MATCHWATCH : Cardiff City (h)

[Hound]

Agreed. That was the most encouraged I have been by a performance in a long time. We won and deservedly so having brought three teenagers on in the second half.

I don't disagree that we deserved to win. It's just that we have a paper-thin squad, coupled with a terrible reputation for injuries, and we played a team that played so badly that their manager had to apologise to their fans for how poor they were.

At least 80% of our games will see us against teams playing considerably better than Cardiff did.

They played badly as we made them do so. We responded excellently to the goal and controlled the match superbly after going ahead. Sometimes it is just easier to credit your own side than look for a "yeah, but".

I thought cardiff looked very good to start. Good mix of energy, longer balls, some nice passing stuff as well. Honestly thought we were on to a 0-3 or 0-4 after 20 mins

Game changed when Ince made a driving run which ended in a foul. Woke the team and crowd up and after that we were the better side

[NewCorkSeth]

Anyone else notice Hoillett was much better playing on the left? I mean, I know it's obvious he's better in his natural position but we also looked better with him there.

Once we have a CB and can move Yiadom out right it's a much more functional team. I wouldn't be averse to starting Ovie there and bringing Hoillett on after 60 minutes to threaten tired full backs.

[Snowflake Royal]

I think the ref needs to give the red as otherwise you just encourage defenders to take out anyone that's nailed on to score. A penalty and a yellow is better than conceding.

I reckon he was 'evening up' after letting us off a potential red for a foul about 10 minutes earlier.

The Hoilett tackle? Looked a standard yellow to me

Wasn't far from a red, it was basically two footed, but semi-in control.

[Snowflake Royal]

Ratings

Lumley - 7 patrols area well, but there's a potential clanger in his roaming. No real risks in the passing. Thought the save was fairly routine, not a well struck shot. Maybe could have looked stronger on the goal, but the issue was the defending, a save would have been special. A Cardiff touch from looking a bit at sea on that second freekick, but the ball was a peach through the corridor of uncertainty.
Yiadom - 7 some rash challenges, but played well
Holmes - 7 solid
McIntyre - 7 same
Hoilett - 7 rash challenge, but good work
NGW - 8 not sure on his defending, but he can do some damage going forward
Hendrick - 6 odd one, some really nice feet and play at times, but don't think midfield is involved enough, at fault on the goal.
Fornah - 6 same pattern as last week but improved, not involved enough early on, but grew into the game with some nicer moments
Ejaria - 7 anonymous for much of the first half, less of the standout defensive work this time, cutting out the showboating to no purpose and walking pace stuff. Lovely interchange with McIntyre and NGW for the second, the assist itself was routine, but end product is end product.
Ince - 9 made the pen, scored a screamer, ran all game. I could grow to love this guy, and delivered the all important end product
Long - 7 worked hard, won headers etc, scored a, not great, pen. Job done

Abrefa - 7 didn’t look out of place at all
Ehibhatiomhan - n/a some nice feet, promise there. Not sure he looked one to lead the line (yet)
Clarke - n/a not much chance to do a lot. Got nothing wrong.


Ince - 7 still not keen on the defensive shape, but it worked in the end today, much better use of subs.

I like the increased emphasis on the low straight pass down the middle to feet from defence and midfield into attack. That's the sort of passing out I prefer, not the backwards and sideways crap. You can see they're actually looking for the forward pass more.

[Nameless]

Looking at the pen again I still think it deserved a red, but less adamant than I was !
Looks like the very heavily gave the benefit of the doubt to Cardiff, you could argue Ince had too much to do to turn it into a goal, although it was the action of the defender that stopped him even having the chance.
I don’t think Cardiff could have argued too much if it had been a red, but I can see why the ref opted for just a yellow.

[Hound]

Ratings look about right Ian - would nudge Hendrick up to a 7, thought he was impressive

Long gets an 8. There’s so much he did that wasn’t obvious and prob doesn’t get seen on tv - little movements, nudges on the defender, closing down, making space. Our first goal a great example - superb perfect flick on from a standard gk after just doing enough to put off the defender (objectively possibly a foul). He absolutely ruined Kipre tbh

As for ince - was that as good a display as any put in by Swift last season - maybe QPR at home was the only one better? Work rate is phenomenal. Think we’ve done a great bit of business there

[RoyalBlue]

Worth pointing out that for our second goal, after regaining possession, we scored after 4 passes. It was literally boom, boom, boom, boom, box to box, back of the net.

