Back from the game - Leicester (H)

[West_Reading]

What a game, what a win. Kebe, Griff, Long, McAnuff all on another level. Everyone had a great game though. Leicester were a good side, and I feared the worst when I saw the pace they too had upfront. But our defence was outstanding, blocks all day long and Mills and Khiz dominant. I thought Naughton and Van Aanholt would be the two fullbacks who might be able to handle Mac and Kebe but not a bit of it. Kebe was on a different planet today and my MOTM. He could and should have scored 4. One would have been goal of the season if he hadn't tried feeding Long instead. A great win, and the run continues! URZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

[hatrick_hero]

Great result, Great game. Kebe was MOTM today by a mile! Everytime he ran at them he looked like he was going to score or set up a goal. Mcanuff took his goal well and had a good game, Griffs was solid at right back and legs looked composed in the centre of midfield again, Longy worked his socks off as usual and had a decent game. Overall very pleased and looking forward to promotion!!!

[wolsey]

Leicester fans seemed to like us

http://www.foxestalk.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=72298&st=40

[tomrfcurz]

We played very well today, soaking up Leicester pressure well and attacking superbly. As everyone has and will say, Kebe MOTM by far - good run for Hunt's goal; i thought he was going to give up half way down! McAnuff had a decent game, as did the whole midfield to be fair. Manset with more fitness has the potential to be brilliant, Long worked his socks off and was probably unlucky not to get chances. Defence were a bit leaky but Zurab and Mills recovered well. Thought Harte's passing was superb once again and so was Griffin's hard working mentality, brilliant dribbling and good passing. Top class performance all round. 9's or 10's for the whole team i think.

[RoyalBlue]

Great performance but what impressed me most was the number of critical blocks our players got in. It wasn't so much that Leicester were really poor with their shooting/finishing, it was more the fact that our players were so quick to close them down and threw their way in front of absolutely everything. On occasions there were two or more players doing that. Defending with such passion could be the critical difference that sees us to the promised land!

[Sarah Star]

My MOM was Griffin. Without him, Kebe wouldn't have been able to do what he did in the match. They work so well together and he did well sprinting up and down the pitch to help out. Not sure he really needed to waste so much time at the end, but he did his best and was there to stop Leicester when they broke too.

Leicester promised much, but seemed unable to do anything when it came to either end, but then we did throw bodies in front of them to block everything in front of goal.

Whilst this run must come to end at sometime, you wouldn't want to bet against us winning our next game.

[robb the royal]

I thought we played very well, definitely deserved the win! Some players were better than others, but its the result that counts
McCarthy: 6.5: Solid game...but didn't have a lot to do, but made a couple of really good saves. Nothing he could do about their goal
Griffin: 8. Excellent game! Would have been man of the match if not for Kebe. Worked tirelessly all day and shut out their wingers and worked well up the pitch
Mills: 7: Good game, very solid, didn't put a foot wrong. Did well to shut out their number 9 when he came on
Khizanishvili: 7: Same as above.
Harte: 6.5. Didn't do a lot, took some good free kicks though
Karacan. 5.5. Worst reading player today... spent the 1st half running around like a headless chicken, can't remember him doing anything 2nd half.
Leigertwood. 6.5, looked injured for the last 20 mins of 1st half and a lot of the second half and seemed to struggle, bit didn't make many mistakes.
McAnuff. 8. Again, excellent game! Brilliantly taken goal and made their defenders look silly! Did really well to stay onside for a few runs down the wing.
Kebe. 8. MOTM. Outclassed and outpaced their defenders and wingers, well taken goal, brilliant run to set up the 3rd goal. Should have scored 3 or 4. Looked absolutely knackered by the time he got subbed!
Long. 7. Didn't really do much in the first half besides set up the first goal. Improved drastically in the second half.
Manset. 7. I thought he did really well, held up the ball well and has brilliant skills on the ball. Dropped a bit deep at times, perhaps he could fill a roll as an attacking midfielder?

