Reading 1-0 Blackburn Rovers: Player Ratings

Orjan Nyland: 8

Made a number of great saves, including a couple of point-blank shots and headers, so certainly deserved his clean sheet. His distribution is questionable at best, but he's definitely an upgrade on Luke Southwood and proving to be a very shrewd signing.

Andy Yiadom: 7

Another commanding performance from Yiadom, and he's becoming even more of a leader which is great to see. Relatively quiet going forward other than forcing their 'keeper into a decent save, but rock solid at the back and had a couple moments of clever game management towards the end which helped see out the win.

Tom Holmes: 7

Holmes’ best performance of recent memory, possibly the season. Showed the kind of passion and determination we’ve been crying out for from the whole team, and often found himself in the right place at the right time. The whole back four played their part in the clean sheet but Holmes the pick of the bunch for me.

Michael Morrison: 6

Didn’t do too much wrong although he got caught in behind once or twice, including where Dack really should’ve equalised. Can’t be overly critical though and dealt well with a number of long aerial balls. Gallagher is a real threat and Morrison played a big part in keeping him relatively quiet.

Tom McIntyre: 7

Deserves real credit for the way he’s filled in for Baba Rahman. I’ve always been unsure of McIntyre as a left back, however today he produced a nice cross for Ince and even forced their keeper into a strong low save. I’m sure he will be our first-choice centre back next season.

Andy Rinomhota: 6

Relatively quiet before going off injured in the first half. Fingers crossed it’s nothing serious and he’s back for the Barnsley game after the international break.

Josh Laurent: 8

I thought he was playing well before the goal, but what an absolute screamer! It was a wonderfully curved shot into the top corner and worthy of winning any game. Otherwise he was tenacious in midfield, won the ball back a number of times and made some strong driving runs, and actually should’ve done a little better with a first-half effort.

Danny Drinkwater: 6

It's really hard to judge Drinkwater - some nice touches and the odd moment of class but they were often overshadowed by him easily giving the ball away or a lack of end product. His performance is probably summed up best by the moment he won the ball well in midfield and drove forward with purpose, yet was unable to provide the simple final ball to Ejaria or Joao, instead giving it straight to their defender.

Tom Ince: 6

Ince Jnr missed a huge chance in the first half where he really should’ve put us one up. It must be said that Ince does work extremely hard and never stops running, and the stick he gets is more a reflection on his dad’s refusal to substitute him for Meite than his actual performances.

Ovie Ejaria: 6

Certainly not Ejaria’s best game. He had a huge moment in the first half when he should’ve been able to take the ball round the keeper and either slot home or have the keeper sent off. He still gets a decent grade as today was a great team performance and everyone played at least some part.

Lucas Joao: 7

Had a number of good chances including putting a low shot past the post and a header straight at the keeper. Possibly a generous grade given he didn’t take any of those chances, however it was encouraging he was in those positions. In general I thought he led the line well and on another day he would have scored a couple.

Subs

John Swift: 7

He came on after around half an hour and immediately produced a great cross for Joao and a lovely flick to put Laurent in. Otherwise he was pretty quiet, however a brilliant surging run into the box that led to Laurent’s goal just about earns Swift a seven.

Junior Hoilett: 5

Didn’t really impact the game when he came on but that was understandable given we were defending for the final 10 minutes.

Yakou Meite: N/A

Only given five minutes, again. It really is bizarre the lack of game time Meite seems to be getting, especially when the substitute appearances seem to only be five-minute cameos, but when we win it’s far less of an issue for me!

Average: 6.61/10

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