Royals win again!

As expected, Brian McDermott fielded a very strong side which will be very close to the one that starts against Scunthorpe when the season kicks off for real in 10 days time. We put on a show for the small, but vocal, home support in the first half with Jimmy Kebe in inspired form and he set up the first goal when he won a penalty after 10 minutes.


Gylfi Sigurdsson had missed 2 from 3 spot kicks in pre season so far, including one against Wycombe on Saturday, but he smashed the ball home giving Wolves keeper Carl Ikeme no chance. The keeper was only in goal because former Royals Marcus Hahnemann was injured and couldn`t make the trip back to the Mad Stad.


We continued to dominate the first half and went close on a number of occasions including defender Alex Pearce who so nearly doubled the lead.


After the break we saw the introduction of academy prospect Jake Taylor playing in his regular position off the striker, which meant Sigurdsson got a rest, and the youngster showed why he is so highly rated and could play a big part this season in the Royals first team. Remember no one had heard of Gylfi Sigurdsson this time last year!


It was another youngster though who made it two when Michael Antonio stole onto sub Noel Hunt`s flick on and scored. It was another impressive display from Antonio, and his performances in pre season have played a part in the Royals agreeing to sell James Henry to Millwall.


Before the end David Jones beat sub keeper Alex McCarthy to reduce the deficit but we defended solidly and held out for a morale boosting win over a strong Wolves side. We now travel to Southampton on Saturday in our final pre season fixture and will look to continue our unbeaten run in England this pre season (that was clutching at straws a bit wasn`t it!?).

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