WANDERERS (4-2-3-1)

ANDY LONERGAN...5 Made a save towards the end that prevented the worst defeat in Wanderers’ history, which was scant consolation on a dreadful day.

ALEX BAPTISTE...4 Never got close to his winger McAnuff and overlapping full-back Obita. Conceded a harsh penalty to make his day even worse.

MATT MILLS...4 Nightmarish return to his former club. Didn’t cope well with the constant barracking and found himself constantly out of position.

ZAT KNIGHT...5 Best of a bad bunch at the back. Struggled with Le Fondre’s movement all day but did win some good headers in his own box.

TIM REAM...3 Absolutely ravaged by McCauley. Refused to make him a sole scapegoat for defeat but the American defender can have had few poorer days.

JAY SPEARING...5 At least looked up for the fight. Continued to give away possession regularly but by no means the worst on the park.

DARREN PRATLEY...5 Mustered a few shots at goal and got up and down the pitch. But Freedman was wise to bring him off – looked to be seeing the red mist.

NEIL DANNS...4 Ball just wouldn’t stick with him in the first half and while there was no shortage of effort, he just couldn’t get into the game.

MARK DAVIES...4 Virtually anonymous until he started to kick lumps out of Reading’s midfield. Another wise withdrawal from Freedman.

CHUNG-YONG LEE...4 Muscled out of the game completely. This has been a worrying sequence of games from the Korea international.

DAVID NGOG...4 Missed a chance to change the game – but spent most of the game chasing shadows. His goal at the end was relatively meaningless.

Subs: Medo 62 (for Pratley) – showed energy on his arrival. Must start next week, 6. Odelusi 67 (for M Davies) – did more in his 23 minutes on the pitch than anyone else, 6. Not used: Bogdan, White, Hall, C Davies, Eagles.

Star man: Sanmi Odelusi - Quite simply, none of the starting 11 deserve any sort of reward for this performance. The youngster came on and showed more drive and more hunger than all of his more experienced peers had for the previous hour put together.

READING (4-4-2)

ALEX McCARTHY...7

CHRIS GUNTER...7

ALEX PEARCE...7

KASPARS GORKSS...7

JORDAN OBITA...8

GARATH McCLEARY...9

DANNY WILLIAMS...8

HOPE AKPAN...7

JOBI MCANUFF...8

ADAM LE FONDRE...9

PAVEL POGREBNYAK...8

Subs: Blackman 7, 66 (for McCleary), Taylor 76 (for Le Fondre), Hector 80 (for Gorkss) Not used: Federici, Kelly, Drenthe, Cummings.

Their star man: Adam Le Fondre - Showed the class of finish that Ngog could only dream about. Ran very close by the brilliant McClearly, who supplied most of the bullets.

MATCH STATS

POSSESSION Reading – 48 Wanderers -52

SHOTS ON TARGET Reading – 8 Wanderers - 2

SHOTS OFF TARGET Reading – 9 Wanderers - 7

CORNERS Reading – 7 Wanderers - 7

FOULS AGAINST Reading – 15 Wanderers - 17

OFFSIDES Reading – 2 Wanderers - 3

Booked: Reading – 0 Wanderers - 0.

Attendance: 18,629

Referee: Andy Davies (Hampshire) 7 - Wanderers may debate the penalty given against Baptiste but in truth, it hardly mattered. Davies stamped out a few indiscretions in the second half and generally had a good game.

Goals: Reading – Le Fondre 12, 28, 33; Pogrebnyak 42 (pen), Gorkss 60, Akpan 74, Blackman 78. Wanderers – Ngog 88.

Entertainment: 4/10 - It was a 10/10 for Reading fans but unless you had a particularly sadistic sense of humour there wasn’t much by way of entertainment to be had for Wanderers fans.

Atmosphere: 7/10 - The banter between the two sets of fans flowed throughout and to the Wanderers fans’ credit they sang to the bitter end.

Match point – Once Wanderers failed to hit straight back it was a long, steep and very slippery slope. The defence crumbled completely under the pressure of a hostile home crowd and some clever movement.

Magic moment – Gallows humour from one Wanderers fan, who remarked on Twitter: “You know you are in trouble when the vidiprinter needs to spell out your opponent’s score.”