Back from the game - S****horpe.

[Sharpy]

LOLz

Stand out players for me were griffin and antonio when he came on.

[Royalee]

Absolute rubbish yesterday, where to even begin...

Federici's poor and doesn't command his area and organise his defence...

I'd been quite impressed with Williams in the two pre-season games I saw, but yesterday he showed absolutely no intelligence and you could tell exactly what he was going to do five minutes before he did it and defensively he was weak...

Pearce had his worst performance in a Reading shirt and actually looks like he's got slower over the summer, how we haven't signed a centre back is an absolute disgrace

Mills had a bad day at the office and cost us the second goal

Gunnarsson should have been released in the summer, he was too old three years ago yet he still manages to start in our team which is an absolute joke - we should have said to him an Ingimarsson, 'cya, thanks for all the fish but we want Zurab' instead of chucking money down the drain

Shane Long has scored zero goals in pre-season and doesn't even look like scoring, so why are we playing Coppell hoofball up to him instead of passing the ball which we're well-suited to and worked well last season to Church who looked far more dangerous when he came on and scored 4 in pre-season?

The only positives from yesterday were the Big Mac and fries on the way home and Bristol City getting stuffed...plus Antonio I suppose.

[Mr Angry]

Replays apparently showed the ref got their first goal spot on. Something about the ball coming off a Reading player and deflecting to their man. This is according to Reading Player and Sky Sports News as well, I think.

Indeed it did.

But I thought a deflection didnt count.... rather that the "reading player" would have to have intentionally struck the ball


Shows what I know

This backs up what I've always thought, which is if a ball in anyway touches an opponent directly before reaching a player in an offside position then that player is not offside. This being the case how come 99% of goals scored in this manner are disallowed?

And how about a new tactic where you stick a player in an offside position and then deliberately try to cannon the ball into his path off an opponent?

Thats rubbish; you are in an offside position and a teammate shoots; keeper makes a save (opponent touching the ball) and you tap in the ball. What will the ref do?

The point about yesterday was that the original ball was being crossed in and only went forward because of the deflection off Bryn; linesman sees the ball going forward and a player in an offside position, flags. Ref sees that the ball WASN'T going forward and did so off a Reading player, goal stands. Frustrating because it was against us, but spot on by the ref, who was in a better position to see what happened than his lino.

[sandman]

Seeing it this morning the original pass was going forward because Forte cut back in from the byline and was in front of our defensive line not behind it. When the original pass was played their player from the camera angle I saw appeared to be onside but offside when the ball deflected. Goal stands from that angle but it would be interesting to see it from the linesmans pov.

[brendywendy]

Lol at judging so harshly after 1 game.
Problems: long cant play vs big cbs on his own,made one header all day. We bipassed midfield with long balls. Meaning they couldnt get on the ball. The wingers were often ignored and when not were given it with back to goal. Cbs are ok but slow. We cannot cope with dirty teams.

Overall we had more than enough chances to win it though. And a draw would have been fair.
Players:
Tabb is awesome. Bryn looked good in patches.karacan ran his heart out but struggled,not entirely his fault. Kebe looked sharp. Church did well to get into the positions,but should have scored 2. Fed was quite poor.
Williams did well for a debut vs old team. Griffer is a god.
Mcd showed his inexperience today imo.
It all just needed a tweak.
get the team selection right, play on the deck and well win more than we lose , hopefully

[Ian Royal]

We should really be playing 4-4-2 at home. If we had Long/Church or Long/Rasiak up front I'm sure we can attack better.

Maybe use 4-5-1 against strong opposition, but against Scunthorpe, I'd like to see us control the game.

It's not a defensive formation, mate.

It is when 2 of your 3 central midfielders are defensive minded.

It's not really defensive when the remaining central midfielder and two wingers are extremely attack minded, essentially giving you 4 in attack. IF you play it on the deck right. Obviously if you just punt it forward from the back then you bypass three quarters of your attacking talent. In which case it isn't defensive, it's just not working.

[Handsome Man]

Just seen the first goal on Sky and and it was offside by half a yard or so, but we didn't really deserve much from the game as I thought we were outmuscled and out outfought by a team who always had loads of men in their own box when Kebe, McAnuff or Sigurdson broke free.

Fed 7

Griffin 7 storming second half, but soft for the first goal
New bloke 7 ok
Mills 6
Pearce 6 it didn't seem like a settled partnership

Gunnarson 5 the game completely passed him by
Karacan 7
McAnuff 7
Kebe 7
Sigurdson 8 Attacking midfield looked good, but only Sigurdson looked capable of a final ball or telling shot

Long 4 he didn't get on the end of anything

[Big Foot]

The only positives from yesterday were the Big Mac and fries on the way home and Bristol City getting stuffed...plus Antonio I suppose.

You know he was a Coppell signing right? Are you feeling okay?

