Back in the car, soaked (Nottm Forest A)

[windermere_royal]

I see the Forest fans are slagging you off winch on their forums

Antonio is shit fellas, you'll figure it out eventually..

They're going to love me.

Antonio was up against the ever woeful and positionally absent Chris Gunter, hardly proof that he's gods gift to wing play. Gunter lost underneath an aerial and unable to time a header is not exactly breaking news either. Talking of positionally absent our other full back was playing on the wrong side and despite giving it an admirable go recently under difficult circumstances is just not up to playing left back.

He (Antonio) may very well have gone from Sir Tripsalot to now be Sir Tripsabitless scoring against a defence that has been consistently awful for 2 years+ but he's always going to be a pretty average footballer, with a bit of pace, who will get found out the better the player he goes up against.

Stay patient and we'll produce wingers with far brighter futures in the game than Michail Antonio. In fact we've already got one, his name is Jordan Obita and when such time as we get a new manager or this one gets a clue and realises he's not a central midfielder we will all be better off.

Very well said sir

[P!ssed Off]

Summary of my first away game in around seven years owing to work commitments.
9.00-9.45 brekkers in the Monks
9.57-12.45 travel Reading-Nottingham via London with 6 pack of fosters
16.20 Sorry to say by this time my great day had turned a little sour, so we headed back to the canal but not before getting drenched by a torrential downpour,
16.30-18.20 loads more decent beer, so the day wasn`t a complete disaster.
My final view on the actual football side.
We were talking on the way up, if we were going to put in the young blood then this was definately not the game to do it in.
Adkins clearly didn`t have the same way of thinking. wrong on so many counts.
While Kuhl had a very tidy game he and the other youngsters and not ready for the tough 90 minute world of championship football yet, it`s just brainless to throw in the kids all at one go.
Some will argue that Adkins has few options due to an injury crisis unprecedendied in Royals history, but didn`t we know about this this before a ball was kicked in anger this season?
I`m all for giving our promising youth a chance to show their talents, but to much and too fast really could leave them scarred forever.

Neither are you by the sounds of it.

[windermere_royal]

Summary of my first away game in around seven years owing to work commitments.
9.00-9.45 brekkers in the Monks
9.57-12.45 travel Reading-Nottingham via London with 6 pack of fosters
16.20 Sorry to say by this time my great day had turned a little sour, so we headed back to the canal but not before getting drenched by a torrential downpour,
16.30-18.20 loads more decent beer, so the day wasn`t a complete disaster.
My final view on the actual football side.
We were talking on the way up, if we were going to put in the young blood then this was definately not the game to do it in.
Adkins clearly didn`t have the same way of thinking. wrong on so many counts.
While Kuhl had a very tidy game he and the other youngsters and not ready for the tough 90 minute world of championship football yet, it`s just brainless to throw in the kids all at one go.
Some will argue that Adkins has few options due to an injury crisis unprecedendied in Royals history, but didn`t we know about this this before a ball was kicked in anger this season?
I`m all for giving our promising youth a chance to show their talents, but to much and too fast really could leave them scarred forever.

Neither are you by the sounds of it.

Your opinion entirely sir, I paid my money and made my decision, there was no way way on this earth that we were coming back from 4 down,
I`ve sat through many a 90 minute thrashing in all my years watching us so I don`t really need to be told about the rights and wrongs about leaving early,
Before even entering the ground today I believed we were on a hiding to nothing, conceding 3 in 20 minutes after the break tipped me over the edge, and I will not apologise for leaving early.

[P!ssed Off]

No need to apologise. I just thought I would do the sociable thing and introduce the pot to the kettle.
See you in 2021.

[gazzer, loyal royal]

Thought we controlled the game ok in the first half, we just have absolutely nothing up front to score when we are on top.

Taylor and Gunter were at fault for the first two goals, Taylor was so narrow all game and never got close to the crosser and Gunter didn't get close to Antonio for their first, and didn't attack the ball for the second.

Third, Fryatt just walked through the centre halves for a free head and the 4th was terrible defending from a set piece. All 4 goals were from crosses which is very worrying.

Kuhl was our best player, always wanted the ball and Blackman looked like the only outlet all game.

Felt at bit sorry for Cummins as Taylor never showed out wide once for him, so he had to constantly pass back in side, we need two wingers to give us some balance. There is no balance in the team and we look woefully stretched . Thought cox was crap today, didn't hold the ball up anywhere near enough to play up front on his own, Edwards was too fragile and offered nothing behind him.

[Platypuss]

Federici unable to control his own six yard box yet again.

[yappy]

We were talking on the way up, if we were going to put in the young blood then this was definately not the game to do it in.
Adkins clearly didn`t have the same way of thinking. wrong on so many counts.

