Back From The Game - Sheff Utd (H)

[Croydon Royal]

!I'm surprised by the amount of arguement there is about their "4th goal". The guy clearly impeeded Mcarthy from rolling the ball out. The unwritten rule is that an attacker can stand there, but not move to block the ball, which Henderson (?) clearly did.

Well I was sat with two goalkeepers one of whom is a qualified ref and both felt there was nothing wrong with the 'goal'. McCarthy 'telegraphed' that he was going to try to roll the ball out. When he then rolled the ball, the forward, who was not stood immediately in front of him nor tracking his run, stuck out his foot, stopped the ball and passed it to a teammate. Just how far away does your 'unwritten rule' state that an opponent needs to stand before he is allowed to attempt to intercept rolled out passes? And what would you have said had McCarthy put the ball on the ground in preparation for passing it out with his foot? Would the forward still not be allowed to kick the ball when it was on the ground?

I was at the other end of the ground and haven't seen any replays so very happy to be proved wrong, but from speaking to somebody else, they seemed to think that the linesmen gave offside, penalising the player who picked up the ball from the resulting block?

[bcubed]

Re Antonio's long throws - there was one where Long was hesitant and went in half heartedly. If he'd been fully fit i reckon he might have got on the end of it. The problem is that Antonio plays so rarely we're not used to it. Maybe to make up for that doing more work on it in training could be the answer? Though to me the players always seem a bit reluctant to let him take them in the first place!

I noticed that Griffin in particluar seemed to view the long throw with something approaching disgust and handed the ball to Antonio only when all other options were exhausted

It's a good skill and a good tactic so why not make the most of it?

[KC Royal]

Did anyone hear SJM on 5 Live at about 1.30pm?

Interesting, I heard him with Tim Dellor on BBC Berks about the same time!

[KC Royal]

Re Antonio's long throws - there was one where Long was hesitant and went in half heartedly. If he'd been fully fit i reckon he might have got on the end of it. The problem is that Antonio plays so rarely we're not used to it. Maybe to make up for that doing more work on it in training could be the answer? Though to me the players always seem a bit reluctant to let him take them in the first place!

I noticed that Griffin in particluar seemed to view the long throw with something approaching disgust and handed the ball to Antonio only when all other options were exhausted

It's a good skill and a good tactic so why not make the most of it?

That was the exact example I was thinking of! There was also a game earlier in the season, think it was Scunthorpe, when Antonio came over to take a throw and instead of leaving it for him Kebe misread the situation and just threw it to him instead!

I agree, its definitely effective as i've seen one of his throws lead to a goal for Southampton last season. Think it was one of his very first games for them in a televised match.

[Compo's Hat]

This will come back to haunt us when Swansea pass the death out of Reading Football Club's season and knock us out in the semi final. Another aimless Mills long ball showing just how out of his depth he is to go along with his defending at times.

Somewhere i'm sure Brendan is rubbing his hands in delight having already taken six points off us this season.

[Bandini]

This will come back to haunt us when Tranmere pass the death out of Reading Football Club's season and knock us out in the semi final.

Somewhere i'm sure Johnny King is rubbing his hands in delight having already taken six points off us this season.

[Top Flight]

I don't think you can really read anything into this game against Sheffield United. The performance, although poor is nothing to be concerned about, simply because the conditions on the day were extraordinary.

I think we got beat by the heat in the end.

We coped really badly in the hot sunshine. It was a nightmare to play in. The sun was so bright. I was struggling just to watch the game, let alone the poor players having to play in it.

I don't think it was even a case of saying that Sheffield coped with the heat better than we did. I don't think either team coped with the heat. Sheffield were absolutely dire and we went into a two goal lead without playing well. It wasn't like we were racing out of the blocks. Sheffield had switched off and looked like they had given up on Championship survival.

I think Sheffield were as surprised as anybody that they managed to get things back to 2-2. They did it without really playing well. It wasn't even the case that Sheffield went 2 down and suddenly decided to step it up a gear, chase the game and haul themselves back in it. We, like Sheffield in the first 20 minutes just completely switched off and got dazed by the heat. Sheffield whilst still being switched off and dazed somehow got a couple of goals whilst playing abysmally and were back in the game.

