Back from the Preston game

[bcubed]

Coppel has said on the OS that he was dissapointed with the Ref stop-starting the game, i felt we got the majority of the decisions our way, and given that i always seem to think the majority of our goals are scored from set pieces I dont get why hes bitching about it. Thought we did ok by the ref today to be honest.

You have got to be kidding - the ref should have taken action against some very hefty Preston challenges early on and someone would have ended up being sent off without much doubt.
How he let them off when they stopped the keeper from kicking the ball without a card I’ll never know
And if Coppell says this much in public you can be sure he actually thought the guy was f*king awful

[bikey_is_god!]

Tell you what, Preston were awful. We should have mashed them but there we go. And Royalee, i thought we looked a different team after the subs, Coppell shook it up and it worked (a bit) . If we'd played like we did at the end it could've been a cricket score.

A Fed- 7 solid (i love his kicking! really adds another dimension)
Armstrong- 7 he IS shorey....
Doobs- 8 top quality in the air, shame about the distribution
Pearce- 8 very assured but ,again, poor distribution marred his performance a tad.
Rosenior- 6 bit below par, but some good covering
SHunt- 5 distinctly average (ole,ole,ole,ole....bobby convey)
Kebe- 6 unselfish, but unthreatening. Not quite as bad as hunt.
Lita- 8 played the "doyle position", tracking back etc. very well. Even took a throw in and made a cross. Committed performance from a reformed (?) man.
Doyle- 6 played a bit further up, but no real success.

Subs-
NHunt- 7 Looked a quite good winger... hmm
Marek- 8 classy as hell! wow. makes mistakes, but now January's gone lets use him please.
Long-5 got a bit overexcited.

there is still hope! I hope.....

[moo]

Tell you what, Preston were awful. We should have mashed them but there we go. And Royalee, i thought we looked a different team after the subs, Coppell shook it up and it worked (a bit) . If we'd played like we did at the end it could've been a cricket score.

A Fed- 7 solid (i love his kicking! really adds another dimension)(bit generic, wtf does this mean??)
Armstrong- 7 he IS shorey....
Doobs- 8 top quality in the air, shame about the distribution
Pearce- 8 very assured but ,again, poor distribution marred his performance a tad.
Rosenior- 6 bit below par, but some good covering
SHunt- 5 distinctly average (ole,ole,ole,ole....bobby convey)
Kebe- 6 unselfish, but unthreatening. Not quite as bad as hunt.
Lita- 8 played the "doyle position", tracking back etc. very well. Even took a throw in and made a cross. Committed performance from a reformed (?) man.
Doyle- 6 played a bit further up, but no real success.

Subs-
NHunt- 7 Looked a quite good winger... hmm
Marek- 8 classy as hell! wow. makes mistakes, but now January's gone lets use him please.
Long-5 got a bit overexcited.

there is still hope! I hope.....

[Snowball]

Let's face it though, we have been poor for months.

And in those months we have taken 26 from 39 points. Championship form I'm sure you'll agree.
It seems Reading are a victim of their own recent success and some supporters have no patience. It seems to be the way of the world these days, everyone is after instant gratification but that is another matter.

It's no surprise that those who don't see the games are more positive than those who do.

Stats don't tell the full story. I'd take a points in any form necessary but you can't tell me that with the way we are currently playing you are not concerned that we are going to be caught?

HANG ON A MINUTE!!

We are averaging championship winning form (2 points a game) over the last 13 games
and we are clear of Birmingham and Cardiff, and form-side Swansea are still a long way back

15 games to go... so Cardiff will need to win BOTH their games in hand, then get 33 points
from 15 games... that's 39 points from 17 games... 2.29 points a game

46 games at 2.29 would be 105.34 points that's the equivalent of a 105/106 points season


Swansea look like a brilliant side but they have to make up TWELVE points in 15 games

If we manage 30 in 15 (IF) (but that's our current form) they have to get 42 points out of 45

If they do that they DESERVE to go up.

And remember that Swansea play Cardiff, Wolves play Birmingham etc

[Pool and Darts]

Dull and we yet again fail to take advantage of our closest rivals misfortune.

NOT true.

Prior to today Birmingham had 16 games to catch us and pass us.

Now they only have 15, so they are fractionally worse off.

And we gained a point on Wolves


IMO things are looking ROSY

should of been 3 gained, THAT is taking advantage.

and to be fair brum are 2 points behind so can actually catch and pass us with 1 game let alone 15, by winning today we would have stopped that being possible, so i have to say we failed to take advantage.

