Perspective

[Hampshire Royal]

Doesn't everybody?

[Jeffers217]

The football was more exciting last season, that is probably why a lot of fans are moaning this season. The football is dull. You take out players who play football on the ground- Bertrand, Zurab and Sig, and the style of football is boring which means the fans aren't as excited. Simples really!

I seem to recall a lot of posts last season that expressed a great desire to have "ugly wins" vs. exciting losses. When it got down to BR giving time to talking about number of passes vs. lack of goals, that was a problem.

Well I meant the nice football we played in the 2nd half of last season you dimwit! Now we're not even managing ugly wins! A team who plays ugly football throughout the majority of their games will tend not to strike lucky everytime and they will end up not in the play-offs

[Ian Royal]

Last season the team had a hero, for the fans anyway, this season they don't.

We do, he just started off as a villain and not everyone worships him as much as certain others. He deserves a lot of love, but I for one can't bring myself to fully commit to it after being so exasperated with him for so long.

[Snowball]

Snowball - you know when you have sex 3-4 times in 10 days, do you compile statistics on each time you do it?

The Mrs does. Nothing disturbs her...

[Snowball]

Last season the team had a hero, for the fans anyway, this season they don't.

What exactly does Shane have to do?

ATM his goal tally looks like bettering that of Gylfi's last season...

and there are two pens he won that Harte scored whereas Gylfi took them all

[Snowball]

This season versus same time last season


09 Reading 33 11-14-08 47 Points GD +12 (07 points off the playoffs, 12 off automatic)
17 Reading 33 11-08-14 41 Points GD -06 (11 points off the playoffs, 15 off automatic)

[Snowball]

Before today's game most people thought we needed 2 points per game for the next 15 games
and we'd have a decent shot at the play-offs. We draw 1-1 and the world ends,

yet if we win against Millwall that's 4 points from 2 games, smack on target.



Personally I don't think we'll beat them, but just saying, like...

Back on track, two points a game. Now just win at Palace, lads....

[Wimb]

15th draw of the season yesterday, that's 2 less then our top 2 tier record set back in 95/96 under Jim and Mick, that year we finished 19th with 56 points.

[Snowball]

Before today's game most people thought we needed 2 points per game for the next 15 games
and we'd have a decent shot at the play-offs. We draw 1-1 and the world ends,

yet if we win against Millwall that's 4 points from 2 games, smack on target.



Personally I don't think we'll beat them, but just saying, like...

Back on track, two points a game. Now just win at Palace, lads....

Away draw against a very good home side, win at Home to Boro and we are back to 2 points per game 4 games into the the 15 games needing 30 points.

[weybridgewanderer]

How many "must win" games is that we have not won? yet you remain positive, fair play to you.

course I know you are not saying we WILL make the play offs

[Snowball]

There are no SPECIFIC "must-win" games between now and the end of the season.

Arguably there is one crucial game, a "not-lose" (at Leeds)

A target was set of 2 ppg for the last 15 and we WD the first two. Now we've drawn away at a side who hadn't even conceded a single home goal in 3 months. That's a good result even if defensively we weren't good. Now, if we beat Boro, that'll be DWDW, and very nice too.

We have seven games where we have really good chances of a win now. Plus two tougher home games

Sure it could go pear-shaped v Boro, but if it does we are just proving we are not good enough.)

Portsmouth are starting to hit form, not good news for us, but they are beatable. Leicester have spent money and have had a great run of form, but have stuttered over their last two games.

Win those 7 and draw at home to Pompey and Leicester and we have 71 points.

That leaves Forest, Ipswich, Leeds away. If we presume Forest have got away already, then a draw at Leeds, giving us 72 might be enough for us to finish above them.


H Middlesbrough
A Ipswich Town
H Preston
A Barnsley
H Portsmouth
A Nottm Forest
A Scunthorpe
H Leicester City
A Leeds United
H Sheffield Utd
A Coventry City
H Derby County

Unfortunately I have a sneaky feeling we will get the points but finish 7th with Burnley doing us.

[weybridgewanderer]

We had much heralded "easier fixtures" after the cardiff/qpr/norwich run and yet we are DDWD? pretty much like our record for the season

course we selectively choose not to count the first two as that doesn't demonstrate our 2ppg average.

and yet people still hold out hope for an avergae of 2 ppg average from noow till the end of the season

[Snowball]

Last Season v This.

