Opinion: No teacups, no hairdryer – just belief, passion and premonitions in Wilshere’s 55-second Reading clinic

What a wonderful way to start a league season that was at Reading on Saturday! And now we have an insight into something quite instrumental.

A brilliant come-from-behind victory capped off with a 96^th minute Gideon Kodua winner and scenes in the away end that won’t be forgotten for a while. 

Once the limbs had stopped flying and euphoria of the match had begun to subside, I had to wonder what manager Jack Wilshere said at half time to inspire such a turnaround. And courtesy of a brilliant video released by the club on Monday night, we now know!

The video is short and sweet but hits the spot and gives an interesting insight to the dressing room culture and the class of the two men leading our team with Wilshere and his assistant Chris Powell involved in the 55-second masterpiece. 

I loved every second of it. The boss could have been forgiven for being angry and expressing that anger with the fabled managerial hairdryer treatment or some teacup throwing – but he didn’t show it. 

When you consider that Saturday was just the 38^th league game of his managerial career, the calmness he displayed was admirable really. 

There was no panic which, when you consider we were 3-1 down and huge architects of our own downfall, was laudable. Instead he expressed his disappointment with what had transpired, particularly as he had seemingly warned the players of the threat they were going to endure, but then displayed total belief that the game wasn’t over and that we could turn it around. 

There was a quote in there that stood out. He said: “We can score two goals in 10 minutes”. And lo and behold, by the 52nd minute, that premonition had come true. 

If that wasn’t enough, one of Wilshere’s substitutes went on and won the game in injury time to complete a turnaround which we can now safely say was inspired totally by the calmness and faith the gaffer had in his charges. 

Of course, plenty of credit has to go to the players. They are the ones who cross the white line and complete the turnaround in practical fashion but managers can stir those actions and Wilshere clearly did that on Saturday. 

The 11-game unbeaten run in the league at the end of last season, extended to 12 on Saturday tells us that Wilshere is going to be a big thing in the management game, someone who will probably go all the way to the top, as he did a player. 

I just hope we get the benefit of his inspiration for as long as possible.