In the 2nd half both teams looked dazed and confused and Sheffield were the ones that lazily scored the winning goal and that was that.

If this was a cooler February evening we would have run roughshod all over the Blades.

This was just one of those weird matches that means absolutely Jack sh*t to our play-off chances. Unfortunately the result has put paid to our automatic promotion hopes but the performance was destroyed by the harshest, heated playing conditions. You can see why England never do well in summer world cups. We Brits can never cope with this type of weather.

[chilipepper91]

!I'm surprised by the amount of arguement there is about their "4th goal". The guy clearly impeeded Mcarthy from rolling the ball out. The unwritten rule is that an attacker can stand there, but not move to block the ball, which Henderson (?) clearly did.

Well I was sat with two goalkeepers one of whom is a qualified ref and both felt there was nothing wrong with the 'goal'. McCarthy 'telegraphed' that he was going to try to roll the ball out. When he then rolled the ball, the forward, who was not stood immediately in front of him nor tracking his run, stuck out his foot, stopped the ball and passed it to a teammate. Just how far away does your 'unwritten rule' state that an opponent needs to stand before he is allowed to attempt to intercept rolled out passes? And what would you have said had McCarthy put the ball on the ground in preparation for passing it out with his foot? Would the forward still not be allowed to kick the ball when it was on the ground?

I was at the other end of the ground and haven't seen any replays so very happy to be proved wrong, but from speaking to somebody else, they seemed to think that the linesmen gave offside, penalising the player who picked up the ball from the resulting block?

IIRC the linesman waved his flag then held it left, rather than pointing across the pitch - so foul, not offside. Also on the highlights, you can see the guy is about 4 yards behind Henderson so no way he's offside.

Highlights available here - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/13199260.stm - as I suspected McCarthy is massively at fault for their third goal, the ball is heading in around the middle of the net and he has to dive across from the side his wall is covering to get it, surely the whole point of the wall is to cover that side so he can stand in the middle/towards the far post? Should have been a regulation save really.

[Royalee]

I like how you conveniently ignore the fact that the ball goes UNDERNEATH the wall...hardly the keeper's fault given he won't have been able to see it and a decent defender in the wall would have blocked it?

[chilipepper91]

I like how you conveniently ignore the fact that the ball goes UNDERNEATH the wall...hardly the keeper's fault given he won't have been able to see it and a decent defender in the wall would have blocked it?

It's his positioning... If he'd been standing in the middle of the goal the ball would have come straight at him. Instead he stood on the side already covered by the wall. The ball doesn't go through the wall, it goes just to the side of it. McCarthy stood behind his wall, meaning he could only reach the ball on the stretch, and palm it straight into their attacker. Watch again, and look how far he has to stretch for a ball hitting the middle of the net. Still a keeper error for me.

[Man Friday]

I don't think you can really read anything into this game against Sheffield United. The performance, although poor is nothing to be concerned about, simply because the conditions on the day were extraordinary.

I think we got beat by the heat in the end.

We coped really badly in the hot sunshine. It was a nightmare to play in. The sun was so bright. I was struggling just to watch the game, let alone the poor players having to play in it.

I don't think it was even a case of saying that Sheffield coped with the heat better than we did. I don't think either team coped with the heat. Sheffield were absolutely dire and we went into a two goal lead without playing well. It wasn't like we were racing out of the blocks. Sheffield had switched off and looked like they had given up on Championship survival.

I think Sheffield were as surprised as anybody that they managed to get things back to 2-2. They did it without really playing well. It wasn't even the case that Sheffield went 2 down and suddenly decided to step it up a gear, chase the game and haul themselves back in it. We, like Sheffield in the first 20 minutes just completely switched off and got dazed by the heat. Sheffield whilst still being switched off and dazed somehow got a couple of goals whilst playing abysmally and were back in the game.

In the 2nd half both teams looked dazed and confused and Sheffield were the ones that lazily scored the winning goal and that was that.

If this was a cooler February evening we would have run roughshod all over the Blades.

