Five Things From Reading’s Safety-Sealing Draw At Barnsley

Bobbins’ take on a 2-2 at Oakwell that mathematically secured the Royals’ League One status for another year.

Catalyst

As it turned out, all we needed was a Wing and a prayer (if praying is your thing), otherwise we just needed Lewis Wing. OK, that’s over-egging it somewhat as it was much more than a one-man show that sealed our safety in League One, but it’s undeniable that he’s been the catalyst that has pulled it all together.

While a 2-2 draw against playoffs hopefuls is nothing to be sniffed at, it creates a few thoughts. Firstly, we should have won. Secondly, we can allow ourselves to be disappointed with a result now - that’s something we never thought we’d feel a few months ago. Thirdly, we can be ecstatic that this point has kept us in the league with a couple of games to spare.

Beauty

It’s a scenario that not many of us would have believed possible and, for those that did believe, it was only because of blind devotion that we could get out of this mess. But we did it. We actually bloody did it.

Not only that, we’ve done it in style, too. We didn’t just play the percentages, go route one or deploy nefarious tactics to bludgeon our way up the standings. We can and have played some fun football with a catalogue of fine finishes that will be fondly remembered for years to come.

None more so than Wing’s trademark beauty from outside the box (where else?!) that should have won us the game, but we didn’t hold onto the lead for long. Usually, I would go into each scenario and dissect it a little. What did we do, what didn’t we do, how could we have avoided it? But this all feels rather secondary and unnecessary now.

Instead, it seems more appropriate to look at the achievements of this side. How we can all be so supremely proud of what they have achieved, because they have come a hell of a long way.

Resolved

Who knows what has been said to galvanise the squad together over the last five months or so? How could they possibly rise up against an owner that literally cared nothing for them, the staff of the club and us, the fans? With a rookie manager that had lots of ideas and theories, but never had the sandbox to work it all out in a calm and easy environment.

No doubt there have been a thousand questions of different kinds that we could ask of Ruben Selles and his players. How, why, what… but I guess not many of them matter when the end result is safety. Further questions exist in the form of the ownership issues, but they are for another day. Those will hopefully be resolved in the days and weeks to come; that’s for the lawyers to sort out. Not even Wing can resolve those issues!

Regardless of that, we can be so proud of the achievements that the manager and squad have achieved. From being rooted at the table with just seven points to where we are now is simply incredible.

To have lost just seven more games and won 13 is remarkable. After being 10 points behind with a goal difference of -13, to almost wiping that deficit out while other teams around us have sunk like Subbuteo on the Titanic. After all the deductions that have attempted to thwart our season and survival hopes. Nothing could stop us.

Defiance

We would be biased, of course, but Selles does deserve some kind of recognition for pulling the unthinkable together, in an environment that must have been hostile and unbearable to work in. Seeing staff from all levels disappear from the club, unwanted and unloved with none of it being his doing, none of it he asked for or requested. Seeing a dream that he, among many others, was sold that turned out to be a living nightmare. His resolve and determination will be very fondly remembered.

Of course, he’s not perfect, he will admit just the same. But with the cards that he has been dealt, with everything he has had to think, feel and worry about, with a squad that diminished in numbers and in quality, it takes a stubborn sort to think that he’s not done a stellar job in the circumstances.

His defiance has led to the team’s defiance. It has led to the fans’ defiance. It has prevailed when it looked as if we might not even have a club at all in our darkest days. We have all united to such a point that we are much more strongly bonded to the club than quite possibly ever before.

Our support at home, but most definitely away, has been nothing short of amazing. The number of fans that have travelled has been another demonstration of that defiance. If we were going to go down, we’d go down fighting and be proud of who we are. If we were to survive then we would be there in numbers to support our club to better days and be very much a part of it.

There’s light at the end of the tunnel, and we have been resolute and determined in doing our bit to ensure that we will have as good a chance as any to have a successful and thriving football club again.

Crucial

This has turned into the love letter that I didn’t intend to write at the outset, but I hope it encapsulates the kind of emotions that relief that we have all felt. From grim times like the game away to Shrewsbury Town and the horror that was Eastleigh in the FA Cup, to beating Derby County at home and superb wins against Cambridge United and Northampton Town. It’s been one hell of a ride, a redemption of a journey, yet it feels like there’s so much more of this story to tell, if the fates allow.

Every week has felt like a crucial moment in this never-ending circus of uncertainty. We all wish for the clown at the head of all this to disappear soon. We have achieved so much despite the disaster he has allowed our club to become. But the silver lining is there to be seen, we have so much in our hands that we just want it all to continue as it is, growing and thriving. We have loved you at the worst of times, and we love you now for surviving the most difficult of challenges.

We simply could not be prouder.