Played like West ham?

[Platypuss]

Some classic "If my Auntie has snowballs she'd be my Uncle" up there ^^^

[JC]

West ham striker Vaz Tae has come out saying that Reading and Southampton were lucky this season and no one put them under pressure..

Ok so I guess Reading beating West ham twice with an aggregate score of 7 - 2 was lucky..
LOL

... I guess its because we dont play the flowing football the way that West ham do. I didnt realise that long ball was flowing football.

Reading were under so much pressure against you boys that Jimmy Kebe had time to stop the ball pull his socks up then pass it on.

Anyway well done on the promotion Wet Spam I will enjoy the 6 points again. I hope you enjoy Fat Sams flowing football "HOOF"

Where has he said that?

Here is one link

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... rview.html

[SpaceCruiser]

BTW Spacey is our deaf mute representative..he supports Arsenal...but comes on here for the company

What a lot of bollocks.

[royalsteve]

Players tell their own fans what they want to hear, when Rangers won the title three times in a row apparently they were lucky every season and Celtic were the better team according to their players. Players are very, very thick people in general, don't listen to them.

Reading had by far the hardest run in out of all the top sides and ended up winning the league, get over it.

West ham players and fans have always been deluded ..

But you have to admit that on this occasion Baptiste is right Blackpool were actually the better team .. If Matt Phillips had taken the chances they would have been out of sight by half time.

As for Celtic players saying that they were the better team. Would you expect anything less from Samras and anyone who has been coached by that horrible excuse for a man that is Neil Lennon??

if blackpool were as clinical as swansea were against us last season, wet spam would have been 4-0 or 5-0 at half time

vaz te comments just make me laugh - every team has luck but you have to make your own luck - but getting 46 out of 51 points is not down to luck is it - onlya moron would say it is

to be honest i thought the final was interesting as it was a close game but i thought wet spam were truly AWFUL - their 1st goal was lucky (oh can i say that!) - certainly the build was and their 2nd goal was er um lucky!

wet sapm just foulded their way through the game and blackpool missed some very good chances

[bigmike]

getting 46 out of 51 points is not down to luck is it - onlya moron would say it is

Exactly my point...

Morning snowbaLOL

[Snowball]

I KNOW how good the stats look, but I still maintain we rarely played
well, and it was just "our time" the way things fell for us and some luck

Just look at the actual games. (My point BTW is we need a LOT of strengthening to avoid doing a Derby)

We started 2012 really poorly

A (Pos 06) 1-3 Cardiff Even Karacan says we were comprehensively outplayed

H Fa CUP 0-1 Stevenage We were appalling

A (Poss 11) 2-1 Watford We were very average

H (Pos 08) 0-1 Hull Another loss We probably deserved 0-0 but we weren't good


Then signed Roberts, but we were playing a lot of relegation and bottom-end sides
sneaking wins but rarely hammering anybody (except, arguably, Barnsley.)

and I was waiting for the "correction" in the tougher games at season-end.

Look at the first 11 games of that run playing against league positions
07, 09, 12, 13, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 up to Blackpool Game



H (Pos 20) 1-0 Bristol I don't remember much about the game except for the pen miss/scuffed in

H (Pos 23) 2-0 Coventry Home win against a relegation side

A (Pos 12) 1-0 Derby Solid win away to mid-table side

H (Pos 13) 1-0 Burnley Lucky win, Burnley played the football

A (Pos 07) 2-0 Middlesbrough Good professional away performance but Boro were sliding badly

A (Pos 16) 2-1 Millwall (Outplayed first-half, not exactly brilliant)

H (Pos 22) 1-0 Portsmouth Another relegation side beaten (just)

H (Pos 09) 3-1 Leicester Decent performance

A (Pos 24) 1-1 Doncaster Failed to win away to a relegation team

A (Pos 21) 4-0 Barnsley We were very poor first-half, and Barnsley are crap

A (Pos 18) 1-3 Peterborough We were played off the park

H (Pos 05) 3-1 Blackpool Decent performance, one of our best

A (Pos 03) 4-2 West Ham For 30 minutes we were on for a 4-0 drubbing, stole a half-time lead.

