Fleck 8.5/10 – Thought he was excellent and close to Man of the Match with Billy. Could give it to either. He ran the game at times with his running, touch and took the mickey several times with some delightful skill (two nutmegs) and won several free kicks with strong runs. Lovely ball control and can move it from left to right and vice versa.

Evans 8/10 – Very good. Won tackles, broke up play, used it when he could and overall was all over the field. He was shocking Friday but today a different player and was bang at it. He won the loose balls, won headers, used it well and linked well with Fleck and Duffy. He showed real energy and I felt was determined to show he was much better than what he showed at Hull and he did. Set his standard tonight.

Duffy 8/10 – We seem to play much better when he plays and of course that was the case tonight. At the heart of most good things we did and scored a stunner. Just picks the right passes, lovely to watch on the ball and keeps the momentum going. A real threat as he drifts round the field. Gave it away a few times with overplay but you can live with that. Seemed to pull up also near the end – hope it was just a tweak and he is ok for Saturday. Ridiculous he has only scored 2 goals this season with his talent and the two he scored were both sublime. Should score many more. Faded a bit near the end as he often does which explains why mark is not quite at level of others such as Fleck and Sharp who did it for 90 minutes.

Sharp 8.5/10 – This mark may seem high to some but I thought he as great. Yes, he scored two poachers goals that he took really well (missed a few too) but he never stopped and was relentless all night. I felt him and Clarke were a big danger to start with and set the tone. I disagreed with Wilder when he said that they were not to blame Friday – thought they were no better than the rest really. Today Billy led by example. He got the jeers from the crowd for the third after the ball was not returned but this was a while after – not sure he would stop at this stage – surely Fleck or thrower (Stevens?) should get it as much (see above/below for more on this). Back to his performance, that is Billy at his best, irritating defenders, irritating opposition fans and generally being a pest. A total nuisance and a goal threat. Loved it. I/we/you write him off at my/our/your peril. He will always score goals.

Clarke – Playing great despite the misses. He robbed the defender and then squirmed a one on one wide when he should have scored and then rounded the keeper and dithered a bit. However, he looked a real threat and never stopped running and harassing defenders. Despite the chances he then set up Billy with a run and great cross. He pulled up and it seemed it was a hamstring or calf as he signalled straight away. Sadly, that could be a few weeks out if a muscle injury and a shame as he looked more at it today – we have 3 games in a week from Saturday.

Subs:

Moore 7/10 – Might have been a 5 if it had not been for the great penalty save. He came on and had little to do first half and then second half he palms a free kick into the path of the onrushing player who just had to lift it into the net. I was furious as it needed pushing behind or pushing with more power away. It was a really poor mistake and after his error at Wolves that led to his ban; I was not amused. Then he saved the penalty. It was hit hard and not a bad striker but he got across and made a superb save. After this he saw one shot go narrowly wide but did not have much more to do. I do feel Blackman has played better than him this season and he is making too many mistakes and I do not have same confidence with him in goal (command of area) but credit to him for the save tonight. It may have changed the game and kickstarted our season.

Donaldson 6/10 – Thought he was our weakest outfield player. He held it up a few times and did not get much protection (one foul at the end when he was clearly tripped up was ridiculous when the linesman stood next to him just ignored it). Overall he has to do more. He missed a sitter when he went in one on one and clipped it wide. He also made poor choices when given the ball and slowed it down too much when we had chances to break and score. Needs to work harder when he gets game time for me and looks a bit languid.

Leonard – Came on at the end for Duffy and was put on the dangerous Kelly and did well getting tight to him and restricting many chances at the end.

Manager: Wilder 9/10 – Slagged him off Friday for his team selection and how the team performed and he felt same way and gave them the roasting they got. He wanted a reaction and got it. We put in maybe our best performance this year (2018) and won 3-1. Despite the penalty let off and any controversy over the 3rd goal; United won and won well. If the game had finished 5-1 it would have been a more realistic score. We missed so many chances. Still, overall the team came out and showed him what they can do. They proved what they are capable of and showed a lot of character tonight. They came out and were bang at it from the off; won battles, played good football and competed all night. A Wilder type performance if ever you could see one with bold, attacking football and bravery showed both physically and mentally in everything we did. We play like that the rest of the way we won’t be too far away from sneaking in the playoffs. Also fair play to him that we made 2 subs and we managed to regain our composure and save for a bit of a dodgy spell early second half were the better side throughout the game.

Officials – Thought the ref was inconsistent throughout and missed a fair bit both ways. He should have booked one of ours a long time before we did. We were cynical tonight and I loved it after our weak, soft touch performance but we spread the fouls out but they were all good fouls if you know what I mean. He finally booked Basham for one nowhere near as bad as some of the others. Donaldson was rightly booked for a foul and kicking the ball away in one incident. Idiotic.

He booked 3 Reading players. Van De Berg and Clement for cynical fouls on Fleck. The first one was awful and just took him out right on the edge and then booked the keeper for complaining after the third goal.

The penalty was a farce for me. The lad Kelly just ran the ball out and ran into Stearman. He stood his ground and he went down like a sack of spuds. It was a blatant attempt to con the ref and it worked. It was a pathetic decision. Justice was done with the save. This for me was far more of a ‘cheat’ job than anything that happened on our goal.

A lot will be made of the 3rd goal – it seemed like Sharp and the centre back were having a running battle and a few fouls were exchanged. One saw their player come off worse when he seemed to foul Sharp and he went down. They kicked it out but the player had already got up. We took the throw and they were very much playing on; I am not sure they all stopped. We played it through and scored. They were chasing round for the throw and the through ball and only complained after it went in. Don’t like to see us score if we did it by unscrupulous means but not sure we did. As I say the Reading player was up I think when the ball was kicked out. They decided to kick it out. The physio did not come on so not sure why we would give it back at this stage? The player leapt to his feet quite quickly before we even took the throw. If he stays down fair enough but he did not.

He then let a few trips both ways go without fouls and it became difficult to know what he would penalise next. Not a great night for Andy Davies. Not a name I have heard of. He seemed a bit slow to react to what was going on. Granted not helped by a tricky playing surface. Also, why play with a yellow ball against backdrop of white for big patches of the field. Surely a brighter orange would have been better?



Crowd – 6,769! Wow. Yes, it was cold and yes maybe tricky for some to get to but that is appalling. If the game was at the Lane tonight, it would have still been 20,000+. Always felt Reading are a bit of a plastic club and the crowd reinforces this. The Blades took maybe 700 which was down on what it might have been but still decent really and they got behind the team and nice to hear the tributes to Shred amongst the love for the two others of our own, Billy and Wilder. Deserved to see the win and performance for the effort in going down there.