Sam Smith’s second-half double meant the Royals took a point from their trip to Oakwell, despite not being at their best.
Another away game then, this time away at Barnsley. After picking up an impressive win at Peterborough United I genuinely feared that we would “do a Reading” and turn in a shocker of a performance, right after putting in a masterclass.
The Royals, with a record of two away wins in the league this season, went to battle against Barnsley, a team who have only picked up two wins at home in the league this season. Really, hindsight is a wonderful thing and a draw probably should have been the obvious result here. However, it certainly wasn't quite as straightforward as that.
I’m not sure what the social media murmurings would have been when the line-up was announced, being the disconnected sort that I am, but I was surprised to see that we hadn’t rotated the team at all, other than the enforced absence of Amadou Mbengue due to injury.
I am not sure if I should have been surprised to see Louie Holzman drafted in for his first league start for Reading, rather than Abraham Kanu, but surprised I was. It is also worth noting that we had no recognised central midfielders on the bench either. Up against it, really, is what I am trying to hint at.
Reading (4-3-3): Pereira; Craig, Holzman, Bindon, Dorsett; Elliott, Wing, Savage; Campbell, Smith, Knibbs
Subs: Button, Ahmed, Kanu, Garcia, Akande, Camara, Wareham
Certainly it felt like that at the start of the game. In a very quiet, empty stadium, Barnsley - while not quite flying out of the traps - really pushed us high up the pitch and were trying to sniff out mistakes and capitalise on them. We certainly looked prone to a mistake early on: first touches were getting away from us, we were playing loose passes and generally looking a little bit lethargic; we looked prone to conceding.
And concede we did, in the seventh minute. An uncharacteristically sloppy bit of play from Michael Craig on the right saw him give the ball away, with Barnsley taking advantage and slotting the ball away, with the rest of the Reading defence and Joel Pereira in goal unable to do much to recover the situation.
For the next 10-15 minutes, Reading really weathered the storm from Barnsley as they smelled blood in the water and The Royals certainly looked prone to conceding again, as they struggled to move the ball up the pitch as moves broke down, passes went astray or players got the ball tangled between their legs.
However, we eventually settled at around 20-25 minutes in and looked a bit more comfortable and, while not quite threatening Barnsley’s goal during this period of more sustained pressure for around 10 minutes, we looked more dangerous with Chem Campbell and Harvey Knibbs’ speed out wide asking questions of the Barnsley back line. Unfortunately, we still seemed to lack that cutting edge.
Barnsley soon got back into their jig and looked threatening going forward - while Reading seldom made too many mistakes for the rest of the half, the worry was that making one would see Barnsley capitalise on them.
There was one moment when, from about 20-25 yards out, a Barnsley player took a left-footed shot that went wide of the left post, and bounced back off the pitch barriers and hit the back of the net, which creating the illusion that Barnsley had scored a second and not, in fact, earned Reading a goal-kick, much to Barnsley fans’ disappointment at that end of the pitch.
The back four largely did their bit and managed the pressure well. I suspect most would have picked Holzman out as the “risk”, however he managed the very big and physical target man with aplomb for his first start.
It was Jeriel Dorsett that looked like he was struggling – whether from lack of fitness still after coming back from injury, lack of match time or fatigue from the weekend, his play as the half closed out left a lot to be desired.
The half closed out with Reading 1-0 down, and Ruben Selles, perhaps noticing Dorsett’s struggles, substituted him off for the start of the second half, with Andre Garcia being introduced. With Craig’s passing threat on the right, perhaps Garcia’s directness on the left could offer us a little more of an attacking edge to get out our own half more often.
Barnsley started the second half more dominantly, essentially picking up from where they left off, but Reading soon wrestled the control back and were unfortunate to not have been given an opportunity for a breakaway after a foul by Barnsley’s Adam Phillips earned Reading a free-kick in the Barnsley half, which was taken quickly and played into Charlie Savage with acres of space on the left about 30 yards out, but the referee decided to pull back play in order to show Phillips a yellow card.
As frustrating as this was - and it really was - Reading just got on with it and were quickly rewarded shortly after. A move started by another great pass from the right by Craig played in Campbell to cut inside and cross the ball into the box with his left. Sam Smith timed the run brilliantly, evaded the defender and bundled the ball over the line to make it 1-1 at 50 minutes. Smith seemed to shush the Barnsley fans after this, but I could have imagined that happening.
It was good to see Campbell set up the assist - it seems he’s slowly starting to settle in the team, but it’s a toss-up as to whether something he does will come off or if he will make a mess of it. Many times he held onto the ball too long, misplaced a pass, mistimed a run or took poor touches. Equally, just as many times, he would make smart runs, track back to offer Craig, Lewis Wing or Ben Elliott a passing option or make beautiful first-time passes to move play quickly.
