Which of these four chaps gets your vote?
We’ve got one final Player of the Month award to give out before we do our Player of the Season vote, so let’s get cracking.
April was a pretty good month for Reading overall. Of the six matches played, the Royals won two, drew two and lost two. The final two of those games were effectively redundant however, with the Royals securing enough points in the previous four to seal League One survival.
Interestingly, the average rating for this month (5.79/10) is dead on the season-wide average. So this feels like a pretty good representation for the campaign overall.
For the POTM vote we’ve shrunk it down to a shortlist of four. As per usual, this is based on goal contributions, man of the match voting and average ratings.
As for our previous POTM winners, they are as follows:
Average rating: 6.17 / Man of the match awards: 1st (Lincoln City H), 1st (Bristol Rovers H)
This was another strong month for a youngster who’s enjoyed a breakout campaign in Berkshire. Bindon deservedly ended April by taking second place in Reading’s official POTS vote.
He performed well on the pitch too, with highlights being MOTM performances against Lincoln City and Bristol Rovers. While those games included a goal and an assist respectively, the latter also featured a quite outstanding block to keep Reading’s clean sheet intact.
Tyler Bindon. That’s the tweet.
— RFC Latest (@RFCLatest) April 9, 2024
#readingfc pic.twitter.com/0IVrkGjr30
Average rating: 6.20 / Man of the match awards: 3rd (Lincoln City H), 2nd (Barnsley A), 3rd (Burton Albion A), 1st (Blackpool H)
Although he didn’t register a goal or an assist in April, this was still a good period for Elliott, who seemed to finally come into his own as a first-team player. That was largely down to how he was used by Ruben Selles: not only handed starts, but also trusted in a central-midfield role.
He repaid that faith with some eye-catching, mature displays in the middle of the park. The best came on the final day against Blackpool, but it’s still pleasing to be able to say that Elliott is consistent more generally.
Average rating: 6.33 / Man of the match awards: 2nd (Burton Albion A)
Although he didn’t get the plaudits others in the squad did (going by our MOTM voting at least), Smith was still a really important player for Reading in April. His return of four goals equalled his March tally, and meant he finished the campaign with 16 in all competitions. There was also time for an assist, setting up Reading’s final goal of the season when he flicked the ball on for Femi Azeez to put the Royals 3-1 up against Blackpool.
Average rating: 6.67 / Man of the match awards: 2nd (Bolton Wanderers A), 2nd (Lincoln City H), 2nd (Bristol Rovers A), 1st (Barnsley A), 1st (Burton Albion A)
Another excellent month from someone who is, very probably, going to add another POTM award to his tally. Wing was involved in all but one of the top threes for our MOTM voting, taking the award outright twice. His average rating is also comfortably the highest of anyone in the squad for April.
Naturally, Wing added some screamers to his tally in April. With four goals scored in total, this was actually his best return for any month this season, pushing him up to 11 for the campaign in all competitions. And he even threw in an assist too, setting up Bindon for his equaliser against Lincoln.
Who was your POTM for April? Vote below or through this link.
