Royals @ Charlton Match Thread

[IMAMATEOFJOVSKY]

Would love to see Watson here, haven't seen him loads of times, but he looks a real battler.

I'd sell Harper, get him in, actually, I'd buy him, THEN sell Harper, and I think it would enhance the midfield.

Then JM can have his column space saying "This signing shows how ambitious the club is" !

Readings ambition is now to be able to cut one coat from the material thats there! We no longer as a club have any football ambition - we are now a business, and we have no money as we have spent it all - seasons 3 games in and its all gone - just dont believe or trust anything the club says.....and yes Watson would be a great acquisition but if you were he, would you want to join??

[kwik-silva]

Ok, well, I've just seen the highlights on the championship. Hahnemann definately was at fault for the first goal, I have no idea what he was trying to do!! Why didn't just claim it and catch it? Sonko can't have any complaints with the sending off, and it didn't seem like he did.

Doyle can't buy a goal at the minute, and as somebody said, he really needed that goal, I'm not what thats done for his confidence, but I'm sure Coppell will have faith in him for the next couple of games which is a shame, because dropping him might have a 'good' effect on him. If we'd scored the penalty and Noel Hunts late header had gone in it would've been 4-4 and we would have been talking very differently, but unfortuantely it just wasn't to be!

Talking of Doyle, I wonder if Coppell will play him against Luton, and just hope he bags a goal and gets some confidence, but if not, he has to change it! Noel Hunt looks alot more likely to score than Doyle. I may regret saying this, but it may be good business to get as much money as we can, and as soon as possible

[SCIAG]

. If we'd scored the penalty and Noel Hunts late header had gone in it would've been 4-4 and we would have been talking very differently, but unfortuantely it just wasn't to be!

If we'd've scored the penalty Charlton would have been given a different team talk by Pardrew and would have shaped up differently. That could have gone our way or theirs. I doubt Hunt would have got the chance at the end of the match.

[kwik-silva]

Or we could've pushed on and won

[Whore Jackie]

I'm really not sure I was at the same match as some of the posters on here - although I suspect some of the opinions were formed through beer goggles in front of the big screen down the pub!

Firstly, it was a tremendously entertaining game, and one which we will remember for some time to come - although perhaps because we lost it will be a bad memory rather than a good one.

I lost count of the number of times Cisse dallied on the ball, then lost possession. On a couple of occasions he tackled back, and regained it, but on the whole he is a liability in midfield.

I thought Harper had a pretty decent game, especially considering he was carrying Cisse as a passenger.

Ingimarsson didn't do much wrong, but didn't have an outstanding game either.

S.Hunt was too tempted to rush forward leaving a huge gap where a left-back should have been. Part of the reason for this was that Convey had been replaced by a Convey-shaped vacuum. There was little link-up play between the two, and Convey seemed curiously absent.

Jimmy Kebe had a good first half, but faded in the second half.

Both Lita and Doyle did virtually nothing. Marcus' habit of hoofing the ball high into the air in search of our garden-gnome-sized "strikers" wasn't helped in the first half by the sun - they couldn't actually see the ball as it descended into the Earth's atmosphere.

Rosenior had a poor game - at fault for the 3rd and 4th goals, I think.

As for Sonko, it was a typical performance from him. Part super-hero, part villain.

Both Long and N.Hunt looked good when they came on, and Pearce looked quite calm and assured.

So, good match, crap result, looking forward to having Bikey back in the team.

Agreed, that's the same match I watched.

We were pretty poor in most areas, but Charlton impressed me, very reminiscent of our Championship winning team. Bailey in the middle was superb and their fullback and wide players excelled, lots of overlapping, no little skill, lovely dangerous balls into the box. The sort of service strikers feast on. They made our fullbacks look woeful, Hunt can be excused, Rosenior cannot.

Only upside was sitting next to the soon to be Mrs Convey for the first half, a touch bright moment in an otherwise disappointing day out.

Sat next to me second half. Kept clenching my leg when things got tense. Black and blue this morning.

[The whole year inn]

LOL @ the car park crew

4 goaLOLs at CharLOLton

[Archie's penalty]

LOL @ the car park crew

4 goaLOLs at CharLOLton

Very constructive

[Aussie Stu]

Just saw the one minute of highlights dedicated to our game on the CCC highlights show.
Great header by Sonko for our first goal.
Very lucky to get penalty that Hunt took & missed & then got.
Penalty taking wasn't great... a few boys to have some practice I'd say.

The last volley goal the Charlton player struck was a nice goal. Was he off-side? Only saw it once (that's how crap the highlight packages are). He seemed to be a long way forward of any defenders. I probably need a second look... not that I'll get one.