With all due respect w_r but what choice did Adkins have? The only "senior" players he had available on the bench were Norwood and Akpan. Even if you were to put them into the starting line up for say Cummings (a "senior" player) and Kuhl, you'd still have Taylor and Edwards starting.

A lot of people are saying Akpan should have started in CM with Obita at LB which probably is a fair point, however I still think we were on for a mauling today. Unfortunately this is just the result of the financial troubles we got ourselves into, combined with a horrendous injury list. Surely things can only get better...

[urzmikep]

I think a good way to look at how well we're doing is to compare each result against the same team last season - enough said today.

With the amount of injuries we have and the lack of money/investment there are plenty of experienced players around who could come in a provide some much needed experience to the team. Understandably this adds to the wage bill, but have to think what would the result have been today if we'd had the likes of Mcanuff, Legs of wood and Gorkks in the team. I expect we would still have been beaten but not so convincingly and at least we would have had some leaders on the pitch and used the wings to get forward!!!

[winchester_royal]

Why do people keep going on about the youngsters? It's the experienced pros who were were to blame for yesterday.

[Man Friday]

...it`s just brainless to throw in the kids all at one go.
Some will argue that Adkins has few options due to an injury crisis unprecedendied in Royals history, but didn`t we know about this this before a ball was kicked in anger this season?

Spot on. The OS and Adkins seem to be saying words to the effect of "well, this is to be expected as they're only kids." Well get some experienced players in FFS. Otherwise we'll be going down and will probably take years to get back, especially with no investment.

[winchester_royal]

Okay, say we bring in some 'experienced' players. And then 2 months later the likes of Guthrie, Williams, Karacan, HRK, McCleary, Pog, Ferdinand are all back fit and ready to play. Suddenly we have a massively inflated squad and wage bill, and then have to deal with the damaging consequences to both finances and morale.

We need to bring in a couple of real quality players in a couple of positions, but absolutely no point in bringing in 6 players because we're not patient enough to wait a few weeks for injured players to return.

[RoyalBlue]

Just one point on the merits of playing people out of position, our player of the season was a young lad played out of position for pretty much the whole season.

.

But the key point is that by the end (if not midway through) that season he had successfully converted to pretty much a specialist in that position. That's why it has been insane not to either play him at left back or left of midfield.

Federici unable to control his own six yard box yet again.

That only makes sense if you are blaming him for his defenders failure to do their job i.e. he should have been organising them better. That aside, from what I saw and heard of the game, Feds played pretty well and made some excellent saves.

[yappy]

Okay, say we bring in some 'experienced' players. And then 2 months later the likes of Guthrie, Williams, Karacan, HRK, McCleary, Pog, Ferdinand are all back fit and ready to play. Suddenly we have a massively inflated squad and wage bill, and then have to deal with the damaging consequences to both finances and morale.

We need to bring in a couple of real quality players in a couple of positions, but absolutely no point in bringing in 6 players because we're not patient enough to wait a few weeks for injured players to return.

Agreed, although I think we should probably look at loaning 1 or 2 in until January, but easier said than done. It's also important to remember until about 2 weeks ago it wasn't possible for Adkins to sign anyone so I don't really understand the criticism of him not getting in enough players.

[Pale-Fox]

Was looking forward to this one as I live in Notts and we have taken great delight in puncturing forest's ego in previous seasons. Apparently they won the European cup but don't like to talk about it

Anyway, several pre match pints helped to insulate what was to follow. Starting the match without an out and striker (cox is not this and needs to leave the pies alone) was a master stroke. We then played 90 mins of tippy tappy football that lacked any penetration and went nowhere. Kuhl looked promising and my Forest supporting mates picked him out as the best of a bad lot. This game was lost because of our right and left backs today with Cummings and Gunter either failing to cut out the cross or failing to mark their player at the back post. Taylor and obita were anonymous (move Jordan back to left back please, Adkins) and Norwood didn't have enough time to do much of note. It's clear we can pass the ball but now we need the off the ball movement that needs to accompany this in order to hurt teams. I lost count of the sideways backwards passing yesterday.

Forest won this at a canter and didn't have to get out of first gear to do so. We need a striker urgently and we need some width, to protect the full backs and provide some threat down the wings as we are currently very narrow and teams are exposing this.

After the match I had to suffer several hours of (good natured) piss taking while getting drunk to try to forget that second half capitulation. Forest will be up there this year and forest fans everywhere are thanking me for Reading taking cox and mackie off their hands. I am beginning to see why. We need the injured players back ASAP or a couple of reinforcements in my opinion. Adkins has a difficult job to do and this is poorest showing from a Reading team playing forest since 1998. Now, where's the paracetamol?

Oh, and I know, feck off newbie!

[RoyalBlue]

Think Federici was a bit culpable as well, soft goalkeeping.

