Back from the Game - 'boro

[melonhead]

We come back to the old question of whether we go to football only to see our team win at any cost or do we go to enjoy the style of football that we play and at the same time hope for success.

im sorry- but i fail to see how anyone who supports reading does so because they hoped for any success, apart from if they started supporting under steve coppell, & under coppell the football was exciting, mostly because we were successful, but it wasnt really beautiful.

i also fail to see how they could possibly do it for the amazingly beautiful team football(possibly unless they did it under mcgee)

for most of our history, we have been neither successful nor beautiful.
so it seems churlish to begin demanding either, now.

You never saw the Mansell team then.
Just one season of fantastic attacking football with loads of goals,that was indeed beautiful and successful if only judged on giving Man Utd a real game in the Watney cup final.
Churlish maybe but football surely is all about dreams isn't it rather than just accepting what you are given?

footballs about getting your dreams crushed,
and humiliation,
and embarrassment,
and pain,
and misery, punctuated by fleeting moments of joy so wonderful that it hurts.


of course its about dreams and hopes, but that doesnt mean youd stop supporting them if they didnt deliver everything you hoped for.

[melonhead]

106 football wasnt that beautiful.

stick two FB more able to bomb on in this team, and wed be quite close

If we had two bombing forward would our defence be so good?
There you go,even you (the diehard whatever Reading do is fine by me and I will never criticise because I humbly accept whatever is given to me in a kinda Baldrick way) want us to be more attractive.

nope, im happy with how we are thanks.

murts and shorey were two of the best defensive FBs too though, our defence was rock solid cos they bombed forward, and then got back.
i think this team plays the coppell way,quick breaking, play it out to the wings, or into the channels, effective football.
to be quite honest, thats as beautiful as i have ever wanted it
you can stick your barcelona and swansea style up your arse

[Maguire]

iobviously the 106 team had better players, goes without saying.
at least it should have done

Guess I was thrown by the bit when you said a couple of full-backs were largely the difference.

Contradictory drug-addled, dog-killing spastic

[melonhead]

iobviously the 106 team had better players, goes without saying.
at least it should have done

Guess I was thrown by the bit when you said a couple of full-backs were largely the difference.

Contradictory drug-addled, dog-killing spastic

wasnt talking about players, was talking about tactics.
you .......erm.......massively tall person

[Extended-Phenotype]

106 football wasnt that beautiful.

F/ck off. Compared to this it was Keira f/cking Knightley. We were scoring twice as many, winning twice as many, the passing was quicker and more fluid, the skill of the goals better, players better, it was great, pacey, attacking football.

This is hold and hit, two banks of four, direct, few as possible passes, set-piece footy. It's what suits our boys, and gets results, but you can't feasibly hang it on the same wall as the 106ers. That would be like putting a photo of you, next to a photo of me.

[old woman]

Have to say, having been at the game, I don't recall us winning easily. At 70 minutes the lad next to me said he didn't think he could take another 20 minutes. I don't want Barcelona or Swansea and a win is a win, but let's not pretend that we were dominant. At any point 'Boro could have scored.

[Archie's penalty]

106 football wasnt that beautiful.

stick two FB more able to bomb on in this team, and wed be quite close

If we had two bombing forward would our defence be so good?
There you go,even you (the diehard whatever Reading do is fine by me and I will never criticise because I humbly accept whatever is given to me in a kinda Baldrick way) want us to be more attractive.

He doesn't humbly accept it, he overwhelming embraces and over-positises it. And to be fair the board without Brendy would just be one mass suicide in a ditch (with painted cocks on people's foreheads).

God bless you Brenders, like.

[melonhead]

106 football wasnt that beautiful.

F/ck off. Compared to this it was Keira f/cking Knightley. We were scoring twice as many, winning twice as many, the passing was quicker and more fluid, the skill of the goals better, players better, it was great, pacey, attacking football.

