Back from the game - Plymouth (H)

[Sun Tzu]

He did well for that first hour though.

Perhaps we could use him for an hour and then bring on fresh legs for the last 30 ? Seems a reasonable tactic and one that worked well with Little and Convey....

[Hoop Blah]

He did well for that first hour though.

Perhaps we could use him for an hour and then bring on fresh legs for the last 30 ? Seems a reasonable tactic and one that worked well with Little and Convey....

Hmmm...interesting suggestion!

I think that would be a waste of a good substiution, and if like last night you have to take off his midfield partner because they're having a bit of a stinker you're left playing him for 90 minutes and you see the errors creep in and the extra room appear for a half decent opposition midfield to exploit! It could well have cost us last night.

...Convey and Little were perfectly capable of playing 90 minutes that season, as you well know!

[SteveRoyal]

Someone tell me how Church and Karacan were "poor"?

I'm assuming it's because Church didn't score and Karacan didn't tackle?
Or is it because they just do anything of note?

[Sun Tzu]

He did well for that first hour though.

Perhaps we could use him for an hour and then bring on fresh legs for the last 30 ? Seems a reasonable tactic and one that worked well with Little and Convey....

Hmmm...interesting suggestion!

I think that would be a waste of a good substiution, and if like last night you have to take off his midfield partner because they're having a bit of a stinker you're left playing him for 90 minutes and you see the errors creep in and the extra room appear for a half decent opposition midfield to exploit! It could well have cost us last night.

...Convey and Little were perfectly capable of playing 90 minutes that season, as you well know!

Do I hear the Magic Roundabout theme tume in the background ?

[Barry the bird boggler]

A tired performance from Reading and really not good enough to compete against anyone half decent. Perhaps it was also nerves given what the game meant as a true 6 pointer.

Though Muffin was poor and Church also struggled. However Long was MotM and Khizanishvili was a class above in his first full appearance (drop Ingi on Saturday and play Mills and Khizanishvili perhaps?)

[Comfortably Numb]

Good win, poor game. First goal was a lucky break due to Church closing the ball down and penalty looked a bit dubious but hey ho i'll take it . Mills might find it hard to regain its place as Zurab showed some real class throughout the game. Was disappointed with Karacan again just not as up for it as his usual feisty self, but worst was definitely Howard apart from his freekick didn't really make any impct at all and left all the defending to Gunnarsson.

that was most probably the plan

[papereyes]

We're currently sat nicely in midtable (OK midtable consists of about 20 clubs this season !) and even Newcastle showed last night that they are beatable and I recall WBA struggling once or twice.

CHRIST

[Silver Fox]

Though Muffin was poor and Church also struggled. However Long was MotM and Khizanishvili was a class above in his first full appearance (drop Ingi on Saturday and play Mills and Khizanishvili perhaps?)

AK47 is cup-tied I believe

[Hoop Blah]

Someone tell me how Church and Karacan were "poor"?

I'm assuming it's because Church didn't score and Karacan didn't tackle?
Or is it because they just do anything of note?

Karacan, as always, did more than his fair share of closing down, tackling and actually made some good runs forward to support the front two, so he did alright from that point of view. Unfortunately he gave the ball away far too much and pick the wrong option for a pass too many times.

Church, as always, worked hard and got himself into some good positions to either set up a teammate, retain possession, or even score himself, so he did quite well from that point of view. Unfortunately he wasted pretty much every one of those positions because he too took the wrong option or just cocked it up on his own. He still has promise of course, but we need constructive performances now to avoid relegation and his performances just aren't quite up to it yet.

[Thaumagurist*]

We're currently sat nicely in midtable (OK midtable consists of about 20 clubs this season !) and even Newcastle showed last night that they are beatable and I recall WBA struggling once or twice.

CHRIST

Who wrote that?!?

[Tilehurst End]

Someone tell me how Church and Karacan were "poor"?

I'm assuming it's because Church didn't score and Karacan didn't tackle?
Or is it because they just do anything of note?

I think poor is a bit harsh but neither were at their best. Church looked a yard short of his usual pace and Jem gave the ball away a little easily at times but wouldn't fault either for work rate.

Zurab looked class for 99% of the time but made two glaring errors. Once when he let the ball bounce and again where he was robbed on the touchline giving their guy a run at goal which was brilliantly defended by my MOM Griffin.

Long continues to improve and must be bristling with confidence, Howard should not play wide left and would like to see Bryn, Howard and Jobi given a rest at the weekend as all looked a little jaded towards the end.

[papereyes]

We're currently sat nicely in midtable (OK midtable consists of about 20 clubs this season !) and even Newcastle showed last night that they are beatable and I recall WBA struggling once or twice.

CHRIST

Who wrote that?!?

Sun Tzu's Art of Bore

[Thaumagurist*]

CHRIST

Who wrote that?!?

