Charlton Athletic made short-term Reading FC signing a cult hero | OneFootball

Deniss Rakels became a real hero in Berkshire after scoring a late winner at The Valley.

Deniss Rakels was a much-needed signing for League One side Reading during the latter stages of January 2016.

The Royals sold Nick Blackman to Derby County during the early part of the 2016 winter window, and that was a bit of a blow for the Royals, considering he performed fairly well for much of the first half of the 2015/16 campaign.

Getting himself into a decent run of form, he did enough to attract interest from the Rams, who ended up being the losers in this sale in the end, with Blackman failing to perform well enough in the East Midlands.

Orlando Sa also left during the January window, so the signings of Yann Kermorgant and Rakels were necessary.

Kermorgant was more of a well-known figure at the time, having shone for Leicester City and AFC Bournemouth in the end.

He looked to be an excellent addition on paper, but Rakels was much less known, with the Latvian forward joining from Cracovia for an undisclosed fee.

But he had been in great form for the Polish side during the first half of 2015/16 before his move to Berkshire, so it was always going to be fascinating to see how he got on.

Charlton Athletic moment made Deniss Rakels a Reading FC cult hero

Rakels signed for the club in late January 2016 and the forward made an impact against Charlton Athletic a month later.

He made a fairly slow start to life in Berkshire, not being able to make much of an impact during his first three Championship appearances.

But he was able to come on in a very entertaining game at The Valley.

Kermorgant scored a brace, with these goals coming either side of Yaya Sanogo's equaliser.

Ola John added a third before the break to make it 3-1 to the visitors and the Berkshire side were in the driving seat to win the game.

But Sanogo scored another two goals to level the game at 3-3, leading to an exciting climax to the game.

Either side could have won it in the end, but a free-kick from Jordan Obita found its way to Rakels, who kept his composure to half-volley the ball into the back of the net.

That goal, in front of the away hand, sparked jubilant scenes, and the Latvian instantly became a hero.

Perhaps it was the magnitude of the game that made him a hero. The Royals were sliding down the table at the time and the win in the English capital was their second league victory in a row, which helped to stabilise them.

Deniss Rakels wasn't able to build on memorable winner at Reading FC

Later on that season, Rakels did manage to get himself on the scoresheet against Leeds United and Queens Park Rangers but he wasn't able to build on that during the 2016/17 campaign, with the player picking up a serious ankle injury during the early stages of the season and spending the remainder of that season out of action.

The forward had one year left on his contract after that but he fell down the pecking order and went out on a couple of loan spells during the 2017/18 season, making temporary switches to Lech Poznan and Cracovia.

Released at the end of that campaign, he wasn't able to return to the Select Car Leasing Stadium and make an impact.

That's a shame because the Latvian had the potential to be a real success in Berkshire.