We are 4 points better off, (not enough) have scored 5 more goals, conceded 11 less = GD 16 points better

We are 6 points off sixth, we are 14 points of second
We were 8 points off sixth, we were 25 points off second

We are 17 points off the bottom 3
We were 6 points off the bottom 3

10 Reading 34 11-15-08 51-39 +12 48
16 Reading 34 12-08-13 46-50 -04 44

[weybridgewanderer]

great, so improvement over the horrendous start we had last season. never in doubt about that

[Snowball]

We had much heralded easier fixtures since the cardiff/qpr/norwich run and yet we are DDWD? pretty much like our record for the season

course we selectively choose not to count the first two as that doesn't demonstrate our 2ppg average.

and yet people still hold out hope for an avergae of 2 ppg average from noow till the end of the season

No, not "selectively dropping" anything. I felt we would no longer make the POs after the dropped two-points at Sheffield (but just look at how those two points would make us look now, 8th on GD and Leeds looking worried)... but we had 15 games to go after that game and needed 30 points from those to have a decent chance of 6th. 2 ppg.

Away anywhere is always tough, and we should never complain about an away draw provided we win the home games. It'd dropping home points that is the worry. Draw at home and you have to find an away win.

Personally I DO think we are going to finish with more than 70 points, but I suspect it might not be enough. IMO Burnley are THE side. They are held back by their two defeats to us. Take those two games out and we'd be 8 points behind them having played two more games than them. They are a class squad, a good manager and finding their form just at the right time.

My gut feel is they will make the POs at our (and Leeds') expense

[Snowball]

There's a bit of myth about RFC's "great finish" last season.

We have 4 points and 16 goals head start and last year they finished P14 - W5 - D4 - L4 22-13

Only five wins in their last 14 games!!

I can see 6-8 wins plus 1-2 draws for us, at least.

W7 D2 L3 = 23 points = 71 points at least.


Almost certainly not enough (71) but a very good season considering the players sold and the restructuring started. 9th again would have been an achievement. 6th ought to earn McDermott Manager of the Season. Frankly I think we'll be 7th above Leicester on GD, with Burnley 6th

[weybridgewanderer]

we won 11 games in the first 34 league games. that is around a 33% win rate.

yet you think we can win 6 to 8 of our last 12?

where is this significant improvement in our win ratio going to come from?

has there been any spell of 8 or 10 league games where we have won 60% of them?

[Snowball]

we won 11 games in the first 34 league games. that is around a 33% win rate.

yet you think we can win 6 to 8 of our last 12?

where is this significant improvement in our win ratio going to come from?

has there been any spell of 8 or 10 league games where we have won 60% of them?

Elwood's form improving the team.

Shane Long's form improving his goals.

Noel Hunt's form improving his goals.

Hunt-Long partnership blossoming. Now 18 goals in their last 14 games
suggesting they should score about 16 goals between them in the next 12 league games.

And the fact that we have a really easy run in. Just win against those 7/12 and we are 8th/7th. Win another (eg v Portsmouth or Leicester at Reading) and we have a serious chance

H Middlesbrough FIFTH-BOTTOM CLUB
A Ipswich Town
H Preston BOTTOM CLUB
A Barnsley 15th
H Portsmouth 13th
A Nottm Forest
A Scunthorpe THIRD-BOTTOM CLUB
H Leicester City
A Leeds United
H Sheffield Utd SECOND-BOTTOM CLUB
A Coventry City 17th and in free-fall
H Derby County 18th and in free-fall

[weybridgewanderer]

we won 11 games in the first 34 league games. that is around a 33% win rate.

yet you think we can win 6 to 8 of our last 12?

where is this significant improvement in our win ratio going to come from?

has there been any spell of 8 or 10 league games where we have won 60% of them?

Elwood's form improving the team.

Shane Long's form improving his goals.

Noel Hunt's form improving his goals.

Hunt-Long partnership blossoming. Now 18 goals in their last 14 games
suggesting they should score about 16 goals between them in the next 12 league games.

And the fact that we have a really easy run in. Just win against those 7/12 and we are 8th/7th. Win another (eg v Portsmouth or Leicester at Reading) and we have a serious chance

H Middlesbrough FIFTH-BOTTOM CLUB
A Ipswich Town
H Preston BOTTOM CLUB
A Barnsley 15th
H Portsmouth 13th
A Nottm Forest
A Scunthorpe THIRD-BOTTOM CLUB
H Leicester City
A Leeds United
H Sheffield Utd SECOND-BOTTOM CLUB
A Coventry City 17th and in free-fall
H Derby County 18th and in free-fall

easy run in, just like was said about sheffield and palace, we won neither

while i don't dispute ledge, hunt and an improved long appear to have improved things, but we still don;t have the sort of win ratios even taking out the cardiff/qpr/norwich games

[weybridgewanderer]

just to put things back into perspective for those that still harbour hopes of the play offs

So now we HAVE to win those two home games (and hurt two rivals), we have to win at Sheffield or Palace (or maybe both).

We did not win the 2 home games

we did not win at either palace nor sheffield