Going into the game most of us had high hopes of a home win against a Reading side several places below us in the table, but instead we had to endure abject performance as we slipped to yet another home defeat. And the signs are that both the manager and the chairman are starting to get fed up with our maddening inconsistency.
Simon Grayson made three changes to his starting line-up, with one of them being enforced as McCarthy was ineligible under the terms of his loan and Lonegran coming back for his first appearance since breaking a finger in October. McCormack replaced Keogh up front and Brown returned to central midfield at the expense of Sam, with Pugh reverting to his usual left back slot.
On paper this gave the side a more balanced look with players in their natural positions, but in practise it didn’t take long for things to start going badly wrong on the field. Reading’s goal arrived after only two minutes as a long ball down the right found Church in plenty of space on the edge of the area. Lonegran started to come out to deal with the danger but changed his mind and began to back-pedal, which left him in no man’s land when Church chipped the ball over his head. That said, it was still an excellent finish from Church from a narrow angle.
And Reading could have gone further in front with Jobi MCanuff produced two good chances in the next 20 minutes. First the Reading man was allowed to go past several defenders and try a curling shot from the edge of the box, but he couldn’t get the accuracy with his weaker left foot and he could only send it wide of the far post. Then he tried his luck cutting from over on the left, and when Lonegran had to parry his shot White did slid in to prevent le Fondre getting to the rebound.
Leeds were enjoying plenty of possession, but never really looked like troubling the Reading defence. Our first decent chance came in the closing minutes of the first half when a good cross from Snodgrass found McCormack unmarked beyond the far post, but his header was straight at Federici. And after the break we got more of the same, with Leeds finding a well organised Reading side very hard work.
On the hour mark Connolly’s ball across the area was met by a clever flick by Clayton, but that lacked any sort of power and was easily dealt with by Federici. That was Clayton’s last significant contribution, as he was part of a triple substitution a few minutes later, with McCormack and Brown being the other players to leave the field, while Sam, Keogh and Varynen all came on. I would have taken off Becchio instead of McCormack, as he’s looked nowhere near his best since he came back into the side this season.
Within a minute Keogh sent a shot over the bar from close range, but at the other end Reading could have increased their lead on the break when Pearce headed wide from six yards. We did create a couple more chances, with Becchio and Pugh going close in a goalmouth scramble, and Snodgrass forcing Federici into a fine save, but on the whole it just wasn’t good enough.
The crowd were getting restless as time slipped away, with all the usual ‘Bates out’ chants, before the referee put us all out of our misery with the final whistle. By some miracle we are still in the top six even after this defeat, but unless things improve we won’t stay there for long, with Birmingham having games in hand while Reading and a few other clubs starting to pick up results. Those in charge of the club have some serious thinking about where we go from here.
Ever before this game Pappa Smurf had already expressed his displeasure with the squad, using his programme notes to say that the players asking for big pay rises should get us into the Premiership so that we can afford them. And Simon Grayson wasn’t exactly a happy bunny in his post-match interview, saying that when the transfer window opens he was going to get rid of those who are less than fully committed, while bringing in some fresh blood.
Let’s hope that Grayson can get it right in the ‘emegency loan’ market this time, else this will be the second season in a row when we fade away disappointingly and fail to even make the play-offs.