Luton 2-3 Reading: We Need To Talk About Kelvin
Credit: Altaf Shah
Reading made the short trip to face Luton Town this weekend, with both sides on the verge of the play-offs and looking to force their way into the top six by any means necessary. With the Royals’ star striker, former Luton man Jack Marriott, out with a hamstring problem, the visitors were forced to draft in the out-of-form Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan as his replacement. The young number nine hadn’t scored since the 18th of December. His last goal? The winner in a 3-2 victory over Luton…
Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan hasn’t quite had the season he’d have dreamed of so far. His career got off to a turbulent start when he was dragged into the Reading first team as a teenager with the club facing financial ruin and being forced to rely on their academy prospects to stay afloat. This is now his third full season integrated into the squad and playing regularly in League One, and many thought this year might finally be his chance to kick on and become the attacking force he continually shows flashes of being capable of on a more consistent basis. Things still just haven’t clicked for Kelvin. He’s been in and out of the team, regularly benched or deployed out wide to accommodate the red-hot Jack Marriott up top, and hasn’t been able to put anything resembling a decent run of form together. Before this weekend he had three league goals in thirty appearances, just shy of his tally of four for last year and five the year before. At 22 years old, is this all he’s destined to be? A few-goals-a-season League One backup striker that struggles to cement a starting place in the side? Or would he even need to drop a division to try and find a more level to ply his talents on a more reliable basis? Kelvin decided he didn’t fancy that, and showed today just how dangerous he can be given the opportunity. There’s life in him yet.
His first came gift-wrapped courtesy of Luton full-back Isaiah Jones. A long raking ball forwards from the Reading back line was easily intercepted by Jones, who opted to head it back to his ‘keeper. Unfortunately for him, and the Luton faithful, he got it all wrong. He sent the ball spinning across the face of goal, and Ehibhatiomhan reacted sharply. The forward feigned a run inside before dropping behind the shoulder of the covering defender and leaving him stranded, this gave him plenty of space to finish at the near post and give his side the lead with just five minutes on the clock. A great instinctive finish, one that certainly isn’t indicative of a striker starved of goals and game time.
Reading then thought they’d doubled their lead just before half-time through Kamari Doyle, and they would have done if not for a smart stop by Josh Keeley. The midfielder was given too much room to operate between the lines, easily finding time and space on the edge of the box to sort out his feet and let off a shot. He wrapped his foot around it well and it looked destined for the bottom corner had Keeley not tipped it around the post with a strong outstretched arm. A let-off for Luton, and a missed opportunity that Reading would soon regret.
Jack Wilshere has had a mixed bag of results since being given the Luton job. They’ve looked fantastic at home, defeat this weekend just the first loss at Kenilworth Road since Wilshere’s debut against Mansfield there in mid October, but have struggled to cobble together a run of results with their away form being mediocre at best. His experience in the Arsenal coaching system has clearly rubbed off on him, however, as both Hatters goals in this game were the result of set-pieces.
They equalised deep into injury time, just on the verge of heading into the break 1-0 down. The ball was recycled following a corner and moved inside by young winger Emilio Lawrence. He clipped a fantastic teasing ball into the area, clearing the heads of all the defenders and dropping perfectly into the six-yard box for Wolves loanee Nigel Lonwijk to tackle home his second Hatters goal of the season and bring things back on level terms. The pass couldn’t have been sweeter, and it would’ve been a tragedy to see it go to waste, Luton scoring with just their first shot on target to end a half where Reading created the better of the chances 1-1.
The hosts’ second was a thing of beauty. A true textbook example of a corner kick. Luton’s talismanic midfielder Jordan Clark bent in an absolute pearler of an in-swinging ball from the left-hand side, and midfield partner George Saville’s late run left him unmarked and free to leap highest and power the ball down into the goal with a strong header. Perfection. No notes. From a Reading perspective, maybe some notes. The fact that half their team ended up just stood around the box watching the corner happen to them instead of doing something to prevent it is an issue, and will be a constant headache with the prevalence of sides choosing to surge into the box late as a collective. Someone needs to pick up each man individually to stop this happening, I know it’s unfashionable, but style doesn’t clear corners. If they didn’t end up doing so well to get back into the game, it would’ve been a sickening way to drop three points.
