Manchester City displayed true professionalism in putting behind them a disappointing defeat in the FA Cup Final and the sudden dismissal of their manager to overcome a rejuvenated Reading side with a display of football of the highest quality. Only the brilliance of Alex McCarthy prevented them from inflicting a much heavier defeat. Reading actually played well in patches and certainly set about their daunting task in a confident and purposeful manner. City may have dominated possession but Joe Hart certainly had to be at his best on three occasions to keep a clean sheet.

City mesmerised Reading’s back four in the first half with intricate passing and movement. Only a team with such superb touch, pace and ball control as City are capable of weaving their way through congested areas of the pitch with such ease. Reading stuck to their task with determination but had to rely on Alex McCarthy to prevent an early breakthrough by the visitors. Reading’s shape was clearly well established enabling them to make good use of space to stretch their opponents and give them the confidence to attack City with some degree of success. McCLeary drew an excellent save from Hart when he cut in from the left. The home crowd were treated to a brief passage of play when the Royals strung together several passes in the City half. City soon resumed control of the game and five minutes form half time Aguero scored the inevitable opening goal.

Reading almost equalised at the beginning of the first half when Pogrebnyak headed at Hart from close range. Apart from that the Russian ‘tank’ was totally ineffective against City’s defence, unable to win the ball in the air and incredibly slow to react to any ball played up to him. It was no surprise when he was replaced by Player of the Season Adam Le Fondre on the hour to the delight of the home fans. With Guthrie pulling the strings in midfield, Reading were certainly prepared to carry the fight to City. Ultimately the quality of passing throughout the team was not quite good enough to create a clear chance in City’s box. Karacan came closest to scoring with an outstanding strike from outside the box which had Hart at full stretch to save. With three minutes left Kelly gave the ball away and Dzeko punished his carelessness by waltzing through the Reading defence to hammer the ball home for number two ending any crazy notion Reading might snatch a draw.

A comment from behind me midway through the second half seemed to sum the evening up perfectly. “This passing game will be good when we learn how to pass properly”. There was however, still enough in this performance for Reading fans to feel positive about next season. There is a nucleus for Adkins to build a team capable of promotion. I am not even going begin to speculate on who will stay, who will go, or who will be brought in. We have a whole summer of that to look forward to!

The players lapped the pitch after the game and were applauded warmly by the ‘proper’ Reading fans, while the ‘Premier League’ fans skulked away early to get home quickly. Presumably they will not be renewing their tickets next month.” We’re all going to Bournemouth” sang the committed!
John Wells

First half - as Nige pointed out - we weren't great. Second half we were much better, and tbh for large parts of it were probably the better side. The second goal in particular was very harsh on us.

Promising that even against a team like City we are still able to play some really nice stuff, and a number of times times we moved the ball from the goalkeeper into the attacking third with some excellent pass and move football.

Work still to do, but there's a real sense of positivity growing around the club atm - which is odd given the relegation. Nice to hear players like Karacan feeling that they are able to really express themselves now.
winchester_royal

The result was no surprise - but we knocked it around nicely at times - it was nice to see us playing the ball out from the back, rather than the aimless hoof down the flanks that we've had rammed down our throats for the past few years - and we actually looked comfortable doing it . Not sure how this will translate into Champ footie - however I'm looking forward to the new season with a new style. We'll defo need a decent centre forward...
El Diablo

Six weeks in, it's still a work in progress but anyone who can't see a significant improvement in the quality of our performance is wearing blinkers. Next season we will be more comfortable with the style of play and we won't be trying to pass it around the likes of Tevez and Yaya Toure in the Championship. We clearly deserved to lose by I am still more and more encouraged after every game. Just a bit more end product required.

My one concern is our moronic fans who continually groan when we pass back from midfield to defence in order to retain possession rather than hitting and hoping. Reminiscent of similar scenes when we were playing superb possession football under McGhee.
Schards#2

And so to a match that was only really of interest to those with Reading or Manchester City players in their fantasy football teams. Reading were already relegated, and thus compounded their lack of quality and lack of confidence with a lack of appetite – an equilateral triangle of ineptitude, if you will. City would have been out of sight by half-time had they been in the slightest bit bothered themselves.

That they were not was down almost entirely to goalkeeper Alex McCarthy, who made two good saves, from Sergio Agüero and James Milner, and then a simply wonderful save at close range from Carlos Tevez, instinctively throwing out an arm and somehow elbowing the ball behind.

But City finally got their opening goal just before half-time, and it was very much a Mancini goal. Milner popped up on the left byline, cut the ball back to David Silva, who played it back into the path of Milner, who crossed accurately for Agüero to side-foot the ball delicately past McCarthy.

Milner, Silva, Milner, Agüero. Four touches, each more exquisite than the last. Why could they not have played like this all season?

The answer, of course, is that any team playing Reading every week would surely have wrapped up the title by Christmas. The home side were limited and one-dimensional, with only the most cursory understanding of marking.
The Telegraph

For Reading, a match that must have looked like a glamorous way to finish the season at the Madejski Stadium when fans first scanned the Premier League fixtures last summer could have been an embarrassment. City went ahead after 39 minutes in sole charge of the game, Reading obligingly standing back and admiring as James Milner exchanged passes with David Silva after a short corner on the left before passing unopposed to Sergio Aguero, who prodded the ball home past a group of blue and white hooped statues. Cheers from the City fans and another chorus of 'Mancini'.

It was the least City deserved, and they continued to pass round and through the often immobile Reading ranks. Carlos Tevez shot high, Yaya Toure was defied twice by McCarthy and Milner did as he pleased down the right as Kidd looked on impassively from the technical area. His style is more understated than that of Mancini, and his name does not sound as good when sung, but the team performance was impressive.

Only a second goal was missing and Edin Dzeko supplied it two minutes from time, although Reading had twice come close to salvaging an improbable point when Tevez nodded Adrian Mariappa's header off the goal line and Joe Hart saved Jem Karacan's rocket shot.
The Independent