Royals Rampage: Reading FC Wins Big Against Charlton Athletic
Reading FC made it four clean-sheet wins in four on Saturday afternoon by seeing off Charlton Athletic 0-3 at The Valley. The Royals wrapped up pre-season in some style, with Lewis Wing being the star man, beginning and ending the scoring with a pair of excellent strikes.
What happened?
Wing gave the Royals the lead just before half-time when he slammed in a free-kick, later making absolutely certain of the result by curling the ball beautifully into the far top corner after getting a shot corner back from David Hicks. Reece Evans will be having words about which goal was the highlight of the afternoon though. He opened his account for the first team to make it 2-0 in the second half, heading the ball powerfully past the 'keeper at the end of an incisive, fluent counter-attack.
Why it matters for Reading
Even outside those goals though - and stop me if you've read this before about Reading's 2026 pre-season friendlies - the Royals looked confident and well structured. Inventive, energetic and dynamic, this was a display that simply wouldn’t have happened last season. That’s nothing new for me to write about this current Reading side. Today’s game was a real test however - for a couple of reasons - but it was one the Royals came through with flying colours.
What comes next?
For a starter, this was the toughest match of our pre-season. I’d put this one ahead of the Getafe fixture as it came much later in the summer, with the Addicks at a similar stage of their pre-season development to us (Getafe understandably appeared to be lacking physical sharpness in comparison to Reading, although they managed a 1-0 win). So Reading’s ability to scale up their previous performances to a more difficult encounter, applying the qualities and traits we’d seen against Getafe, Woking and Newport, proves this summer’s progress has been built on strong foundations. That’s not to say we’re guaranteed a good season when competitive action resumes next weekend, but it’s a mightily encouraging sign.
A rejigged side
Further, this wasn’t even Reading’s best XI. Some players were already known to be unavailable or making their way back from injury: Haydon Roberts got 45 minutes at Crawley and Jack Marriott didn’t feature today but should be back for the visit to Bromley. Added to that though were absences for Paudie O’Connor, Josh Stokes and Jacob Brown, amid an outbreak of illness in the squad this week. That also meant a start for a surprise trialist, who was accidentally named on commentary as Conor Masterson (it happens to the best of us, Phil). Academy players Hicks and Evans took up the number 10 and striker roles respectively, with a very young bench largely made up of those who’d featured at Crawley.
League standing (final 2025 table -- new season not yet under way): 12th in League One, 63 pts, 16W-15D-15L from 46 games, recent form LDLLL. Goals this season: 64 scored, 60 conceded (+4 goal difference). Title race: 40 points behind leaders Lincoln. Next fixture: vs Mansfield Town (away, 2027-02-09) (10th in the table).