H (Pos 14) 2-0 Leeds Tough game and it took our sub to win it

A (Pos 10) 1-0 Brighton Daylight robbery, we got very lucky with out goal, huge deflection

A (Pos 02) 3-1 Southampton Lucky for us +Saint's VG play but missing their shooting boots

H (Pos 19) 1-0 Forest Forest had the chances

H (Pos 17) 2-2 Palace Scores tells all

A (Pos 04) 0-2 Birmingham Outplayed, one shot on target whole game

[Ian Royal]

I'm confused. Birmingham had a better team than us? Yet finished 3 places and 13 points behind us...

Saints and West Ham, who both had better teams than Birmingham, were beaten by us in the run in when the chips were down and we needed wins. And then of course there's the fact that we beat Birmingham earlier in the season, back around the time we weren't actually much good.

And this somehow means that we would have lost to Birmingham even if we were still fighting for points, because someone has decided to re-write history and give West Ham a win against us because they out played us for less than half the match? And because he thought we'd have lost anyway he must be right?

Well, it seemed to me the only reason we lost to Birmingham was because we didn't give two shits what happened in the match. Not that my opinion is worth a damn, because the only thing that matters is what actually happened. We won the fricking league.

[bigmike]

I am not gonna pick holes in all the lines of pish that snowball has posted just a couple to start with

2-0 Leeds Tough game and it took our sub to win it

As I remember Leeds should have had at least 3 players sent off in the 1st 20 mins .. Brown for the tackle on Ledge in the first minute that twat Pugh could have been sent off twice Jem had his ankle broken . Leeds had 1 or was it 2 shots all game.. They were not interested in the result just on taking players out. Its dificult playing a team who are going in for leg breaking tackles and the ref is doing nothing about them.

As for West ham bossing the first half of a game or maybe even 39 - 40 mins Sorry but the game is 90 mins long and I think you will find that Reading were the better team more clinical in both attack and defence.. Kebe scored a wondergoal even tho a penalty had been given the players had not stopped playing. The 5th goal was arguable that the whole ball went out.

Southampton Yes they had the majority of the game but they only scored due to a deflection. Reading defended bloody well and reacted to the situation. West ham Bottled so many games. Southampton also lost/drew far too many games because they were either to reliant on 1 or 2 players (Lambert and Llalallalalana) or they cant adapt to differenct senarios Reading can.


Talking of luck the Reading game against Southampton at the Madejski Southampton were Lucky as hell to leave with a point.

Reading won the League not with Luck but because over the course of the season they were the best "TEAM" may not be the best individuals but the best "TEAM".. Jason Roberts also said that hes never been in a team with a better bunch of lads.. Team spirit has more to do with winning the league than Luck.. Prick about with your skewed stats all you want and its still a fact Reading won the league..

[MassSarrslibrarian]

getting 46 out of 51 points is not down to luck is it - onlya moron would say it is

Exactly my point...

Morning snowbaLOL

46 points out of 51 in the last couple of months ofany season, in any league in the world, usually wins you any league in the world...we beat West Ham and Southampton, our two biggest rivals in the division, BOTH away from home. There were patches in both games were both WHU and the Saints were the better teams, but the fact is BOTH games we were winning at half-time, and both games we won at the end.

It's not about the quality of the results, the fact is the results were ground out, played brilliantly for 50 or so minutes v West ham (last 5 mins of 1st half and all of 2nd), and the last 20 5 minutes or so v Southampton was just AWESOME...

I don't really understand what the problem is......the whole point of a league is to find out who is the BEST side over a SEASON...not for a half of a game, or up to Christmas, it's from August to May (well, april this year), and we were the BEST!!

