Back from the Southampton game...

[Carlos]

Yeah im not sure how their so low in the league because they looked very good. They played good counter attacking football and at times in the second half they had more attackers up than we had defenders.

I think we expected this to be an easy 3 points but nothing is easy in this divisions.

Roll on tuesday night. Im praying its going to be slightly warmer than today.

[Royal-DLG]

Roll on tuesday night. Im praying its going to be slightly warmer than today.

It wont be

[Dick Habbin's hairdo]

I refer honourable Nobbers to my description of Kebe a week or so ago: "Giraffe on crack."

But I'd still have him in the team.

And I still think we'll go up in an auto spot - if only because K. Phillips will get a major injury and the rest of the division is even poorer.

Why we didn't finish with Cisse, Bouncing Cheque and Henry on the pitch is anyone's guess..... except SSC's, of course.

[Bill Oddie's Beard]

I refer honourable Nobbers to my description of Kebe a week or so ago: "Giraffe on crack."

But I'd still have him in the team.

And I still think we'll go up in an auto spot - if only because K. Phillips will get a major injury and the rest of the division is even poorer.

Why we didn't finish with Cisse, Bouncing Cheque and Henry on the pitch is anyone's guess..... except SSC's, of course.

Shocked that Cisse was taken off before Harps, he was partially at fault for the 2nd goal, but he was one of the better performers until then

[reading fc rock leroylero]

I blame the international break. We always do shit after it.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Marcus and his reaction saves in the first half. PURE, PURE heart and skill from the big man.

To the doubters - feck off.

His kicking is awful

[AthleticoSpizz]

Marcus and his reaction saves in the first half. PURE, PURE heart and skill from the big man.

To the doubters - feck off.

His kicking is awful

ONCE today

[The Cap]

We'll not panic,eh. How must the Wolves contingent have felt after we'd run them ragged at thier place? And look where that defeat has left them. Half empty,half full?? You choose...

[Dan - B15 Royal]

first touch yet again let us down today, too many times we gifted Saints easy possession and chances to break. Hopefully this is an area worked on during training between now and Tuesday evening.

[Victor Meldrew]

Agree with most of what has been said here and good to see that fans are ready to admit that we were beaten by the better team on the day.
What disappointed me that as our plan A revolves around the two wingers and both of those were poor today why didn't the sub winger come on for one of them?-no they are kept on and we do our Wimbledon again and whack the ball down the middle(ironically so that a dwarf ex-Wimbledon 36 year-old can win the ball in the air much more often than not).
On the day only Marcus played well and all the outfielders looked to be suffering from a hangover so we have to hope this was just a blip.

BTW does anybody know if S Hunt has it in his contract that he must never be substituted and if he is then he can be allowed to leave for £500?Irreplacable?-No,Undroppable?-it seems Yes.
The worst moments for me were Rosenior putting his hand in the air instead of tackling his man in the first half and then casually letting his man turn inside to have an unchallenged shot at goal in the second half.
That boy,despite improvement in recent weeks,is not a natural defender.

[Man Friday]

Marcus and his reaction saves in the first half. PURE, PURE heart and skill from the big man.

To the doubters - feck off.

His kicking is awful

Were you actually at the match? His kicking was spot on - especially when Bikey played him into trouble.

[SLAMMED]

To sum up Bikeys performance:

[Man Friday]

By the way, was the goal really offside? Couldn't tell where we were - I have no faith in the officials although they appeared better today at long last. We didn't deserve a draw but please tell me it was offside!

[Tutti Frutti]

Yes, It was.

As for players, I saw two bits of quality today - Armstrong's vision when he dropped off to receive the ball for the goal, and Marcus' saves. Other than that, we had a few players who did a good job in difficult situations with little help (Ivar, Doyle, NHunt), and the six who frankly were all awful. Harper and Rosenior particularly. Rosenior made a cogent case for the return of our skipper assap today (in general, I couldn't see a murty-led defence playing that badly against a team of Soton's quality).

Still, Soton were the better team. My only gripe is subs - why take of NHunt? Why take off Cisse not Harper when Harper was the problem today? What kind of message does bringing Bryn on send when you could have brought on Henry? I would have thought today was an ideal opportunity for the lad.

[URZZZZZZZZ]

Worst performance of the season for Kebe, but he scored a goal!!!

[Sarah Star]

I can see where Rosenior, Bikey and Shunt weren't at their best, but what went wrong with Harper?

[winchester_royal]

I can see where Rosenior, Bikey and Shunt weren't at their best, but what went wrong with Harper?

When the team doesn't play well he is a passenger. He does not tackle, play killer passes, make runs into the box....he just waves his arms around like the stewards in the car park. Hopeless today....bloody useless.

[URZZZZZZZZ]

I can see where Rosenior, Bikey and Shunt weren't at their best, but what went wrong with Harper?

When the team doesn't play well he is a passenger. He does not tackle, play killer passes, make runs into the box....he just waves his arms around like the stewards in the car park. Hopeless today....bloody useless.

+1

Will run all day, but with no end product. Matejovsky did play some poor balls today, but the odd 2 or 3 were a joy to behold

[Forbury Lion]

Hahnemann - Must have forgotten to down his redbulls, just before the first goal there were two balls into the box that went unchallenged, he should have been on them. The second one lead to the goal.

Armstrong - Worse performance for the club, run ragged by a right winger who wasn't anything special

Bikey - Playing cameron football and got caught out at least 3 times

Hunt - great touches, unfortunately he didn't take time to actually see where he was passing it, at times to a red and white striped shirt. Needs to learn when to take time and see a pass before making one.

Kebe - Didn't break sweat to get lose balls, Didn't keep the ball much. Good goal

N Hunt & Doyle - Didn't get much of the ball, in fact I didn't even notice Hunt was playing.

Harper - By far the best player on the pitch, assuming it was an arm waving competition and not a football match. Didn't add anything in midfield just passing from left to right - might as well have had the two players either side wellie to each other. Shocked me by actually putting in a big challenge and winning the ball.

Resenior - Okay but gave Murty some hope of getting a game when fit

Ivar - Gogot caught out a few times but only when covering left back

Cisse - Got stuck in, a few good touches and a few bad ones... great tackle to get the ball but cancelled out by the fact it was his miskick that gave that player the ball. Perhaps the best player on the pitch in a Reading shirt before the subs. can't understand why he was taken off and Harper left on.

Gunnarsson - Came on late in the game, first two touches were both to give the ball away, the second being a short pass to Hunt on the wing which took so long to start that everyone knew that was where the ball was going including the Sants player who casually ran onto the end of it before it rolled slowly to Hunt.

Long - Lively when on, perhaps pushing for a starting place.

Matejovski - Brought the game alive, cracking pass though the field to the right wing for Kebe to run onto and a few other great passes... Did seem to be piggy in the middle at times running back and forth after the ball in our half when getting in space and allowing a closer player to try and win it and pass to him or just staying with one player might have worked best. Could prove to be the best player to ever wear a Reading shirt.

James Henry - Unlucky to remain on the bench, must be wondering why.

[winchester_royal]

I'm suprised no one has mentioned N Hunt's shocking ball to Shunt in the first few mins of the match, he just had to pass it across the box lightly in front of Steve and he had a tap in to the open net. But instead he plays it behind him the prat.