I can't be arsed to read through 6 pages of this bollocks , but if it is as bad as this I won't have missed much.

Maybe we will lose 10-0 and Brum will win by 13.

[Maguire]

Bored to tears. Leroy did well though - whoever said Doyle had a better game is blind.

[Maguire]

Oh, and a racist.

[true blue 4 ever]

It wasnt great, but we had lots of territory and possession without managing to unlock the defence.

I dont know why Harper refuses to pass forward, run forward or give us anything creativity wise. He has pace, has scored goals, made goals and pinged 40 yard passes before but this season he has been shite and has to be dropped.

Give Marek a chance next game and have Jay Tabb on the bench instead of Long.

I totally agree...Harper must be dropped. His contribution this season is dire. He seems only capable of passing a short ball sideways. What he is great at though and as far as I can see, his only attribute...is waving his arms about asking other players to do what he can't or wont do himself

[Wizard]

I enjoyed the game today, but I enjoy most games as I can't get to many.

Thought Marek, Noel and Shane all looked pretty good when they came on, gave us some oomph that had been missing. Just a shame we couldn't find the net.
Though Pearce and Armstrong looked out best players out there today.

[79Royal]

Wolves lost at home to Preston (and also away to QPR).
Birmingham lost away at Preston (and also away to QPR).

Brum play Preston at home in the penultimate game of the season and they've still got Sheff Utd, Wolves and Us to come.

Wolves have still got Brum, Cardiff and QPR to play this season.

Cardiff have still got to play Wolves, Sheff Utd, QPR, Swansea and Preston and an FA cup tie against Arsenal.

Swansea still have to face QPR, Cardiff and Sheff Utd, plus a distracting FA cup tie against Premier League opposition.

We have got Sheff U and Birmingham to play at home.

Whilst the past two games have been dull and we need Coppell to freshen the side up (Harper and Kebe need a rest for a start), I'm not going to start looking for a rope and the nearest exposed beam just yet.

[Avon Royal]

Wolves lost at home to Preston (and also away to QPR).
Birmingham lost away at Preston (and also away to QPR).

Brum play Preston at home in the penultimate game of the season and they've still got Sheff Utd, Wolves and Us to come.

Wolves have still got Brum, Cardiff and QPR to play this season.

Cardiff have still got to play Wolves, Sheff Utd, QPR, Swansea and Preston and an FA cup tie against Arsenal.

Swansea still have to face QPR, Cardiff and Sheff Utd, plus a distracting FA cup tie against Premier League opposition.

We have got Sheff U and Birmingham to play at home.

Whilst the past two games have been dull and we need Coppell to freshen the side up (Harper and Kebe need a rest for a start), I'm not going to start looking for a rope and the nearest exposed beam just yet.

Blimey!

Some common sense on HNA, whatever next?

[PieEater]

It was a dire game, and a hugely missed opportunity to close in on Wolves, but if we'd of won 1-0 people would be raving about how great we are.

The fact is we totally dominated the play but failed to take what few chances we had. I though Preston were very lucky.

As for the style of play, it's simple. The pitch is absolutely shite. The sooner the grass starts growing and we get a proper playing surface our free flowing style will return.

[The Real Sandhurst Royal]

Another 0 – 0 draw…. I am fed up with reading clean sheets win championships it’s goals that win game and the way Reading are set up to play at this moment in time it is totally defensive. We lack midfield options we are flat we do not get forward quick enough and when Kebe and Stephen Hunt do get the ball in open play they cannot deliver a cross to a player it is hit and hope. Harper and Cisse play to deep together in midfield to break the play up.

Mr Coppell change the system and the way the midfield plays we need to create more and get forward to give our forwards a chance to score if we don’t I am afraid we will miss out on a top two slot..

Open play has been a problem all year, early on in the season we were scoring every game from corners and free kicks. Where has the delivery gone from Hunt!!

We keep talking about Wolves and Birmingham well Cardiff are just behind now with games in hand, so the run in could be between four sides.

[Snowball]

Wolves lost at home to Preston (and also away to QPR).
Birmingham lost away at Preston (and also away to QPR).

