Back from the Watford game...

[tee peg]

I must have watched a different game.How can you give Doobs the same rating as Ingi?

[readingbedding]

I'm surprised by the "we didn't deserve to win 4-0" comments because I thought we did. The second half performance was a good throw back to the 05/06 days where we bossed it. Our pass and move play, especially down the wings was much improved. Cisse did a great job in the middle and made up for Harpers usual non-existance.

I really like NHunt, he never stops running and has some great hold up play. I thought he took his goal well.

A big LOL @ Lita, it's the only time I've booed (in my head) when one of our players scored. The chest banging, I mean come on. Give it a break and oxf*rd off. His miss about five minutes before his goal was top draw; open goal, no challenge, easy header, puts it well wide.

That's nice.

[S09Royal]

I'm surprised by the "we didn't deserve to win 4-0" comments because I thought we did. The second half performance was a good throw back to the 05/06 days where we bossed it. Our pass and move play, especially down the wings was much improved. Cisse did a great job in the middle and made up for Harpers usual non-existance.

I really like NHunt, he never stops running and has some great hold up play. I thought he took his goal well.

A big LOL @ Lita, it's the only time I've booed (in my head) when one of our players scored. The chest banging, I mean come on. Give it a break and oxf*rd off. His miss about five minutes before his goal was top draw; open goal, no challenge, easy header, puts it well wide.

That's nice.

+1

maybe he was too short to get to the end of it?
OR maybe he just mistimed the jump. I like Leroy. Support for him last night was brilliant.

[readingbedding]

I'm surprised by the "we didn't deserve to win 4-0" comments because I thought we did. The second half performance was a good throw back to the 05/06 days where we bossed it. Our pass and move play, especially down the wings was much improved. Cisse did a great job in the middle and made up for Harpers usual non-existance.

I really like NHunt, he never stops running and has some great hold up play. I thought he took his goal well.

A big LOL @ Lita, it's the only time I've booed (in my head) when one of our players scored. The chest banging, I mean come on. Give it a break and oxf*rd off. His miss about five minutes before his goal was top draw; open goal, no challenge, easy header, puts it well wide.

That's nice.

+1

maybe he was too short to get to the end of it?
OR maybe he just mistimed the jump. I like Leroy. Support for him last night was brilliant.

Perhaps she's one of the judges who looks at the presentation of the goal celebration/s.
Come on, give it break and phuck off.
Now that's an expert opinion that should be valued and recognised.

[Rex]

Strikers are about endeavour surely. If every attempt on goal was a success then Southampton would have McGoldrick on 80 goal this season. Ipswich would have scored 204 goals. Doyle would have scored 49 goal. Its that simple.

Lita missing an open goal is about so many factors. Occasion, positioning, angle, distraction, pace......

[CMRoyal]

Some unbelievably negative comments on this thread. True, we weren't at our best, but we certinly did more than enough in patches to deserve the win. And kudos to 18,000+ loyal Royals for turning up on Friday night in freezing conditions when they could have been at home or in the pub watching on the telly. Great reception for Leroy, too.

Scores:-

Fed - 6; comfortable with crosses, good distribution
Rosy - 7; only deserves a 6 for his general passing/defensive work, but involvement in two of the goals deserves an extra mark
Armo - 8; solid, safe as houses and a good clinical finish
Doobs - 8; won everything in the air and reading of the game was a class apart
Ingi - 7; solid
Kebe - 6; control went from the sublime to the ridiculous at times, decision making needs to improve
SHunt - 9; one of his best performances, a combinaton of bustling energy and pin-point creativity
Harps - 8; invisible? I can't believe people are saying that. It wasn't just the pass for the goal, it was the all-round performance. I'd love to see the pro-zone stats on how much grass this criminally underrated player covered last night, and his passing completion rate
Cisse - 8; again, I can't believe the comments here. He barely put a foot wrong all night. Looks like he took a knock, and on this form we'll really miss him if it's serious
NHunt - 7; started really brightly, faded a bit after his goal. But you can't argue with his ability to be in the right place at the right time so consistently
Doyler - 8; usual solid, creative, energetic performance capped with a nice easy goal

Leroy - touch was slightly off, but great finish
ShLong - worked hard, ran the channels, little other impact
Gunnar - solid and unfussy

[mg1976royal]

Doyle's performance was worryingly good with the match being live on sky. Noel Hunt had his best game for a while. He was an absolute menace to the Watford back 4 and turned to score well.

