Reading rocked by stoppage time slip

A WASTEFUL week has left Reading four points outside the play offs with 13 games remaining. To concede an equaliser six minutes into stoppage time once is unfortunate, but twice in four days is careless. Against Bolton at the SCL it was just about tolerable, because they were a good team and Reading had been disrupted by several injuries and controversies. At Port Vale on Saturday it was far less excusable, because they are bottom of the League 1 table and, apart from the pitch resembling a “potato field” (a Port Vale commentator’s description, not mine), there was nothing to cause alarm.

After the Vale mishap, everyone was thrashing around for explanations. Perhaps the tactics were all wrong in the second half? Maybe previously injured Derrick Williams having to come off with five minutes remaining was to blame? Surely there was some truth in that classic cliché offered in bad moments about the pitch being a leveller? Should there really have been so much added on time at the end of the game? The squad was assembled late in the summer, thereby missing pre-season, so maybe they’re not fit enough?

All lovely ideas, but all a load of old guff. The real issue is psychological. Concentration a little bit, but mainly mental courage. Being brave enough and calm enough to be able to control and pass the ball, in the knowledge a mistake will be costly. You might argue the second half of a game at Port Vale on a wet February afternoon is hardly the height of sporting pressure, but for League 1 players desperate to do well, the mind can do funny things.

There’s still a terrible taboo around sports psychology. Say a player is lacking pace, or technical skill, or tactical nous, and that’s deemed fair discussion. As soon as the merest hint of a suggestion a player isn’t mentally tough enough is voiced, the shutters come down and you have over-stepped the mark.

It’s time coaches and players stopped being so sensitive about this. Most fans and spectators at Vale Park on Saturday would have got the jitters having to perform any task in front of thousands. It’s entirely normal, in the same way as not being able to run as fast or jump as high as the players is entirely normal.

Managers are petrified about ostracising players with post match comments about mental weakness, and they also fear that by even talking about it they will erode confidence, add to pressure, and make matters worse. Leam Richardson’s tactics are intelligent, the players showed in the first half they are technically good enough to play on any pitch, there have been plenty of other games when the fitness levels have been fine. That doesn’t leave much else, bar the psychological element of the game creeping in.

For coaches this is always the toughest to correct. Changing mindsets takes more time and skill than changing tactics, fitness or technique. Hopefully Richardson and his staff can make some progress in these seven days leading up to a tricky home game against Bradford City this Saturday.