Back from the game......and really angry!

[Stranded]

The Sun today reckon the referee Mr Dean was Man of the Match

In what respect I might ask?

He is the one who's perfomance will be most remembered from this match - a performance which most caught the eye. He is alsao the one who had the most impact on making the game turn out the way it did.

Because Sonko made it too easy for him with a pathetic attempt at a challenge.

I do find it funny that Reading fans always blame the referee for a defeat. How about the players on the field were simply not good enough & lacked any ideas.

You make it sound like this is a trait only found in Reading fans. The vast majority of football fans look to blame the referee after games like that. It's part of the psyche.

[Dr Hfuhruhurr]

After all is said and done, we can count ourselves thankful that there are at least three teams that are shitter than us. Which in a way, is kind of depressing

Best league in the world, though, eh?

I would say that there are at least half a dozen if not a couple more who are as crap or worse than us - its not a golden year for the premiership.

Lets just hope we dont run out of steam or casually cruise through the transfer window like we dont have a problem; because I can remember years where we've done absolutely bugger all from January onwards and most of the players on the pitch now were in those teams.

Face it, if Fulham are relegation candidates, so are we.

Still - a big 'whatever' about the Pompey result. Who would have thought such a pacey team would win again us, eh?

[Hoop Blah]

As infuriated as I was with the referee yesterday (and he was the worst I have seen since our Championship days) I have to make a few comments regarding the recent posts on SC and team selection.

SC will pick the strongest players he has for the job in hand from the squad of players available. He knows very well the level of capability required to compete in this league and regardless of how poorly a 1st teamer may be playing, he will not replace them with another player unless he is confident that player would not be out of their depth at this level.

One of our biggest problems right now is our inadequate wage structure and the difficulties this causes in attracting Premiership level squad players at our club. Injuries will happen, players will get suspended, but our weakness is our inability to build strength in depth. It is harsh to lay the blame of this totally at the door of SC.

If you look at the players who have been below their best this season (Marcus, Gunnarson, Sonko) then the common thread that stands out is the lack of proper squad competition for their places.

Where I would criticise SC is his reluctance to make substitutions before the 80th minute, unless a sending of or injury demands it. I was very suprised that Doyle, who was clearly not on form, was not replaced by Lita yesterday. Kitson should have been moved to the tip of the midfield with Lita playing forward of him as a lone striker, then we might have stood a chance. Unfortunately once down to 10 men, the demands of recent weeks had taken their toll.

It's Coppell#s squad though. He is the one that has built it and refrained from strengthening it at times over the last couple of years. He's said it himself that he's probably made a mistake there.

As for him picking his strongest side...well sometimes Coppell needs to take a few more risks and see if the players outside of his starting XI can step up to the plate. Coppell has done a tremendous job getting us this far but he can be too cautious at times and I think thats possibly costing us at the moment. Even if those that come into the side don't perform, it might put pressure on the starting XI to raise their game in fear of being dropped next.

[Dirk Gently]

Still - a big 'whatever' about the Pompey result. Who would have thought such a pacey team would win again us, eh?

Especially since we matched them so well at their place .....

[RoyalBlue]

Typical Reading fans blaming the referee. Jesus lads give it as rest.

The reason we lost that game yesterday is because Sonko is a liability, Marcus is just sh*t & the rest of the players have no idea or creation in them.

.

But anyone who denies the officials also played an important role in our downfall needs to open their eyes.

The 'Assistant' idiot on the East Stand did far more than Marcus to gift them the first goal.

Just how was it a freekick against Harper in the first place? Their man tried to physically force his way past Harper. Harper stood firm and knocked the ball away from between the Portsmouth player's legs with a perfectly clean tackle. Undeterred the Portsmouth player kept pushing until he eventually fell over, taking Harper down with him. When the 'Assistant' flagged, I thought 'good a freekick to us' and like most sat near the incident was dumbfounded and furious when he then pointed his flag in the wrong direction.

Not content with calling the foul the wrong way he then completely failed to understand that the offside law requires two defending players to be goalside of the attacking player at the time the ball is passed to him. Did he fail to spot that Marcus was well off his line and therefore there had to be two other defenders goalside of Campbell when his team-mate headed the ball onto him?!!

As MOTD categorically stated, a clear case of offside that the Assistant (who later had no problem calling a corner on the far side of the pitch) should have spotted from his position. This incompetent fool, who also then awarded a corner after a Portsmouth player clearly headed wide, should be thrown off the officials list. I hope he was watching MOTD last night and had trouble sleeping (maybe finally realising why the East Stand spent the whole game baying for his blood) but I somehow doubt it.

