View From The Dolan: Increasingly Bleak

Reading lose for the second league game in a row, with Bailey Cadamarteri and Reeco Hackett-Fairchild giving Lincoln City a 2-0 win.

I’d planned to watch this game in a pub locally. That had been the intention, but a combination of feeling really pretty ill and the pubs near me (Tilehurst FFS) choosing not to show the game essentially forced me to watch it from bed.

It’s been yet another turbulent week in the recent history of this club. A very poor home reverse to Blackpool was followed up by yet another week of silence, culminating in another elaborate protest by Sell Before We Dai. Fair play, the boards they had on the van around the locations frequented by our current owner and wherever Dayong Pang is these days were certainly eye-catching.

Whether they have any impact, I’ve no idea. I’m not sure what the plan should be or can be anymore. There’s been plenty of chat about Rob Couhig this week and, up until our recent slump in form, I’d been of the opinion that focussing on the on-pitch matters was all I could do.

Reading (4-3-3): Pereira; Craig, Holzman, Bindon, Garcia; Knibbs, Wing, Savage; Campbell, Smith, Camara

Subs: Button, Kanu, Dean, Senga, Sackey, Osho, Wareham

The game against the Imps gave us an opportunity to arrest that slide in results and overall performance level. It made perfect sense then to concede within eight minutes as Bailey Cadamarteri converted on the rebound after Joel Pereira had saved originally. In all honesty, we looked shell-shocked from the off and, by 20 minutes into the game, I’d yet to see anything positive from the team, across all departments.

The commentator quipped that “patience is a virtue for the Royals”. I felt like saying: “Mate, come and sit in the Dolan for a game and count the empty seats and see where that patience has got us.” We grew a little into the game and started to knock the ball around a little more confidently, before Andre Garcia went down injured.

Sam Smith was getting mugged off left, right and centre. A stone-cold penalty was ignored when he was literally pushed to the ground around the 33rd-minute mark, before being grabbed round the neck in midfield to finally win a free-kick. The crap he puts up with from defenders and referees alike is beyond crazy. Those incidents seemed to spur us on a little with Chem Campbell in particular looking to get us back into the game.

On 37 minutes, Louie Holzman was dismissed for a foul on old Ben House. Regardless of whether it was actually a foul, he was the wrong side of the attacker and, when you commit yourself like that, you give the ref a choice to make.

He’ll hopefully learn from it, but that inexperience and subsequent decision just made things extra difficult for us. Mamadi Camara was hooked for Harlee Dean, which made sense, and we were left to fight out the remaining minutes of the half in an even more panicked state than we were originally.

Before the half was out, Smith was once again on the end of some spicy defending, with what looked an arm to the face. There was enough time for Harvey Knibbs to do some last-ditch defending, before the ref saw us on the counter-attack and decided to blow for the water break. Granted, we were bad in the first 45, but the man in the middle did nothing to restore anyone’s faith in EFL officials, I have to say.

I was due some more painkillers (to help my rancid throat, chest and temperature) but I couldn’t be bothered to get them. I just lay on the bed, thinking of what horrors lay in wait for us in the second period.

I looked at the shots of our fans in the stand during the half-time period (and to be fair, Sky are working hard to improve the coverage of these “red button” games) and I just thought: “You heroes.”

Pretty much straight from the off we were under pressure. A nice turn and cross from the right-hand side led to Tyler Bindon putting the ball the over the bar in desperation. House then hit the post and we were like a wet frog on a glass window.

The only thing keeping us in the game was Lincoln’s lack of accuracy. Dean was then booked for some off-the-ball “banter” which looked worse than it probably was. Bindon was again called into action with a well timed, hearty challenge and the resulting corner was punched away by Pereira. I would be amazed if we enter February with Bindon still in our team as you can literally smell the vultures circling from here.

The commentator explained that the game was still a “one-point ball game” and at that stage, I was ready to do serious harm to someone. Look, I love American sports references as much as the next man, but my God, don’t ever say stuff like that for football. Never.

House went through on goal and hit the other post. At this point, on 64 minutes, we’d not had a single shot. None.

Things became more comical when Pereira dropped the ball from a lofted free-kick, only for the rebound header to hit the post. The Lincoln players then resorted to taking each other out, clearly making sure that they knew they were in a game as our lads hadn’t really tested them.

Lincoln finally got their second as a wonderful long ball was lifted over the defence and met with aplomb by Reeco Hackett-Fairchild. I’ve no idea who was supposed to be marking him, but he was given the time and space to pick his spot and leave Pereira stood like a statue. A great finish but appalling defending and that was that.

A long ball in from Charlie Savage was met with a half shot from Knibbs and then bundled away by the home defence. This meant that, at 80 minutes, we’d had a single shot at goal. One.

Jayden Wareham came on for Campbell, I assumed to try and at least affect that shot statistic. At the other end, we were under pressure once again with corners and shots reigning down like cheap confetti on a bemused bride at a wedding.

Smith was in at the right end, but Wareham was judged to be offside and any threat was quickly snuffed out by the officials. At this point, the DPD man knocked at the door and I was honestly grateful for the distraction.

I got back to bed just in time to see six minutes up on the board (I mean, really?) as extra-time. This did include a spectacular overhead kick by Wareham which was, sadly, straight down the keeper’s throat.

That was pretty much the extent of the final throes of the action. A really sorry day in this increasingly turbulent season that has left me with more questions than answers. The honeymoon period (if there was one) is definitely over for Noel Hunt and, with these two home games arriving on the horizon, points and a response are needed.

We’ve no idea what the immediate future holds for this playing squad, but the present is increasingly bleak and a win would settle everyone down immediately. Whether we can get that on Thursday is another matter, but this result leaves us as fans once again hoping for a Christmas miracle off and on the pitch.

I hope you have a good few days and are able to switch off. Take care of yourselves and thank you for reading.

Until next time.