Under the Radar

[Mr Angry]

The most encouraging things about yesterday apart from (obviously) the goals and the result, was the return of Kebe; a fit and on fire Kebe can rip defences at this level to shreads and I think that what a number of teams may well do from here on in is play 451 against our 442 in order to try and stifle us. If they do that, we will need something special to break them down, and that something is our Jimmy.

[Snowball]

During this Run (Since September 17th)

Average 2 ppg versus the top two

01 H 1-1 Southampton
03 H 3-0 West Ham

Average 1.84 ppg against the top six

04 H 1-0 Birmingham
05 A 0-1 Blackpool
06 H 0-0 Middlesbrough
06 A 2-0 Middlesbrough

Average 1.71 ppg against sides in the top half

07 H 0-1 Hull
08 H 1-2 Cardiff
08 A 1-3 Cardiff C
09 H 3-0 Brighton
10 A 1-0 Leeds
11 H 2-2 Derby
11 A 1-0 Derby
12 H 3-1 Leicester


And averaged 2.47 ppg against the bottom half sides.

13 A 0-0 Crystal Palace
14 A 1-0 Burnley
14 H 1-0 Burnley
15 A 3-2 Ipswich
15 H 1-0 Ipswich
16 A 2-1 Watford
17 A 4-0 Barnsley
18 H 3-2 Peterborough
19 A 2-1 Millwall
20 A 0-1 Nottm Forest
21 A 3-2 Bristol
21 H 1-0 Bristol
22 A 1-1 Coventry
22 H 2-0 Coventry
23 A 1-1 Doncaster
23 H 2-0 Doncaster
24 H 1-0 Portsmouth

42 pts in 17 = 2.47 ppg

[Snowball]

Being under the radar really oxf*rd angers me. West Sham and Ricky Lambert are no better than us. What also pisses me off it that everyone thinks we are the form team. Apart from the first 6 games we are top of the league! That's not form that is just being the best team in the league and that's after Brian 'God' McDermott had to rebuild. "Again"

What I've been saying for months now, hence "leaving out" the six games to see what's really happening.

Unfortunately, those six could cost us, yet. Had we got 2 ppg from those we'd be on 78 points now,
6 points clear with 9 games to go...

But, because of those six games we need a result at Saints or West Ham, and no major slip-ups.

IMO Brian McDermott is manager of the season, even if we don't go up

[Mr Angry]

Why have you felt the need to post the same stats on this thread that you post on your stats thread?

[Snowball]

Why have you felt the need to post the same stats on this thread that you post on your stats thread?

I feel all sorts of needs, but in this case, I didn't and haven't.

[Ian Royal]

In fairness to West Ham fans, our 8 game winning streak only really included Middlesbrough as a top team in the division. Althouh of course the previous run included West Ham and Leeds. Though I'd guess they'd blame two red cards for their loss and discount it.

I couldn't care less about their bleeding heart back to the prem sob story.
Currently we are on a better run and the results speak for themselves. That's the rub Ian.


tough titty.

I never said any different and I'm certainly not going to lose any sleep over West Ham not getting promoted. I'd be fricking delighted. The point being though, that there is a certain amount of truth that our fantastic run was mainly against "lesser" sides. That doesn't mean it wasn't a fantastic run. And they can hardly get too happy about it given their inability to beat some fairly mediocre sides, but it's not an outlandish point to make when you're looking for a crumb of comfort.

[Rex]

I feel now that McDermott should big the team up and pump them up if he's not secretly doing this already.
There is no was we can use this 'sneaking up on the outside' analogy any more.

[Rex]

In fairness to West Ham fans, our 8 game winning streak only really included Middlesbrough as a top team in the division. Althouh of course the previous run included West Ham and Leeds. Though I'd guess they'd blame two red cards for their loss and discount it.

I couldn't care less about their bleeding heart back to the prem sob story.
Currently we are on a better run and the results speak for themselves. That's the rub Ian.


tough titty.

I never said any different and I'm certainly not going to lose any sleep over West Ham not getting promoted. I'd be fricking delighted. The point being though, that there is a certain amount of truth that our fantastic run was mainly against "lesser" sides. That doesn't mean it wasn't a fantastic run. And they can hardly get too happy about it given their inability to beat some fairly mediocre sides, but it's not an outlandish point to make when you're looking for a crumb of comfort.

Well we shall let them clutch at straws for their own ineptitude. Taking the chances is what it is about and clearly we are masters at it.

[Mr Angry]

What gets me is how everybody seems to think that we have just had the recent run of 9 wins out of the last 10; as has been pointed out a few times on this forum ( ) is that the run we are on is actually 29 or 30 games, not 10. Take the last 20 matches - 49 points from a possible 60. That isn't simply "form"; thats genuine consistency.

