Stoic stalemate

The high flying undefeated Royals arrived at the Riverside this afternoon full of confidence; unrecognisable from their indifferent showing in the Championship last season. Former Chicago Fire and now Reading manager Veljko Paunovic will be keen to add to his growing credibility by continuing his sides winning streak supported by a watertight defence.

Neil Warnock will have his work cut out to dethrone the table-topping Royals and in doing so push Boro’s own credentials to be contesting at the opposite end of the table to last season. Next up after this one is the only other undefeated team in the Championship, Bristol, so it's set to be a testing four days.

A disappointing deadline day meant no late arrivals on Teesside but earlier loanee Roberts who scored against the Royals only a few weeks ago at the end of last season could possibly be involved at some level even if just off the bench. Ashley Fletcher and Grant Hall would both definitely miss today's clash but Northern Ireland duo Paddy McNair and George Saville returned relatively unscathed and in Hall’s absence, McNair would inevitably start.

For the visitors, John Swift, Andy Yiadom and Felipe Araruna were all missing but they could count on Alfa Semedo and Tomas Esteves both being available to make their debut especially with Yiadom struggling with an injury.

Come two o’clock Warnock had gone with the same again naming an unchanged side with Roberts on the bench and Lewis Wing dropping out of the matchday squad altogether. Paunovic had made two changes with Ovie Ejaria and Lucas Joao coming into the starting line-up from the side that had beaten Watford a fortnight ago.

Darren Bond got proceedings underway with Boro kicking off towards the South Stand and Tav sparking the game to life in the opening seconds. Reading in a 4231 set up, unusually for away sides in this day and age lined up in their traditional blue and white hoops and not some obscure, garish, puke Lilac and Cerise ensemble, fair play to them for that!

The opening five minutes were probably a taste of what was to come, somewhat “composed” with little action at either end. Interestingly Boro looked to be playing with a flat back four matching up their opponents with Tav playing wide right in front of Dijksteel. The first real action saw Reading Keeper Rafael tip over a McNair long-range effort for the first corner of the game on ten minutes. The corner came in and Rafael had to tip over again from his own defender Morrison's head. The follow up corner came in from Tav but this time Reading cleared from their six-yard box.

Boro were starting to grow into the game, a Dijksteel cross from an Akpom won corner had Rafael again coming out to collect in his box. Morsy then drove down the middle linking with Akpom putting Britt through who let go a twenty yarder towards Rafael with fifteen minutes elapsed. So far, Reading looked measured but showed nothing that revealed why they were the league leaders. No doubt as the game progressed we would see more of a threat. The Royals first corner came courtesy of a Bola block on twenty two minutes.

The inswinging corner arrived towards Joao but he fluffed his lines badly, heading a weak, bouncing headed effort straight at Bettinelli. The Boro keeper again had to be alert when Readings' best move of the game saw a fierce Olise shot come off him with Joao reacting quickly but Bettinelli was equal to it.

Boro responded with a McNair corner which came back out to him with Boro coming closest to taking the lead on twenty nine minutes. A few minutes later and Meite unleashed a shot that never troubled Bettinelli in a game that so far was ominous by the lack of quality by both sets of strikers.

Joao had an effort blocked by Fry on thirty five minutes as the Royals started to show a little more enterprise. A cheeky, short free-kick taken by Olise trickled across the edge of the Boro eighteen yard box to Laurent who walloped his shot well over Betinelli’s crossbar. A thirty-yard effort from Joao then went well wide as the visitors continued probing but never really troubling. A Morsy/Meite tussle on the halfway line in front of the Technical areas ended up with Darren Bond having to intervene in the first real serious challenge of the game as we neared the fortieth minute.

The Boro free-kick from the aforementioned tussle was launched long onto the edge of the Reading box where Tav was found and fouled as one minute added time came up. The free-kick was lined up by McNair and Tav who tapped it to his right and Paddy tried to curl it into Rafael’s net but his angles were all wrong, it never came down until row sixteen of the empty North Stand. Reading finished the half with a free-kick of their own that was taken short and then played into Joao whose shot was blocked off by Bola in a packed Boro box.

Reading had enjoyed two-thirds of the possession and had eight shots to Boro’s four but in fairness, Boro hadn’t really looked in trouble. As things stood at half time it looked like a draw would be played out or a singular mistake or piece of individual brilliance would tip the game. Without Roberts, that piece of brilliance looked more likely to come from Ejaria than a red shirt. Another draw wouldn’t look great for Boro in the form table but against the Championship's top side who hadn’t dropped a solitary point to date wouldn’t be a bad outcome.

