Wednesday Match Thread (A) Sponsored by £30 Match Tickets

[winchester_royal]

Can't agree with that, it was only the last 10 mins that we got a little panicky, aside from that we played some excellent possession football.

Also thought Tish was absolutely superb. One (admittedly big) error aside he pretty much ran the midfield.

Sa was the real positive for me though. Offers so much both on and off the ball. A real player.

[PeterReadingborn59]

Can anyone explain why SC took Taylor off and put Obita on?
Unless Taylor had picked up an injury it seems a strange switch when the back four had been working okay. If SC wanted to close the match down why not take a midfield player off?

The next matches will be telling, hopefully RFC might strengthen both ends of the pitch with a goalkeeper and goal scorer.

[sandman]

Can anyone explain why SC took Taylor off and put Obita on?
Unless Taylor had picked up an injury it seems a strange switch when the back four had been working okay. If SC wanted to close the match down why not take a midfield player off?

The next matches will be telling, hopefully RFC might strengthen both ends of the pitch with a goalkeeper and goal scorer.

They brought on a winger with pace, Clarke wanted to counter that pace. It was our shaky keeper dropping the ball at said wingers feet which ruined that plan.

[PeterReadingborn59]

Thanks -

[Steve_Upper_West]

Time for Al Habsi?

He also dropped the ball at Colchester last week!

[paultheroyal]

Thanks - shame the winger still managed to get a cross in.

It got lumped forward from near the halfway line

[sandman]

Thanks - shame the winger still managed to get a cross in.

It got lumped forward from near the halfway line

And came from the opposite side.

[paultheroyal]

Thanks - shame the winger was the one to get the loose ball from Bond's mistake.

worst.edit.ever.

[RoyallyFcuked]

In another life though, we deservedly won 3-2 at Birmingham and Bond's mistake didn't happen and we won 1-0 tonight.

That would put us joint top on 7 points...

Not saying we have been outstanding so far, far from it. But, we have been unlucky and there are some signs of improvement.

Also agree with you on Adkins, it certainly wasn't all his fault. More the fact he had next to no money and a bunch of players who were either underperforming, over the hill or that were simply not good enough. He never got the chance to build his own team here, so we will never know.

Now its Clarke who has that chance and he has earned our backing, for the next few months at least.

Clarke deserves the chance at backing as all manager's do. I can't see how he's earnt anything at all though.

FA Cup Semi Final not mean anything to you?

But perhaps "earned" was still the wrong word. As you said, he "deserves" our backing, and he needs it right now.

What he doesn't need is people writing him off after 3 league games, 2 of which we have been really unlucky in.

[P!ssed Off]

"Clarke's only been here 3 league games, last season doesn't count."
"Clarke deserves credit for getting us to the FA Cup semi-final last season."


Did last season 'count' or not?

[TBM]

Once again we get into double figures with our shots in a game however on target is very poor

We need some fire power to change that

[Ian Royal]

In another life though, we deservedly won 3-2 at Birmingham and Bond's mistake didn't happen and we won 1-0 tonight.

That would put us joint top on 7 points...

Not saying we have been outstanding so far, far from it. But, we have been unlucky and there are some signs of improvement.

Also agree with you on Adkins, it certainly wasn't all his fault. More the fact he had next to no money and a bunch of players who were either underperforming, over the hill or that were simply not good enough. He never got the chance to build his own team here, so we will never know.

Now its Clarke who has that chance and he has earned our backing, for the next few months at least.

Clarke deserves the chance at backing as all manager's do. I can't see how he's earnt anything at all though.

FA Cup Semi Final not mean anything to you?

But perhaps "earned" was still the wrong word. As you said, he "deserves" our backing, and he needs it right now.

What he doesn't need is people writing him off after 3 league games, 2 of which we have been really unlucky in.

It's not really three league games though is it... it's about 27. I'm not convinced by the luck argument either. We shouldn't have to rely on not getting unlucky, or getting more lucky (all the woodwork hits this season).

I find the whole situation really frustrating. I wanted to like Clarke, I thought he was decent at West Brom (though his record tailed off considerably) and would do a good job. He seemed to start well and I was happy with the appointment. But results and performances were pretty poor after the first few games and his January signings were mostly terrible, the FA Cup run didn't really make up for that for me. Then he seems to be turning things round with a good summer. But now we don't really seem any further forward. We're reasonably good at the back, but ineffective upfront putting way to much pressure on the defence. Same as last season. Now he's lost good player's he's had to replace so I appreciate we started with two steps back after a piss poor season. But every time I feel myself warming to the guy, the results just don't arrive and I feel myself getting fed up.

[Reading4eva]

Just seen the highlights. We look unlucky to have only scored one. We should of toed that corner in!

Bond's goal conceded was school boy though. In the playground in 1997 I use to flap like that at a ball before I realised pluck it out the air and put it to your chest!

Is Moore any good?

Highlights: http://youtu.be/gFPWcixsVBE

[Waxy]

Gutted but as Clarke would say " this is the life of a Reading supporter"

[Stranded]

The most frustrating thing so far, is in 2 away games we have apparently looked controlled and the better side for large parts but due to individual errors in the 90th minute plus (it wasn't a good penalty after all) we have come away with 1 point rather than 4.

