Back from the miracle

[Jano]

Thought Carrico looked excellent for a player who has hardly played for 6 months and coming back from a pretty serious injury, also think a lot of the stick he's been getting is uncalled for. Don't know if it's because of where I was sitting but his work rate was excellent and he covered Harte very very well. Positionally/Passing was far superior to Ledge, and that seemed to spread throughout the entire team while he was on the pitch. Was surprised he was taken off at half time, although I didn't think he would last past about 60 minutes anyway. I also thought Reading played pretty well the entire game and matched West Brom in most areas of the pitch, the difference for the first 81 minutes at least, was that we could not handle Lukaku at all. He was heads and shoulders, literally, above everyone on the pitch. Was surprised by the defensive pairing as I thought Morrison would have been perfect up against the size and physicality of Lukaku, and out of the two centre backs I expected Pearce to go up against him, instead Mariappa really struggled to get anything from him. Was against worried that the first goal came down our right yet again, hopefully Kelly will help there, but we will see. Pogrebnyak getting huge amounts of abuse from everyone around me, until the same people left at the 75 minute mark. He falls over all the time and will never score for us apparently as he's never on his feet.

Second half, did McAnuff touch the ball? McCleary brought in some much needed pace. Surprised Jem was taken off. Harte's first few free kick and corner deliveries were poor, but got much better towards the end. Their second goal looked like a big mistake by Feds. Wrong footed himself, couldn't recover, then berated the defence. Everyone around us then left, and they switched off, obviously thinking West Brom had won the game. First goal was well worked but again should have been dealt with by them. They just ball watched probably expecting it to go out of play. Penalty was ridiculous, no idea what Olsson was trying to do, or how anyone could say it wasn't a penalty, it couldn't have been clearer. Pogs goal, deflected, probably an own goal, doesn't matter, but that is the position we need to get him the ball. Not up in the air 40 yards out. All in all a great day!

[Esteban]

Thought Carrico looked excellent for a player who has hardly played for 6 months and coming back from a pretty serious injury, also think a lot of the stick he's been getting is uncalled for. Don't know if it's because of where I was sitting but his work rate was excellent and he covered Harte very very well. Positionally/Passing was far superior to Ledge, and that seemed to spread throughout the entire team while he was on the pitch. Was surprised he was taken off at half time, although I didn't think he would last past about 60 minutes anyway. I also thought Reading played pretty well the entire game and matched West Brom in most areas of the pitch, the difference for the first 81 minutes at least, was that we could not handle Lukaku at all. He was heads and shoulders, literally, above everyone on the pitch. Was surprised by the defensive pairing as I thought Morrison would have been perfect up against the size and physicality of Lukaku, and out of the two centre backs I expected Pearce to go up against him, instead Mariappa really struggled to get anything from him. Was against worried that the first goal came down our right yet again, hopefully Kelly will help there, but we will see. Pogrebnyak getting huge amounts of abuse from everyone around me, until the same people left at the 75 minute mark. He falls over all the time and will never score for us apparently as he's never on his feet.

Second half, did McAnuff touch the ball? McCleary brought in some much needed pace. Surprised Jem was taken off. Harte's first few free kick and corner deliveries were poor, but got much better towards the end. Their second goal looked like a big mistake by Feds. Wrong footed himself, couldn't recover, then berated the defence. Everyone around us then left, and they switched off, obviously thinking West Brom had won the game. First goal was well worked but again should have been dealt with by them. They just ball watched probably expecting it to go out of play. Penalty was ridiculous, no idea what Olsson was trying to do, or how anyone could say it wasn't a penalty, it couldn't have been clearer. Pogs goal, deflected, probably an own goal, doesn't matter, but that is the position we need to get him the ball. Not up in the air 40 yards out. All in all a great day!

Agree with a lot of what you've said here, but I don't think that Brian has got the credit he deserved for making the tactical change at half time and again during the second half. Kebe's goal came as a result of him tucking in and having a relatively free role, with McAnuff doing some excellent covering work for him.

Brian has taken a lot of abuse for his substitutes this season, but I think there's been a definite 'plan B' that he's worked to since mid-December and he should take some credit for that.

[Hampshire Royal]

I only saw the game on Sky, but I'm glad that someone else said that we didn't play badly for the first 80 minutes or so. The difference between the sides until this time was Lukaku, combined with our weakness in the right side of our defence. I thought the midfield looked good, even though Carrico was clearly not match fit. When we started to turn it on a bit, West Brom just couldn't live with us.
I get the feeling that when Kelly comes in, and Carrico gets up to speed, our general perfomances will improve.

[The bitter biscuit]

Carrico was breathing heavy after 20 mins and clearly was not fit, I think he'll do well if he can get up to speed with his fitness but i wonder why they played him saturday as they must have known he would struggle. Overall it was a frustrating 80 mins followed by a bizarre/incredible last 10.. IMO West Brom were really well set up and choked the space in the middle of the park, at times we had posession and needed an outlet but seemed to only have one option, you can give credit to the baggies for that...

