BFTG - Cherries

[Jackson Corner]

Boremuff were not very good but there again they didn't have to be. We just never look like scoring whoever we play. When good balls do go in the box no one is on the end of them. When shooting chances come along we opt to pass the ball all the time. Every free kick or corner I just drop back into my seat and wait for it to be cleared or cought by the keeper.

[biff]

The best CD performance ive ever seen from Hector tonight, didnt put a foot wrong (thought i missed the red incident i reckon the pcunt probably deserved the shoeing.)

Not HRKs biggest fan but you're being very harsh on him this evening. A few misplaced passes trying to make something happen agaisnt a well drilled defence and mongs literally jeer him off the field? He did his job pretty well as an attacking CM. Few decent efforts, recycled the ball well. 10/10 it aint, but neither is it 1.

A very complete and accomplished team performance lacking that killer touch. If yakubu had scored his overhead kick I woudlve spaffed my pants.

[urz13]

Good performance that deserved a lot more. Need to build our team next season around a core of Federici, Hector, Karacan, Williams and Mackie IMO - get them all signed up. Hector in particular was outstanding from the 5th minute onwards - I genuinely believe he has all the attributes to be an excellent PL CB in the future.

Feds - 6
Gunter - 5 too negative in possession
Hector - 8 after the 5th minute he completely bossed Wilson
Pearce - 7
Ake - 7 love this guy, can we get him next year pls
Karacan - 7
Chalobah - 7
McCleary - 5 cash in on him in the summer, he's not the player he was last seasob
Obita - 6 delays the cross far too long
HRK - 3 dreadful sadly. The boos were a joke though
Mackie - 7.5 amazing how many times he can hassle a defender into losing the ball

[PremAddict]

Not HRKs biggest fan but you're being very harsh on him this evening. A few misplaced passes trying to make something happen agaisnt a well drilled defence and mongs literally jeer him off the field? He did his job pretty well as an attacking CM. Few decent efforts, recycled the ball well. 10/10 it aint, but neither is it 1.

I don't get to see many games (and I'm not a fan of watching games after they've occurred) and think HRK is probably the fashionable pick to deride. That said, what always gets me is the drawn-out contract posturing when we went down, expecting him to live up to good wages and then nothing. I'm the sort that believes if you're good, your good and you don't need a squad of players that are consistent 7-9 ratings or televised matches to show it.

Frankly I do think he's good but he doesn't appear to care all that much without the limelight to motivate him.

[floyd__streete]

Says all you need to know about this season that a 0-1 home defeat was actually the second most exciting Reading match I have bothered dragging myself along to this season (free ticket FTR). Could have been even more enjoyable a night were it not for Clarke's astonishing decision to play HRK through the middle when he had a loan signing centre-forward sat on the bench

Btw, Garath McCleary, I assume he was saving his energy for Saturday? Then again, based on what I have seen of him this season he tends to put roughly that much effort (ie. the bare minimum) into most games anyway. Probably best that you leave eh, Garath

[ZacNaloen]

Did everyone but score, desperately need a striker capable of scoring on a regular basis next year.

[RoyalBlue]

If that was Bournemouth playing well then they will get utterly destroyed if they go up.

agreed. I think if we had scored they would have fallen apart. Best defeat I have watched in years, play like that on Saturday please

Last 20mins we were ok, and about 5 mins in the 1st half.

Rest of the game was turgid imo

Exactly this. Trouble is, people have become so conditioned to appalling performances that very average spells of play start to look good in their eyes.

Finally delivery once again appalling as was our shooting (HRK's delivery to Cox and his effort being the exception).

The best CD performance ive ever seen from Hector tonight, didnt put a foot wrong (thought i missed the red incident i reckon the pcunt probably deserved the shoeing.)

Not HRKs biggest fan but you're being very harsh on him this evening. A few misplaced passes trying to make something happen agaisnt a well drilled defence and mongs literally jeer him off the field? He did his job pretty well as an attacking CM. Few decent efforts, recycled the ball well. 10/10 it aint, but neither is it 1.

.

