THE VERDICT: TOWN 1 READING 2 This Reading lesson is the same old story, Town!
TOWN RATED ...BUT THERE ARE STILL PLENTY OF POSITIVES FOR FANS TO TAKE INTO THE REST OF THE CAMPAIGN
WHAT is there to say that we’ve not said so many times already this season?
Even after Huddersfield Town went ahead in the fourth minute, we took the precaution of checking out their record after scoring in the first 15 minutes of games. That now stands at three 2-0 victories and three 2-1 defeats.
There are two ways to look at how the first half unfolded in pretty humdrum fashion for both teams. One would be that Town were already ahead and so a boring and uneventful game suited them just fine as long as they were in control – which they were for a pretty lengthy and comfortable spell.
The other, more urgent voice was screaming that they had not killed off the game and were going to suffer as a result.
For fans of a certain disposition that voice is always there, and in most cases that would be somewhere between irrational and pessimistic given what the stats say about the team that scores first: something like 70 per cent of games are won by the first scorers, 19pc end in draws and just 11pc end in defeats. But for Town this season, that record stands at 62pc wins, 0pc draws and 38pc defeats.
Any search for an explanation to that apparent weakness seems in vain at this point. For every thesis we can think of to explain it, there is an equally compelling antithesis.
We’d say they don’t respond well to equalisers, except that three times this season they have conceded an equaliser only to go on and win the game.
We’d say they start well but fade towards the end, only they’ve scored more in the last 15 minutes of games than the first 15.
We’d say they’re just not quite good enough to beat the better sides in this division, except they’ve beaten three of the top seven.
The only conclusion we can draw, then, is that this is an
Rafael Cabral, Holmes, Morrison, McIntyre, Richards, Rinomhota, Laurent, Aluko (Esteves, 87), Swift (Olise, 61), Ejaria (Baldock, 86), Joao (Semedo, 81). Subs: Southwood, East, Watson, Puscas, Dorsett.
average side who win sometimes and lose sometimes, and looking for any deeper meaning than that is like trying to interrogate why dice insist on rolling twos as often as they roll sixes.
Stating it like that is doing Town’s efforts a disservice, of course. They have made a number of impressive and important strides forward this season, and they are clearly working exceptionally hard for this head coach, and while some players have been below par for the odd game here or there and