Brum play Preston at home in the penultimate game of the season and they've still got Sheff Utd, Wolves and Us to come.
Wolves have still got Brum, Cardiff and QPR to play this season.
Cardiff have still got to play Wolves, Sheff Utd, QPR, Swansea and Preston and an FA cup tie against Arsenal.
Swansea still have to face QPR, Cardiff and Sheff Utd, plus a distracting FA cup tie against Premier League opposition.
We have got Sheff U and Birmingham to play at home.
Whilst the past two games have been dull and we need Coppell to freshen the side up (Harper and Kebe need a rest for a start), I'm not going to start looking for a rope and the nearest exposed beam just yet.

Well said 79... is that why the bookies have us as favorites for the title?

[PieEater]

... and Preston are the first side I've seen take the ball to the corner flag to get a 0-0.

[Snowball]

We keep talking about Wolves and Birmingham well Cardiff are just behind now with games in hand, so the run in could be between four sides.

Imagine Reading were fourth, on Cardiff's run, and Cardiff had 59 points from 31 games...


READING are eight points behind CARDIFF with a MUCH worse goal difference.

Fancy Reading's chances? What bookie's odds would you want to finish above Reading?


"Reading" have to win BOTH their games in hand to get within two points of "Cardiff"
(and this Cardiff are averaging two points a game for their last 13 games)
and THEN, with only 15 games left, we still have to get an extra three points.


This list would be predicting we would have NO CHANCE and would "probably blow up eventually and end up seventh"!!!!

[Schards#2]

We've been here before with Coppell, 04/05 we had a string of poor performances and results that took us from looking good for automatic promotion to missing the play offs. Last year a similar run took us from mid table into relegation.

In both instances, Coppell didn't seem to have an answer to how to stop the rot, he kept playing the same team and the same tactics and seemed to just hope that it would turn around.

We are not in this scenario yet but, on average, performances have been dreadful since christmas though despite this, we have got 10 points from 7 games. Again, we see little change to the side other than through injury, despite these poor performances. We need to kick start after the 2 week break or we are in serious danger of the season petering out badly as those previous seasons did and some fresh blood in the form of Tabb, Henry and Matejovsky getting involved might freshen things up.

[Snowball]

Coppell has it right when he says most sides no longer come to Reading to play,
they come to spoil and stop us. We are a victims of our success


Same thing happened to Arsenal. We went to Man Utd for our 0-0 there.


We have to face the fact that games are going to be difficult, against 4-5-1 or 5-5-0
and we need to find DIFFERENT ways to unlock the door.

I think that has to mean Matejovsky playing.

On the radio (no, I went to the game , this was on the way back) Gooding was
saying he thinks SSC won't play Matty with Kebe and SHunt because the defence
might be put under more pressure.

But we NEED something like Matty's defence-splitting through passes, or Kebe to turn brilliant
skills into actual chances and goals.

1
Would one way would be to put Noel Hunt RW? That solves the defensive
issues on the right and would allow Matty in for Harper or Cisse. One of
those two plays defensive midfield and allows Matty to play a bit.

2
Another way would be 4-5-1 with Noel RW, Cisse-Harper (or whatever defensive MF you fancy)
and Matty in a free role, attacking MF, supporting Doyle. We still have a goal-scorer on the RW
who would be a striker every time the ball is coming in from the left.

3
This will never happen but, what if we swopped Kebe and Noel Hunt's positions?

Don't knee-jerk and jump down my throat.

Noel Hunt has plenty of experience as RW and would get goals from out there.

What Kebe has is a brilliant first-trick that makes space for himself and awesome speed. He sometimes
does too much and eventually loses it... but he's out wide... what if he was getting the ball smack
centre of the goal on the edge of the box or on the penalty spot?

Doyle, Hunt, Lita, Long are conventional hard-working strikers that a good defensive unit can deal with.

Kebe is mercurial, unknown there, likely to do odd things. He'd buy a lot of fouls on the edge of the box
or penalties inside it. PS and before you say he can't shoot, check his stats on the Reading web-site

Shots on target, shots off target, hit woodwork

Kevin Doyle 36 22 3
Noel Hunt 25 17 3
Jimmy Kebe 18 19 1 AS A WINGER

[Jeffers217]

Lol I werent there but yet again find a few things funny...

- How come every other team say Reading will go up because they have held on to certain players, who after every match get slagged off by their own fans?! Shunt and Harps are awful yet still seen as our best players when neither should be in the team. Coppell bums them too much and they will both need replacing if we go back up

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Same old Long Ball.