Pre-season friendlies

[sandman]

Blimey weve scored a goal

A what?

[higher]

McCleary ran onto a loose ball and smashed an unstoppable shot past Mildenhall from 25 yards or more

[super darren caskey]

a wonder strike from McCleary going by facebook.

[sandman]

Ohhhh a goal. I remember those.

[Libertine]

A what?

[super darren caskey]

Is anybody on here at the game?

Hows Pog been doing? looking any threat or just getting the ball and falling over?

[Libertine]

Tbf I am just as concerned about shipping 5 goals in a little more than a game and a half than I am with our recent preseason goal scoring struggles. I really thought our defense was going to be one of our biggest strengths this season.

[glass half full]

a wonder strike from McCleary going by facebook.

Well done, McLeary! I like the look of him this season..

[higher]

The mercurial young Craig Tanner on for McCleary..sets up Ugwu with first touch only to see shot blocked

[loyalroyal4life]

McCleary's one of our best players to be fair. Thought he did really well every time he played last season.

+1

[jellytot]

Agreed we didn't look like scoring at home to stoke until he came on.

[One8Seven1]

McCleary's one of our best players to be fair. Thought he did really well every time he played last season.

+1

Agreed. Question is, who plays on the left? McCleary should have a start on the right nailed on. Left is a difficult one because McAnuff is the captain, but there are better wingers I'd prefer to see in his place - Kebe and HRK, and Obita now impressing for a second summer and now looks ready to come in. Jobi has, or should have, a tough job on his hands to keep his place.

[paulholsgrove83]

Full Time - Bristol Rovers 2-1 Reading

[TBM]

Improvement on yesterday i suppose

[Libertine]

Well being a tough away game we gave it a go and almost fought back to get a draw. Tbf I was not expecting we would get anything from such a difficult game against a talented and well organized side.

[URZZZZZ]

Well being a tough away game we gave it a go and almost fought back to get a draw. Tbf I was not expecting we would get anything from such a difficult game against a talented and well organized side.

Was we not playing Bristol Rovers???

[Ian Royal]

Couple of questions Ian. In the numerous pre season games you've seen this year how many times has Federici carelessly lost the ball to a striker and subsequently given away a penalty? How many times has he thrown the ball to an opposition striker?

How many times has McCarthy palmed an easy save straight to an opposition player in the middle of the six yard box?

They've both had shit pre-seasons.

That was a pretty weak midfield we had out there against Bristol. Add Williams in for D'Ath and we might have looked a little different I'd guess.

[Libertine]

Well being a tough away game we gave it a go and almost fought back to get a draw. Tbf I was not expecting we would get anything from such a difficult game against a talented and well organized side.

Was we not playing Bristol Rovers???

Yes, yes we were...

[winchester_royal]

Good to see you guys aren't overreacting to a meaningless friendly against a side considerably more 'up for it' than our hastily assembled second string

FTR though the second half was considerably more impressive than the first, especially once Ugwu came on and we had some decent hold-up play up top.

Positives:

- D'ath had a decent second half, made a few good runs from deep with the ball
- McCleary was excellent in parts
- Ugwu looked a handful.
- Pog actually turned up after HT
- Tanner is skillz

Negatives:

- Akpan barely got into it, though excuses can be made given he played 45 yesterday
- Obita was disappointing for me
- Cummings is not a LB
- First half Pog was embarassing

We looked like what we were tbh, a second string side trying to get through 90 mins without any knocks.

[glass half full]

Well being a tough away game we gave it a go and almost fought back to get a draw. Tbf I was not expecting we would get anything from such a difficult game against a talented and well organized side.

Well said, Mr. Adkins!