[Extended-Phenotype]

You think wrong. We finished top. Which means we didn't crumble when the pressure was on, won enough games, scored enough goals, reduced the opportunity for luck to sway in favour of the oppostion, and stayed in games long enough for luck to help us out.

The league is long enough to iron out chance.

We finished top because West Ham blew it with a far stronger squad than us.

We didn't blow it. So.... better team overall. Hence why we won the league.

[TBM]

Alex Pearce whacking this indirect insult West Hams way

The 3-0 win against West Ham United at home was a luxury game for me. We just dominated that one from start to finish, it was comfortable for us in the end.

[bassavage]

I KNOW how good the stats look, but I still maintain we rarely played
well, and it was just "our time" the way things fell for us and some luck

Just look at the actual games. (My point BTW is we need a LOT of strengthening to avoid doing a Derby)

We started 2012 really poorly

A (Pos 06) 1-3 Cardiff Even Karacan says we were comprehensively outplayed

H Fa CUP 0-1 Stevenage We were appalling

A (Poss 11) 2-1 Watford We were very average

H (Pos 08) 0-1 Hull Another loss We probably deserved 0-0 but we weren't good


Then signed Roberts, but we were playing a lot of relegation and bottom-end sides
sneaking wins but rarely hammering anybody (except, arguably, Barnsley.)

and I was waiting for the "correction" in the tougher games at season-end.

Look at the first 11 games of that run playing against league positions
07, 09, 12, 13, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 up to Blackpool Game



H (Pos 20) 1-0 Bristol I don't remember much about the game except for the pen miss/scuffed in

H (Pos 23) 2-0 Coventry Home win against a relegation side

A (Pos 12) 1-0 Derby Solid win away to mid-table side

H (Pos 13) 1-0 Burnley Lucky win, Burnley played the football

A (Pos 07) 2-0 Middlesbrough Good professional away performance but Boro were sliding badly

A (Pos 16) 2-1 Millwall (Outplayed first-half, not exactly brilliant)

H (Pos 22) 1-0 Portsmouth Another relegation side beaten (just)

H (Pos 09) 3-1 Leicester Decent performance

A (Pos 24) 1-1 Doncaster Failed to win away to a relegation team

A (Pos 21) 4-0 Barnsley We were very poor first-half, and Barnsley are crap

A (Pos 18) 1-3 Peterborough We were played off the park

H (Pos 05) 3-1 Blackpool Decent performance, one of our best

A (Pos 03) 4-2 West Ham For 30 minutes we were on for a 4-0 drubbing, stole a half-time lead.

H (Pos 14) 2-0 Leeds Tough game and it took our sub to win it

A (Pos 10) 1-0 Brighton Daylight robbery, we got very lucky with out goal, huge deflection

A (Pos 02) 3-1 Southampton Lucky for us +Saint's VG play but missing their shooting boots

H (Pos 19) 1-0 Forest Forest had the chances

H (Pos 17) 2-2 Palace Scores tells all

A (Pos 04) 0-2 Birmingham Outplayed, one shot on target whole game

Does it matter how well we played? The most important thing is that you do enough to win the game over 90 minutes, it doesn't have to be vintage football.

Were Chelsea the best footballing side in Europe this season? No.

Were they the best side when it came to a two legged knockout match this season? Yes.

Barcelona, the best footballing side we might ever see failed to win the league or the Champions League this season.

I agree that we haven't played the swashbuckling football that we did in 05/06 but does it matter? McDermott's philosophy was to win the next 90 minutes, whatever it took, no matter how gritty. He got it right 15 times out of the last 19 games, including away to the two teams challenging for the top two spots. We're going to need more of that next season we won't be able to outplay teams. We will have to dig in, like we did 1st half at West Ham, like at Southampton and Brighton, we will have to ride our luck at times and sometimes it might not work. But McDermott knows what he is doing and I have 100% faith that he will get it spot on.

