Cheltenham Town 1-0 Reading: The Kids Did Alright
11/05/2024 05:17 PM
Harry's take as an inexperienced Reading team came up a tad short in Cheltenham.
When I got out of the car at about quarter past six this evening and opened my phone to check the teams, I didn't quite get the shock I did last time I did that in Cheltenham (when the game had been called off), but I did see a starting line-up with an average age of about 12 years old. Hyperbole of course, but you get the sentiment.
I think we all expected it though - the Papa John's Trophy is quite a way down most of our priority lists this season, and fielding a switched-up side against Fleetwood Town at the weekend allowed us to rest even more of our first-team players. As many fans observed prior to the game, had this match come after a league game, we'd have been forced to field at least four of our strongest eleven.
However, Ruben Selles was able to give the kids a go, and watching the team warm up was the first time I've ever felt old at a Reading game. I'm only 25.
I won't pretend to know how much Cheltenham Town switched up their team or how close it was to their strongest side, but you only had to have eyes to understand they were more experienced than our lot - i.e. some of them had facial hair and receding hairlines.
I don't get the chance to watch a lot of the academy games, I don't suppose many of us do, so it was the first time I'd seen a lot of these boys play, which is always an intriguing feeling. It's also just nice to go to a game without the pressures or heightened emotions that every single league game seems to have.
We could've gone ahead within a minute as Emmanuel Osho, brother of Gabriel, forced a neat save from the Cheltenham 'keeper. But after that it was only really half chances that we could muster up. The hosts were the better side and our boys looked a bit like just that unfortunately.
As my girlfriend rightly acknowledged halfway through the first half, we didn't look like we knew what we were going to do before we got the ball, we kept rushing decisions in possession, and we ended up giving it away or going long aimlessly. Please don't think I mean that patronisingly by the way: it was only her third-ever game tonight and I nearly welled up with happiness when she said it.
We worked a couple of nice openings but struggled to retain possession for longer than a few passes. However, I don't really remember the hosts having many clear-cut chances themselves - other than an attempted lob which dropped tediously wide after a poor David Button clearance, and a strike rattling the woodwork towards the end of the half.
The second half was much, much better. We didn't have many periods of sustained pressure, but we had plenty more moments and looked so much more threatening on the whole.
Adrian Akande's pace caused problems on more than one occasion and he should've done better with a one-on-one early on in the second half, and Basil Tuma also forced the 'keeper into a good save too.
Unfortunately we were undone late on by a good strike from the edge of the box - but in that second half the youngsters more than did themselves proud.
I'm going to step into the shoes of a devil's advocate for a moment before going back to my usual self, but I couldn't help thinking throughout the game that I wasn't completely blown away by any of the players given a chance.
Extreme comparisons, I know, but was I as excited by any of these players as I was the first time I ever saw Michael Olise, Danny Loader or even Tarique Fosu (remember him?)? The answer is no. But that's most definitely me wearing my cynical hat.
The kids did alright. Emmanuel Osho looked lively, with a bit of finessing Akande could be a real player, Joseph Barough showed some neat and tidy touches in midfield and did the basics really well, and Ashqar Ahmed at right-back again proved he could be a handy addition to the first-team picture going forward this season.
The devil on my shoulder is whispering in one ear, saying you want to see more from academy players on nights like this to try and put their name in the hat for the first team. At the end of the day, and I promise I mean this in the most respectful way possible, it was a game against Cheltenham in the Papa John's Trophy.
However, the angel is whispering in the other ear saying I'm probably just being a bit grumpy because I found out that Bovril is a red-meat product on the way to the ground and I've recently given up red meat after doing some climate-change training at work. Yeah, I bet you weren't expecting that, were you?
It was a good experience for the academy boys and they'll learn a lot more from this than they would've done from an under-21 game. This one can be filed well and truly into the 'performance more important than the result' category.
