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Club Focus - Reading - Disappointing defeat little more than a rare off day
A flat performance from Reading saw them watch their hosts celebrate achieving safety for the second time in five days.
Having seen first hand Scunthorpe seal their Championship status for next season by taking the point they needed through their late fight back, the Royals had a touch of déjà vu as Watford achieved the same feat by picking up a comfortable win. Brian McDermott had sounded completely committed in the build up to the game, despite his team having little other than final league position to play for. On match day, it seemed his players were not singing from the same hymn sheet, as the Hornets were not made to work for their three goals. Some curiously slack defending from some of this season’s stand out players as good as gifted Watford the three points, with Matt Mills not looking anywhere near as commanding in the heart of the defence as he has in virtually every other game since returning to the team, and with Andy Griffin looking more like a rookie defender rather than a man of much experience for the third goal.
It was particularly surprising to see such a glaring error from Griffin, whose future is up in the air as his loan spell from Stoke nears its end. Facing hardly the most challenging bouncing ball ever, the former Newcastle full-back dallied and hesitated, allowing Danny Graham to steal in and have a clear run on Adam Federici’s goal. Most Royals fans are desperate for the 31-year-old to be signed on a permanent deal, but this display will not have helped convince any remaining doubters. Shane Long should have had a penalty with the game still goalless, Martin Taylor’s clear foul on the Irishman going unpunished. The outcome might have been altered had Gylfi Sigurdsson been handed the chance to put the visitors ahead from the spot but few could argue that Reading can feel overly aggrieved considering how much they were outplayed for the rest of the game.
It was down the other end that Long ended up having a bigger contribution, failing to clear a low cross as Heidar Helguson pounced to make the score 2-0. Long has since spoken of his disappointment, saying he prides himself on doing well from set pieces at both ends. The striker also made a very valid point that it is the first game since the away defeat to Plymouth where the team have come away feeling really disappointed. That match at Home Park, early on in McDermott’s then-temporary reign, was the lowest point of the season for the Royals, receiving a hammering from a team that was in just as lowly a position in the relegation zone as Reading. Whilst it took a few league games under McDermott for the results to come, the performances were of a much higher standard, and the manager will hope that this woeful display at Watford is nothing more than a blip. The end of the season is just one game away, and whilst there is little riding on the Preston game for the Royals, it is important that they sign off for the summer on a much brighter note than they managed at Vicarage Road.
Of course, every team has off days, and it has been a rare occurrence under the leadership of McDermott. The game was always going to mean more to Watford than to Reading, with the Hornets’ very existence in the division at stake. The hosts’ performance could have gone one of two ways; either they came out all guns blazing to achieve the required result, or they crumbled under the weight of pressure. The Royals were unfortunate to catch Malky Mackay’s team in such a determined mood, meaning their own below par performance was punished more than would be expected on a visit to a team near the foot of the table. The highs experienced by Mackay’s men and their fans will be far greater than the lows experienced by the side from Berkshire and Reading will have forgotten about this defeat before too long.
Once again, a sense of perspective can be gained by just how far Reading have come. When McDermott took the Madejski Stadium hot seat, Watford were 10th in the table and the Royals a lowly 21st. Going in to Saturday’s match, the Hornets had sunk to 20th and Reading were a lofty 9th, the 11 place gap between the sides completely reversed. McDermott has vowed that the team will put things right against Preston on Sunday’s last day of the season, but he and his side have already made up for the disappointing defeat many times over with their fine form in 2010 that has lead them well away from the fight for safety.
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