Examples being?

And then talk us through some of the very good saves that he did make.

I like how everyone's tried to convince themselves that Federici is the better keeper, but he's doing his very best to prove them wrong.

He's only been a bit suspect on about half of the 8 goals he's conceded in the four games, no glaring errors like diving over a scuffed long shot yet.

Another sweeping statement with no evidence offered. Name and explain why he was a bit suspect? Should make interesting reading. I wonder how many decent keepers or qualified goalkeeping coaches would agree with your assessment. Clearly Bibbo and Adkins, both who are better qualified than most, if not all, on here to comment on a keeper's performance don't!

[Mr.Swainey]

Think Federici was a bit culpable as well, soft goalkeeping.

Examples being?

And then talk us through some of the very good saves that he did make.

Yes, he made one or two decent saves, but nobody remembers those when you let in soft goals. The second one, where Antonio got in at the back post again, he should have been down quicker, although the defending was non-existent so we can cut him some slack, but he wasn't getting anywhere near it. The third one he was caught in no-man's land doing his star jumps again.

[windermere_royal]

Was looking forward to this one as I live in Notts and we have taken great delight in puncturing forest's ego in previous seasons. Apparently they won the European cup but don't like to talk about it

Anyway, several pre match pints helped to insulate what was to follow. Starting the match without an out and striker (cox is not this and needs to leave the pies alone) was a master stroke. We then played 90 mins of tippy tappy football that lacked any penetration and went nowhere. Kuhl looked promising and my Forest supporting mates picked him out as the best of a bad lot. This game was lost because of our right and left backs today with Cummings and Gunter either failing to cut out the cross or failing to mark their player at the back post. Taylor and obita were anonymous (move Jordan back to left back please, Adkins) and Norwood didn't have enough time to do much of note. It's clear we can pass the ball but now we need the off the ball movement that needs to accompany this in order to hurt teams. I lost count of the sideways backwards passing yesterday.

Forest won this at a canter and didn't have to get out of first gear to do so. We need a striker urgently and we need some width, to protect the full backs and provide some threat down the wings as we are currently very narrow and teams are exposing this.

After the match I had to suffer several hours of (good natured) piss taking while getting drunk to try to forget that second half capitulation. Forest will be up there this year and forest fans everywhere are thanking me for Reading taking cox and mackie off their hands. I am beginning to see why. We need the injured players back ASAP or a couple of reinforcements in my opinion. Adkins has a difficult job to do and this is poorest showing from a Reading team playing forest since 1998. Now, where's the paracetamol?

Oh, and I know, feck off newbie!

Just about sums up the way I saw it too. BTW plenty of top totty in that town.

[Ian Royal]

Why do people keep going on about the youngsters? It's the experienced pros who were were to blame for yesterday.

Because they're idiots.

[glass half full]

Was looking forward to this one as I live in Notts and we have taken great delight in puncturing forest's ego in previous seasons. Apparently they won the European cup but don't like to talk about it

Anyway, several pre match pints helped to insulate what was to follow. Starting the match without an out and striker (cox is not this and needs to leave the pies alone) was a master stroke. We then played 90 mins of tippy tappy football that lacked any penetration and went nowhere. Kuhl looked promising and my Forest supporting mates picked him out as the best of a bad lot. This game was lost because of our right and left backs today with Cummings and Gunter either failing to cut out the cross or failing to mark their player at the back post. Taylor and obita were anonymous (move Jordan back to left back please, Adkins) and Norwood didn't have enough time to do much of note. It's clear we can pass the ball but now we need the off the ball movement that needs to accompany this in order to hurt teams. I lost count of the sideways backwards passing yesterday.

Forest won this at a canter and didn't have to get out of first gear to do so. We need a striker urgently and we need some width, to protect the full backs and provide some threat down the wings as we are currently very narrow and teams are exposing this.

After the match I had to suffer several hours of (good natured) piss taking while getting drunk to try to forget that second half capitulation. Forest will be up there this year and forest fans everywhere are thanking me for Reading taking cox and mackie off their hands. I am beginning to see why. We need the injured players back ASAP or a couple of reinforcements in my opinion. Adkins has a difficult job to do and this is poorest showing from a Reading team playing forest since 1998. Now, where's the paracetamol?

Oh, and I know, feck off newbie!

Welcome, Newbie. Keep making good points.

[MmmMonsterMunch]

I think we should be mindful that Forest & Wigan are in all likelihood going to be in the top third of the table come May...so that's 2 tricky away games chalked off early doors.

Personally I think once we get Guthrie & Mackie in the team (I'm hearing Guthrie may get some minutes against Scunny) & push Obita (if fit) back to LB there'll be a marked improvement in the balance of the team.

If Obita is out for a few months then the club MUST give NA some funds for another LB.