It’s been World Book Day this week, and children all across the UK were learning the importance of strong reading skills. Luton Town’s defenders learnt the importance of strong Reading skills the hard way, as a now 36 year-old Matt Ritchie emerged from the bench to teach the youthful Luton lineup a thing or two. With ten minutes to play, Lewis Wing found Ritchie in space just inside the box with a through-pass. The former Premier League regular set himself, before pulling out an audacious inch-perfect outside-the-boot cross to the back stick that was graciously bundled home by Ehibhatiomhan for his brace to bring the scores back level. If you haven’t seen it, I really do urge you to dig up the highlights and give it a watch. There’s no need for him to do it, and that’s what makes it even sweeter. A word for the finish, by the way. Nowhere near as flashy as the goal, but another display of fantastic instincts by Kelvin to get himself the right side of his defender and head home. 2-2 in the 81st minute, and with play-off rival Huddersfield already sealing three points in the early kick-off, both sides knew a win was imperative to keep up the fight. We were always going to be in for a barnstormer.
It was Ritchie and Ehibhatiomhan that combined again for the winner, albeit a lot less glamorous than their lovely equaliser. They all count, mind. Luton were trying to build from the back, with left-back Joe Johnston playing it short to Kal Naismith at centre-half. Naismith was just too casual, took a loose touch and it was pounced on by old-man Ritchie. He tackled it towards the awaiting Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan, stood alone in the middle of the box, who slid the ball beyond Keeley with ease to compete a career-first hat-trick and double his goal tally for the season in a single afternoon. A day to remember for the youngster. It finished 3-2 with Kelvin the hero, Luton will feel aggrieved as they gifted two of the goals to their opponents, but they also only created two shots on target themselves and scored both. Reading’s shots were fewer, but of higher quality, and they were fully deserving of the three points at an away ground that has proven near-insurmountable since Wilshere took the helm.
This feels like a landmark victory in the Leam Richardson era, and it’s one that keeps his side breathing down the neck of the play-offs. A stark change to the 20th placed side he inherited earlier in the campaign, and living proof of how much progress is possible with the right manager in place. They’re currently sat 7th, a point and a game in hand behind the precariously-balanced Huddersfield in 6th. Stevenage are behind Reading on goal difference, but have a game in hand, and Wycombe are a point below the two of them in 9th having played a game more than the Royals. With away trips to Stevenage and Huddersfield on the horizon, it really is all in Reading’s hands. Keep pace with their rivals, then beat them when it matters, and they’ll be a play-off side come May. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? There’s bound to be plenty of twists and turns along the way, as it the nature of League One, but Richardson has his side in a really great position to take advantage of the chaos and rise above it. Who knows? We could see a Royal return to the Championship in summer after a three year hiatus.
For Luton, the disappointment of the last few years continues to be compounded. The euphoria of promotion to the big time has finally drained from the veins of their supporters following back-to-back relegations, and has been replaced by fury at an abject failure to regroup and capitalise on their newfound financial superiority following the drop to the Championship that saw them succumb to a successive relegation to the third tier. Even worse, it looks like they’re here to stay a little bit longer than planned. While the result this weekend doesn’t officially put an end to their play-off hopes, they need a miracle on par with their Premier League promotion to even find themselves in with a chance of finishing in the top six by the final day. The loss against Reading makes it five games winless in the league, extending their gap to Huddersfield to eight points with a game in hand. Again, totally doable, but the amount of traffic they’ll have to get through to get their is the problem. Luton are in 11th, with four teams above them better poised to take advantage of a Huddersfield slip-up and Barnsley below them in 12th level on points but with two games extra to play over the Hatters. Not only will they have to be better than Huddersfield, they’ll need to be better than five more of the division’s strongest sides between now and the end of the season to stand a chance, and with their form under Wilshere as a whole I just don’t see that happening. They have the EFL Trophy final to look forward to, at least. Silver linings for those poor Luton fans that are tied down to the Kenilworth Road rollercoaster.
A massive result in the battle for the play-off places in League One that swung the way of the travelling Royals! Luton look dead in the water but Reading have it all to play for. Eight weeks to go! And it’ll all change between now and then.
Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan, remember the name. You might want to write it down.