[sandman]

I KNOW how good the stats look, but I still maintain we rarely played
well, and it was just "our time" the way things fell for us and some luck

Just look at the actual games. (My point BTW is we need a LOT of strengthening to avoid doing a Derby)

We started 2012 really poorly

A (Pos 06) 1-3 Cardiff Even Karacan says we were comprehensively outplayed

H Fa CUP 0-1 Stevenage We were appalling

A (Poss 11) 2-1 Watford We were very average

H (Pos 08) 0-1 Hull Another loss We probably deserved 0-0 but we weren't good


Then signed Roberts, but we were playing a lot of relegation and bottom-end sides
sneaking wins but rarely hammering anybody (except, arguably, Barnsley.)

and I was waiting for the "correction" in the tougher games at season-end.

Look at the first 11 games of that run playing against league positions
07, 09, 12, 13, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 up to Blackpool Game



H (Pos 20) 1-0 Bristol I don't remember much about the game except for the pen miss/scuffed in

H (Pos 23) 2-0 Coventry Home win against a relegation side

A (Pos 12) 1-0 Derby Solid win away to mid-table side

H (Pos 13) 1-0 Burnley Lucky win, Burnley played the football

A (Pos 07) 2-0 Middlesbrough Good professional away performance but Boro were sliding badly

A (Pos 16) 2-1 Millwall (Outplayed first-half, not exactly brilliant)

H (Pos 22) 1-0 Portsmouth Another relegation side beaten (just)

H (Pos 09) 3-1 Leicester Decent performance

A (Pos 24) 1-1 Doncaster Failed to win away to a relegation team

A (Pos 21) 4-0 Barnsley We were very poor first-half, and Barnsley are crap

A (Pos 18) 1-3 Peterborough We were played off the park

H (Pos 05) 3-1 Blackpool Decent performance, one of our best

A (Pos 03) 4-2 West Ham For 30 minutes we were on for a 4-0 drubbing, stole a half-time lead.

H (Pos 14) 2-0 Leeds Tough game and it took our sub to win it

A (Pos 10) 1-0 Brighton Daylight robbery, we got very lucky with out goal, huge deflection

A (Pos 02) 3-1 Southampton Lucky for us +Saint's VG play but missing their shooting boots

H (Pos 19) 1-0 Forest Forest had the chances

H (Pos 17) 2-2 Palace Scores tells all

A (Pos 04) 0-2 Birmingham Outplayed, one shot on target whole game

+1

Well said Snowbell. We were lucky last season with all those points we won after January and signings like the one we've already made and are about to make in Marriapa are not going to give us the sufficient quality that we missed so much last season.

Your brand of forthright realism doesn't sit with these miscreants who mask their negativity with false claims of positivity but you have been correct before and I'm sure the same will happen this time.

[Snowball]

Just to show I am not rewriting history

Even during the fantastic run I was lamenting our lack of quality

I KNOW how good the stats look, but I still maintain we rarely played
well, and it was just "our time" the way things fell for us and some luck

Just look at the actual games. (My point BTW is we need a LOT of strengthening to avoid doing a Derby)

We started 2012 really poorly

A (Pos 06) 1-3 Cardiff Even Karacan says we were comprehensively outplayed

H Fa CUP 0-1 Stevenage We were appalling

A (Poss 11) 2-1 Watford We were very average

H (Pos 08) 0-1 Hull Another loss We probably deserved 0-0 but we weren't good


Then signed Roberts, but we were playing a lot of relegation and bottom-end sides
sneaking wins but rarely hammering anybody (except, arguably, Barnsley.)

and I was waiting for the "correction" in the tougher games at season-end.