Those late, late errors need to be wiped out or games put to bed way before they can come in to play.

[Hoop Blah]

Because Ego Man can't abide previous regime's staff - in case they show him up to be what he actually is.

If I recall, Sir Steve Coppell made it very clear he worked with the staff that were in place when he arrived, and only gradually, (very gradually), made changes he thought approriate. This imposter clearly has no faith in anyone's ability other than his own.

It's a bit different when you're coming into a club with the recent record and history we had before Clarke's arrival and that at Coppell's time when we were on the up after all the great ground work Pardew put in place to make us ready for the success under Coppell.

It seems clear that Clarke felt the club had got stagnant, complacent, comfortable, happy to lose or use the Zingaravich era as an excuse for players to perform under their capability. Whatever it was he'd seen as an issue it was broken and he did need to fix it.

Of course the season is only 4 games old, and once these new "wonder signings" are fit, and have the relevant permits in place etc, they may come good - Frankly I am not holding my breath.

I haven't mentioned the new 1st team coach who has ZERO experience, having been fast-tracked through his badges, together with the new keeping coach, (remind me again just how bad Sal Bibbo was as a keeping coach?), and then there's journeyman Mike Keen as another coach of some description - what is he to Reid??

Letting Bibbo go was just part of that shake up.

We don't really know how good Bibbo was either. You'd assume he was pretty good at his job considering the keepers we've had over the years but, on the other hand, it may just have been good recruitment and raw talent and not good coaching.

Steven Reid does have experience as a coach, albeit limited yes, and most of his badges too, which is more than some of our coaches in the past. Most importantly I imagine he has Clarke's confidence and the right attitude and desire to add to the vast experience of Clarke and Keen (that's Kevin Keen by the way strap). As with all teams it's about getting the blend right between the characters, skills and their respective roles. I'd guess those three make quite a good team to be honest.

Would you rather the club kept Dean Wilkins and Andy Crosby in place to continue their good work under Adkins instead?

Clarke rightly had Dolan work closely with him and the first team but he had to bring in his own men to work alongside him as we didn't have a coaching team in place, unlike when Pardew walked out and left the likes of Dillon and Niall Clark in place.

I really hope Clarke makes me eats my words - but at the moment he reminds me far more of another failed Scottish manager of ours. Tommy Burns was also infamous doing an impression of a kid in a sweetshop around the time of transfer windows, just like the current Scottish manager of ours. I wonder how we would have fared had Adkins been given this kind of support from the then owners? Just saying, that's all.

I hope he does too. He will need the fans to realise the size of the job and give him some breathing space to fix things though which, in my book, he's started to do pretty well so far.

[Lacoste]

Statistically no but you can't look with your eyes and not say, keeper aside, we don't look stronger in central defence and McShane looks to be a very good signing so far. Goal scoring is still a problem but his more attacking signings and, thanks to the "Reggae Boyz", our potentially most dangerous winger are not yet available to him.

He needs to start winning because, as Adkins might have said, "it is a results business" and personally I've had enough of taking positives from games we should have won.

As for the hate for Adkins, people don't like phonies, Adkins was a phony.

4 promotions for Adkins?

Zero for Clarke and no signs he has even nearly enough to do that. Sacks the whole backroom team and talks a HUGE game.

So who's the phony?

[Vision]

I'm sure there are many ways you can criticize Clarke but not having gained promotions seems an odd one. When exactly was he supposed to have done that?

It would be equally weird to defend him by saying he doesn't have any relegations either whereas Adkins has.

I don't think there's anyone watching us with an open mind that can't see how better organised we are and that there have been improvements from last season. It's still far too early to judge his signings of course but the two lads from Hull and Sa look promising so far whilst the keepers leave a bit to be desired.

I also think his post match interviews are generally very honest and he's not usually susceptible to making the generic managerial excuses one or two posters on here seem to be accusing him of.

My two concerns with Clarke though lie with his rather negative mindset.

If you're controlling a game and are 1-0 up with 15 minutes to go then you can either make changes to push for the goal that will kill the game off or make changes to defend what you have. Clarke seems to always favour the latter and in the case of last night it means one individual error can undo all of your work for the previous 90 minutes. Of course it may be down to the lack of real attacking options at present with McCleary and Pog injured and the new signings not yet up to match fitness. However he did have young Academy talent on the bench in Fosu and Stacey which he could have used to show positive intent.

Which brings me to my second concern which is that I have a feeling that the pathway for the youngsters is going to be shut off somewhat due to Clarke's naturally cautious instincts. Tish is playing at the moment but that's mainly because Williams and Quinn are being used wider. When the likes of McCleary and Hurtado are available (and maybe even Fernandez as he can play wider) then I can see Tish,Fosu and Stacey struggling to get a look in. That's fine if those players lead to a successful season but if we're going to be plodding away lower mid table then I personally would much rather our own youngsters were given the opportunities to stake a claim.

As I said far too early to draw concrete conclusions and despite the results there are some encouraging signs, there's just a nagging doubt in my mind about whether Clarke's mentality is suited to building a successful Championship side.

[Ian Royal]

Good post as always Vision.

[Steve_Upper_West]

Good post as always Vision.

Yeah......pretty much agree

( and at the risk of starting a different debate McDermott would have pushed harder for the second goal)