This is hold and hit, two banks of four, direct, few as possible passes, set-piece footy. It's what suits our boys, and gets results, but you can't feasibly hang it on the same wall as the 106ers. That would be like putting a photo of you, next to a photo of me.

i agree with your first statement


this:

hold and hit, two banks of four, direct, few as possible passes,

is pretty much coppells thing.


its just that team did it better and more succesfully, cos it had better players.

when this team gets it right- like Vs brighton and west ham- its exactly the same.

[melonhead]

106 football wasnt that beautiful.

stick two FB more able to bomb on in this team, and wed be quite close

If we had two bombing forward would our defence be so good?
There you go,even you (the diehard whatever Reading do is fine by me and I will never criticise because I humbly accept whatever is given to me in a kinda Baldrick way) want us to be more attractive.

He doesn't humbly accept it, he overwhelming embraces and over-positises it. And to be fair the board without Brendy would just be one mass suicide in a ditch (with painted cocks on people's foreheads).

God bless you Brenders, like.

fanks

tbf- im not saying its great football- in fact during every game of the recent run through january and feb ive said its not pretty to watch, and that most of the games have been pretty dull.
im just saying i dont know where all this demand for great football comes from.

[Maguire]

At any point 'Boro could have scored.

Well not really as they didn't have any decent chances, which is kind of the point - we had the best chance of the game that didn't go in.

I wasn't at the game btw so i'm not arguing with your general observation that we didn't win easily - totally accept your opinion given you made the trip up there.

[Snowball]

F/ck off. Compared to this it was Keira f/cking Knightley. We were scoring twice as many, winning twice as many

24 is not double 17, 70 is not double 41.


This season RFC lost 4 of the first 6, the current team
up against a team that broke every record.

1 Reading 32 24-7-1 70-19 +51 79
3 Reading 32 17-6-9 41-27 +14 57


But here's how it looks with the first six games missing for both teams


1 Reading 26 20-6-0 57-16 +41 66 (Record-Breaking Side with Investment)
3 Reading 26 16-5-5 38-19 +19 53 (Side built with scraps on de-investment, until 5 games ago.)


Have to say though, there were some great games back in the day

[old woman]

At any point 'Boro could have scored.

Well not really as they didn't have any decent chances, which is kind of the point - we had the best chance of the game that didn't go in.

I wasn't at the game btw so i'm not arguing with your general observation that we didn't win easily - totally accept your opinion given you made the trip up there.

Feel a bit fraudulent 'cos I live in the frozen North so this is my nearest game.
Accept that they had no real chances but I always felt nervous when they were in our half.

[Bedale Royal]

Not for the first time this season, I despair at some of the cretins on this board. We've just beaten (comfortably) a team that had lost fewer games than any other in the Championship, away from home and without conceding for the fifth game in a row...and there are STILL people bemoaning the performance.

Yea, people coming on here and expressing their opinion. Bleedin' disgraceful.

[Shortbread]

Feel a bit fraudulent 'cos I live in the frozen North so this is my nearest game.{/quote]

Can sympathise: my nearest thing to a home game, too. And I used to live on Teesside, so the victory was especially sweet!

Accept that they had no real chances but I always felt nervous when they were in our half.

Can't agree here, though: I thought the game was over a long time before Harte's free kick went in, and in contrast to you I was feeling increasingly comfortable as the game went on. Boro had an awful lot of possession, especially in the first 15 minutes, and I was beginning to fear a long afternoon but we allowed them to do so little with it that I thought we were always in charge and utterly, utterly comfortable. Key for me was that the Boro, er, crowd was quiet apart from a couple of minutes in the second half and I never got the impression they believed they'd succeed in breaking down our highly disciplined defence. Sure, against a team with greater firepower (Boro are self-confessedly weak up front) we might have conceded chances, but it struck me that we'd done a complete job on them. And the subbing of their most effective player was, to me, Mowbray waving the white flag.