Hunt. 6.5 Did brilliantly when he came on, good goal and made some good space.
Robson-Kanu. 5.5. Didn't really do anything, but only had 5 mins on the pitch.

And for everyone who was saying (around me anyway), that the ref was rubbish... thats a load of crap, he was strict at the start, set the tone for the game, played advantage well throughout the game.

[Mad Dog's Ghost]

Another great three points. Leicester no mugs and knock it around well but we mopped it all up and hit on the counter attack brilliantly.

Kebe back to his flying best (shame about some of the finishing, but don't mind if he's creating like that). Jobi miles better, Mansett a handful, Hunt decent, Kish and Mills quality. And Long. What can you say. 100% effort from first to last. Chuck a rubbish ball upfield and he'll chase it down, right to the last min of injury time. Absolutely superb team player.

We rode our luck at times but the belief in that squad is huge.

Had a 2005/2006 feeling when we got the second.

Come on!

[robb the royal]

I should point out that I am at uni, so this is the 1st game i have been to since probably Burnley in January, so I am not sure how well people played compared to normal, but this is my opinion on how they played TODAY

[URZZ]

Mikele Leigertwood, and so the unbeaten run continues... Although he wasn't as noticeable as others, that man seriously needs to be signed. He is such an influence in that team, and has made us so f'ing solid.

Don't think I've seen Reading defend that well - in a long time. Nothing was going through us today, block after block. Griff even got forward today, and it was nice to see him skinning their left back in a Kebe fashion. Leicester played very nice football today, I think it's worth mentioning that we beat a good team 3-1 today. They passed the ball amazingly at times.

But, Jimmy Kebe, what a player, every time he ran down the flank you just thought we were going to score. LOLZ at us singing "you're only here for the Kebe" - to Leicester to reply with "we don't understand, we don't understand, what a load of bollocks, we don't understand".

I felt that Beast didn't fit in today, although he was struggling in the midst of a very pacy game. Albeit, I do like Beast, don't get me wrong.

Long, another mention, I mean, how can't you mention the lad time and time again? Effort? He is such a nightmare, he does not stop running.

Very proud to be a Royal... who can stop us?

[John Madejski's Wallet]

I thought we played very well, definitely deserved the win! Some players were better than others, but its the result that counts
McCarthy: 6.5: Solid game...but didn't have a lot to do, but made a couple of really good saves. Nothing he could do about their goal
Griffin: 8. Excellent game! Would have been man of the match if not for Kebe. Worked tirelessly all day and shut out their wingers and worked well up the pitch
Mills: 7: Good game, very solid, didn't put a foot wrong. Did well to shut out their number 9 when he came on
Khizanishvili: 7: Same as above.
Harte: 6.5. Didn't do a lot, took some good free kicks though
Karacan. 5.5. Worst reading player today... spent the 1st half running around like a headless chicken, can't remember him doing anything 2nd half.
Leigertwood. 6.5, looked injured for the last 20 mins of 1st half and a lot of the second half and seemed to struggle, bit didn't make many mistakes.
McAnuff. 8. Again, excellent game! Brilliantly taken goal and made their defenders look silly! Did really well to stay onside for a few runs down the wing.
Kebe. 8. MOTM. Outclassed and outpaced their defenders and wingers, well taken goal, brilliant run to set up the 3rd goal. Should have scored 3 or 4. Looked absolutely knackered by the time he got subbed!
Long. 7. Didn't really do much in the first half besides set up the first goal. Improved drastically in the second half.
Manset. 7. I thought he did really well, held up the ball well and has brilliant skills on the ball. Dropped a bit deep at times, perhaps he could fill a roll as an attacking midfielder?

Hunt. 6.5 Did brilliantly when he came on, good goal and made some good space.
Robson-Kanu. 5.5. Didn't really do anything, but only had 5 mins on the pitch.