Positives, saw some composure that has been lacking at times.. Jimmy looks up for it.. we won... my nephew didnt convince me to leave early

Negatives, Gunter is rapidly becoming this generations Andy Gurney, our crossing from decent positions was poor, some poor decision making

Overall.. 80 minutes of frustration, 10 minutes of joy

.... and before anyone says.. i'll f**k off now as I am a newbie

[melonhead]

played well for 1st 15 minutes, shocked at the football on display, passing, movement, possession. looked really good.
undone by 2 sucker punches from lukaku, who was the best player on the pitch by a mile for an hour, and after the first goal we reallyu struggled to get anything going, heads went down a bit,confidence and belief drained away.

brian made the change at half time, which helped, and the further change at the end, which i thought was very ballsy really shook them up.
they had taken their foot off, thought it was all wrapped up, but after the karacan sub they couldnt get going again and looked very shaky indeed.

a spawny win, but weve lost games we should have got things from, so its nice weve now won one we shouldnt really have.



thought carrico looked decent. nice touch, knows what he is doing, good passing, just a yard off the pace.
think he will be a good addition,once fit

[Royal Rother]

Difficult to be entirely subjective because I watched the game on Sky knowing the result, but like a few other recent posts, I didn't think the performance was too bad in the 1st 80. Certainly seen worse this season.

I also didn't feel that Pog was any better than he has been in other games - it's a pretty thankless job playing up front on your own with a struggling midfield behind you, especially when you're not that good in the air. I think the passion of his celebration has clouded some people's views.

I also thought that was the best I've seen Gunter play for us. Not great but not too bad.

Kelly is going to be a good signing but I'm slightly surprised we haven't seen Mariappa play right back with Morrison and Pearce together in the centre. I thought that could have worked.

[ZacNaloen]

^ Re: Pog

It's tell that his two best moments for us came from a dinked pass from Mcleary (he controlled it, pulled a defender away and then gave it back, believe this then led to the cross for the first goal unless I'm mixing up incidents) and a low header from Pearce into space.

That's what he feeds off of. Balls to head or chest he just isn't used to and adapting to that would take him a long time.

[Maguire]

Another +1 to us not being outplayed all game. We were probably on top until the goal and that knocked the stuffing out of us but we gave it a good go in the second half and just got caught on the break a couple of times. That's the risk you take when committing men forward as we had to do.

[MouldyRoyal]

We kept possession a lot better until we conceded. Their first shot from Morrison and subsequent opener immeadiately after came against the run of play, in my opinion.

Don't get the grief that Carrico is receiving, clearly lacking match fitness and sharpness but definite quality there. He'll come good.

We were toothless first half though.

[Maguire]

Not hating on Carrico but he was awful. Yes that's because he wasn't fit but I don't see how anybody could think he was excellent or shouldn't have been dragged off at HT.

He'll be okay, just wasn't on Saturday.

[melonhead]

Not hating on Carrico but he was awful. Yes that's because he wasn't fit but I don't see how anybody could think he was excellent or shouldn't have been dragged off at HT.

He'll be okay, just wasn't on Saturday.

defo should have come off. but also you could see he was a decent player, simply off the pace

[MouldyRoyal]

Don't get me wrong, he didn't have a good game. Not looking back but I think I gave him the lowest rating in the team in my little ratings comment, but that someone said it was the worst debut by a Reading player ever, ridiculous. Similarly, he showed he can pass better than ledge by a long way. He did several things right, and showed promise. Not his fault he wasn't ready to play. That he had a bad game is not because he is (or will be) a bad player. He'll be good for us, I have faith.

[ZacNaloen]

He told Mcdermott he was fit. Surprised Karl Halabi didn't have something to say about that, but he did get throuh 90 minutes during the week.

Mcdermott was probably so glad to have another player who can pass that he put him in against his better judgment.

[melonhead]

theres fit, and theres match fit.

hopefully he can play a good part in a few games in jan, and be up and ready to go for some starts in feb

[Bandini]

He told Mcdermott he was fit. Surprised Karl Halabi didn't have something to say about that, but he did get throuh 90 minutes during the week.

Mcdermott was probably so glad to have another player who can pass that he put him in against his better judgment.

Or he'd promised him first team football as part of the negotiations so felt it better to throw him in immediately.

[The Rouge]

He told Mcdermott he was fit. Surprised Karl Halabi didn't have something to say about that, but he did get throuh 90 minutes during the week.

Mcdermott was probably so glad to have another player who can pass that he put him in against his better judgment.

Or he'd promised him first team football as part of the negotiations so felt it better to throw him in immediately.

and he got through 75 mins in the week.

[Snowball]

Maybe McD thinks it's a gamble to get him fit asap, by playing

People not remember Leigertwood's first (unfit) game?

Do they remember just how hard we were to beat once he settled in?

[Ian Royal]

He told Mcdermott he was fit. Surprised Karl Halabi didn't have something to say about that, but he did get throuh 90 minutes during the week.

Mcdermott was probably so glad to have another player who can pass that he put him in against his better judgment.

I'm not surprised he said he's match fit. Firstly he doesnt have any experience of how draining the PL and especially our style is. I'm pretty sure the Portuguese league is a bit easier going physically, but I guess I could be wrong.

It does seem an odd decision from McDermott and Halabi though, you're right. I suspect if Legs had been fit it wouldn't have happened. Interesting to me that it was Akpan (who's likely to be much fitter) who was left on the bench. I suspect we'll see Akpan or Legs (maybe Tabb) in for Carrico at Newcastle, as I can't see him picking up enough fitness to make him ready in a week.

[floyd__streete]

Just got back from the game.

LOL @ us winning that. We were appaling.

[MouldyRoyal]

Akpan isn't a defensive midfielder though? At least, not in the same style as Legs or Carrico.