Highly impressed with the defence - especially with an iron discipline not to get dragged out of position - a couple of times I can recall Pearce following his man out but cover being quickly put in place and then a deliberate touch-off on his return to the defence, 'releasing' the covering man back to his own position. We're organised, keep our shape and going places. Granted, not always pretty but highly effective and, at the end of the day, we've absolutely dominated a key promotion rival on their own patch. Got to be happy with that.

Two goals, a nailed-on penalty not given presumably out of sympathy for a miserable Boro, and Roberts' one-on-one (from which he should have done a bit better).

Man of the match - Ledge. Or, alternatively, the bloke stood behind me who was commenting to his mate 'Keeper's out of position, here' with Harte hitting the back of the net about 0.5 seconds later. Fair play to ya!

[Rex]

Retrospective opinions on a game always ooze confidence after a win. Up to the point of Hartes free kick we could have conceeded. Possibly the tide had slightly turned in out favour with us pushing forward on the break, but it was just that- on the break. If Fedders hadn't been on top of his game and fumbled any of the low and direct shots at pace, we would be bemoaning the narrow margin. It was squeaky bum time but if you feel the it was job done and we could have sat back and absorbed all the second half- you show an amazing amount of confidence.

[Shortbread]

Not retrospective - felt this at the time, and even at 1-0. Genuinely thought we could have played all evening and not conceded. Though I tend not to tempt fate by speaking aloud at the time!

A double fist punch was Fed's only save of note and, as someone said further up, most of the rest of Boro's efforts on goal he could have thrown a cap on: most of them weren't shots at pace. And no serious, sustained pressure: they got nowhere near enough to our goal. Mistakes can happen, sure, but anticipating your keeper making a mistake on what was fairly routine stuff doesn't mean squeaky bum time or that that we weren't in complete control. We had a clear game plan and executed it superbly. Job done, really.

[RFCUK]

Have to say, having been at the game, I don't recall us winning easily. At 70 minutes the lad next to me said he didn't think he could take another 20 minutes. I don't want Barcelona or Swansea and a win is a win, but let's not pretend that we were dominant. At any point 'Boro could have scored.

^This

[Elm Park Old Boy]

I have said from the start of this season that I felt any 3 from about 10 sides could get promotion with very little between those 10 or so sides whereas last season the 3 that went up were the best 3 in terms of success and attractive football and this season they have carried on,with some success,where they left off.
I feel that whoever goes up will need to make massive changes if they are going to stay up-West Ham have Noble and Green,Southampton Lalana and Lambert and we have Kebe and Frederici but beyond those players these 3 teams don't have much more and don't forget that West Ham got relegated with Ba and Parker in their side and are much inferior to that relegated side yet are vying for top spot in this division.

Didn't Cardiff just take Liverpool all the way at Wembley? I don't think the Championship is as poor as people make out. And some of the teams are much better at being just that - teams - than their Premier counterparts.

[Rex]

Not retrospective - felt this at the time, and even at 1-0. Genuinely thought we could have played all evening and not conceded. Though I tend not to tempt fate by speaking aloud at the time!

A double fist punch was Fed's only save of note and, as someone said further up, most of the rest of Boro's efforts on goal he could have thrown a cap on: most of them weren't shots at pace. And no serious, sustained pressure: they got nowhere near enough to our goal. Mistakes can happen, sure, but anticipating your keeper making a mistake on what was fairly routine stuff doesn't mean squeaky bum time or that that we weren't in complete control. We had a clear game plan and executed it superbly. Job done, really.

Fair play. I wish I had the confidence. Perhaps we have a way of lazily commanding a match that doesn't come across all the time.

[FiNeRaIn]

West Ham have Noble and Green,Southampton Lalana and Lambert and we have Kebe and Frederici but beyond those players these 3 teams don't have much more and don't forget that West Ham got relegated with Ba and Parker in their side and are much inferior to that relegated side yet are vying for top spot in this division.

To say west ham dont have much more than noble and green is frankly laughable. They aren't even their best players.