[Huntley & Palmer]

Indeed. The sheer size and athleticism of their squad is immense, particularly in midfield and attack. Watching Harper trying to hold off someone twice the size of him in the shape of Diop was staggering, he had even less chance than normal. Let's face it, regardless of the penalty/sending off/clanger from USA we were not likely to get much out of this game, especially as Pompey are a huge mental block for us home & away

[Huntley & Palmer]

Typical Reading fans blaming the referee. Jesus lads give it as rest.

The reason we lost that game yesterday is because Sonko is a liability, Marcus is just sh*t & the rest of the players have no idea or creation in them.

.

But anyone who denies the officials also played an important role in our downfall needs to open their eyes.

The 'Assistant' idiot on the East Stand did far more than Marcus to gift them the first goal.

Just how was it a freekick against Harper in the first place? Their man tried to physically force his way past Harper. Harper stood firm and knocked the ball away from between the Portsmouth player's legs with a perfectly clean tackle. Undeterred the Portsmouth player kept pushing until he eventually fell over, taking Harper down with him. When the 'Assistant' flagged, I thought 'good a freekick to us' and like most sat near the incident was dumbfounded and furious when he then pointed his flag in the wrong direction.

Not content with calling the foul the wrong way he then completely failed to understand that the offside law requires two defending players to be goalside of the attacking player at the time the ball is passed to him. Did he fail to spot that Marcus was well off his line and therefore there had to be two other defenders goalside of Campbell when his team-mate headed the ball onto him?!!

As MOTD categorically stated, a clear case of offside that the Assistant (who later had no problem calling a corner on the far side of the pitch) should have spotted from his position. This incompetent fool, who also then awarded a corner after a Portsmouth player clearly headed wide, should be thrown off the officials list. I hope he was watching MOTD last night and had trouble sleeping (maybe finally realising why the East Stand spent the whole game baying for his blood) but I somehow doubt it.

It's not why we lost though is it

[RoyalBlue]

The Sun today reckon the referee Mr Dean was Man of the Match

In what respect I might ask?

He is the one who's perfomance will be most remembered from this match - a performance which most caught the eye. He is alsao the one who had the most impact on making the game turn out the way it did.

Because Sonko made it too easy for him with a pathetic attempt at a challenge.

I do find it funny that Reading fans always blame the referee for a defeat. How about the players on the field were simply not good enough & lacked any ideas.

As you are so keen to defend this card-happy fool and his criminally incompetent assistants - please explain why the other yellow cards for Reading were merited. Why also did he not stick to the letter of the law and book two Portsmouth players for blatantly kicking the ball away after a freekick had been awarded to them. And finally, as Reading players were getting booked for seemingly breathing too hard on their counterparts, why did the comparitively dreadful challenges on Kitson in the first half and Murty in the second go unpunished? (the *rsehole Dean didn't even award a freekick in the latter case, incredibly claiming that the Portsmouth player had won the ball when the ball was no longer anywhere near Murty to be won!!).

[Dr Hfuhruhurr]

Indeed. The sheer size and athleticism of their squad is immense, particularly in midfield and attack. Watching Harper trying to hold off someone twice the size of him in the shape of Diop was staggering, he had even less chance than normal. Let's face it, regardless of the penalty/sending off/clanger from USA we were not likely to get much out of this game, especially as Pompey are a huge mental block for us home & away

Murty especially creaks against big fit footballers, Ingimarsson gets out of position and we we'll be lucky to win a ball in midfield all day. I didnt see the game yesterday, but I was surprised only 2 went past us when I saw Utaka's name on Pompey's teamsheet and that little red card symbol next to our biggest defender.

[Tredder]

Blatant penalty and sending off, always up against it after that, blaming the ref is way offline, also, i think i could beat Shorey over 100 metres, Reading lack pace at the back and a good leader. failing that, a decent mid table premiership side.

[RoyalBlue]

Typical Reading fans blaming the referee. Jesus lads give it as rest.

The reason we lost that game yesterday is because Sonko is a liability, Marcus is just sh*t & the rest of the players have no idea or creation in them.

.

But anyone who denies the officials also played an important role in our downfall needs to open their eyes.

The 'Assistant' idiot on the East Stand did far more than Marcus to gift them the first goal.

