Reading registered their first points of their 2023-24 League One campaign, securing a comfortable 1-0 win against Cheltenham Town on Tuesday night.
A youthful Royals squad took a well-deserved first-half lead thanks to a deflected Caylan Vickers effort and performed maturely to see out the win.
Looking to bounce back from a chastening defeat at Port Vale over the weekend, Royals boss Ruben Selles made seven changes to his starting eleven, turning to many of the youngsters who had tasted EFL Cup success in East London a week earlier.
In fact, the Spaniard entrusted nine of the players who started the 4-0 win in Millwall, with Charlie Savage and David Button the only additions.
There were a couple of familiar faces among Cheltenham’s ranks as Reading Academy graduates Luke Southwood and Sean Long featured from the start.
Both sides came into the encounter in search of their first points and goals of the league campaign, and Royals left back Matty Carson was presented with the first opening of the game, stinging Southwood’s fingertips with a strike from range.
A mix-up between Tyler Bindon and Button had Royals’ hearts in their mouths, but – fortunately for both – only resulted in a corner which ultimately came to nothing.
The Royals had the Robins on the ropes, enjoying plenty of crosses into the box and only restricting the visitors to the occasional foray out of their half. Amadou Mbengue did well to beat his marker down the right before flashing the ball across the face of goal but somehow managed to evade everyone.
Liam Smith and Lewis Wing traded shots from distance before the Berkshire side finally made their pressure tell, breaking the deadlock thanks to a goal not too dissimilar to the one they had conceded at Vale Park three days prior.
The Royals worked the ball out to Vickers, whose effort from the edge of the box took a significant deflection off Robins’ wing-back Will Ferry, over an outstretched Southwood and into the net.
Reading were unbeaten in all four of the sides’ previous match-ups, winning three and drawing one, and looked to continue their exemplary record as they chased a second.
Vickers came close to grabbing a goal of his own, forcing Southwood into a great save low down to his left, before Kelvin Ehibhatiomhan had an effort deflected behind for a corner.
The Royals were skippered by Nelson Abbey on the night and the 19-year-old delivered a true captain’s performance, mopping up everything that came into his vicinity.
One of the Robins’ few meaningful attacks saw the ball fall to Rob Street in a dangerous position inside the attacking third, but Abbey was there in a flash, blocking the striker’s effort behind – and the defender was on-hand to clear the resulting corner.
Looking to freshen things up on the hour mark, Selles introduced Tom McIntyre, Andy Yiadom and Femi Azeez – but the Royals appeared a little slow to adjust to the changes in personnel.
Street came close with a curled effort, before Lewis Freestone headed a missiled throw-in from Long onto the crossbar, with Button unsure whether to leave the ball or tip it over.
But the Royals never relinquished overall control of the game and, although only able to create one further clear-cut effort on goal through Azeez, saw out the victory with relative ease.
The victory sees Reading climb to 16th position in the league table.
Reading: Button, Mbengue, Bindon, Abbey, Carson, Camara, Savage, Wing, Knibbs, Ehibhatiomhan, Vickers
Substitutes: Boyce-Clarke, McIntyre, Dean, Azeez, Yiadom, Hutchinson, Tuma
Cheltenham: Southwood, Long, Freestone, Hammond, Sercombe, Keena, Street, Ferry, Chapman, Smith, Davies
Substitutes: Harris, Williams, Bradbury, Goodwin, Thompson, Adshead, Samba
Goals: Ferry OG (33’)
