Fitness levels improve as a number of players get 90 minutes under their belt as Ovie plays his first minutes of pre-season action...
The Royals played out a goalless draw against Portimonense this evening in their final warm-up action of our pre-season preparations for 2020-21.
The friendly was the first under the watchful gaze of new manager Veljko Paunović and the only competitive action we'll get now before a Carabao Cup clash at the Madejski on Saturday afternoon.
The game may have been goalless but the objective of this final fixture was to get good minutes into the first team players ahead of the start of the season and the likes of Andy Rinomhota and Omar Richards amongst others played the full ninety at Estádio Municipal de Portimão.
Ovie Ejaria came off the bench to get his first pre-season minutes under his belt, while the back four produced a very solid display - marshalled expertly by Liam Moore and Michael Morrison in the middle of the defence.
Tom McIntyre was absent of course as he linked up with Scotland's Under-21s yesterday, while George Puscas is also on international duty with Romania.
Luke Southwood also came off the substitues' bench to get some minutes and he helped keep a clean sheet as a total of 16 players were used - all showing good freshness after a few days' hard work in the warmer climes of the Algarve.
While there were very few clear cut chances on the night, the performance against a Primeira Liga side in Portimonense was an encouraging one and the team now look in good shape ahead of the real action which starts on Saturday.