Also, alot of penaties awarded for stuff that is usually let go. What was the commom opinion, whistle happy or correct decisions?

[Stranded]

LOL @ the car park crew

4 goaLOLs at CharLOLton

And two clean sheets prior to that.

[papereyes]

He wasn't. It was a good, well-timed run, from what I saw.

[Barry the bird boggler]

Poor performance defensively. Not too hot in attack either, how many chances wasted? And as for a professional player not being able to get a penalty on target, well that just sums up our strikers at the moment

Personally didn't think any of the penalties were penalties and that to cap a less than brilliant day the ref was shocking. By the way wasn't it exactly 2 years to the day since the same ref last sent Sonko off. As I recall that was unjustified as well.

As to Reading, well they need strengthening and if offered any reasonable amount for Doyle they should take it, however given the seeming lack of funds at the club you bet your life that more ambition will be shown by merely "replacing" Doyle with Noel Hunt.

Still who wants to have ambition if it means you end up like Birmingham and have something worth watching.

[Aussie Stu]

Cheers for the heads-up. As I said our clip only lasts the blink of an eye. I'm trying to watch every Reading player on the screen to see who's playing where, when etc. Then when something happens they move straight on to the next goal or Coppell's head, we already know exactly what his expression is, wasting valuable micro-seconds of my royals viewing time.
So Sonko got red carded as well to cap off an ordinary day....brilliant.

[West Stand Man]

Poor performance defensively. Not too hot in attack either, how many chances wasted? And as for a professional player not being able to get a penalty on target, well that just sums up our strikers at the moment

Personally didn't think any of the penalties were penalties and that to cap a less than brilliant day the ref was shocking. By the way wasn't it exactly 2 years to the day since the same ref last sent Sonko off. As I recall that was unjustified as well.

As to Reading, well they need strengthening and if offered any reasonable amount for Doyle they should take it, however given the seeming lack of funds at the club you bet your life that more ambition will be shown by merely "replacing" Doyle with Noel Hunt.

Still who wants to have ambition if it means you end up like Birmingham and have something worth watching.

Sorry, although it is quite arguable that some referees might not have given all 3 penalties it is hard to argue against either of ours. In the first one there was contact by the defender on Doyle that caused (ar at least aided) him to fall; the replay of the second one shows a very obvious shove on Lita to prevent him getting to the ball. Theirs was a definite foul, the only argument being whether it was in the penalty area or not. Morally it was a good decision as Sonko clearly impeded a straight run on goal.

As for Sonko's sending off, I am a front runner in the RTG stakes but let's not get carried away. Both bookings were fully justified and he did deserve to walk. It is even arguable that the second offence warranted a straight red on it's own.

Finally, we are 3 games (repeat 3 games) into a season that goes on to May. This is not the time for knee jerk reaction, over detailed assassination of players or management. We were awesome last time we were promoted, but that was probably a one off. It is likely that the teams that do succeed over the whole of this season will lose a few games - so let's just anticipate a few defeats among the wins and draws. Saturday was not a good result, but it also not the end of RFC's season.

[premiership_bound]

Out of interest at the same stage last season, Stoke and Hull had both lost one and West Brom had lost two. Early season form is not always a good indicator on how the season will progress.

[dean horrix legend]

Out of interest at the same stage last season, Stoke and Hull had both lost one and West Brom had lost two. Early season form is not always a good indicator on how the season will progress.

Even when we stormed this league,we had lost one game at this stage.

[rg6royal]

I don't see why people have written us off, saying we are shambles and everything has gone wrong. Typical Reading faithful ey...

[Platypuss]

I don't see why people have written us off, saying we are shambles and everything has gone wrong. Typical Reading faithful ey...

How would you know?

[loyalroyal4life]

I don't see why people have written us off, saying we are shambles and everything has gone wrong. Typical Reading faithful ey...

I think it is more of a case that people can see signs that signal that this season is going to be much harder than alot may think based on how we have performed thus far. Against charlton even though we came back from 2-0 down and a seriously dodgy ref, we were taken apart throughout the game. We should be the team taking others apart but the quality or moreso the desire just does not seem to be there

[Barry the bird boggler]

I don't see why people have written us off, saying we are shambles and everything has gone wrong. Typical Reading faithful ey...

Its more voices of worry, all we have seen from the club for tha last year or so is, lets face it, mainly cr*p signings, no money being spent, no ambition being shown and the way this season has started and the performances given have hardly done anything to allay those concerns.

All credit if Steve manages to turn it round but given the above conditions many of us can't see it happening.

[Royalee]

LOL @ the car park crew

4 goaLOLs at CharLOLton

Very constructive

More constructive than their protest to take us backwards for a year.