This was just one of those weird matches that means absolutely Jack sh*t to our play-off chances. Unfortunately the result has put paid to our automatic promotion hopes but the performance was destroyed by the harshest, heated playing conditions. You can see why England never do well in summer world cups. We Brits can never cope with this type of weather.

Just as a matter of interest, what's your take on the Second World War, weather-wise?

[RoyalBlue]

Well I was sat with two goalkeepers one of whom is a qualified ref and both felt there was nothing wrong with the 'goal'. McCarthy 'telegraphed' that he was going to try to roll the ball out. When he then rolled the ball, the forward, who was not stood immediately in front of him nor tracking his run, stuck out his foot, stopped the ball and passed it to a teammate. Just how far away does your 'unwritten rule' state that an opponent needs to stand before he is allowed to attempt to intercept rolled out passes? And what would you have said had McCarthy put the ball on the ground in preparation for passing it out with his foot? Would the forward still not be allowed to kick the ball when it was on the ground?

I was at the other end of the ground and haven't seen any replays so very happy to be proved wrong, but from speaking to somebody else, they seemed to think that the linesmen gave offside, penalising the player who picked up the ball from the resulting block?

IIRC the linesman waved his flag then held it left, rather than pointing across the pitch - so foul, not offside. Also on the highlights, you can see the guy is about 4 yards behind Henderson so no way he's offside.

Highlights available here - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/13199260.stm - as I suspected McCarthy is massively at fault for their third goal, the ball is heading in around the middle of the net and he has to dive across from the side his wall is covering to get it, surely the whole point of the wall is to cover that side so he can stand in the middle/towards the far post? Should have been a regulation save really.

Again the keepers I was with were getting very agitated, before the freekick was taken, about what they regarded as really poor alignment of his wall and the fact that he had, in effect, created a hole right in the middle of it by allowing a Utd player to stand in it without a Reading player either in front or behind him. They were convinced Utd were going to score because of this and, although giving McCarthy full credit for the great initial save, pointed out that with a decent wall he shouldn't have had to make it.

I like how you conveniently ignore the fact that the ball goes UNDERNEATH the wall...hardly the keeper's fault given he won't have been able to see it and a decent defender in the wall would have blocked it?

It's his positioning... If he'd been standing in the middle of the goal the ball would have come straight at him. Instead he stood on the side already covered by the wall. The ball doesn't go through the wall, it goes just to the side of it. McCarthy stood behind his wall, meaning he could only reach the ball on the stretch, and palm it straight into their attacker. Watch again, and look how far he has to stretch for a ball hitting the middle of the net. Still a keeper error for me.

My take at the time and, having seen the replays I still think the same, was that the ball did go through/under the wall at the point the Utd player was stood. However, the wall alignment and his positioning was also suspect.

Incidentally wasn't it Robson-Kanu who conceded the pretty needless and clumsy freekick in the first place? I reckon he's starting to display a similar tendency to Marek in that respect!

[Hoop Blah]

Incidentally wasn't it Robson-Kanu who conceded the pretty needless and clumsy freekick in the first place? I reckon he's starting to display a similar tendency to Marek in that respect!

It was yes (although I think someone blamed McAnuff on here). Robson-Kanu is a bit clumsy and seems one of his 'tricks' to beat a man is to nudge the ball past the defender and then try to climb over or run through him.

He's not quite the gracefull winger and almost every time he challenges for the ball it looks like a free kick waiting to happen.

[RoyalBlue]

Incidentally wasn't it Robson-Kanu who conceded the pretty needless and clumsy freekick in the first place? I reckon he's starting to display a similar tendency to Marek in that respect!

It was yes (although I think someone blamed McAnuff on here). Robson-Kanu is a bit clumsy and seems one of his 'tricks' to beat a man is to nudge the ball past the defender and then try to climb over or run through him.

He's not quite the gracefull winger and almost every time he challenges for the ball it looks like a free kick waiting to happen.

I like the way that he is always prepared to battle and challenge for the ball - he just needs to learn how to do it fairly!

Your assessment of how he often trys to 'beat' a man is absolutely spot on!

[Sarah Star]

RK's decision making skills when he does get anywhere near the box have improved immensely though.

Just thought it needed saying.