Enjoyed the game with lots of positives to take from the performance. Seems to be a unity in the squad coupled with leadership. Opposition very poor. Job done, a major confidence boost.

Roll on round 2.

An OK performance against the second string of one of the weaker Championship teams. For much of the second half Reading were ineffective, retreating into a Stam like shell of sitting deep and playing countless pointless cross field passes. Overall a justified result, but not the wholly convincing win we might have hoped for.

But a win is a win. For positives, look to Yiadom who is just class. Was surprised to hear Adie Williams on BBCRB criticise Ilori, who I thought was excellent - Williams was the professional footballer and a centre back to boot so I will defer to his judgement. Meite was excellent - all tricks and strength.

Swift was poor but for a beautiful free kick. I'm yet to be in any way convinced by Baldock or indeed McNaulty, but there was enough on display to suggest potential.

Hope O'Shea doesn't take what was, for me, some good natured humour as sarcasm. To be fair, he really did not put a foot wrong.

We move on, still in the competition; job done.

Unlike previous poster I though McNulty was excellent tonight. A really clever player who always added something positive with every touch and who has that bit of extra vision. On a night when he didn’t have many clear cut chances he still made a reading by his vision and work rate. his ball for meite was world class and showed excellent awareness and unselfishness to pass to Baldock who should have scored. More to come from McNulty I think.

Very happy with what I saw and loved that starting line up, really clicked.

Went into this game with little excitement yet it proved to be very enjoyable. Good all round team performance and 2 nice goals against pretty feeble opposition. Bring on saturday and a decent draw on thursday

It’s games like last night that show How desperately poor we had become last year. Was a genuine pleasure to watch the full backs bomb forward, the forwards causing problems and pressing, Swift running his backside off for 90m and some fast attacking play. The whole atmosphere in the crowd was much more positive and supportive

Brum were to$$ but bar a dodgy period of 15mins at the start of the second half we were well on top. Should have won by 3 or 4 really and Baldock missed a sitter that his overall performance deserved

Walker looked solid and made a couple of good saves

Yiadom is great. 1st half particularly he was superb

Blackett, Moore and Ilori all good if maybe not quite at the top of their game. Each made a couple of mistakes

Swift and Bacuna actually dominated the midfield. Couple of dodgy passes each but they looked fit, strong (Swift has beefed right up) and aggressive

Meite was very good and a nice goal. Real potential in him. Wins some great headers and will be a big player this year

McNulty and Baldock were both good. Never stopped running, worked as a pair and showed some lovely touches. Shame neither scored but they will.

Barrow was great until he was injured - obvs not good news

Agree with this. Played in between the lines and made it difficult for their defenders to pick him up. Used the ball well.

I was right in line with the chance he gave Baldock. I think he was expecting McNulty to shoot and the ball was a yard too far I'm front of him to react. That link up play will improve with time. There were signs of them building an understanding.

In another vein of BFTG.
Why were there SO many first timers there last night?
The haribo brigade. Was it that the £3-£7 ticket made it a better prospect than Chessington or Alton Towers?
Loads of disinterested parents, many who knew less about football as a game than they knew about Reading.

Special thumbs up to the tw@t directly behind me, who in the loudest voice extolled the virtues of the best way to book a holiday, Spanish holidays in general, his kid’s holiday booking, purple bricks, zoopla, Lower Earley, Tilehurst, fish and chip shops in the area,
Didn’t comment on the game once and then decided that Reading were not going to score again and fvcked off home (thank god) with his contingent at half time.
Parents in front of me spent half the match showing each other their holiday photos.
Now I’m all for new blood, but these cheap seat one nighters, I think we could do without.

No, no we can't. Because some of the kids that were brought along will want to come again. and again. And will eventually turn into "proper" fans. If you want the club to grow, you can't restrict attendance to the people that already have a culture of going, or know anything about the game. It's elitism. And it doesn't help the club.

In a normal game, without free seating, that type of attendee will be safely tucked away in North, and won't be bothering you with their inanities.

It was games like last night that I first took my kids to to get them interested, when it was a bit more relaxed and a bit more space for them to mess about in if needed. We'd probably have been the annoying family 2 years back.

Now we are season ticket holders, and the kids watch every minute of the game (when they are not going to the toilet for the 15th time), buy the merchandise etc

No, no we can't. Because some of the kids that were brought along will want to come again. and again. And will eventually turn into "proper" fans. If you want the club to grow, you can't restrict attendance to the people that already have a culture of going, or know anything about the game. It's elitism. And it doesn't help the club.

In a normal game, without free seating, that type of attendee will be safely tucked away in North, and won't be bothering you with their inanities.

Fully agree with your sentiment, of course we need new blood. It was a school special as a parent that got me going with my daughter many years back.
It’s not the kids that rile me, it’s the lack of respect and inconsiderate behaviour of those parents that bring them under sufferance. I mean, if you had to take your kids to a Disney film, would you sit there and have a living room chat out loud the whole way through the film, or at a concert, because you aren’t interested?
That one bloke ruined the first half for about eight people. Now we could tell him to shut the f* up but that would hardly be the welcoming attitude we are trying to perpetuate,

Who was it that completely scuffed his shot, trod on the ball and fell over about half way through the second half?

I think that was about the only time the atmosphere soured a bit.

The O'Shea stuff was a bit of fun (I thought) and he gave us a clap at the end, he didn't seem to mind it at all. Moore got an ovation from Y24/5/6 at the end, just in case anyone was wondering what those outside the HNA bubble thought about him staying.