Sensational stuff.

Even had Ovie slowing the play down twice in that move as well

'Slowing down' to beat the defenders and then play perfect pass to Ince!

[From Despair To Where?]

Watching the replay of the penalty incident, there was a defender coming back to cover the line so, although I'd still put money on Ince to score in that position, not convinced it would have been as simple as just rolling the ball into the net.

Whilst I don't agree with the ref's decision to give yellow, I can see why he did.

On Tom Ince, cracking finish. When I was at Primary School, I was taught by my mum for 2 years and I always has the sense that I had to work harder and do better just to prove that there was no favouritism. I wonder if there's an element of that driving him to perform at consistantly good level since his dad came to the club. Thought he was superb yesterday and an excellent example of the effort the players need to aspire to.

[Snowflake Royal]

Ratings look about right Ian - would nudge Hendrick up to a 7, thought he was impressive

Long gets an 8. There’s so much he did that wasn’t obvious and prob doesn’t get seen on tv - little movements, nudges on the defender, closing down, making space. Our first goal a great example - superb perfect flick on from a standard gk after just doing enough to put off the defender (objectively possibly a foul). He absolutely ruined Kipre tbh

As for ince - was that as good a display as any put in by Swift last season - maybe QPR at home was the only one better? Work rate is phenomenal. Think we’ve done a great bit of business there

Yep, tv not great for off the ball work, so no issue with Long looking better live there.

[Jackson Corner]

The rules are to deny a clear goal scoring opportunity. It does not matter if there is a player on the line. He was denied the chance to score a goal because he was tugged back.

[South Coast Royal]

Agree with ZIP's point earlier that fitness (when players are fit of course and that's Ejaria out for ? 8weeks if the normal Reading period ) was really good, as it was at Blackpool last week.

It did sound as though the manager wants Loum in straight away and the same, if possible , with Sarr because of the height and physical presence that they will bring as we did at times look a bit lightweight through the middle.

If Vardy can still do it at his age then why can't Shane Long?.
He is made for this level of football and did as much running as he did as a teenager -as others have said, how refreshing to see one of our strikers putting defenders under pressure-Joao and Meite bring other facets to the game but neither are very good at putting centre-backs under pressure.

So, a feel good result in the sun with a very committed performance plus a cracking goal from Ince following a classy build up.
Far too early to have much idea of how things will pan out but great to be watching a team of triers for the first time in ages-you can forgive a team for it's deficiences when they work that hard and Tom Ince is a great example to all.

That's what comes from learning the basics at Liverpool where the ethos is that you can have all the skill in the world but it's no good if you don't put it all in every week.
Maybe that's why Ejaria didn't make it there or at Rangers.

[From Despair To Where?]

The rules are to deny a clear goal scoring opportunity. It does not matter if there is a player on the line. He was denied the chance to score a goal because he was tugged back.

But as Ian posted a couple of pages back, the ref has to judge on a number of criteria. If it doesn't fulfil the criteria, no red card.

We need to take a leaf out of the NFL book and give the refs the platform to explain contentious decisions, then everybody might just have a better understanding of the laws of the game and how they are applied. It would also lead to better scrutiny and hopefully better standards.

[Zip]

Ratings look about right Ian - would nudge Hendrick up to a 7, thought he was impressive

Long gets an 8. There’s so much he did that wasn’t obvious and prob doesn’t get seen on tv - little movements, nudges on the defender, closing down, making space. Our first goal a great example - superb perfect flick on from a standard gk after just doing enough to put off the defender (objectively possibly a foul). He absolutely ruined Kipre tbh

As for ince - was that as good a display as any put in by Swift last season - maybe QPR at home was the only one better? Work rate is phenomenal. Think we’ve done a great bit of business there

I would keep Hendrick at 6 as he was at fault for the goal and should have played in Hoilett but checked inside.
Fornah was a 7 for me as he was strong in possession and positive
NGW a 6 as he gave away a silly free kick leading to the goal and has a scratchy first half

[Snowflake Royal]

The rules are to deny a clear goal scoring opportunity. It does not matter if there is a player on the line. He was denied the chance to score a goal because he was tugged back.

But as Ian posted a couple of pages back, the ref has to judge on a number of criteria. If it doesn't fulfil the criteria, no red card.

We need to take a leaf out of the NFL book and give the refs the platform to explain contentious decisions, then everybody might just have a better understanding of the laws of the game and how they are applied. It would also lead to better scrutiny and hopefully better standards.

