Reading 1-1 Blues

Starting XI

Completely unchanged from the victory over Blackburn Rovers.

Game

A game with a lot of running and very little quality.

Reading had the first clean chance of the game and took it, Casadei having acres of space to pick out Joao whose flick was perfect for Carroll to whip the ball beyond Ruddy, who had no chance.

Reading had a decent spell for about ten minutes before Blues took control, Bielik seeing an effort from distance saved before the equaliser. Khadra's teasing cross found Jutkiewicz unmarked and his header was a bullet into the top corner.

That was it for the first half and the second brought little in the way of consistent, attacking intent. Two long throws caused problems, Sarr blazing over before Hendrick couldn't connect to a loose touch. At the other end, Jutkiewicz couldn't quite connect to Bielik's back stick cross.

The best move of the half involved Jutkiewicz, whose lay off for Hall allowed the teenager to drive beyond Holmes and Sarr before finding Chong, who just about got beyond Yiadom before seeing an effort from a tight angle saved.

Set-pieces were an issue for Blues, Sarr having an effort blocked and Azeez volleying just wide. Trusty screwed up the final pass after a brilliant run. Chang and Hendrick had tame efforts from distance fall kindly for Lumley and Ruddy.

Tactics

Blues were 4-2-3-1 here up against a 4-4-2 / 4-2-3-1 shape for Reading.

For Reading, Carroll was up top with Joao alongside him. Meite right and Fornah left. However, out of possession, Joao and Fornah would drop off and sit on Chang and Bielik, with Hendrick and Casadei blocking space in front of the central defenders. This allowed Meite to be up against Trusty and the full-backs to go 1 v 1 with the wingers.

In possession, they generally went long. Sarr, Casadei or Holmes would take possession and search for Carroll with runners around him. The ball to the right was favourable with Meite and Joao close by. Once they picked up the seconds, they would have Fornah or Meite out wide with Mbengue and Yiadom quick to overlap and create space for the cross.

To go against that, Blues dropped off and played for seconds from the long ball, Chang and Bielik protecting a narrow back four. When Reading did play backwards, Hall and Jutkiewicz would step up with Bielik and Chang then stepping onto Hendrick and Casadei to create a man for man all over the park.

In possession, Blues were similar to Reading. It was find Jutkiewicz and play for seconds with Hall and a winger close by and the midfield stepping up. Once the game settled, Blues either had the winger on that side move 1 v 1 or the ball would be moved into midfield for the switch to the other flank. It was either that, or playing to the full-back who would find the winger in front of him and hope he could beat his man taking the ball with back to goal.

Players

I thought Lukas Jutkiewicz was excellent. Won the majority of his battles, gave us a platform to play from and even got his goal.

Khadra remains a player who needs work off the ball but whose quality with it has been key to us going four unbeaten.

Hall was excellent again, always on the move. He was noticeably quick to cover out of position team mates and he's always looking to get restarted quickly.

As for Reading, Yiadom always impresses me. Carroll was exactly what I expected Carroll to be. I was impressed by Fornah too, playing a duel role and being quite tidy.

Anything else?

The referee getting injured. Always odd.

Long running over to push Bielik away from a bit of nonsense he got himself involved in and telling him to keep his head. I liked that. Good leadership.

Wrapping it up...

It's that point of the season now where results matter less because we've put ourselves in a good position.

Today was a good test for Chang and Hall, for example, young players performing away from home against physical opposition now doing whatever they can to earn points. And while they weren't perfect, they stood up well and stuck to their tasks. It's a good learning curve. The same goes for Bellingham, who came on and impressed.

These end of season games are now about learning and players proving themselves ahead of next season. I'm expecting to see Bellingham and James get some more game time, when the opportunity is right, as well as Hall and Chang. It's a shame the quartet are fighting for three positions in midfield.

We weren't perfect today, but given the pressure is off, we stood up to the task okay. Being competitive in our remaining fixtures has to be the aim now.