Reading 3-2 Wycombe: Roses Are Red, Reading Wear Hoops, Marriott’s Hat-Trick Aids Promotion Pursuit
Credit: K. Bagri / shutterstock.com
Those who chose to spend their Valentine’s Day amongst the romantic scenery of the Select Car Leasing Stadium were treated to a pulsating display of League One action as Wycombe travelled to face Reading, with both sides poised to make a late run for the final play-off position. Jack Marriott fired himself right back to the top of the scoring charts with a sensational hat-trick, simultaneously sending his Reading side up into 7th and within touching distance of a shot at promotion back to the Championship after financial issues have left them marauded in the third tier for the past three seasons.
Football is, at its core, a simple game. If you’ve got someone capable of stopping the ball going into your net and someone up the other end who can consistently stick it into the opposition’s, you’ll win games. Wycombe travelled to Reading and executed a near-perfect game plan, if it wasn’t for those two aspects of their game. They created chance after chance but Reading ‘keeper Joel Pereira was in imperious form to deny them as they surged forwards. At the opposite end, they kept their hosts quiet but for a few defensive lapses in concentration, all of which were pounced upon and punished by an in-form Jack Marriott.
Marriott joined the Royals in summer from Wrexham, following their third consecutive promotion, in a last-ditch bid to rediscover the form of his younger years. The forward managed a whopping 27 League One goals in the 2017/18 season for Peterborough, earning him a big-money move to a Derby side that were chasing promotion to the Premier League. That promotion never came, he hit 10 goals in the league in his first season at Pride Park before rumours of attitude problems and off-field issues swirled and he left just two years after joining. He has since bounced around all levels of the EFL, but has failed reached double-figures for goals in a season. Reading are now his sixth club in five years, and it felt like a last roll of the dice for the now 31 year-old. Luckily for him, and his new club, he’s rolled a double six.
He’s now up to 15 goals in just 21 appearances in the league for Reading, and is the leading goalscorer in the third tier. It took his latest victims Wycombe just 8 minutes to discover quite how dangerous he can be. A long throw-in from the hosts was cleared well but Wycombe failed to stay alert, reacting slowly to a scuffed ball into the box from former Chairboy Lewis Wing. Marriott stayed sharp and, despite starting about ten yards behind the covering defender, latched onto the loose ball and expertly bounced it over the onrushing goalkeeper to give his side the lead. If you give a striker in the form that Marriott is in an inch, they’ll take a mile.
Wycombe weren’t disheartened by conceding early as they pushed forward in numbers to get themselves back on level terms. A few attempts sailed just wide of the post, and Andy Yiadom cleared a looping effort off the goal-line, before Luke Harris forced a save out of Pereira following a counter attack. His shot was spilled into the path of Junior Quitirna six yards from goal, who blazed the ball over the bar unchallenged with the net gaping in front of him. In his defence, the ball was bouncing, but the forward just got his feet tangled beneath him before he could set himself to tap home. A golden chance squandered to draw level as the first half drew to a close, and a chance the visitors would live to regret.
Just before the break, Reading midfielder Kamari Doyle sliced a clearance upfield. What should have been a routine bit of defensive work for Aaron Morley soon turned sour as he struggled to control the dropping ball with the winter sun in his eyes. He stumbled over it, allowing Marriott to pounce onto the ball from his position lurking over the defender’s shoulder. The striker drove through on goal unopposed and fired a strong left-footed finish beyond Will Norris at his near post to give Reading a two goal lead at half-time with just his second shot of the game. He showed the visitors that football isn’t about how many chances you have, it’s how you take them.
Marriott’s second was in the 44th minute, and Wycombe still found time to squeeze in two more shots on goal before the whistle blew for half-time, Cauley Woodrow seeing his tame effort saved before full-back Michael Huggins was denied at close range by Pereira as he tried to bundle home a cross at the far post. Michael Duff must have laid into his side at the break, as they returned for the second period with a renewed vigour. They’d dominated the opening stages with nothing to show for it, now it was time to claw themselves back into the game and actually finish their chances. The next goal would be crucial, 3-0 would be an unassailable lead for Wycombe to overcome but, with the quantity of chances they’d been creating, if they halved the deficit early they could be in with a chance of taking something from this game.
It took just 4 minutes of the second half for Wycombe to finally break through the Reading defence, and it was an ugly one. They bent a free-kick into the box from the left-hand side, and it was headed by Jack Marriott away from goal. Except, instead of going away from goal, he hit the back of Wycombe defender Dan Casey and the ball ricocheted into the net. He knew nothing about it, but he won’t care. After the chances they’d missed thus far, perhaps they were due a bit of luck.
The onslaught continued for Reading as their visitors probed for an equaliser. Pereira was equal to anything they could throw at him, with the aid of his defenders putting their bodies on the line to block shots and deny opportunities at the last second. It felt like it might never come, but the equaliser finally arrived from the unlikeliest of sources. As yet another Wycombe chance was parried, they reset themselves from just outside the Reading area. They looked to mount another attack on goal, and Cauley Woodrow found the underlapping run of centre-half Anders Hagelskjær. The defender had never scored for the Chairboys, so you’re perhaps expecting him to cut the ball back into the box, maybe even try and cross it to a teammate at the back post? Not quite. He instead opted to hit the ball first-time with a shot from a tight angle, hammering it past the ‘keeper at his near post and sending the travelling Wycombe support absolutely ballistic. He looked like he couldn’t quite believe it himself, but he’d done it. A first goal in English football for the Dane, and what a time for it.
Suddenly, from two goals up, the Royals looked in serious danger of seceding all three points to their visitors. With the scores now level and Wycombe piling men forward all afternoon, only one side looked like winning it. Two minutes after the equaliser, Jack Marriott bagged the match ball in sensational style. Charlie Savage, son of Robbie, won the ball as it bounced between the two sides and played it through to Marriott, who had ghosted between two defenders. He brought it down before finishing with a delightful outside-the-foot shot into the top-right corner to give his side the lead once again. Hagelskjær scored one of the goals of the season, and it wasn’t even the goal of the game. The Chairboys continued to create chances, but couldn’t bring the scores back level for the remainder of the game. The full-time whistle rang out around Reading to signal a fantastic victory for the hosts that was certainly against the run of play.
That win rockets the Royals up to 7th place and 3 points from Huddersfield in 6th with a game in hand. They have a manager in Leam Richardson who has won this league before with Wigan, and has taken them from 20th to within touching distance of the play-offs since his appointment. Promotion would be close to a miracle for a club with Reading’s resources, particularly with how they’ve struggled financially in recent years. With Richardson at the helm and Jack Marriott in this form, I wouldn’t rule them out. In the opposite dugout, Michael Duff has led a similar resurgence with Wycombe. They’re three points behind Reading after defeat this weekend, but if they play with that intensity and tenacity every week they’re bound to pick up points. There’s every chance both of these sides could push that final play-off spot right to the wire.
With the top 5 pulling clear, 8 teams are vying for a single precious place in the play-offs. 8 won’t go into 1, so who will come out on top come May? Will the Royals take the throne or will it be the Chairboys sat atop the pile?