Would like to see Federici keep his place as he is becoming more confident with every game. The back four now seem to have complete trust in him to claim and catch the ball from crosses and corners.

I think coppell now knows his starting 11 but I am still not convinced the midfield would hold its own in the premier league.

Only decided to go to the game at 2pm glad i did despite the cold but had so many clothes on i looked about 8 stone heavier so thankfully didn't really feel the cold.

Was the ref wearing a referee's shirt or a Watford home shirt? I don't know what the stats are but the freekick's awarded seemed very disproportionate?

[AthleticoSpizz]

Some unbelievably negative comments on this thread. True, we weren't at our best, but we certinly did more than enough in patches to deserve the win. And kudos to 18,000+ loyal Royals for turning up on Friday night in freezing conditions when they could have been at home or in the pub watching on the telly. Great reception for Leroy, too.

Scores:-

Fed - 6; comfortable with crosses, good distribution
Rosy - 7; only deserves a 6 for his general passing/defensive work, but involvement in two of the goals deserves an extra mark
Armo - 8; solid, safe as houses and a good clinical finish
Doobs - 8; won everything in the air and reading of the game was a class apart
Ingi - 7; solid
Kebe - 6; control went from the sublime to the ridiculous at times, decision making needs to improve
SHunt - 9; one of his best performances, a combinaton of bustling energy and pin-point creativity
Harps - 8; invisible? I can't believe people are saying that. It wasn't just the pass for the goal, it was the all-round performance. I'd love to see the pro-zone stats on how much grass this criminally underrated player covered last night, and his passing completion rate
Cisse - 8; again, I can't believe the comments here. He barely put a foot wrong all night. Looks like he took a knock, and on this form we'll really miss him if it's serious
NHunt - 7; started really brightly, faded a bit after his goal. But you can't argue with his ability to be in the right place at the right time so consistently
Doyler - 8; usual solid, creative, energetic performance capped with a nice easy goal

Leroy - touch was slightly off, but great finish
ShLong - worked hard, ran the channels, little other impact
Gunnar - solid and unfussy

at last, somebody who was actually watching the game! Spot on

[SCIAG]

Lita 8-I was really hoping he'd score a goal and after he missed that 'easy' header i thought, ah well. Then after Harper spotted Lita unmarked, his finish was very very good. IMHO i really hope we keep this guy. He's better than SLong and proved that last night with a goal, in his first (league) apperance for the club this season!

. My friend made a very good point by saying, 'why do we always rush throw in's and free kicks? we've got time to take them.' Maybe a quickly taken free kick can be an advantage sometimes, but throw in's?

It wasn't Lita's first league appearnce of the season, he made three starts at the start of the season and was utterly dreadful in all three, probably the three worst performances from any individual in our side all season.

Lita did less than Long other than score, and I doubt Long would have missed that. Taking nothing away from Lita though, it was a good finish. However, if Long had done some of the things Lita did (running backwards and forwards on the halfway line messing up a counter attack instead of passing to Rosenior earlier, giving away the ball with some dire touches) then you'd all be slating him. I couldn't understand the enthusiasm when Lita came on, about as exciting as John Halls making a cameo appearance.

We take throw ins quickly to keep the tempo high, it's an effective tactic.

My ratings:
Federici 8-good distribution
Rosenior 7- attacked well and played a major part in two of the goals.
Doobs 6- solid
Ivar 6- solid
Armstrong 7- good goal, pretty average other than that
Kebe 5- poor, should have been Henry starting today going by Coppell's principles
Harper 6.5- good passing, put in some solid tackles, gave away a few fouls
Cisse 6- made one good run, and put in one great tackle where he sprinted fifteen yards before nicking the ball before the player could get his toe to it
SHunt 6.5- average performance, good assist for Armstrong's goal, held up by Hoyte a few times.
NHunt 7- good leaps to create chances for Doyle. Took his goal well.
Doyle 7.5 MOTM- took his goal well

Subs:
Long 6- good link up play, ran into box and came close to scoring.
Lita 6- poor, rating boosted from 5 by his goal
Gunnarsson n/a

[readingbedding]

Lita 8-I was really hoping he'd score a goal and after he missed that 'easy' header i thought, ah well. Then after Harper spotted Lita unmarked, his finish was very very good. IMHO i really hope we keep this guy. He's better than SLong and proved that last night with a goal, in his first (league) apperance for the club this season!

