Pele Claims Reading Player Of The Month Award For January

Pele has broken the John Swift-Ovie Ejaria stranglehold on The Tilehurst End’s Player of the Month competition with a storming victory in January’s vote.

We asked our dear readers to pick from the month’s four highest-performing members of the Reading squad and the Monaco loanee came out on top with 50 per cent of votes cast, having put together by far his best string of performances in the team.

Jose Gomes failed to get the best out of Pele before Mark Bowen initially dropped him from the line-up, preferring Andy Rinomhota. But he was reinstalled after defeats to Brentford and Leeds, going on to start every league game since Christmas.

In our player ratings for his six appearances in January, the Guinea-Bissau ace was handed an excellent average of 7.17/10 and won three man of the match polls, plus two runner-up finishes.

Tying for second in this month’s set were Chris Gunter and Michael Morrison, each on 21 per cent of the vote, with Charlie Adam fourth.

The Tilehurst End Player of the Month winners 2019/20

August - Ovie Ejaria (58%)

September - John Swift (59%)

October - Ovie Ejaria (70%)

November - Ovie Ejaria (41%)

December - John Swift (35%)

January - Pele (50%)