Boro came out for the second half mysteriously minus Britt with Marvin Johnson on in his place. There didn’t appear to be any obvious injury concerns with the Boro captain so I’m guessing it was tactical to beef up our left flank and to offer Bola more cover.

Two minutes into the half and Liam Moore picked up a yellow card for crocking Akpom who looked very uncomfortable in the aftermath. The free-kick came in but with Britt subbed and Akpom off the pitch receiving treatment it was a patched up forward line of Saville and Fry who ultimately were deemed to be offside.

A Meite charge was blocked by Saville, going out for a corner. It was taken by Olise, cleared and then McNair went tastily into Richards and the danger evaporated as it went out for a throw-in. An ensuing Richards cross was cleared but there was growing evidence that the Royals had gradually upped their energy levels in the second half.

A Meite challenge on Saville gave a bit of a relief and a free kick awarded as a consequence which Bettinelli took towards Howson finding Tav who put in a low cross cleared by Moore and then substitute Johnson was adjudged to have fouled the Royals defender. Howson was then the subject of a stern talking to along with his Manager by Darren Bond as the second half was certainly more livelier than the first.

A sweet passage of play by Reading on sixty-two minutes involving Rinomhota to Olise and then to Ejaria unleashed a rocket which was mere millimetres past Bettinelli’s upright. Johnson then fired in another low cross at the opposite end but it was cleared, fell to Saville who dallied just too long and the momentum was lost. On sixty-five minutes Morsy hit a shot that bagatelled around the Royals box before being hoofed clear. Boro were most definitely still in this game and by no means suffering any issues of confidence.

Meite conceded a free kick for a challenge on Johnson after he knocked the ball past him bringing Marvin down on the left wing. Johnson himself sent the free kick in and after the ball bobbling around in the Reading box with Saville hovering it fell to Howson but the flag went up for offside. Twenty-two minutes now remained and Benfica (and ex Forest) loanee Semedo came on for Joao much to his obvious annoyance as he trudged off the pitch.

Richards was then booked by Bond for a pulling back incident off the ball on Tavernier as he tried to run through to collect a ball from Howson two minutes previously. Holmes was next into Bond’s book as the away sides yellow card count increased. Meite then went off for Puskas with Veljko Paunovic doing his utmost to collect all three points. A clearance from second half captain Howson off the Royals goal line just after the substitution was the closest Boro had come so far.

McNair went into Bond’s book for a challenge on Rinomhota on the right side offering the Royals a dangerous free-kick which came in low abut thankfully lacking real threat. The lively Ejaria quickly regained possession and fired a shot a yard wide of Bettinelli’s left upright post. Aluko then came on for Olise as one mistake or slip was going to decide this match. Tavernier then went off for Spence to come on with only eight minutes of the ninety left. Hopefully, his pace and energy would expose Readings already booked defenders.

Five minutes remained, fatigue was starting to creep into both sides with some mistimed balls and runs evident. Spence was challenged by Lawrence as he made good use of his pace and was quickly tackled again as the game at this stage seesawing. Both defences had looked solid but worryingly Ejaria was the one man on the pitch who looked capable of something special. As the clock ticked down Holmes put a dangerous cross into Puskas but stretching, Fry did enough to keep a clean sheet with just sixty seconds remaining.

Three added minutes came up from the fourth official as both sides looked determined to grind this one out. Boro had so far battled and matched their unbeaten in-form opponents. Howson cleared more late danger and then advancing, Johnson found Akpom who went down and Boro had a last-ditch dying seconds free-kick. McNair lined it up on the left, sent it towards the far post but Rafael came out and collected while Darren Bond brought the game to a close.

Nil-nil it ended, a win would have been better of course but this was against the form side in the division and we matched them toe to toe. MOM was once again McNair but more importantly, there were no weak or poor performances, Fry was strong, Dijksteel did well and Bola had his best performance to date. Bola was also severely tested and in fairness to the lad, looked to be slowly cementing a place in the side. This afternoon was by no means a classic, in fact, it was a bit dour at times but Boro were the underdogs today and they looked a respectable match for their opponents.

The points tally to date may not be great so far but the quality of the opponents has to be taken into consideration having played two relegated Premiership sides and an unbeaten top of the table side who hadn’t dropped any points until today. Tuesday night will complete a very difficult opening set of fixtures for Boro which could stand them in good stead later on having got them out of the way so early. Watching Ejaria though did make me wonder about Bolasie and what perhaps could have been.