Just how was it a freekick against Harper in the first place? Their man tried to physically force his way past Harper. Harper stood firm and knocked the ball away from between the Portsmouth player's legs with a perfectly clean tackle. Undeterred the Portsmouth player kept pushing until he eventually fell over, taking Harper down with him. When the 'Assistant' flagged, I thought 'good a freekick to us' and like most sat near the incident was dumbfounded and furious when he then pointed his flag in the wrong direction.

Not content with calling the foul the wrong way he then completely failed to understand that the offside law requires two defending players to be goalside of the attacking player at the time the ball is passed to him. Did he fail to spot that Marcus was well off his line and therefore there had to be two other defenders goalside of Campbell when his team-mate headed the ball onto him?!!

As MOTD categorically stated, a clear case of offside that the Assistant (who later had no problem calling a corner on the far side of the pitch) should have spotted from his position. This incompetent fool, who also then awarded a corner after a Portsmouth player clearly headed wide, should be thrown off the officials list. I hope he was watching MOTD last night and had trouble sleeping (maybe finally realising why the East Stand spent the whole game baying for his blood) but I somehow doubt it.

It's not why we lost though is it

It could well have played a significant factor. Had they not scored that early on, the way the game developed would have been very different.

You might have had a case had it been a second goal scored late in the game but it wasn't. It was a very telling early first goal against 10 men.

That's two games on the trot now where appalling decisions by the officials have had a major bearing on the way the game has developed.

[Dirk Gently]

Indeed. The sheer size and athleticism of their squad is immense, particularly in midfield and attack. Watching Harper trying to hold off someone twice the size of him in the shape of Diop was staggering, he had even less chance than normal. Let's face it, regardless of the penalty/sending off/clanger from USA we were not likely to get much out of this game, especially as Pompey are a huge mental block for us home & away

Murty especially creaks against big fit footballers, Ingimarsson gets out of position and we we'll be lucky to win a ball in midfield all day. I didnt see the game yesterday, but I was surprised only 2 went past us when I saw Utaka's name on Pompey's teamsheet and that little red card symbol next to our biggest defender.

You're right, of course - thinking about it, I think I would have settled for a 2-0 loss against Portsmouth, who we never beat and who put 7 (seven) past us just over 3 months ago.

Considering we played 88 minutes with 10 men keeping the score down so low is quite an achievement.

[West Stand Flash]

Well said Tredder.

[Dr Hfuhruhurr]

Indeed. The sheer size and athleticism of their squad is immense, particularly in midfield and attack. Watching Harper trying to hold off someone twice the size of him in the shape of Diop was staggering, he had even less chance than normal. Let's face it, regardless of the penalty/sending off/clanger from USA we were not likely to get much out of this game, especially as Pompey are a huge mental block for us home & away

Murty especially creaks against big fit footballers, Ingimarsson gets out of position and we we'll be lucky to win a ball in midfield all day. I didnt see the game yesterday, but I was surprised only 2 went past us when I saw Utaka's name on Pompey's teamsheet and that little red card symbol next to our biggest defender.

You're right, of course - thinking about it, I think I would have settled for a 2-0 loss against Portsmouth, who we never beat and who put 7 (seven) past us just over 3 months ago.

Considering we played 88 minutes with 10 men keeping the score down so low is quite an achievement.

I wouldnt say Im 'Happy' with 2-0, I just couldnt care less. And I dont think the result is at all indicative of a 'bad result' - its just indicative of our weak spot - good quick players. In sure Coppell is scouring the lower leagues for a good quick player of our own as we speak in order to counteract this.

[Huntley & Palmer]

It could well have played a significant factor. Had they not scored that early on, the way the game developed would have been very different.

You might have had a case had it been a second goal scored late in the game but it wasn't. It was a very telling early first goal against 10 men.

That's two games on the trot now where appalling decisions by the officials have had a major bearing on the way the game has developed.

Well they would have scored regardless of it being from that free kick or not as we were already down to ten men. They scored that particular goal because USA dropped a clanger, Pompey then sat in 2nd gear for the rest of the match because they knew we didn't have much chance of playing near on 90 minutes with ten men without leaving huge gaps in midfield/defence. Portsmouth were physically better bigger and more dangerous than us all over the pitch, as proved by Utaka rinsing Shorey over 40 yards when Shorey had a head start, the very best we could have hoped for a was a draw and even then a scoreless one at that

[rotherwick_royal]

Sonko made a criminally bad error of judgement and he deserved to go off.

Don't think many people are disputing that, and if they are they are blind!