Campbell nearly had a chance to take a shot a few minutes after the goal, but the pass from Savage out on the left seemed to just run out of fizz before it reached him, and he wasn’t quite able to get there in time to create a shot.
The game was balanced on a knife’s edge at this point, with both sides seemingly not content with a point, but struggling to make final balls count to stretch the back lines of the opposition.
At this moment, I did still worry that we would be caught out by another mistake, but mistakes were rare and, even if one occurred, Tyler Bindon was almost always on hand to play the elder statesman in defence. This is despite him being two years younger than both Craig and Holzman, which somehow doesn’t seem possible, but is.
Around 64 minutes in we were nearly punished by one of the rare mistakes. A ball in behind Garcia - the type of ball he is regularly caught out by - released a Barnsley man to play the ball into the box. However, despite pressure from Bindon and Holzman, Pereira was on hand to make a great save. His best of the game, and he made a few good ones for us this game.
Then, almost out of nowhere, Reading seemed to just decide they’d had enough of this drawing malarkey and made a swift breakaway which led to a corner. After a good reaction stop from the Barnsley ‘keeper, Smith was on hand to mop up and put the ball away for his second of two scrappy goals, to give Reading the lead in the 66th minute.
They all count, and you won’t hear any of us complaining. The goals were just reward for Smith, whose ability to link play and play passes out wide was a real feature of a lot of our best moves of the game.
Now, during the course of this game, Barnsley had something like 1,000 corners. Honestly, this is a team geared up for set-pieces and, coupled with their tactic of long throws, they really looked a threat by crowding out the Reading box and putting pressure on Pereira in goal.
Eventually, the pressure told and they were able to get an equalising goal to make it 2-2 in the 70th minute. The goal was easily preventable: Reading just couldn’t clear the ball away and clearances were only landing just outside of the Royals’ penalty area, with Barnsley players always the first to the ball, and it was a poor punch from Pereira that led to the goal finally coming.
Harsh on Pereira, after at times having kept Reading in the game. I feel ultimately it was the inability to get rid of the ball up the pitch that led to the goal.
However - spoiler alert - despite having a squad of massive 6-foot-plus players and having another thousand corners during the remaining 20 minutes, Barnsley were absolutely awful at making the most of their aerial advantage. It would be a disservice to Reading to say we didn’t defend well for the most part, but honestly, a much more clinical side that could hit the backside of a farm animal with a banjo would have likely gotten another goal from somewhere.
Surprisingly, it took until the 79th minute for Selles to make further changes. As I mentioned before, the players looked tired from Saturday’s game, and considering the lack of rotation and all the travel for the two away games, I’d have liked to see us freshen the side up a bit sooner. Maybe this is Selles playing the hand he’s got, with a bench full of academy players.
Ashqar Ahmed continued his foray into more regular first-team football by coming on for Craig, who, despite his earlier mistake leading to the first Barnsley goal, had a solid game otherwise.
Surprisingly, Savage came off for Mamadi Camara, despite Elliott not having the best time of it in the middle. I say surprisingly, Savage seems to rarely complete a full 90. He seems to always come off as a sub. This change led to Knibbs dropping into the midfield three and Camara taking his place on the left of the front three.
Another side note, but after these changes, we finished the game with a back four aged 17, 21, 19 and 16. Even more ironically, Holzman as the oldest was the least experienced first-teamer. Barnsley seemed to be prepared for this by bringing on a number of even taller, more physical players to complete some aerial assaults into the Reading area for the remainder of the game. However, Reading’s kids held their own and ate up corners like they were Lunchables.
It took until the 81st minute for Reading to do anything meaningful in terms of attacking Barnsley’s goal, which eventually fizzled out to nothing. However, with an unusually short two minutes of added time indicated, Reading finished the game looking the most likely to score.
A great ball came in from Wing on the right to Camara, who was so alone in space that his marker would have needed a sat-nav to trace his way back to finding him. Sadly he fumbled the receiving ball, seemingly caught between the decision to take a step back to control the ball with his weaker left foot and set himself to shoot, or attacking the ball before it bounced, to bring it down for a shot. Neither happened, he got stuck with the ball at his feet and fell over. Perhaps this can be attributed to rustiness.
One last good attack in the dying seconds came in when Campbell, I think it was, had a reasonable chance to get a shot off, but the game ended 2-2. Certainly the short number of added minutes favoured Reading: while playing well in patches, the Royals can probably consider themselves slightly fortunate that Barnsley’s profligacy from making the most of their many set-pieces has seen them earn a point on the road, making it four from a possible six this week.
Not bad at all, and something I think most Reading fans would gladly have taken before the two games in question. Certainly, after the game, I am still caught between thinking it was a fair result to pick up a draw or that we were fortunate to not have been punished for the mistakes. Hopefully, with a bit of rest time for the group, they can continue the upturn in form going into next weekend.
Wishing a safe journey home to the few travelling Royals who braved the climate to come and support the boys!