FWIW, I think Federici should've been coming to claim the corner from which they scored

How many games has he actually played in pre-season? Could it be he'll take a while to gel with the back 4 again?

[Ian Royal]

Just watched the goals on IPlayer. Never offside in a million years. Excellent call by the ref seeing the ball was cut back only to be deflected forwards.

Lovely feet from Gylfi for his goal and only a couple of inches high for the freekick.

Church looked to have second guessed himself with his shot IMO. Obvious place to put it looked to me to be far corner. I think he may have been trying to send the keeper the wrong way and slot it near post, but couldn't quite get his body shape right to do it. I think he just seems to try a little hard and to be too clever sometimes. When he just relaxes and hits it he does better.

[royalsteve]

IMO we looked good for the first 10 minutes and it was apparent that we'd settle into a comfortable victory. However Scunthorpe were clearly a more capable side that we'd given them credit for. From what I could see from Y25 it appeared that the impressive Forte was tackled out wide and a Reading player (either Sig or Griffin) appeared to slice the ball into our box as a result and a finish was applied. A valid goal and an excellent decision from the referee to overturn the linesman's flag. A massive lol to the pathetic Reading fans who are ill-informed of the rules of the game and greet any decision that an official dares to give against their team to a pantomime-like chorus of boos.

patronising idiot.....because most people didnt realise the ball had come off one of our players, even the linesman....so a big lol at you

[Terminal Boardom]

IMO we looked good for the first 10 minutes and it was apparent that we'd settle into a comfortable victory. However Scunthorpe were clearly a more capable side that we'd given them credit for. From what I could see from Y25 it appeared that the impressive Forte was tackled out wide and a Reading player (either Sig or Griffin) appeared to slice the ball into our box as a result and a finish was applied. A valid goal and an excellent decision from the referee to overturn the linesman's flag. A massive lol to the pathetic Reading fans who are ill-informed of the rules of the game and greet any decision that an official dares to give against their team to a pantomime-like chorus of boos.

patronising idiot.....because most people didnt realise the ball had come off one of our players, even the linesman....so a big lol at you

It was painfully obvious from where I was sat in the WSU that the ball was deflected off a Reading player.

[rob the royal]

Just seen the first goal on Sky and and it was offside by half a yard or so, but we didn't really deserve much from the game as I thought we were outmuscled and out outfought by a team who always had loads of men in their own box when Kebe, McAnuff or Sigurdson broke free.

Fed 7

Griffin 7 storming second half, but soft for the first goal
New bloke 7 ok
Mills 6
Pearce 6 it didn't seem like a settled partnership

Gunnarson 5 the game completely passed him by
Karacan 7
McAnuff 7
Kebe 7
Sigurdson 8 Attacking midfield looked good, but only Sigurdson looked capable of a final ball or telling shot

Long 4 he didn't get on the end of anything

Bit generous with the scores all round there if you ask me. With one notable exception...

[handbags_harris]

A worrying trait of ours all through last season was the fact that we habitually give soft goals away. Pre-season showed we are still at it with the goals against Wycombe and Wolves, and yesterday proved that we are still always likely to concede.

[peterroyal76]

Defender needed urgently. Alex Pearce is far too slow to be considered. I thought we were average today, but there were glimpses of promise.

Michael Antonio was pretty decent and should be given a start against Torquay.

And where was Y25 today?

In the Creche!

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Defender needed urgently. Alex Pearce is far too slow to be considered. I thought we were average today, but there were glimpses of promise.

Michael Antonio was pretty decent and should be given a start against Torquay.

And where was Y25 today?

In the Creche!

Creche?

[Clacka]

I think that as usual we showed some great flare in attacking midfield, let down a bit up front. I personally am setting a lot of hope on Noel's return, hopefully he doesn't take too long to get back into his stride.

And what the hell was going on at the back? Millsie needs to sharpen up if he's got eyes on being our captain, but both centre backs moved about as quickly as pensioners in a supermarket.

Still, Ivar should be back soon. He may not be as quick as he used to be, but what competition does he have in that respect?

[Ian Royal]

A worrying trait of ours all through last season was the fact that we habitually give soft goals away. Pre-season showed we are still at it with the goals against Wycombe and Wolves, and yesterday proved that we are still always likely to concede.

Agreed on that. Last season we seemed to let people attack crosses to easily and get above the defenders who were caught flatfooted waiting for the ball rather than attacking it. Seemed to happen with Jones for their second.

Conceed too easily, not quite clinical enough upfront. I'm expecting a season with a similar result to last year, but without the extremes of abysmal, then brilliant.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Gunnarson 5 the game completely passed him by

forever confused ...maybe I wasn't really there watching a totally different game

[leon]

Gunnarson 5 the game completely passed him by

forever confused ...maybe I wasn't really there watching a totally different game

indeed, often people can't get past their own opinion of a player...

[AthleticoSpizz]

Point proven.