Look at the first 11 games of that run playing against league positions
07, 09, 12, 13, 16, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 up to Blackpool Game



H (Pos 20) 1-0 Bristol I don't remember much about the game except for the pen miss/scuffed in

H (Pos 23) 2-0 Coventry Home win against a relegation side

A (Pos 12) 1-0 Derby Solid win away to mid-table side

H (Pos 13) 1-0 Burnley Lucky win, Burnley played the football

A (Pos 07) 2-0 Middlesbrough Good professional away performance but Boro were sliding badly

A (Pos 16) 2-1 Millwall (Outplayed first-half, not exactly brilliant)

H (Pos 22) 1-0 Portsmouth Another relegation side beaten (just)

H (Pos 09) 3-1 Leicester Decent performance

A (Pos 24) 1-1 Doncaster Failed to win away to a relegation team

A (Pos 21) 4-0 Barnsley We were very poor first-half, and Barnsley are crap

A (Pos 18) 1-3 Peterborough We were played off the park

H (Pos 05) 3-1 Blackpool Decent performance, one of our best

A (Pos 03) 4-2 West Ham For 30 minutes we were on for a 4-0 drubbing, stole a half-time lead.

H (Pos 14) 2-0 Leeds Tough game and it took our sub to win it

A (Pos 10) 1-0 Brighton Daylight robbery, we got very lucky with out goal, huge deflection

A (Pos 02) 3-1 Southampton Lucky for us +Saint's VG play but missing their shooting boots

H (Pos 19) 1-0 Forest Forest had the chances

H (Pos 17) 2-2 Palace Scores tells all

A (Pos 04) 0-2 Birmingham Outplayed, one shot on target whole game

[Snowball]

Our win at West Ham was JOY!

But let's not kid ourselves we easily could have lost it badly.

When they were all over us, 1-0 up I thought it would be 3-0 or 4-0

Great credit to us going in 2-1 up at half-time but it was "robbery" and we know it.

I still expected us to lose, hoped we might get 2-2


But then we got the pen, but then Vaz Te scored a great header. Again I thought we'd lose, hoped for a draw.

The fourth, the weird Elwood goal, well that was "God on our side stuff"


IMO, West Ham should have won that game by sewing it up in the first half-hour, like how they beat Brighton
but the point is, I doubt anyone would think a 2-2 draw or 3-3 draw that day would be WHU being lucky

Had that occurred (a 2-2 draw) a totally reasonable result

1 46 26-10-10 85-44 +39 88 Southampton
2 46 24-15-07 81-46 +35 87 West Ham
=======================================
3 46 26-09-11 67-41 +26 87 Reading


I genuinely think we got lucky at the end of the season.

That happens sometimes when confidence is high

West Ham, Saints, Brighton all could have beaten us on chances, shots on target
but we rode our luck. I'm very happy it happened but I think West Ham had the money

and when you look at our performances at the death (rather than focusing solely on the result)


A 4-2 West Ham
H 2-0 Leeds
A 1-0 Brighton
A 3-1 Southampton
H 1-0 Forest
H 2-2 Palace
A 0-2 Birmingham

[Snowball]

Stats to back your pessimism what about shots to goals Ratio. I think you will find that it doesnt matter a damn if a team has 99% of
the game and has 30 or 40 shots and cant score if the other team has 3 shots and all go in they still lose.

Really? I didn't know that. Yet when it happens to us we talk of bad luck or being robbed.


7 Games 83 Shots Conceded, 50 On Target 33 Off (We were 31-13)

Reading Second Column


Possession : 53% 47% Shots On Target : 09-08 Goals 2-4 Shots Off Target : 03-03 West Ham
Possession : 42% 58% Shots On Target : 04-06 Goals 0-2 Shots Off Target : 03-09 Leeds
Possession : 48% 52% Shots On Target : 07-02 Goals 0-1 Shots Off Target : 06-05 Brighton
Possession : 59% 41% Shots On Target : 12-04 Goals 1-3 Shots Off Target : 07-02 Saints
Possession : 47% 53% Shots On Target : 08-04 Goals 0-1 Shots Off Target : 07-03 Forest
Possession : 52% 48% Shots On Target : 04-06 Goals 2-2 Shots Off Target : 03-05 Palace
Possession : 50% 50% Shots On Target : 06-01 Goals 2-0 Shots Off Target : 04-03 Birmingham

Possession : 50% 50% Shots On Target : 50-31 Goals 7-13 Shots Off Target : 33-30 Average

[Snowball]

Ok then Reading were lucky for 27 games this season..

