​It’s a somewhat cruel twist of fate that Reading’s best goal of pre-season wasn’t witnessed by more people in real time. The lack of a live stream meant only a relatively modest number of Loyal Royals in attendance saw one heck of a finish from Boyd Beacroft to win tonight’s game at Crawley Town (though you can see the goal here). A loose pass from the goalkeeper in the 81st minute found centre-back Beacroft, who expertly and instinctively lofted the ball into an empty net from the halfway line. Cue wild celebrations in the away end (acceptable in the circumstances, regardless of it being a pre-season friendly) which were soon joined by Beacroft himself, charging over to the visiting fans and knee-sliding for good measure.There’s a fair amount to unpack from this game, but let’s stop on that moment for a bit. That was one mightily special experience for Beacroft, a graduate of Reading’s academy, and I’m so very happy for him. You can’t fake the raw emotion he unleashed in celebrating the goal, you really can’t.As for the game overall, this was another step forward for Reading, albeit in a few different ways to previous matches.For a starter, this was much more clearly a ‘second XI’ night. Leam Richardson’s rotated between players heavily in pre-season so far, making wholesale changes to the side in the 60th minute in the last two games, but tonight he just went with his B team, which looked like this:Reading (4-2-3-1): Stevens; Ahmed, Beacroft, Duah, Roberts; Fraser, Savage; Williams, Sackey, Lane; JonesSubs: Rowley, Harrison, Spencer, Howard, Osho, Dashi(Dashi is Matteo Dashi, a 19-year-old attacking player who signed for the under-21s earlier today from Crystal Palace on a two-year deal. As did Torin Ntege, who agreed a one-year deal after moving from West Bromwich Albion.)That commitment to this being a ‘second XI’ night gave the match a slightly different dynamic to before, one of Richardson essentially telling these players: “You’re not in my first team right now, but if you impress in games such as this one, that could change.”And some players most certainly did that. Besides match-winner Beacroft, who otherwise looked assured in defence, right-sided players Ashqar Ahmed and Randell Williams were the most obvious standouts. Emmanuel Osho also had a bright evening as Reading’s second-half left-winger, and though he didn’t add to his two goals at Newport County on Tuesday night, Jerae Jones looked lively up top.I’ve found myself bringing up wide players (full-backs and wingers) a few times this week. Although it makes for somewhat repetitive articles, it’s a clear sign of a team knowing what it wants to do tactically when you can not only raise the same positive each game, but also apply that to different players.After all, remember that this wasn’t Reading’s first-choice pairing down the right flank. Udoka Godwin-Malife (presumably not injured after all, given Ahmed’s involvement today) and K