Rotherham United and Reading played to a 1-1 draw in a lackluster match. Both teams struggled to create chances, with Rotherham's Sam Nombe scoring first before Reading's Daniel Kyerewaa equalized.
Iâll be completely honest with you, I really donât know where to start with writing anything interesting on this game, an Absolute Nothing of a 90 minutes at Rotherham United, so this is going to be a bit of a rant.
The best thing about the match, truth be told, is that the time added onto both halves wasnât that extensive (one in the first, three in the second), so I was able to get away that bit quicker.
If Iâm really grasping at straws, at least we didnât lose. What a thing to say for a match against an already-relegated team. Sam Nombeâs first-half opener threatened defeat, but Daniel Kyerewaa popped up soon after the break to ensure we stopped our losing run.
Otherwise? The weather was nice and the inflatables in the away end before the game were top-notch. Oh and Oxford United got relegated, letâs not forget that.
Just on the travelling support: apparently around 900 fans made the trip up to South Yorkshire for this game, all of whom made an excellent atmosphere before kick-off and had some great Inflatables Day fun. This team doesnât deserve such excellent away backing.
Back to the game itself and, of course, this was a dead rubber of a fixture for both teams. And no, Reading werenât suddenly going to turn into an excellent attacking outfit simply because we were playing an already-relegated side. But the abject void of joy in watching Reading play football at the moment and the unshakeable cynicism in the fanbase arenât getting any less damning.
Even when things were going better for Leam Richardson, he didnât get any positive chants from the Loyal Royals. And today there were (again) loud calls for him to be sacked, as well as Reading being booed off at the end of both halves.
Iâd argue that the only reason the atmosphere in the stands isnât turning outright toxic is that too many supporters have either been drained of the energy to do so or are staying away and wonât be back while this manager remains. Honestly, I canât blame them.
It took Reading 34 minutes to have a shot on target today (which to be fair came from a decent move and drew a good save). After Daniel Kyerewaaâs equalising goal right after the break (again a good bit of play, to be fair) the Royals forced a straightforward save on the hour mark, and then⊠nothing. Nada. Zilch.
The final score was 1-1.
Sam Nombe scored for Rotherham United, and Daniel Kyerewaa equalized for Reading.
Key moments included Nombe's first-half goal and Kyerewaa's equalizer shortly after the break.
The match contributed to Oxford United's relegation from the league.

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Not just no shots on target in the last half an hour or so of the game, but no shots at all. In a game away to a side thatâs already been relegated. I know injuries have given Richardson a weaker hand, but todayâs starting XI (regardless of our season essentially being done) is good enough on paper to at least muster up some vaguely convincing evidence that they want to win the game.
Reading (3-2-4-1): Pereira; Burns, OâConnor, Dorsett; Nyambe, Wing, Fraser, Roberts; Kyerewaa, Lane; Ehibhatiomhan
Subs: Norcott, Abrefa, Stickland, Howard, Ritchie, Osho, Patton
I may as well not have included the bench there. After all, despite Reading looking flat at best throughout the game, Richardson didnât show any interest in his subs until it was too late for any of them to make a big impact. The obvious attacking change (Matt Ritchie) only came on in the 84th minute, for an injured Jeriel Dorsett.
If all else fails, at least this game could have been an opportunity for younger players. But no, Sean Patton (the other clear offensive option) had to wait until the 88th minute to come on, Emmanuel Osho was the first sub but only got nine minutes of normal time, Luke Howard got no game time at all and David Hicks travelled but didnât get onto the bench.
Richardson said in his post-match comments that he didnât want to throw young players on too early unless they made a mistake. Itâs a weak excuse, for me. It goes without saying that youth will make mistakes â they need to do so if theyâre to learn â but itâs on the manager to show faith in them. Giving them such so little game time (a combined 17 minutes!) surely screams to them that Richardson doesnât believe in them.
Back to the original XI though â that shouldnât get away without criticism. Reading started with three centre-backs and a pair of wing-backs in a game which was essentially a free hit, an opportunity to get on the front foot and remind fans that football is supposed to be a form of entertainment.
Why so many defenders? Why not start with a back four? Ritchie and Patton were available as extra attacking options, as were other forwards (Will Keane, Kadan Young and Mamadi Camara) who werenât involved at all. Those last three might be a bit of a stretch, and some will counter that none are likely to be here next season, but that didnât stop Richardson starting loanees Finley Burns and Ryan Nyambe.
The sad bottom line is that, of course, weâve been here far too many times before. Little of what I wrote above is that new.
The end of the season should at least give you some sense of sadness that youâre going to be without club football for a few months over the summer, but Readingâs malaise is so deep-set and all-encompassing that I am most certainly not going to miss watching this side.
Iâm an optimist though, perhaps overly so, and I know a good pre-season both on the training ground and on the recruitment front will go a long way towards turning things around. All things being well, weâll be a much stronger outfit the next time we have a competitive away game.
At the moment though, that feels a long way off.