Yeah, it's not helped by pundits waxing lyrical when they don’t know the rules.

Normally find Gooding pretty good, but he didn't even know about the change to a yellow if its a genuine attempt to play the ball in the box.

[windermereROYAL]

The rules are to deny a clear goal scoring opportunity. It does not matter if there is a player on the line. He was denied the chance to score a goal because he was tugged back.

But as Ian posted a couple of pages back, the ref has to judge on a number of criteria. If it doesn't fulfil the criteria, no red card.

We need to take a leaf out of the NFL book and give the refs the platform to explain contentious decisions, then everybody might just have a better understanding of the laws of the game and how they are applied. It would also lead to better scrutiny and hopefully better standards.

Yeah, it's not helped by pundits waxing lyrical when they don’t know the rules.

Normally find Gooding pretty good, but he didn't even know about the change to a yellow if its a genuine attempt to play the ball in the box.

Christ on a bike, that`s common knowledge to most people that know anything about football. except maybe for the elderly gentleman sat behind me.

[blythspartan]

For me that was the best Reading performance I have seen for quite a long time. We didn’t fluke the win and for the first time in ages I felt confident that we’d hold on when we went 2-1 up. Ince reminded me of the youngster that burst on to the scene at Blackpool years ago.

NGW definitely has something about him and if we can improve the defensive side of his game we’ll have a top player. Tbh the whole team looked so much fitter and so far Lumley looks a good solid keeper.

Most of all I am looking forward to chatting to a Derby fan at work who loved telling me all last week that we’ll be swapping places with them come the end of the season.

[Nameless]

Interesting that the laws regarding to DOGSO specifybthat the GENERAL direction of play is what should be considered, not the specific direction any one player is moving. Clearly the general direction of play was towards the Cardiffgoal, even if Ince was running at an angle.

[Snowflake Royal]

Interesting that the laws regarding to DOGSO specifybthat the GENERAL direction of play is what should be considered, not the specific direction any one player is moving. Clearly the general direction of play was towards the Cardiffgoal, even if Ince was running at an angle.

Interesting.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

For me that was the best Reading performance I have seen for quite a long time. We didn’t fluke the win and for the first time in ages I felt confident that we’d hold on when we went 2-1 up. Ince reminded me of the youngster that burst on to the scene at Blackpool years ago.

NGW definitely has something about him and if we can improve the defensive side of his game we’ll have a top player. Tbh the whole team looked so much fitter and so far Lumley looks a good solid keeper.

Most of all I am looking forward to chatting to a Derby fan at work who loved telling me all last week that we’ll be swapping places with them come the end of the season.

Agree there, felt pretty confident when we were 2-1 up in the last 10 minutes or so, although Cardiff, to be fair, hardly peppered our goal with efforts, think they only had 2 on target and they came pretty early on as well.

Not sure why people thought Cardiff were going to be gunning for promotion after they made a lot of signings, they've just signed mid table-bottom half players at this level whilst removing a lot of high earners, probably as a result of parachute payments running out for them so they didn't end up with bother regarding FFP. Their first 11 yesterday was nothing to shout about, probably not much better than ours, if at all to be honest.

[tidus_mi2]

For me that was the best Reading performance I have seen for quite a long time. We didn’t fluke the win and for the first time in ages I felt confident that we’d hold on when we went 2-1 up. Ince reminded me of the youngster that burst on to the scene at Blackpool years ago.

NGW definitely has something about him and if we can improve the defensive side of his game we’ll have a top player. Tbh the whole team looked so much fitter and so far Lumley looks a good solid keeper.

Most of all I am looking forward to chatting to a Derby fan at work who loved telling me all last week that we’ll be swapping places with them come the end of the season.

Agree there, felt pretty confident when we were 2-1 up in the last 10 minutes or so, although Cardiff, to be fair, hardly peppered our goal with efforts, think they only had 2 on target and they came pretty early on as well.

Not sure why people thought Cardiff were going to be gunning for promotion after they made a lot of signings, they've just signed mid table-bottom half players at this level whilst removing a lot of high earners, probably as a result of parachute payments running out for them so they didn't end up with bother regarding FFP. Their first 11 yesterday was nothing to shout about, probably not much better than ours, if at all to be honest.

Agree, think they've made good signings for the division, especially in replacing high earners, should see them improve on last season but nowhere near a promotion squad.