Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Well, best not as it’s actually a nippy day in mid-February, but still, I love you Jack Marriott.
Valentine’s Day is when we celebrate the ones we hold in our hearts, and Marriott is most certainly our special someone. Time and time again he steps up (it’s frankly ridiculous just how consistent he is in front of goal), and today was the purest example yet, a love-in of sublime finishing.
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The first, a moment of pure poacher’s instinct to see an opportunity where no-one else did. The second, sheer determination in bursting in on goal before an excellent finish. The third? Good Lord, that outside-of-the-boot strike to find the far side of the goal was one of the best bits of technique we’ve seen from a centre-forward in recent years.
If you haven’t seen the goals, watch them. Now. On repeat. It’s worth it, I promise.
Even just one of those moments was proof enough that Reading have one hell of a striker on their books. Put all three together and you have a truly special performance, a tour de force. So I say again: Jack Marriott, I love you.
Sadly I very much do not have similar sentiments for Reading’s overall performance. Marriott was the exception (a game-changing one, thankfully) on an afternoon when the Royals were second best to a dangerous Wycombe Wanderers side.
Headline stats don’t always give a fair representation of a game, but this time they do. The Royals had much less of the ball (34%), shots (7-23) and shots on target (4-10). In fact, according to WhoScored, a whopping 45% of the game was played in our third – and just 20% of it in Wycombe’s.
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And going by the eye test, Reading lacked control of the game, didn’t manage the contest as convincingly as they should have, struggled to build up sustained periods of attacking threat and looked too open defensively. Collectively, we simply were not at the races.
That’s certainly not to say it was all bad. On the contrary, big performances at the back – from Joel Pereira and Benn Ward in particular – went a long way to fighting off the Wanderers danger, so credit to both of them. And the bottom line is, of course, that Reading as a unit did enough to get over the line and seal the points. That’s certainly not to be sniffed at.
But it is to say we’re still well off being at a level where we can look like serious candidates for the playoffs, despite the results we’ve recently managed. Reading have done really well to grind out wins in spite of performances, but that disparity has to be rectified. As much as we love him, we can’t keep relying on Marriott.
Leam Richardson made two changes to Tuesday’s side, resting Haydon Roberts and Ryan Nyambe while bringing in Kadan Young and Andy Yiadom. I’ve no complaints with either decision, given the new defenders’ lack of game time before joining in January. They’ve needed a break and will likely start on Tuesday anyway.
Reading (4-2-3-1): Pereira; Yiadom, O’Connor, Ward, Dorsett; Wing, Fraser; Lane, Doyle, Young; Marriott
Subs: Stevens, Nyambe, Burns, Roberts, Savage, Ritchie, Ehibhatiomhan
Wycombe started the afternoon the stronger of the two sides (a theme that would be consistent throughout the game), but it was Reading who got their noses in front. With eight minutes on the clock, the ball bounced loose in behind and Marriott was the only one to spot the danger, darting in behind and slotting home for 1-0.
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The Royals failed to build on that lead, managing just two more shots before the break (one of which we’ll return to) and barely managing to get into the visitors’ third with any real threat.
Instead it was Wycombe who were on top for possession, territory and intent in the first half, and they had two great chances in that period, but Junior Quitirna fired the first wide and the second over. Joel Pereira also had to be alert to deny Niall Huggins from close range when a cross was lofted to the back post.
That second Reading shot though: sublime. A couple of minutes before half-time, Marriott seized on a loose ball in midfield, blazed forwards into open space and blasted home with his left foot for 2-0.
Half time: 2-0
Despite the scoreline, it was clear from the first half just how much Reading seemingly needed to improve – defensively and in terms of game management – if they were to see out the win. However, the second half was overall worse, if anything. Let’s go back to the stats: Wycombe managed 16 shots after the break to Reading’s three.
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Wanderers had one back just five minutes into the half. Andy Yiadom had given away a cheap free-kick on the right, which was swung in and nodded home by Dan Casey for 2-1 – a scrappy goal, but one that should have been cut off at source.
The next 20 minutes or so were varying speeds of one-way traffic, Wycombe getting forwards confidently but not quite doing enough to find an equaliser. Richardson oddly opted to hold fire on making changes, keeping things exactly the same until after the 70th minute. Yiadom in particular was struggling and should have come off for Nyambe, while the attacking midfield three needed freshening up.
In fact, Wycombe struck back to make it 2-2 before subs could be introduced. Neither Kamari Doyle nor Young were alert enough to the dangerous run of Anders Hagelskjær, who slammed home from a tight angle, beating Pereira with sheer power.
Charlie Savage and Roberts were then brought on, for Lane and Young out wide, and the former made an immediate impact. The ball dropped loose from a long ball in Wycombe’s half and Savage quickly played a cute pass through for Marriott, who guided the ball home with an outstanding finish off the outside of his right boot. 3-2, what a game!
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Reading had one chance to give themselves some breathing room again, as Doyle found space on the edge of the area, only to blast the ball over the bar. Otherwise it was pretty much all Wycombe in the closing stages and they did look a threat, but Reading managed to tighten up enough to get over the line. That was helped by a couple of changes in the 87th minute (Marriott off for Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan, Yiadom for Nyambe) and another in injury time (Ward off for Finley Burns).
Full time: 3-2
All in all, a real smash-and-grab game that really mustn’t draw Reading into a false sense of security. For the most part this wasn’t good enough – the Royals were effectively bailed out by one particularly sublime showing up top from Marriott.
And yet, it keeps Reading’s points tally ticking up. We’re now up to seventh, just three points off sixth-placed Huddersfield Town and with a game in hand on them. If the Royals can translate recent wins (today, 2-1 at Wigan Athletic and 2-0 at Northampton Town) into more convincing all-round performances in the weeks and months to come, this season could well have a happy ending – but improvement does have to come.
