Back from the Game - Villa

[PEARCEY]

Took the missus to today's game and told her at half time that I was so proud of the performance/score, that even if we lost 3-2 or 4-2 i'd be happy enough with the day


.............what a stupid thing to say! I was gutted!

Just don't take the missus again.

[John Madejski's Wallet]

I will concede that point, back to soccerbase ......... but 9 years is a fantastic period for us to have always had something to play for on the final day of the season (not counting play-offs)

What about the 9th (?) place in Coppell's 1st or 2nd season?

[Ian Royal]

I will concede that point, back to soccerbase ......... but 9 years is a fantastic period for us to have always had something to play for on the final day of the season (not counting play-offs)

What about the 9th (?) place in Coppell's 1st or 2nd season?

wasn't that the one we had to beat Wigan and hope for other results to go our way to get in the play offs?

[Wimb]

I will concede that point, back to soccerbase ......... but 9 years is a fantastic period for us to have always had something to play for on the final day of the season (not counting play-offs)

What about the 9th (?) place in Coppell's 1st or 2nd season?

wasn't that the one we had to beat Wigan and hope for other results to go our way to get in the play offs?

Nah that was the one where we went to Watford (with Young scoring actually if I remember rightly?) and needed to win by a few and hope loads of other scores went our way.

*edited

Yes yes it was

http://www.royals.org/matdoc/090504.html

[Uke]

Great game, wrong result. But generally please.



The one plus point is that losing 4-2 at Wembley is soooooooo much worse!

(and we'd probably have done it to Pompey to feed our innate sense of injustice)

[URZZZZZZZZ]

Its an odd one. The one thing I dread from Reading, odd that it seems, is mid table mediocrity in any league. Obviously, I would be distraught if we go down but a slow canter towards the end of the season fills me with a horrible feeling of boredom. Cannot remember the last time we were going into the end of the season with nothing to play for.

As far as I can remember, the last game in which we played in which a positive result would have no bearing on our season's final positions / or us setting a record (ie points in 05/06 as we clearly were not going to improve on our position) was against Bournemouth 2000/01 .... feel free to correct me though - my memory isnt that great - and that game was worthwhile just to f ck over B'mouth at that time.

Yep I'd go for that. I mean the 2002/2003 season we didnt have anything to play for in the very last game but in the games preceeding this we cemented our play-off place. BORING BORING READING!!

[Big Foot]

What about the 9th (?) place in Coppell's 1st or 2nd season?

wasn't that the one we had to beat Wigan and hope for other results to go our way to get in the play offs?

Nah that was the one where we went to Watford (with Young scoring actually if I remember rightly?) and needed to win by a few and hope loads of other scores went our way.

*edited

Yes yes it was

http://www.royals.org/matdoc/090504.html

Ball trickled past Ashdown agonisingly that day similar to Villa's 3rd today

[Maguire]

Oh well, saves us all spendng £80 to watch us get battered at Wembley.

It was there for the taking but sadly the boys completely bottled it. Completely. That's it.

MOTM = Jay Tabb. That's as well as i've seen him play in all honesty.

[Jack Celliers]

First half was amazing
At 3-2 we had some glorious chances
Overall it was a great game for the neutral, I am sure
Kebe, Mills and Long all come out of the game with massively enhance reputations
It's a pity Villa's 15-minute purple patch.

[Royal Rother]

How anyone could suggest that the team bottled it today is completely beyond me. What utter nonsense.

They played with great heart, skill and determination and, despite a spell of 15 minutes where a team chock full of decent international players ripped us apart at will, we looked a damned good footballing team during the other 75 minutes.

A terrific game and a terrific performance for the most part.

[Arch]

How anyone could suggest that the team bottled it today is completely beyond me. What utter nonsense.

They played with great heart, skill and determination and, despite a spell of 15 minutes where a team chock full of decent international players ripped us apart at will, we looked a damned good footballing team during the other 75 minutes.

A terrific game and a terrific performance for the most part.

It's all a matter of perception, of course. Villa were chock full of decent internationals for 90 minutes, but the spell after half time was down to some mental failings on our part. We weren't ready for it and we could have been. To my mind, "keep it tight" was probably the wrong advice at half time. We should have come out like tigers and gone for the kill. If we exposed ourselves and they scored, well at least we had a two-goal cushion. Psychologically it couldn't have been worse than intending to keep it tight for ten minutes and conceding after 90 seconds.

[floyd__streete]

How anyone could suggest that the team bottled it today is completely beyond me. What utter nonsense.

They played with great heart, skill and determination and, despite a spell of 15 minutes where a team chock full of decent international players ripped us apart at will, we looked a damned good footballing team during the other 75 minutes.

A terrific game and a terrific performance for the most part.

Nice spin, but we conceded an utterly awful goal within a minute of the restart and then stood off and totally capitulated within a further 7 or 8 minutes. And it so very bloody obvious what would happen just as soon as Bertrand shanked that woeful attempt of a clearance under zero pressure. We ripped ourselves apart at will. It was a choke so severe that the St John's Ambulance had to perform a post-match heimlich manouvere on the entire team.