Agreed.

How about rather than making up stats to support your pessimism why don’t you show the other side that actually shows that
Reading won the league because over the course of the season they won the most games and gained the most points?

Because it is (slightly) false, which is my point.

There are no made-up stats here. The stats are very simple.

Just have us draw at West Ham (anyone except a truly blinkered fan would agree that would have been not even slightly "unlucky" on our part)
and we'd've been third.

We GOT RESULTS and the manager (especially) and the team should be commended

But we did not, IMO "exude class", we did not show top class up front.

We had a solid defence that rode its luck at times, and we were on a run, high in confidence and OVER achieved.

That's why I feel concerned.

I believe if we played West ham tomorrow, two games, we'd lose both.



We were and are a decent side. IMO probably the third-best. I think West Ham should have been well-clear
and just their home fans on their backs and them getting the jips at home did for them.

Look at their finish, for example.

A 4-0 Barnsley
H 3-3 Birmingham
H 6-0 Brighton
A 1-1 Bristol
A 2-1 Leicester
H 2-1 Hull
A 2-0 Cardiff
H 3-0 Cardiff
W 2-1 Blackpool

P9 W7 D2 L0 25-7

And in the season look how many thrashings they handed out (plus Cardiff twice in the POs)

H 6-0 Brighton
A 4-0 Watford
A 4-1 Nottm F
H 4-3 Portsmouth
H 4-0 Blackpool
A 4-1 Blackpool
A 4-0 Barnsley

That to me is the sign of a top side. They UNDER-achieved for their quality

[Snowball]

FFS! I know I'm off HNA, but I can't let such a gross Snowballism as that go past. Don't you think that if we'd lost to West Ham, or not been Champions by then, then we'd have played a completely different - and much more committed - team at Birmingham?

Of course, and I think we would have lost. I think Birmingham had a better side than us
and was predicting us to lose it anyway.

By no means is it even vaguely valid to consider one one individual event or piece of data and assume that it exists in complete isolation. In individual games and in whole seasons the overall context changes everything - change that and everything else is liable to change too.

I wasn't isolating THAT game, just making a point.

Deep in my heart despite being thankful of the win
I don't think we deserved to win at West ham
(tho' MAYBE West Ham deserved to lose)

Thank God for us the WHU-the Jips turned up and not West Ham that that thrashed Brighton 6-0

I believe we stole that game. I believe we stole the game at Brighton.
I believe we stole the game at Bristol when we were rubbish.

Maybe we didn't steal the game at Southampton, but I thought a 3-1 win flattered us.

We just had a run of games when the "correction" should have happened
but didn't, NOT because we were great but because other sides blew their chances.


And next season I believe it will show.

3/4 of the way through this season quote a few people were saying this squad
would or could "do a Derby" if it went up. Remember!

I love this club, the team, the manager and I'm pleased we won this league

I think we were equal third or fourth best club

[Snowball]

Don't you think that if we'd lost to West Ham, or not been Champions by then, then we'd have played a completely different - and much more committed - team at Birmingham?

I think if we had lost to WHU we'd've failed to beat Leeds (a close game anyway)

I think we'd've then gone to Brighton and lost 2-0 or 3-0

then probably lost at Southampton, maybe nicked a draw

The game at Birmingham would have been meaningless as we were already destined for the POs

[Snowball]

You think wrong. We finished top. Which means we didn't crumble when the pressure was on, won enough games, scored enough goals, reduced the opportunity for luck to sway in favour of the oppostion, and stayed in games long enough for luck to help us out.

The league is long enough to iron out chance.

We finished top because West Ham blew it with a far stronger squad than us.

We had a brilliant system which made us hard to beat but rarely exciting
and we only REALLY trounced one side, Barnsley away after a poor first half.

My point is we need three more players (at least) MORE than WHU or Saints need