I deliberately haven’t written anything about the Royals’ first two preseason friendlies – a 2-1 win over Farnborough and 1-0 defeat to Getafe. Although there were some interesting points (which young players featured most prominently and Reading’s press in the second fixture) both games were essentially just fitness exercises. Better then to not read too much into either.

I’ve more to say about Reading’s third match, however, a 2-0 win at Woking this afternoon. The Royals got the win via two second-half goals: Tyler Sackey opening the scoring before summer arrival Jacob Brown doubled the visitors’ lead.

Reading’s XI for the first 55 minutes: Stevens; Ahmed, O’Connor, Ward, Lane; Fraser, Savage; Williams, Stokes, Kyerewaa; Patton

55th-minute change: Osho for Stokes. Osho went to the right wing with Williams moving to the 10 role

Reading’s XI for the final 30 minutes: Pereira; Godwin-Malife, Beacroft, Duah, Dorsett; Wing, Rinomhota; Lisbie, Sackey, Osho; Brown

87th-minute change: Jones for Osho, a straight swap on the left wing

For context, Leam Richardson said this week that the plan was for the squad to be split into two, with one XI getting 60 minutes against Woking and 30 minutes at Newport County on Tuesday, and the other XI doing the opposite.

It also feels like a safe bet that what he sees as his actual strongest starting lineup has been split across those two XIs, but with some key partnerships retained. For example, his favourite centre-back pairing was in today’s first XI but the best duos at full-backs and in the double pivot were in the second XI.

Things will get more interesting in a week’s time. Richardson’s said he intends to give one group 90 minutes away to Crawley Town next Friday night and the other group 90 minutes the next day, at home to Charlton Athletic. You’d think Reading will put out their strongest side in the last – and most difficult – game.

There are unfortunately some notable absentees from those XIs I wrote out above, two of whom I’ll come back to later. Neither Haydon Roberts nor Kelvin Abrefa (spotted in the away end) were involved due to injury, while Richardson confirmed after the game that Jack Marriott is also injured and Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan is set to leave the club.

How the game went

Reading were the better side in the first half, with more territory and possession as you’d imagine, creating some decent chances. It was neither massively dominant nor outright bad overall – I’d go with ‘encouraging but patchy’.

Paddy Lane did excellently for the first of the Royals’ opportunities, skipping infield from the left early on and setting up Sean Patton, whose shot was saved. A little later, a clever free-kick routine from Charlie Savage set up midfield parter Liam Fraser, with a block denying his effort from the edge of the box.

Woking came the closest to opening the scoring in the first half though, shortly before the hydration break (which, as in the World Cup, was booed by the supporters). A low cross was sent in from the Royals’ left and a Woking forward on the stretch at the back post could only hit the woodwork at close range. A real let-off.

Reading upped their game in the remaining 20 minutes or so before the interval, however. Daniel Kyerewaa was twice denied by the ‘keeper at close range when a cross found him at the back post (he should have scored), with the full-backs also involved in chances.

Ashqar Ahmed’s dangerous low cross was steered wide of the near post (I think by Patton) before Lane got on the end of a smart passing move but put his shot straight at the goalie. Yes, I really did just say “smart passing move”. More on that later.

Kyerewaa had another opportunity early in the second half when he cut infield and had a shot saved. That was about as good as it got for Reading chances before the mass changes on the hour mark though.

It took Tyler Sackey only five minutes or so to give Reading a 0-1 lead. A long pass out from Lewis Wing to the right found the onrushing Udoka Godwin-Malife, whose low cross to the edge of the area was swept home into the far bottom corner by Sackey. (Video of the goal here.)

The following 20 minutes featured some chances, including Jeriel Dorsett nodding a Wing corner over the bar, but it was Jacob Brown who made it 0-2 in the 86th minute. Emmanuel Osho sent in a perfect low cross from the left, which Reading’s new forward slammed into the net at the back post. (Video of the goal here.)

There’s been a noticeable change to Reading’s shape this summer. Go back to last season and you’d generally (with some exceptions) see the Royals start in a 4-2-3-1 but move into a 3-2-4-1 in possession (alternatively, Ross refers to this as a ‘3-box-3’, which to be fair does sound better but I’m stubbornly sticking with my wording).

It’s clear from the three games of preseason though that Richardson is now set on a more straightforward approach: a 4-2-3-1 that stays in a 4-2-3-1 when Reading attack. That’s not entirely without precedent – he used it in the 1-0 defeat at Doncaster Rovers in April by my recollection – but there’s absolutely a clear shift towards a more offensive setup.

This system puts more emphasis on quick, orthodox wingers staying wide, with full-backs getting upfield in support. That support sometimes meant overlapping runs and sometimes underlapping runs, allowing for some nice variety (watching where Lane and Ahmed popped up in the final third was an interesting subplot for me in the first half today).

It’s also more of a ‘square pegs in square holes’ approach. The in-possession 3-2-4-1 wasn’t inherently a bad setup, but it did require one full-back becoming a wing-back, a winger becoming a wing-back and the other winger becoming a number 10… which created various potential problems and complications. Kyreece Lisbie and Kyerewaa (for example) will both surely enjoy being able to focus on straightforward winger roles.

Overall, on the evidence of today, Reading seem to be a much more positive team in possession. Going back to what I said earlier, there were indeed a number of instances when the Royals put together the kind of smart passing moves that simply didn’t happen last season. Similarly, Reading were more convincing when it came to capitalising on turnovers and successful 50-50s.

“Ah, but it was just Woking,” you’re probably saying. And you’d be correct to point that out, yes, but the important element I want to be seeing at the moment is Reading getting the right building blocks in place. We don’t have to be perfect now or play excellent sides off the pitch, just move in the right direction tactically. And we’re doing that.

I would however say there was a noticeable difference in quality between the first and second XIs. Although Reading were the better side and created good chances before the hour mark, there was much more intensity and consistency in the final 30 minutes when Lisbie, Brown, Andy Rinomhota and others were introduced.

Though the Woking game itself brought some straightforward positives, the news after full-time was much more mixed, with Richardson confirming that the absences of Marriott and Ehibhatiomhan were down to injury and impending transfer, respectively.

Hopefully Marriott’s injury isn’t too serious, but him being unavailable for a significant amount of 2026/27 still feels inevitable, given his fitness record. Ehibhatiomhan departing is more of a surprise and, to be honest, while it’s always a shame to see a talented academy graduate leave, he’s simply not consistent enough and we now have the opportunity to replace him smartly.

That leaves us with two strikers: Brown and Patton. I was particularly happy with the former’s performance today, harrying Woking’s defence aggressively and finishing off a chance for 2-0, but on a similar note to Marriott he’s not played enough football in the last few years. You have to go back to 2022/23 for a season in which he played even a third of the league minutes available.

I also like Patton: a talented, energetic striker who showed last season on loan at Aldershot that he’s got an eye for goal. He’s not yet fully ready for regular League One football though and is a depth option at most, but likelier could do with another temporary stint in the lower leagues.

While those two will do for the short term – and Reading can also count on attacking quality from Lisbie, Josh Stokes and others – new strikers coming in this summer is a must. Before today I was already of the view that Reading needed a new first-team-level centre-forward and that requirement is even clearer, but I’d now add a back-up striker to the list too (with a view to loaning out Patton).

Perhaps counterintuitively, I’d argue that Reading should be more patient with the first-team-level signing. As we saw with Marriott’s arrival last summer (ironically), there can be value and opportunity in waiting until the closing weeks of the window to see which players become available, and that’ll likely be how we find an affordable, dependable striker this time round too.