Doesn't excuse the pathetic performance by Mr. Dean and (one of) his linesmen though.

[79Royal]

The Sun today reckon the referee Mr Dean was Man of the Match

In what respect I might ask?

He is the one who's perfomance will be most remembered from this match - a performance which most caught the eye. He is alsao the one who had the most impact on making the game turn out the way it did.

Because Sonko made it too easy for him with a pathetic attempt at a challenge.

I do find it funny that Reading fans always blame the referee for a defeat. How about the players on the field were simply not good enough & lacked any ideas.

TBF, I don't think anyone is blaming the referee solely for the defeat. Once you've seen replays, it was an obvious penalty. I'm still uncertain whether a sending off was warranted, but I can't say I was surprised by the decision and it probably did cost us the game. Sonko really let us down yesterday.

However, the performance from the referee and the linesman by the East Stand was truly woeful and not always in Pompey's favour. Murty should have been sent off for a second yellow, there were numerous times when he allowed play to continue when there wasn't an advantage or vice versa, plus a ludicrous passage of play when Cisse was down and the players were waiting for the ref to signal play on or blow his whistle. He did nothing so there was a stand off for about 10 seconds until Muntari, I think, kicked the ball out.

Regardless of the result or Reading's performance, Mike Dean was rubbish and part of the reason why the game was so flat in stages. His communication was dire.

As I said though, he wasn't the reason we were beaten.

[Smoking Kills Dancing Doe]

That first half was the worst 45 minutes of referreeing I've ever seen. I don't think I've ever been so angry at a football match.

But....the most important decision was unfortunately the one he got right. Sonko's become a liability recently and deserved to go. After Marcus' error the game was basically over as a contest and it's pointless ripping apart individual performances when you have to play with 10 men for the whole game.

For me SSC's halo has slipped in the last few weeks. I can't understand why Sonko was playing when he's clearly struggling for form/fitness - I thought Bikey was our best player today and showed that he deserved a chance regardless of Sonko being sent off. I can't understand why Shorey was playing if he was still suffering from illness - I can only think that's the reason Utaka went past him like he was standing still. I can't understand why Murty is expected to play his 3rd game in a week when he looks knackered after 60 minutes. I can't understand why Gunnar has played so many games this season.

Basically I can't understand why he doesn't use his squad. There is hardly a position on the pitch where we can say we've got healthy competition for places. We've seen Sonko, Gunnar, etc. have nightmare games but they are always given another chance. It's favouritism in the extreme and can't be healthy for the morale of the squad as a whole. Some players like Bikey must be wondering what it is they need to do to get a chance, let alone the likes of Henry and Pearce.

Post of the year.

Well it is only 1st Jan

To be honest I think his reluctance to use the squad has much to do with the quality of our squad.

Shorey played cause our only other option was DLC. He won't play Fae, we've no wingers. He obviously doesn't trust Bikey 100%, Lita and Long just aren't as good as Doyle and Kits.

I think underperforming players keep there place because of lack of depth mixed with Coppell's trust issues.

[RoyalBlue]

It could well have played a significant factor. Had they not scored that early on, the way the game developed would have been very different.

You might have had a case had it been a second goal scored late in the game but it wasn't. It was a very telling early first goal against 10 men.

That's two games on the trot now where appalling decisions by the officials have had a major bearing on the way the game has developed.

Well they would have scored regardless of it being from that free kick or not as we were already down to ten men. They scored that particular goal because USA dropped a clanger, Pompey then sat in 2nd gear for the rest of the match because they knew we didn't have much chance of playing near on 90 minutes with ten men without leaving huge gaps in midfield/defence. Portsmouth were physically better bigger and more dangerous than us all over the pitch, as proved by Utaka rinsing Shorey over 40 yards when Shorey had a head start, the very best we could have hoped for a was a draw and even then a scoreless one at that

We showed at West Ham and Man U what we could do with 10 men, provided officials weren't donating goals to the opposition!

A scoreless draw might have proved a very useful result as we start to get dragged towards a relegation fight.

[rotherwick_royal]

To be honest I think his reluctance to use the squad has much to do with the quality of our squad.

Shorey played cause our only other option was DLC. He won't play Fae, we've no wingers. He obviously doesn't trust Bikey 100%, Lita and Long just aren't as good as Doyle and Kits.

I think underperforming players keep there place because of lack of depth mixed with Coppell's trust issues.

Yes but who was it said in the summer "I'm quite happy with my squad", and has started saying it again coming up to this transfer window?