Stockport County 4-1 Reading: Edged Out At Edgeley 

10/29/2024 07:35 PM

Chem Campbell netted what was ultimately a consolation on a poor night for the Royals in Greater Manchester.

OK, maybe we were a little more than edged out, but personally I don't think "no mercy shown by the River Mersey" works quite as well.

Before the game tonight I felt the most confident I had ever felt in the past two years heading to an away game, given our triumphs at Exeter City last Tuesday, and even the dark Stockport sky could not dampen the spirits of the 800 unusually optimistic Loyal Royals. Whose bloody idea was it to put the clocks back right before an away day?

However, there were surprises to come. Firstly, my train there was only four minutes late for a change, and secondly Sam Smith - who hails from relatively close to the area - was absent altogether. Not even the bench was graced by the striker's aura. Instead, Adrian Akande, Chem Campbell and Jayden Wareham led the attack for the Royals tonight. An unexpected front line playing together for the first time.

The match kicked off under the Edgeley Park floodlights with the home side enjoying the brighter start. Wingers Jack Diamond and Louie Barry were threats as Stockport forced Reading to sit in early on, with respite only found for the Royals when Akande broke free in behind, only for a stray touch to lead the ball into goalkeeper Corey Addai's hands.

Down the other end, human tree trunk Tyler Onyango bulldozed his way through the Reading defence, tapped it sideways to Will Collar, and he slipped the ball into the bottom corner to give County a deserved lead in the 18th minute.

It turns out that standoffish defending leads to goals conceded. Who would have thought it?

Everton loanee Onyango continued to bully us, with the midfielder-turned-right-back winning every header from every kick that Joel Pereira hit towards Campbell.

In a remarkable turn of events, Harvey Knibbs found space on the right, squared it and Campbell was there to tap in the equaliser. Absolute bedlam ensued in the away end, and suddenly we had hope.

Moments later, Wareham went straight back up the Stockport end and flashed a right-footed shot just beyond Addai's posts. We were so back.

Good spirits, and not just alcoholic ones, were afoot among the Reading fans as Lewis Bate, aka the Home Bargains Jack Grealish, got sarcastically cheered while gearing up to take a free-kick right in front of the away end.

Unfortunately, that delivery landed right onto a diving Kyle Wooton's head and was powered beyond Pereira from close range. 2-1 to Stockport.

It didn't get much better for Reading from then on. Cute passing triangles from County gave Collar space down the right and he fed in Diamond. An out-of-position Andre Garcia laid a finger on him, and, contrary to his name, Diamond went down very softly.

Barry dispatched the pen nicely. A hat-trick of goals for the Hatters. Was it time to go home yet?

Half-time came and went, as did the substitution of Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan for Akande. The man making way had struggled to have much of an effect on the first half, and, spoiler alert, Ehibhatiomhan did nothing either in the second half. Charlie Savage also switched sides with Harvey Knibbs in midfield at the break, with the Welshman heading to the right side of midfield.

Reading started the second half marginally better. Savage did a foul throw, probably the only memorable thing he did tonight. The County players continued to go down under as much of a light gust of wind too.

We were the better team for the 15 minutes after the break to be fair, but struggled to fashion many chances from our possession. The team of officials certainly didn't help with a few dubious offside calls and fouls.

Ruben Selles responsed to Reading's fruitless attacking efforts through Ben Elliott and Mamadi Camara entering the fray, but the momentum went the other way, as Pereira had to produce a sublime reaching save to deny Lewis Fiorini a fourth.

The home crowd didn't have to wait long for their next goal though. Diabolical defending opened the floodgates at the back for Barry to slip into the box and tuck the ball between Pereira's legs in the 68th for his second of the night.

And to be honest, nothing much of interest happened for the rest of the game.

An uncharacteristic performance from Reading, but it can hardly come as a surprise. As they say: pay peanuts, get monkeys, and zero investment going into an already depleted team and them being expected to win at Stockport will only end one way. Even Lewis Wing was unimpressive, hitting the wall on numerical occasions from set pieces and really struggling to gain a football on the game.

The press from a mish-mash attack and midfield was uncoordinated, disorganised and inefficient. County's goalkeeper and defence were too composed on the ball to give us a sniff of nicking it. On the rare occasions that we did, the referee decided that legitimate tackles from Reading were unanimously a foul.

For a town that's famous for making hats, a crap glass pyramid, and being the birthplace of Tom Ince, Stockport were sadly quite handy at football. I do feel for the Reading fans who have to travel all the way back down to Berkshire from the north west. However, you lot also get to leave the north west, so who's the real winner here?

Seriously though, we are still ninth in the league, a point above Stockport County themselves even, so it's not all bad.

Oh wait, Sam Smith is injured? Foot injury? Maybe it is...

Up the Royals.