Ollie Westbury analysis: Town hope comeback will not be another false dawn

Pure jubilation when Chey Dunkley got an equaliser in the 92nd, before the wild scenes from Jason Sraha’s last-minute winner.

It was a crazy afternoon, but you would not have football any other way.

It was anything but convincing from Shrews, who picked up after a bad start, but their flaws were still evident.

They only tested Reading keeper David Button with one serious effort in the second half up to the last five minutes as they were trying to get back in the game, which was just not enough.

It felt like a game where Shrews had a huge slice of luck. The Royals could have been and should have been completely out of sight with the chances they created in the 90 minutes.

But for a side who, thanks to their defeat in Shropshire, have now gone a whole calendar year without an away league win, it felt like it was coming, and it did.

Matt Taylor’s side have had positive results at various stages this season, and he said post-match he hopes the result can be the ‘beginning of a resurgence’ after a challenging couple of weeks.

The difficulty with it is that Town have been in this position on several occasions so far this season.

They had positive results against Derby, and Colchester last weekend, and they cannot afford for this to be another false dawn.

It is great they scored three goals, and it was a great win, but it was not convincing.

Town headed into the clash with a huge amount of pressure on their shoulders. They had not scored in their three previous league games and they had lost all three of those fixtures.

It was the final match of another three-game week, but there was a murmuring of boos following the defeat to Bolton on Tuesday.

Not because of that result, but just because Town had only scored seven goals in their 16 games and the fans have not been given a great deal to shout about.

So to go 2-0 down inside 15 minutes, with two very poor mistakes, the atmosphere inside the Croud Meadow was fairly toxic.

Sam Smith with the first after he combined with David Button – both former Town players.

He shrugged off Chey Dunkley to fire home before Dom Ballard capitalised on another Marko Marosi error when he did not contest for a high ball in his six-yard box.

The keeper wanted a foul, but it was never a foul, and the goal stood.

That 15 minutes, up until Town pulled a goal back, was a fairly hostile environment as the fans made their voices heard.

The performance itself was underwhelming, and so Tom Bayliss’ goal 12 minutes from half-time was vital.

Partly because it gave the players some belief, and they really did pick up after that, but also it made the atmosphere inside the ground less vociferous when the referee blew for the break.

The Town boss had gone with an attacking line-up for the game, choosing to leave out leading goalscorer Dan Udoh and select Max Mata up front.

But he had moved Jordan Shipley back to wing-back and Tunimise Sobowale, who loves to get forward, came in at right wing-back.

It is safe to say that the move did not work, and Udoh was introduced at the break for Sobowale and it did make a difference.

Throughout the course of 90 minutes, Reading had some gilt-edge chances that they should have taken, and Marosi partly redeemed himself by making a superb double save in the second half – with the help of the post.

Dunkley forced a good save from Button, but in the final stages, it looked like it was going to be Reading victory.

The comeback came from nowhere. Two set pieces, Dunkley on the end of the first and Sraha on the end of the second to spark scenes akin to the win over Forest Green Rovers last season when they came from 1-0 down to win 2-1.

What the players did demonstrate was grit, resilience and determination because it would have been easy to go missing given the situation.

And for that, you must give Taylor credit. You must also give the manager credit for the way he handled his post-match interview.

He branded his side’s start to the game as ‘unacceptable’, so he could see what everyone else in the stadium could.

We have been here before, a good result followed by some bad ones, a win away at Blackpool next weekend, and things could really be heading in the right direction.