Roll over one game, execute a thrashing the next. Why Reading are crying out for consistency

You only have to look at the @ReadingFC Twitter account from the last week to grasp the topsy-turvy nature of the club.

“I wish we stayed in lockdown,” came the first response. “Bowen out” was the second and third comment. Reading were three games into their post ‘Project Restart’ season and had accumulated a single point. A full-time tweet from Reading’s Twitter was titled “The Bees take the points from the Madjeski Stadium,” and was instantly met with a feverish response from the Royals fans.

They had just seen their side slip down to 16th place after being hammered by Brentford, three goals to nil. They were dangerously looming at the prospect of getting into their third successive relegation dogfight, having picked up just one win at home in 2020.

Boss Mark Bowen echoed supporters frustrations, insisting his side were outmatched in every department. Speaking to ‘Get Reading,’ Bowen said: “I have to choose my words carefully – I thought in every department Brentford were stronger than us, they were quicker, brighter and had more of a footballing intelligence on the ball.

“We’ll look at personnel and how to freshen things up against Luton.”

And change the personnel he did. Four days later, Bowen made five changes for the trip to Kenilworth Road, with home-grown players entering the fold. Academy duo Tom McIntyre and Gabe Osho were afforded starts.

Fast forward to Reading’s  ‘FULL-TIME’ post against Luton and the tweet replies were now in stark contrast to Brentford. They had just witnessed their side carry out a 5-0 demolition on the Championship’s bottom club, with Yakou Meite scoring four. Admittedly Luton were dire, but that didn’t stop a wave of positivity in the comments section below.

“Five-star Royals steamroll the Hatters,” was the caption from the official Reading account. Instead of tweets begging for Project restart to stop, the response was met with an abundance of hyperboles, exclamation marks and ‘dub memes.’

No doubt emotions run high among supporters after watching their team toil or excel just moments before commenting. All of which can provoke erratic, incredulous ripostes. However, their mood perfectly reflects what Mark Bowen and Reading football club are experiencing at this moment in time.

Consistency is a buzz word that has been thrown around the Berkshire outfit for years. Just when the grey skies look to be getting that just little bit brighter – a la the Jose Gomes era – the mood ominously turns dark again.

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None more so than these past two games. Huddersfield are next up at the Madjeski and provides an opportune chance for Reading to create a cause for optimism that can be taken into next season.

Following their relegation from the top-flight last year, Huddersfield face the alarming jeopardy of back-to-back  demotions. Two points away from the drop, the Terriers travel to RG2 with all too play for.

Whereas Reading are in mid-table obscurity. Certainly won’t go up and extremely likely to not go down, the time to bed in the youngsters is now. But it is perhaps a juggling act for Bowen, who needs to continue to strive for consistency during this seemingly arbitrary period.

“We need to strive for that consistency in the last five games,” said Bowen. “When we put the effort in and work to the game plan, we can be a difficult side to beat, horrible to play against but also with very good players when we get the ball in good areas.”

“So we have got to make sure it wasn’t just a one-off on Saturday. The group of players I’ve got have got the ability to compete and beat the best sides in this division. But we’ve got to find that consistency.” 

Never had a couple of lines from a manager’s press conference rung truer.

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