[Agent Balti]

What gets me is how everybody seems to think that we have just had the recent run of 9 wins out of the last 10; as has been pointed out a few times on this forum ( ) is that the run we are on is actually 29 or 30 games, not 10. Take the last 20 matches - 49 points from a possible 60. That isn't simply "form"; thats genuine consistency.

But that is stating the bleedin' obvious as we have 70 points. You don't get to 70 points in March by being truly inconsistent.

The 'surprising' part is more related to how well we've overcome... a) The Play-Off Disaster and b) losing the 'stars' and c) recovering from an awful start.

[Snowball]

I never said any different and I'm certainly not going to lose any sleep over West Ham not getting promoted. I'd be fricking delighted. The point being though, that there is a certain amount of truth that our fantastic run was mainly against "lesser" sides. That doesn't mean it wasn't a fantastic run. And they can hardly get too happy about it given their inability to beat some fairly mediocre sides, but it's not an outlandish point to make when you're looking for a crumb of comfort.

Our run is against most clubs


Or to put it another way, the six sides we played before this run.
with their current league position, were:

24 Portsmouth
19 Barnsley
16 Watford
17 Barnsley
12 Leicester
07 Hull

[Snowball]

There is a small but not a major bias in quality of clubs played

09 Games against bottom six sides.
07 Games against top six (excluding RFC)

15 games against the top 12 (excluding RFC)
16 Games against the bottom 11

09 games against top third (one less team to play as we are in that third)
11 against middle third
11 against bottom third

[pea]

Despite our form even the Peterborough fans are predicting a Posh win or draw tomorrow whilst predicting losses against the likes of Southampton, West Ham and Leeds...

[Rex]

Despite our form even the Peterborough fans are predicting a Posh win or draw tomorrow whilst predicting losses against the likes of Southampton, West Ham and Leeds...

Predicting<<<<<<<<<<<<hoping.

[The Prisoner]

Despite our form even the Peterborough fans are predicting a Posh win or draw tomorrow whilst predicting losses against the likes of Southampton, West Ham and Leeds...

Predicting<<<<<<<<<<<<hoping.

Banging a super model >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> knocking one out to Hollyoaks.

[Mr Angry]

The argument that we have played "lesser" sides away so far is a red herring; Middlesboro and Leeds away aren't "lesser" sides, and neither are Derby, Watford or Ipswich.

If supporters of the 2 other teams up there with us want to convince themselves that we are where we are because of this reason, then let them; they might get a bit of a nasty surprise when we play them in the next few weeks!!

[Snowball]

The argument that we have played "lesser" sides away so far is a red herring; Middlesboro and Leeds away aren't "lesser" sides, and neither are Derby, Watford or Ipswich.

If supporters of the 2 other teams up there with us want to convince themselves that we are where we are because of this reason, then let them; they might get a bit of a nasty surprise when we play them in the next few weeks!!

Against top sides

1 16 8-4-4 27-16 +11 28 1.75 ppg West Ham United
2 16 8-3-5 21-12 +09 27 1.69 ppg Reading (8 Clean Sheets*)
3 18 8-6-4 30-19 +11 30 1.67 ppg Southampton


4 of our 5 defeats were against Hull & Cardiff, the other Blackpool where a good goal was disallowed

[Snowball]

AWAY against top-half Sides


01 07 4-0-3 4 Clean Sheets 07-05 GD = +02 12 Pts 1.71 ppg Reading

02 10 5-2-3 4 Clean Sheets 14-09 GD = +05 17 Pts 1.70 ppg West Ham United


and two up-coming visitors

06 10 3-3-4 2 Clean Sheets 16-18 GD = -02 12 Pts 1.20 ppg Blackpool

08 08 2-3-3 3 Clean Sheets 09-10 GD = -01 09 Pts 1.13 ppg Leeds United


and in fifteenth place...

15 08 1-4-3 2 Clean Sheets 07-11 GD = -04 07 Pts 0.88 ppg Southampton

[Friday's Legacy]

Reading KUMB earlier in the week & someone put our league position down to the fact we've only beaten crap teams...

Completely untrue given that out of the top 6 Blackpool are the only team that's beaten us & that was away from home. Even then we scored a goal that got disallowed for no reason.

We're joint top on games won now with Saints both @ 21. Joint 1st with regards to away wins with West Ham & 2nd best defence in the league. We completely deserve to be where we are.

Still....keep writing us off.

a little dent to their ego today...

http://www.readingfc.co.uk/page/NewsDet ... 22,00.html

reading 6 - 1 academy of football

[The Prisoner]

Stan Collymore has just tweeted that he thinks Southampton, us & Leeds will go up on the back of his Talksport phone in. Fair to say the Hammers fans are giving him some grief. How very dare he....

Thanks for the recognition Stan!!!!!