Yep, the constant booing and criticism was absurd and unwarranted on a lot of occasions. Still, some of our supporters have to have a constant scapegoat.

[Platypuss]

Pogrebnyak anonymous as ever.

[wingnut]

Can't agree that we did everything but score as that implies we actually had a shot. Unfortunately though we weren't even getting into positions to have a shot largely through dreadful crosses and set pieces. Just what do they do in training? One the one occassion where we had a shot, Yakubu managed to block it with his arse, which though tbf, is probably a wider target than the goal.

We were decent enough for about 20 minutes in the first half and for the last ten - although that latter spell was down to Hector's near-sending off, which acted to galvanise the team. Admirable I suppose in that we were carrying two passengers - Kanu and McCleary.

[Pepe the Horseman]

Is Glenn Murray still our (joint?) top scorer?

[teignmouth hoops]

Pogrebnyak anonymous as ever.

I thought it was one of his better games

[RoyalBlue]

I think Steve Clarke got it right by sending out the team for Saturday tonight. It must have been tempting to protect the likely starting 11, but I felt they got a kick up the backside in the first 4 minutes and after that upped their game unlike the Blackburn game which was moribund.

The only worry was when I thought Hector might get a red. Fortunately ref saw sense.

.

Shame he got the initial decision so dreadfully wrong. Player had bent head down towards ball, Hector got good contact on ball prior to head (if there was any contact with head at all), player guilty of awful play acting - contrast with Ake who clashed heads in the first half, was clearly hurt but kept running until he saw the threat away.

Only thing I liked about the ref was that rather than keep pointing at his watch, he was quick to dish out yellow cards for blatant timewasting - loved the way their keeper complained that he hadn't been warned, even though he had very deliberately taken an absolute age over a goalkick in the last few minutes of the game.

[ZacNaloen]

Can't agree that we did everything but score as that implies we actually had a shot. Unfortunately though we weren't even getting into positions to have a shot largely through dreadful crosses and set pieces. Just what do they do in training? One the one occassion where we had a shot, Yakubu managed to block it with his arse, which though tbf, is probably a wider target than the goal.

We were decent enough for about 20 minutes in the first half and for the last ten - although that latter spell was down to Hector's near-sending off, which acted to galvanise the team. Admirable I suppose in that we were carrying two passengers - Kanu and McCleary.

http://www.whoscored.com/Matches/830221/MatchReport

These stats suggest we did everything but score tbf

[leon]

Can't agree that we did everything but score as that implies we actually had a shot. Unfortunately though we weren't even getting into positions to have a shot largely through dreadful crosses and set pieces. Just what do they do in training? One the one occassion where we had a shot, Yakubu managed to block it with his arse, which though tbf, is probably a wider target than the goal.

We were decent enough for about 20 minutes in the first half and for the last ten - although that latter spell was down to Hector's near-sending off, which acted to galvanise the team. Admirable I suppose in that we were carrying two passengers - Kanu and McCleary.

http://www.whoscored.com/Matches/830221/MatchReport

These stats suggest we did everything but score tbf

How many shots did we have, on target and how many saves did their keeper need to make?

[ZacNaloen]

I think I made the point that scoring was the problem?

[leon]

I think I made the point that scoring was the problem?

you said we did everything but score - that's not true as we made hardly any chances, we let a goal in and they had more possession. That's not do everything but scoring.

[ZacNaloen]

12 chances is plenty if you have a decent striker

[Forbury Lion]

Well today has hopefully showed that two of our players really need to understand they're not very good in their preferred positions......... Obita needs to understand he's better at left back and HRK needs to understand he's actually sh*t

I think it's the manager who needs to understand this and he can then tell them where to play.

I was watching the game thinking of next season and team rebuilding, There were only a few players I feel would be worth keeping and in some cases (Obita) that is based on last season when he won POTS at left back.

Hopefully we can sign Mackie and get the Chelsea midfielder back on a longer loan, Keep Federici.

Thinking about our starting XI with all players fit rather than squad depth, the main problem IMHO is lack of a quality central striker and lack of quality / wrong mix of players in midfield.

[leon]

12 chances is plenty if you have a decent striker

[ZacNaloen]