Reading scrape past struggling Bolton

Reading manage to gain their first win in six after overcoming struggling Bolton.

The win for The Royals sends them up to 7th and still in touching distance with the play offs, whereas Botlon go bottom.

However, it was far from a convincing performance from the home side. They were clearly affected by the matters off the pitch involving the uncertainty to their manager Steve Clarke.

Bolton started brightly and forced Al-Habsi into three saves in quick succession. Wanderers would’ve been gutted to not have been out of sight let alone still at 0-0 after the first 20.

It took The Royals 25 minutes to get going when Piazon raced through a dinked a delightful chip into the far corner.

A goal certainly against the run of play, but it seemed to have got Reading into gear. Just five minutes later, Danny Williams struck home a fierce drive, giving the Bolton keeper, Ben Amos, no chance.

Suddenly, after a dross start from Reading, they were two nil up after 35 minutes.

Neil Lennon and his Bolton side will have walked into the dressing room at half time kicking themselves, whilst Steve Clarke’s men would’ve been thanking their keeper, Al-Habsi.

After a fairly strong end to the half, you’d expect Reading to come out score more goals against a Bolton team completely devoid of confidence.

However, this wasn’t the case. It was a half of football with chances at a premium, until the 80th minute, when Feeney struck home a penalty to bring the deficit back to just the one.

It was a nervy last ten minutes for Steve Clarke and his side. Clarke opted to bring on Cooper during this time and the defence stood strong to see out a much needed three points after a difficult week at the club.

Bolton certainly weren’t the worst team I have seen this season despite going bottom. On a different day they could’ve been 3-0 up before Reading got started.

Clarke may not say it, but the players were certainly affected by the week they endured. Hopefully they can now put it behind them and build on this much needed win.