And for everyone who was saying (around me anyway), that the ref was rubbish... thats a load of crap, he was strict at the start, set the tone for the game, played advantage well throughout the game.

Agree with most of those.

Except I thought Long was fantastic today. Never stopped running and kept their defence on their toes. Shame he never actually really got any chances to shoot

[Maguire]

Can't decide if we played well or not but it was a really good game. Leicester controlled things and carved us open more times than any visiting team this season, but we managed block afteR block after block and made no mistake at the other end. Well, not many anyway.

Kebe was electric and showed that when he's on form there is no more exciting player to watch in the hoops. Brilliance.

Reading continue to defy all my expectations.

[muddyfeet]

Will review later, but excellent result, Kebe was immense. Happy fan here

[handbags_harris]

Mikele Leigertwood, and so the unbeaten run continues...

This kind of statistic worries me. Leigertwood hasn't lost a game he's been involved in this season. Jamie Cureton hadn't lost a game he'd scored in for Reading until...27 May 2001 - Reading 2-3 Walsall.

Anyway, very much a strange game. Leicester had 80% of territory and possession first half, and should have been 3-0 down

Second half superb performance. That is all.

[SHORT AND CURLY]

Leicester were a very good and dangerous side.
We played like an away side today and on the break could have scored five or six.

They could have had three or four themselves had it not been for MCarthy and some abject finishing.

It was very strange to see us play that way, however it worked extremely well and was the sort of game that Kebe must love.
It was very hard to pick a fault with anyone today (The idiot serving my beer at half time might take that award!!)

Any how..........
The last ten minutes was a nervous affair as they nearly scored a second. The atmosphere dropped and the defence started hoofing and gifting the ball back to them.
Still we held out and a good 3 points against a team full of Premiership players.
A big well done to Brian the back room staff and the lads today.

By the way a great goal by their player.

The dream is still alive

[URZZ]

Mikele Leigertwood, and so the unbeaten run continues...

This kind of statistic worries me. Leigertwood hasn't lost a game he's been involved in this season. Jamie Cureton hadn't lost a game he'd scored in for Reading until...27 May 2001 - Reading 2-3 Walsall.

Anyway, very much a strange game. Leicester had 80% of territory and possession first half, and should have been 3-0 down

Second half superb performance. That is all.

Nice stat mate, not nice for what it is, but I did not know that. However, unbeaten or beaten, whether we do lose with him eventually, I just wanted to raise the point we need to sign him, he has made the middle of the park Reading's own, he has made us so solid.

[robb the royal]

Jamie Cureton hadn't lost a game he'd scored in for Reading until...27 May 2001 - Reading 2-3 Walsall.

I have never lost a game i have played for reading

[Svlad Cjelli]

Workmanlike is the best adjective for today.

We never really stretched ourselves, and at times it looked like a training game where we were just sitting back, soaking up all the pressure, blocking any shots off, and just practising quick breaks.

For all the possession, Leicester never really looked like scoring, and you get the impression that if they had we'd have just gone down the other end and concentrated a bit more on our shooting. But we were certainly happy to let them have the amount of possession they did - and they did virtually nothing with it. So a very comfortable win where we did enough and never really had to stretch ourselves.

Finally a word about Bruma (sp?) - I've seen some poor centre-backs in my time but he looked like a carthorse with football boots on. No wonder many Leicester fans on Twitter are criticising him.

[RoyalBlue]

And for everyone who was saying (around me anyway), that the ref was rubbish... thats a load of crap, he was strict at the start, set the tone for the game, played advantage well throughout the game.

Yes, he played the advantage well but he should damn well remember that when a player commits a foul deserving a caution he should play advantage and then card the offending player at the next break in play. He twice failed to do this, the most notable occasion being when Manset set up a counter-attack, released the ball out wide to Long and then was cynically brought down as he tried to continue his run through the centre in support.

[URZZ]

If we beat Leeds on Friday, we go 2nd for the evening... which puts huge pressure on Cardiff to beat QPR.