There will be few goals at any level this season, and certainly not in League One, to match Lewis Wing's sublime strike after forty minutes this afternoon. Furthermore, from Reading's point of view, the timing of Wing's goal could not have been better. Having taken the lead after twenty minutes against a Crawley side without a league win in eight games, Reading struggled to escape from their own half, and it was no surprise when they were pegged back by the visitors with a deflected shot from Forster ten minutes later. Wing's breathtaking long-range strike just before half time, came out of the blue, took the wind out of Crawley's sails, and silenced the away fans.

Akande came close to opening the scoring after eighteen minutes using his pace and strength to hold off a defender and get a shot away which Wallander saved at full stretch. Reading took the lead after twenty minutes when the Crawley defence failed to clear the ball from a free kick. A scuffed shot from Savage bobbled across the box and Mbengue let the ball run across his body before turning sharply to drill the ball low inside the upright. Almost immediately, Button inexplicably rolled a ball to Darcy on the edge of the box. Crawley looked certain to score until Mbengue appeared in a flash out of nowhere to clear miraculously off the line. Five minutes later Crawley deservedly equalised through Forster.

Crawley proceeded to take control of the game. The marking in the Reading defence was simply appalling and in midfield the pressing was poor. Too often Reading, in their haste to close players down they charged in, conceding frequent and unnecessary free kicks, or were left floundering out of position. Former England manager Joe Mercer once said "...Sometimes its OK to let the ball go past you, and sometimes its OK to let the player to go past you, but never both at the same time..." and Reading players were doing the latter all over the pitch. The final match statistics tell the story. Crawley enjoyed 61% of the possession and Reading conceded a massive 21 free-kicks. Wing's stunner gave Reading an unexpected half time lead.

The second half continued in the same vein as the first with Crawley finding huge gaps in the Reading defence. Poor finishing, good goalkeeping by Button, some outstanding last ditch defending, and a goal line clearance by Bindon allowed Reading to maintain their fragile lead. Much against the run of play, a rare excursion into the Crawley half produced a third Reading goal. Smith finally beat the offside trap with a well-timed run onto Elliot's pass through the middle. Crawley 'keeper Wollacott raced out to block the Reading striker's progress. The ball cannoned off his legs and fell kindly to Savage who instantly dinked it over the stranded 'keeper into an unguarded net. With over thirty-minutes (including stoppage time) remaining, Crawley were not completely out of contention given their dominance thus far. However, the final nail in their coffin arrived eight minutes later. Wing was the provider again. His well flighted ball behind the Crawley defence was controlled on his chest and calmly stroked past Wollacott by Smith to give Reading an extremely flattering three goal lead.

The fourth goal killed the game, and Selles used the opportunity to rest Smith, Elliot and Akande and give Spencer, Wareham and Tuma some more first team experience. Garcia showed moments of outstanding skill going forward and is surely destined to play at a higher level, but he has a bit to learn about defending as Crawley had clearly noticed. Selles wisely replaced him with the experienced Harlee and re-shuffled the back four, releasing Mbengue to end the match marauding down the left at full back.

This was not a top six performance from Reading, of which they are more than capable. That said, underperforming and winning four-one is not cause for concern, but Ruben Selles knows he will not get away with that very often.

John Wells