Any optimism the New Year may have bought to Reading FC and their fans was emphatically beaten away by a clinical Swansea City side who dispatched their hosts 1-4.
Swansea broke the deadlock just two minutes into the game, after a good cross in from Kyle Naughton was met by Oli McBurnie who got between the two centre-halves and tucked his header into the corner.
On the half hour mark, some comical defending allowed Swansea to grab a second when a cross was headed down back across goal and there was a queue of Swansea players waiting to tuck in at the back post, with Connor Roberts grabbing the final touch.
On the stroke of half time, more poor defending allowed the Welsh side to make it 0-3 as a free kick was whipped into the back post and centre back Mike van der Hoorn ghosted in to tap into the net and new Reading manager Jose Gomes looked understandably furious.
Just three minutes after half time, the Swans won a penalty and McBurnie stepped up to make it 0-4 to the visitors.
Reading did a grab a consolation goal with just over ten minutes to go. After two years without an appearance in the first team, Callum Harriot came on off the bench and played a lovely one-two with Danny Loader and was able to slot the ball home into the bottom corner.
This result is even more frustrating for everyone associated with the club to take after the impressive performance at QPR, which suggested that Gomes might be able to turn things round. A big bump back down to earth shows that this is going to be a huge month for the club in terms of their survival push.
Man Utd away in the FA Cup awaits on Saturday, with nothing to lose, it will be interesting to see how Gomes approaches the game.
Madejski Stadium
Sky Bet Championship
1/01/2019 4:00 pm
Attendance: 15644
Referee: Tim Robinson
| Reading | Swansea City | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harriott (77) | McBurnie (2. 48 pen) Roberts (30) van der Hoorn (45) | ||||||
| Jaakola | Mulder | ||||||
| Yiadom | Naughton | ||||||
| O'Shea | van der Hoorn | ||||||
| Ilori | Rodon | ||||||
| Richards | Roberts | ||||||
| Swift | Fer | ||||||
| Rinomhota | Grimes | ||||||
| McCleary (72) | Dyer (85) | ||||||
| Aluko (61) | Celina | ||||||
| Barrow | Routledge (88) | ||||||
| Meite (61) | McBurnie (73) | ||||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Loader (61) | Baker-Richardson (73) | ||||||
| Bodvarsson (61) | Fulton (85) | ||||||
| Harriott (72) | Carter-Vickers (88) | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 16 | Goal attempts | 8 |
| 5 | On Target | 5 |
| 7 | Corners | 1 |
| 13 | Fouls | 12 |
| 2 | Yellow Cards | 1 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 58 | % | 42 |