. My friend made a very good point by saying, 'why do we always rush throw in's and free kicks? we've got time to take them.' Maybe a quickly taken free kick can be an advantage sometimes, but throw in's?

It wasn't Lita's first league appearnce of the season, he made three starts at the start of the season and was utterly dreadful in all three, probably the three worst performances from any individual in our side all season.

Lita did less than Long other than score, and I doubt Long would have missed that. Taking nothing away from Lita though, it was a good finish. However, if Long had done some of the things Lita did (running backwards and forwards on the halfway line messing up a counter attack instead of passing to Rosenior earlier, giving away the ball with some dire touches) then you'd all be slating him. I couldn't understand the enthusiasm when Lita came on, about as exciting as John Halls making a cameo appearance.

We take throw ins quickly to keep the tempo high, it's an effective tactic.

My ratings:
Federici 8-good distribution
Rosenior 7- attacked well and played a major part in two of the goals.
Doobs 6- solid
Ivar 6- solid
Armstrong 7- good goal, pretty average other than that
Kebe 5- poor, should have been Henry starting today going by Coppell's principles
Harper 6.5- good passing, put in some solid tackles, gave away a few fouls
Cisse 6- made one good run, and put in one great tackle where he sprinted fifteen yards before nicking the ball before the player could get his toe to it
SHunt 6.5- average performance, good assist for Armstrong's goal, held up by Hoyte a few times.
NHunt 7- good leaps to create chances for Doyle. Took his goal well.
Doyle 7.5 MOTM- took his goal well

Subs:
Long 6- good link up play, ran into box and came close to scoring.
Lita 6- poor, rating boosted from 5 by his goal
Gunnarsson n/a

I know, aren't most fans completely stupid.

[OLLIE KEARNS]

Some unbelievably negative comments on this thread. True, we weren't at our best, but we certinly did more than enough in patches to deserve the win. And kudos to 18,000+ loyal Royals for turning up on Friday night in freezing conditions when they could have been at home or in the pub watching on the telly. Great reception for Leroy, too.

Scores:-

Fed - 6; comfortable with crosses, good distribution
Rosy - 7; only deserves a 6 for his general passing/defensive work, but involvement in two of the goals deserves an extra mark
Armo - 8; solid, safe as houses and a good clinical finish
Doobs - 8; won everything in the air and reading of the game was a class apart
Ingi - 7; solid
Kebe - 6; control went from the sublime to the ridiculous at times, decision making needs to improve
SHunt - 9; one of his best performances, a combinaton of bustling energy and pin-point creativity
Harps - 8; invisible? I can't believe people are saying that. It wasn't just the pass for the goal, it was the all-round performance. I'd love to see the pro-zone stats on how much grass this criminally underrated player covered last night, and his passing completion rate
Cisse - 8; again, I can't believe the comments here. He barely put a foot wrong all night. Looks like he took a knock, and on this form we'll really miss him if it's serious
NHunt - 7; started really brightly, faded a bit after his goal. But you can't argue with his ability to be in the right place at the right time so consistently
Doyler - 8; usual solid, creative, energetic performance capped with a nice easy goal

Leroy - touch was slightly off, but great finish
ShLong - worked hard, ran the channels, little other impact
Gunnar - solid and unfussy

at last, somebody who was actually watching the game! Spot on

I'll second that. An accurate assessment at last. Thank you CM Royal. The only thing I might change would be to mark Fedders up. He didn't have much to but the way he came and caught crosses in the box was top notch. This is the main weakness of Marcus. If Fedders can continue to command his box and match Marcus in other departments then he'll get a long run in the side.

[TFF]

Some unbelievably negative comments on this thread. True, we weren't at our best, but we certinly did more than enough in patches to deserve the win. And kudos to 18,000+ loyal Royals for turning up on Friday night in freezing conditions when they could have been at home or in the pub watching on the telly. Great reception for Leroy, too.

