Tyler Sackey’s goal had nine-man Reading in front, but the Royals were pegged back to 1-1 late on before losing on spot-kicks.
It was Noel Hunt’s first game in charge of a Fizzy Cup match tonight against League Two Walsall. Despite the fact Walsall are a division lower than Reading, they were not to be underestimated. Currently flying high at the top of League Two and in a rich vein of form - aside from a 4-0 pommelling from Charlton Athletic in the FA Cup second round - this was expected to be a real test for a young Reading side. Indeed it was, though not for the reasons we would have expected.
And it was a young Reading side. All signs pointed towards this being the likelihood, with Saturday’s match against Wycombe Wanderers seeing us only make one substitution all game.
In came David Button in goal as we expected, Harlee Dean made a return in the centre of defence and Michael Craig made a rare foray into midfield, with Ashqar Ahmed taking up the right-back spot, while Charlie Savage and Tyler Sackey played either side of Craig. Up top, it was no surprise to see Jayden Wareham leading the line with Mamadi Camara to the left of him and a rare start for Emmanuel “Brother Of Gabriel” Osho on the right.
If the starting line-up could be considered young, then the bench was really YOUNG. Hunt elected to give the regular first-teamers a night off and instead named an entire bench of academy players.
Personally, I was most excited to see Jay Senga named on the bench. He’s a player I’ve seen in action a couple of times and he has always impressed me. With Craig in midfield, it seemed likely that he’d come on at some point as his most natural replacement, to allow Craig some rest ahead of the weekend’s fixture.
I’ve done two match reports before and they tend to be quite long. Well, let me tell you, the first half really didn’t give me much to comment on. Spoiler alert: (un?)fortunately, the second half was far more noteworthy.
In the first half, Reading largely dominated possession (69%), made 205 passes vs Walsall’s 72 and only had three shots, with only one on target, as we struggled to break down the hosts’ low block. Walsall had 14 shots, eight of which were long-rangers that just sailed wide or over.
This young Reading side just lacked a little bit of spark to make something happen, with Wareham not really able to impose himself on the game. On the one hand, the service wasn’t really there but on the other, this was another game where he hasn’t really quite made the most of the opportunity he has been given to lead the line. It really just goes to show how difficult the job Sam Smith does is, and how well he does it. Wareham will get there, but he will need more time and exposure to this role, you feel.
After a tepid first half of what I’ll describe as “sterile possession” (thanks to Arsene Wenger for that one), we saw just the one change at the break with Savage, never knowingly ever completing 90 minutes of football, fulfilling his destiny and coming off, with another rare first-team appearance for Charlie Wellens. Surely the logical choice would have been Craig coming off, given he has far more minutes in the tank this season?
Eventually this did happen and Senga did make an appearance off of the bench to allow Craig some rest time. Shortly after this, Button decided to make things more interesting.
I will always applaud a goalkeeper for being front-footed, and I like the fact Button was confident to gallop out of the box to around 25-30 yards out to win the ball. However, he made a bit of a mess of it and Reading quickly conceded possession to Walsall, who fortunately did not make the most of the opportunity to take advantage of a stretched back line and a goalkeeper out of position.
Fortunately, Button is one of the few experienced heads and that experience will allow him to learn and not make the same mistake again.
Oh. Wait. No.
Pretty much two minutes later, Button galloped out in the same region of the pitch once again to claim the ball and decided to take offence to the mere presence of a Walsall attacker having the audacity to have possession, and quickly showed him what he thought of that by taking him out. It was a clear goalscoring opportunity, so Button went for an early bath and Reading went down to 10 men with 58 minutes played.
This saw Camara being taken off for another young Royal making a rare foray into the first team - indeed, only his second outing: Tom Norcott came on to replace Button in goal. By the way, is this the most Reading academy footballer name possible? How many Toms have we produced over the years? And named after a local hill too. Marvellous.
Despite being a man down, Reading didn’t look at any particular disadvantage as they continued to hold onto the ball well, trying to stretch play by making ventures into the Walsall half. Eventually, after a bit of sustained pressure and a goalmouth scramble, Tyler Sackey got the ball into the back of the net in the 72nd minute.
Great - now we have got a foothold in the game, so we can settle in and make Walsall work hard for it, right? Nope. Ashqar Ahmed said “hold my beer” (or fizzy drink, given his age) and mistimed a challenge outside of the area and earned himself a second yellow in 74th minute, and was given his marching orders.
Down to nine then. This will keep things interesting. Hunt didn’t immediately react to this, rather just changing the shape of the team with Osho dropping into the right-back role, it seemed, and the Walsall onslaught began. Eventually, in the 81st minute, Abraham Kanu came on for Andre Garcia in what seemed to be a straight swap at left-back.
Reading had a couple of moments when smart balls were played long up to Wareham, who diligently chased everything and anything to keep the pressure on, trying to keep the ball as far away from the Reading goal as possible. On one occasion, he made a breakthrough to the Walsall goal, but was flagged for a foul on the Walsall defender. It wasn’t clear why - maybe he breathed on him a little too hard?
However, Walsall did have their chances. Reading parked themselves behind the ball and were often very scrappy, though effective, in getting rid of the ball. In the moments when Reading were simply just outnumbered, Walsall really struggled to make any of their efforts count; despite having a couple of shots from around the edge of the 18-yard box just go wide, they didn’t quite have the quality to make it count.
With seven (SEVEN?!) minutes of added time awarded, this very young Reading side had a real battle on their hands. Grandad Harlee, as he may well be known to this group tonight, was the oldest player on the pitch at 33 years of age, the next being a 22-year-old Wellens and then 21-year-olds Holzman and Wareham.
The group played so well to resist Walsall and worked tirelessly to try and hold them off. Unfortunately, pretty much at the death of the game, a ball was whipped into the far post on the right of the pitch and the Walsall player was there to dispatch the ball.
After a quick restart, the game was then stopped as we went to penalties. I think, at the very least, we can all be grateful that this group weren’t forced to do two halves of extra time with only nine men. This was turning into quite the night for young Norcott.
This is pretty much how the penalties went, with Reading taking the first one:
Ultimately, this was a slightly harsh result for Reading. They were much the better, or at least more capable, team who looked the more likely to win the game and were so very close to getting the 1-0 win, being so unfortunate to concede at the death of the game.
For me, players such as Senga and Sackey stood out. We have a strong first-choice midfield and it seems we do also have some talent in the academy in that department too. However, Norcott, Dean and Holzman also did brilliantly under a lot of pressure in the second half.
Fortunately, this is a game that, in the grand scheme of things, probably doesn’t matter and actually will more than anything offer the young Reading players a lot of experience and things to learn from.
Ahmed’s second yellow was unfortunate but, ultimately, the team were undone by Button’s foolish actions. He should have known better and should have learned from earlier mistakes in the game.