Sun Tzu's Art of Bore

I've just found his post. There's a lot of typos in that post! How can anyone confuse "our" with "are"?

Art of Bore indeed.

[Sarah Star]

Kebe did make at least one tackle last night right in front of the East stand where he came away with the ball, so maybe he's improving this aspect of his game.

[Sun Tzu]

We're currently sat nicely in midtable (OK midtable consists of about 20 clubs this season !) and even Newcastle showed last night that they are beatable and I recall WBA struggling once or twice.

CHRIST

Gotcha !!!

In points terms we are midtable, it's a very compact league.

We just need to win the next couple and then our actual place in the table will look very different.

However if we are say 12th and only 2 points off 20th it won;t change a huge amount.

Some of you do actually need to a) take yourselves less seriously and b) once in a while be a little positive !!

[Thaumagurist*]

.

[John Madejski's Wallet]

Griffin MoM for me

They guy oozes calm and always looks up before playing the ball forward, invariably finding a really nice pass through to the forwards. Two fantastic bits of defending where he came across to block/cover/tackle almost at left back

[greenbloodedgirl]

as an Argyle supporter that was a devastating result.

Personally I disagree with some of the comments on here - the ref for example... He did give some odd decisions, and the linesman was a joke, how slow must his reactions be??? That flag took an age to come up!!

The ref gave you something everytime you fell or dived over.. Yet your bloke had his arms around our players neck in the box...lucky boys... Our tall forwards get penalised when they jump because your guys deliberately pull back/fall over, and even though our guy doesnt have his hands on you, gets a foul against him...
He just gave everything to you (pretty much) and jack all to us. Total homer. Can't believe a guy with three championship games experience took 'charge' of such an important match. As for your 'penalty' the guy was barely clipped, and was quite happy to take it...looked like he had been shot with a rifle.

I thought you played well first half - wondered how you were where you are, and now Long has found form you will probably be okay.

I don't think we were as poor as some people made out - not in the second half. In the first half we kept trying the long ball, but in the second half Noone and Mackie had a good go at you, and were guaranteed a goal had it not been for that annoying flag which came up..eventually. Not sure on some of the offsides, but I dont have the benefit of a replay so will live with it. Thought at times we had the beating of you, but your speed undid all our hard work. You had chances..as did we...if we had buried the header just before half time I think it would have been a different game.

Your support - shocking to be honest. start off loud, as expected, but went very quiet. Only one section near us were loud, and until your goal went in, were rather quiet. Then the usual winning singing...before we equalise and it turns into a Reading library.... Then lo and behold you get a penalty and the whole place comes alive again... I tell you what did you lot seem nervous when we equalised!! You could feel it in the air. Thought we outsang you at times, even though the occasion seemed to stifle our support. Not as loud or for as long periods as usual, which was a shame. If we had, we would have rocked the place, you were so quiet.

As for singing the song 'how sh*t must you be....', you were very lucky, we could easily have snatched it in the last few minutes, I thought if anyone would it would be us, and the penalty was pathetic.. How sh*t must you have been before when we beat you 4-1 at home then. We can't win there let alone score 4 Your pace on the counter attack and your diving are what won you that game...

The end was absolutely heartbreaking for me, and I think that is the end now. Almost seems like revenge for our winner late on in the first game of the season of your promotion winning season..but with bigger consequences. That late goal felt amazing, this felt like someone had punched me in the gut.

Not being biased, I really did think the ref was poor and gave you far too much and not much doing for us. We only had to blow on your ear for you to get something, we would have had to be shoulder barged, knocked to the ground and whacked around the head before we could get anything! The pen was a joke and either we aren't as bad as you say, or you aren't as good as you want to think. You had plenty of possession at times but couldn't finish, or were thwarted by a battling defence, one which isn't even a settled back four. When we did have the ball we looked dangerous in the second half, but we just didn't get enough of it to capitalise.

As for Kebe, my boyfriend remarked that he made a big difference to you and played really well...so there is an unbiased viewpoint for you

As I said I think you will be okay, but you are reliant on Long. Your midfield seemed easily bypassed at times, and with a bigger attacking threat of a team against you, you will probably struggle. Your counter attack is your biggest threat.

Come on West Brom Sorry, but we need all the help we can get now!!!

GREEN ARMY!!!

[Thaumagurist*]

Personally I disagree with some of the comments on here

Yes, I'm sure you will.

Not being biased,

No?

Every time I watch Reading play Plymouth (I wasn't at the game last night, but was at the away game), Plymouth always seem to get away with a lot of dirty fouls.

[Maguire]

"Not biased" but you obsess about chances you didn't take yet conveniently forget about eg. us hitting the post.

I don't think there was much between the sides and Plymouth had their spells of pressure (just after half-time the best of them) but Reading put them under a fair amount of pressure and if either team deserved to win then it was them.

And the officals were as frustrating to us as they were to you, so that's a bit of a red herring.