Scores:-

Fed - 6; comfortable with crosses, good distribution
Rosy - 7; only deserves a 6 for his general passing/defensive work, but involvement in two of the goals deserves an extra mark
Armo - 8; solid, safe as houses and a good clinical finish
Doobs - 8; won everything in the air and reading of the game was a class apart
Ingi - 7; solid
Kebe - 6; control went from the sublime to the ridiculous at times, decision making needs to improve
SHunt - 9; one of his best performances, a combinaton of bustling energy and pin-point creativity
Harps - 8; invisible? I can't believe people are saying that. It wasn't just the pass for the goal, it was the all-round performance. I'd love to see the pro-zone stats on how much grass this criminally underrated player covered last night, and his passing completion rate
Cisse - 8; again, I can't believe the comments here. He barely put a foot wrong all night. Looks like he took a knock, and on this form we'll really miss him if it's serious
NHunt - 7; started really brightly, faded a bit after his goal. But you can't argue with his ability to be in the right place at the right time so consistently
Doyler - 8; usual solid, creative, energetic performance capped with a nice easy goal

Leroy - touch was slightly off, but great finish
ShLong - worked hard, ran the channels, little other impact
Gunnar - solid and unfussy

at last, somebody who was actually watching the game! Spot on

All spot on apart from central defence. Doobs spent the entire first half trying to make sure he doesn't get picked against Swansea. Much better second half but that was mostly against a broken team. Ingi was solid all night and unlucky to pick out the keeper with a blistering shot.

Ingi 7
Doobs 6

[LoyalRoyalFan]

It was very very cold and a very very unconvincing win. We had a dreadful first half were we didn't make many chances apart from Armstrong's and Watford were a tade over us. We bumped overselves up in the second half and we played a little better. Nice to see a good reception from the fans to Leroy. At least he scored. But i do think that the performance tonight from both teams and fans was affected by the cold snap.

[SteveRoyal]

Hunt Brothers Reaction
I love our Hunt brothers.

[RoyalBlue]

Got back from the game and straight away turned on my DVD recorder/player, keen to watch the Sky Coverage of the game.

For some reason I have a perfect recording of the sound/commentary but no picture at all!

Not sure whether it was a problem with Sky, Virgin Media or my DVD recorder (although the latter still seemed to be working perfectly when I tried to record other programmes).

Will now have to make do with the limited coverage of The Championship and Goals on Sunday so the more games postponed today the better!!

Was it a penalty to us BTW?

It wasn't Lita's first league appearnce of the season, he made three starts at the start of the season and was utterly dreadful in all three, probably the three worst performances from any individual in our side all season.

Lita did less than Long other than score, and I doubt Long would have missed that.

I doubt he would have made the run in the first place, let alone finish it like that!

[Royal Rother]

I'm almost tempted to watch the game again to see how Cisse can have got a few decent marks. Maybe he quietly did the easy things as midfielders need to do at times but I only really noticed poor touches and misplaced passes.

[FiNeRaIn]

double

[FiNeRaIn]

Goal of the season from so far,one touch, beautiful strike past the keeper, only leroy could score a goal so good. Lita is the best player at the club IMO.

[RoyalBlue]

I'm almost tempted to watch the game again to see how Cisse can have got a few decent marks. Maybe he quietly did the easy things as midfielders need to do at times but I only really noticed poor touches and misplaced passes.

Please do watch it again. He did quietly do the easy things midfielders need to do. Showed more great than poor touches and came close to scoring.

Some unbelievably negative comments on this thread. True, we weren't at our best, but we certinly did more than enough in patches to deserve the win. And kudos to 18,000+ loyal Royals for turning up on Friday night in freezing conditions when they could have been at home or in the pub watching on the telly. Great reception for Leroy, too.

Scores:-


Harps - 8; invisible? I can't believe people are saying that. It wasn't just the pass for the goal, it was the all-round performance. I'd love to see the pro-zone stats on how much grass this criminally underrated player covered last night, and his passing completion rate

Spot on CM! Some of his forward (yes, forward!) passing was absolutely sublime. One occasion in the second half he picked up possession on the left of our defence, shimmied past a challenge, looked up and chipped a fantastic pass into the run of N Hunt between two defenders. Hunt didn't have to look back even as the ball dropped over his shoulder perfectly into his stride. A pass that reminded me of the talents of the also much maligned Mr Caskey!!

[Royal Rother]

Was it a penalty to us BTW?

Definitely - but it wasn't much of a tug and most players would have had the strength to brush it off and get their nut on the ball. Kebe is a bit weak really and seems not to relish the physical stuff.