Blues 3-2 Reading

Starting XI

Completely unchanged. Tahith Chong up top again. No Scott Hogan, Harlee Dean or Gary Gardner still.

Game

A game that took just over 60 seconds to warm the hands, feet and private areas of fans that had braved -3 conditions to support the team.

Juninho Bacuna moved inside and his attempted cross, which was probably being cleared, was knocked over the top of his own defence by Mamadou Loum to allow Troy Deeney to control and finish.

Chances were few and far between in the first half but Reading did test the strength of John Ruddy's hands. Andy Yiadom forced a stop at the near post after a 1-2 over Hannibal Mejbri then Loum headed the resulting corner wide. Tom McIntyre's header fell to Yakou Meite in the area and his cleanly struck volley thankfully found the hands of Ruddy.

Blues then won a penalty. Deeney won the ball from Loum and played a 1-2 with Tahith Chong. Deeney reached the ball and though his return was poor, he was taken out by Naby Sarr. The penalty was blasted low to Joe Lumley's left.

On 36 minutes, Reading had another decent chances, this time a switch to the right ending with Tom Ince stinging Ruddy's palms. Barely thirty seconds later and it was 3-0, Amadou Mbengue miscontrolling a poor Hannibal free kick and allowing Chong to round Lumley to score.

The second was a little more wild. With Reading having more efforts on goal but Blues holding their own for the most part. Yiadom saw an effort deflected wide before Lumley denied Chong after a couple of brilliant touches to burst in behind followed by Deeney being denied on the line by McIntyre.

Ince saw a free kick curl just over, Chong was denied at a tight angle, McIntyre tried his luck from distance with Ruddy again standing firm. Deeney came close again to the hat trick, controlling and striking a Roberts cross wide of the near post. Meite headed wide a Junior Hoilett cross before again testing Ruddy's handling from an awkward angle.

Reading did get a goal back on 83. Sarr with a fine ball to Ince whose touch was superb. The cross found Andy Carroll, his shot was deflected, parried, looped into the air by Jeff Hendrick then fell kindly for an offside Lucas Joao. Ince then scored himself with a minute left of injury time, getting the better of Chong and seeing a low strike deflect in.

Tactics

Both sides set up in a similar 3-1-4-2 formation. For Blues, it was Bielik flanked by Bacuna and Hannibal with Deeney and Chong up top. For Reading, Loum was flanked by Ince and Hendrick with Shane Long and Meite up top.

Reading continue to play this slightly lopsided version of the system. Last time we played them, Yiadom remained very high and wide, almost as a winger, with Tom Holmes virtually a right-back. In this occasion, while the design was a back three, Baba Rahman stayed high in the left with McIntyre always out wide to help create the overload. They would then look for either the run of Meite or to switch the ball out to the right for Yiadom and Ince to get moving.

Blues were typically happy to let Reading play from the back. They sat off, tried to cut the ball into Loum and allowed themselves the spare man against their front two. Bacuna and Hannibal were slightly more reticent than usual to go sprinting out to the wide centre back with Reading's box attack close together. They often stayed in the facinity of Hendrick and Ince with the front two stepping across and Bielik then pushing onto Loum.

In possession, it was the same as usual. The front two would drop off, take a touch under pressure into feet then Bacuna or Chong would get moving down the right-hand side where Rahman had vacated, enabling the space.

Reading's first change saw Hoilett come on to replace Mbengue with Yiadom moving to RCB and Hoilett out wide.

Jordan James replaced Bacuna and there was a shift in Blues' formation to more of a 5-2-1-2, James sitting more alongside Bielik with Hannibal, then Jobe Bellingham, tasked with Loum and Chong asked to support Longelo with the runs of Yiadom. What transpired was Ince also coming out to the right-hand side to create an overload, Bielik not wanting to shift too far across so he and Hoilett could combine and drag Chong back further, giving us less of an outlet to relieve the pressure. Hendrick became part of a front three with Carroll and Joao with Nesta Guinness-Walker and McIntyre and Yiadom playing more aggressive roles to try and help recycle the ball.

Players

I'm always weary of talking about him but Deeney was excellent. Not just the two goals but Mbengue, Sarr and, later, Yiadom, didn't know how to handle his physicality, regularly fouled him or just lost out in tussles.

In fact, the spine of the team were largely excellent. Bielik was superb first half, first to everything and never gave it away. Ruddy's handling remains as good as we've come across at this level. And though he had a poor first half, Roberts was first to almost everything that came his way second half. Also, I wasn't expecting Bacuna to be one of the players to step up on a colder-than-freezing night but he certainly did so.

I was impressed by Meite and Ince, two players always seem to play well against Blues. The former never gave up, one of few forwards that looks capable of ruffling Sanderson and Trusty physically. And Ince seemed to enjoy a fairly free role, not unhappy to put a shift in but regularly involved in the final third. It's unfortunate for those two that Mbengue, Sarr and Loum were miles off it out of possession.

Anything else?

A few bits here.

Firstly, a number of tributes to the boys that tragically died at Babbs Mill. Black armbands were worn by the players and there was a minute's silence before the game.

At 3-0, Deeney dragged everybody in for a huddle, basically telling them to fix up because they hadn't been good enough.

Sanderson's celebration to Meite after winning a slide tackle. Completely needless at 3-0 but hilarious.

Jobe Bellingham getting to enter the field in front of his brother, Jude. Fantastic stuff. He didn't do himself a disservice either with some fine touches, giving us an element of control.

Wrapping it up...

When the weather is as it was last night, the sole aim is to come away with three points rather than being caught cold. Blues weren't at their best but they were positive from the off and it paid off, Reading nowhere near as switched on in key areas and gifting us three goals and three points.

There is work to do. This isn't a complete football team and those rough edges are having to be managed with experience on the pitch key.

However, we sit seventh in the league table at the halfway stage. Most fans would have snapped off hands to be within a chance of being able to survive at this point, praying for something in January to help take us over the line.

What a job John Eustace and co are doing.