Sam Baldock struggles to lead the line as Reading suffer major attacking casualties

With injuries to their top-two goal scorers in Lucas João and Yakou Méïté, Reading had to rely on the services of Sam Baldock up front in Saturday’s 1-0 win at QPR.

The Englishman came into Saturday’s Championship game at the Kiyan Prince Foundation Stadium without a goal all season, from seven appearances.

With the absent João and Méïté scoring a combined total of 17 goals so far this season, there was substantial pressure on the shoulders of the 31-year-old with Reading looking to consolidate their place in the Play-Offs. 

In what was a game of few clear-cut chances for either side, Baldock struggled to compete with the physical defensive duo of Robert Dickie and Yoann Barbet. It seemed that Veljko Paunović’s game plan for his team was to loop the ball over the QPR defence for the striker, however, the striker struggled to get in behind. 

The former-Brighton man came closest to a goal when Ovie Ejaria played an excellent ball across the face of goal, which looked set to be tapped into the back of the net by the striker. However, the ball evaded the sliding Baldock who couldn’t get a touch. 

The rest of the afternoon was particularly frustrating for the Englishman, whose game reflected his underwhelming two-and-a-half years at the Madjeski, finding the back of the net 11 times in 61 appearances.

The Royals were able to find their winner though, ironically two minutes after Baldock was withdrawn for Tom McIntyre. Substitute and birthday boy Michael Olise produced a fantastic curling effort into the bottom corner just a minute before fourth official Gavin Ward indicated that there would be a minimum of five added minutes in West London.

The visitors were able to hold on though in front of a frustrated 2,000 home fans, who attended a QPR game for the first time since February and climbed up to fifth in the table.  

Royals boss Veljko Paunović confirmed in his post-match press conference that star-duo João and Méïté are likely to be absent for the remainder of 2020, with the former out for three to four weeks with a problem with his soft tissue and the latter suffering from a handful of issues following a clash in Wednesday’s 2-1 home defeat to Birmingham City. 

This unfortunate news, with high-flying Norwich, Brentford and Swansea to come within the next four games, will be a major concern for Reading fans, especially after the underwhelming display up-front from Sam Baldock on Saturday afternoon.

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