Yiadom

Maybe his absence hasn’t been as missed as we all thought it would’ve been after Chris Gunter’s impressive form as back up, but it was still absolutely fantastic to see the Ghanaian international back in the starting eleven.

Gunter has played well, but I don’t think there’s any question that when everybody is fit, Andy Yiadom is our first choice right-back, and so he should be. His energy up and down the right hand side is a key part of how we play. It was under Jose Gomes, and it still is under Bowen, due to our lack of any real wingers.

He was a bit scruffy and sloppy in places, but having been out for two months, that is something you would expect. However, he still showed glimpses of why he’s one of the best full backs in the league and the fans were certainly happy to see him back in the team...


Pele

Strangely, another positive from yet another loss. Pele was once again an absolute colossus in midfield on Wednesday night against the Baggies. I’m sure that acquiring him on a permanent transfer is high up on the priority list for the summer by now, but if it’s not, it definitely should be as there will be other clubs circling.

In recent weeks, he has really found his feet in the Championship. He is defensively sound, his game awareness is second to none and he’s even began to break through the midfield with runs. This is something we have really missed with Andy Rinomhota finding himself on the bench more often than not this season.

He is certainly becoming a fans favourite, and with performances like the one against one of the best midfields in the league in West Brom, he thoroughly deserves to be one...


Downward spiral

After a fantastic Christmas period, we have (in true Reading style) failed to back that up with any real conviction and now find ourselves closer to the bottom three than the play-offs, with away trips to the likes of Sheffield Wednesday and Leeds United on the horizon.

Our last win in the league was the away win against Fulham, which really should’ve been the catalyst for a rise up the table. This begs the question: what has gone wrong? We cannot blame it solely on the injury to Lucas Joao, and trying to find the answer to that question is really baffling the supporters...


Conclusion

West Brom are a good team, but you just feel we made it far too easy for them on Wednesday night. And the annoying thing is with a result like that, the players and the manager can come out to the media after the game and play their get out of jail free card. That card being that the Baggies are top of the league.

Here’s hoping that it’s not actually what Bowen is saying behind closed doors, and we get a reaction on Saturday against Sheffield Wednesday.

URZ