[URZZZZZZZZ]

How anyone could suggest that the team bottled it today is completely beyond me. What utter nonsense.

They played with great heart, skill and determination and, despite a spell of 15 minutes where a team chock full of decent international players ripped us apart at will, we looked a damned good footballing team during the other 75 minutes.

A terrific game and a terrific performance for the most part.

Nice spin, but we conceded an utterly awful goal within a minute of the restart and then stood off and totally capitulated within a further 7 or 8 minutes. And it so very bloody obvious what would happen just as soon as Bertrand shanked that woeful attempt of a clearance under zero pressure. We ripped ourselves apart at will. It was a choke so severe that the St John's Ambulance had to perform a post-match heimlich manouvere on the entire team.

Indeed. Huge whiff of Man United in the cup a couple of years ago about today, except the other way round! Bitter!

[Nick Shorey my Lord!]

Well, a cracking game of football. Shame we fell apart but let's be honest, apart from the 10,000 who thought it was sensible tempting fate, the other 10,000 knew what was going to happen. I said it at half time (Bolton), and we duely played to form.

That said, Villa were dire, really, really dire in the first half and whilst we played well and took our chances they hadn't even gotten out of 1st gear. They didn't even really need to get into 4th, let alone 5th of 6th; they had enough quality on the pitch to do the business. It was just typical that we helped them on their way! It looked like everyone had stopped talking to each other in the 2nd 45, and whilst we had one cleared off the line, Villa were in control. The last 10 minutes were particularly soul destroying since Villa were allowing us to come forward yet we kept hoofing it up to the front two.

Tabb was all over the place; a proper little terrier in the first half and Kebe was top notch; his headed clearence stopped a certain goal and he did the usual crazy legs business further up the pitch. We really missed AK47 and McAnuff.

Did anyone else see Young launch the ball into the East Stand after the equaliser? Carew got booked for his celebration, but the ball game out the goal, he picked it up and absolutley clattered it. My intial instinct was that it had to be a booking, in which case he would have been off - and so we wouldn't have cleared the ball off the line later on.... Seriously though, did anyone else see it? Thoughts?

[CMRoyal]

Go on, fess up. Who was it that did the Danny Baker "nothing can go wrong now" fate tempter at 2-0?

How anyone could suggest that the team bottled it today is completely beyond me. What utter nonsense.

They played with great heart, skill and determination and, despite a spell of 15 minutes where a team chock full of decent international players ripped us apart at will, we looked a damned good footballing team during the other 75 minutes.

A terrific game and a terrific performance for the most part.

Looked to me as if Bertrand froze early in the second half. Maybe like my son he suddenly realised how close we were to a magnificent occasion. First Ryan shanked a straightforward clearance, then stood and watched the ensuing scrappy play and followed up 5 minutes later by allowing the pretty average Downing inside on his good foot for the cross for the equalizer.

Apart from that we were really good. Great to witness the Villa fans' stunned reaction from GU1 in the first half. Don't even want to think about the second half.

Ah well, it was a blast while it lasted - onward and upward for the important matches now. Playing like that, we'll be more than OK I'm sure.

[papereyes]

Goals here: http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/4976185/

[Murts-is-Lej]

Looked to me as if Bertrand froze early in the second half. Maybe like my son he suddenly realised how close we were to a magnificent occasion. First Ryan shanked a straightforward clearance, then stood and watched the ensuing scrappy play and followed up 5 minutes later by allowing the pretty average Downing inside on his good foot for the cross for the equalizer.

Maybe he didn't fancy playing against his real boss' team?

[southbank1871]

Did anyone else see Young launch the ball into the East Stand after the equaliser? Carew got booked for his celebration, but the ball game out the goal, he picked it up and absolutley clattered it. My intial instinct was that it had to be a booking, in which case he would have been off - and so we wouldn't have cleared the ball off the line later on.... Seriously though, did anyone else see it? Thoughts?

It was quite close to hitting me, as I wasn't even looking at that point after the goal went in. You don't mess with Marlo Stanfield though

[Wycombe Royal]

Gunnarsson 35
Ingimarsson 33
Rasiak 31
Griffin 31
Matejovsky 29
McAnuff 29
Khizanishvili 29
Armstrong 28
Hunt 28
Thorvaldsson 28
Howard 27
Rosenior 26
Cisse 26
Tabb 26
Mooney 26
Kebe 26
Federici 25
Mills 24
Long 23
Hamer 23
Church 22
Pearce 22
Davies 22
Andersen 22
Henry 21
Robson-Kanu 21
Karacan 21
Bertrand 21
Sigurdsson 21
Bozanic 21
Cummings 21
McCarthy 21
Antonio 20
Bignall 20
Vasilev 20
Bryant 20
Taylor 19
Bell-Baggie 18

Some of your ages are wrong (yes I am being a pedant. For example Sigurdsson isn't 21 until September.

[Avon Royal]

It was there for the taking but sadly the boys completely bottled it. Completely. That's it.