BFTG Birmingham

[Lower West]

Enjoyed the game with lots of positives to take from the performance. Seems to be a unity in the squad coupled with leadership. Opposition very poor. Job done, a major confidence boost.

Roll on round 2.

[Armadillo Roadkill]

An OK performance against the second string of one of the weaker Championship teams. For much of the second half Reading were ineffective, retreating into a Stam like shell of sitting deep and playing countless pointless cross field passes. Overall a justified result, but not the wholly convincing win we might have hoped for.

But a win is a win. For positives, look to Yiadom who is just class. Was surprised to hear Adie Williams on BBCRB criticise Ilori, who I thought was excellent - Williams was the professional footballer and a centre back to boot so I will defer to his judgement. Meite was excellent - all tricks and strength.

Swift was poor but for a beautiful free kick. I'm yet to be in any way convinced by Baldock or indeed McNaulty, but there was enough on display to suggest potential.

Hope O'Shea doesn't take what was, for me, some good natured humour as sarcasm. To be fair, he really did not put a foot wrong.

We move on, still in the competition; job done.

[Only one Trevor Morley]

Unlike previous poster I though McNulty was excellent tonight. A really clever player who always added something positive with every touch and who has that bit of extra vision. On a night when he didn’t have many clear cut chances he still made a reading by his vision and work rate. his ball for meite was world class and showed excellent awareness and unselfishness to pass to Baldock who should have scored. More to come from McNulty I think.

[Old Man Andrews]

Very happy with what I saw and loved that starting line up, really clicked.

[Rea Ding]

Went into this game with little excitement yet it proved to be very enjoyable. Good all round team performance and 2 nice goals against pretty feeble opposition. Bring on saturday and a decent draw on thursday

[Hound]

It’s games like last night that show How desperately poor we had become last year. Was a genuine pleasure to watch the full backs bomb forward, the forwards causing problems and pressing, Swift running his backside off for 90m and some fast attacking play. The whole atmosphere in the crowd was much more positive and supportive

Brum were to$$ but bar a dodgy period of 15mins at the start of the second half we were well on top. Should have won by 3 or 4 really and Baldock missed a sitter that his overall performance deserved

Walker looked solid and made a couple of good saves

Yiadom is great. 1st half particularly he was superb

Blackett, Moore and Ilori all good if maybe not quite at the top of their game. Each made a couple of mistakes

Swift and Bacuna actually dominated the midfield. Couple of dodgy passes each but they looked fit, strong (Swift has beefed right up) and aggressive

Meite was very good and a nice goal. Real potential in him. Wins some great headers and will be a big player this year

McNulty and Baldock were both good. Never stopped running, worked as a pair and showed some lovely touches. Shame neither scored but they will.

Barrow was great until he was injured - obvs not good news

[Esteban]

Unlike previous poster I though McNulty was excellent tonight. A really clever player who always added something positive with every touch and who has that bit of extra vision. On a night when he didn’t have many clear cut chances he still made a reading by his vision and work rate. his ball for meite was world class and showed excellent awareness and unselfishness to pass to Baldock who should have scored. More to come from McNulty I think.

Agree with this. Played in between the lines and made it difficult for their defenders to pick him up. Used the ball well.

I was right in line with the chance he gave Baldock. I think he was expecting McNulty to shoot and the ball was a yard too far I'm front of him to react. That link up play will improve with time. There were signs of them building an understanding.

[Pandoras Box]

In another vein of BFTG.
Why were there SO many first timers there last night?
The haribo brigade. Was it that the £3-£7 ticket made it a better prospect than Chessington or Alton Towers?
Loads of disinterested parents, many who knew less about football as a game than they knew about Reading.

Special thumbs up to the tw@t directly behind me, who in the loudest voice extolled the virtues of the best way to book a holiday, Spanish holidays in general, his kid’s holiday booking, purple bricks, zoopla, Lower Earley, Tilehurst, fish and chip shops in the area,
Didn’t comment on the game once and then decided that Reading were not going to score again and fvcked off home (thank god) with his contingent at half time.
Parents in front of me spent half the match showing each other their holiday photos.
Now I’m all for new blood, but these cheap seat one nighters, I think we could do without.

[muirinho]

In another vein of BFTG.
Why were there SO many first timers there last night?
The haribo brigade. Was it that the £3-£7 ticket made it a better prospect than Chessington or Alton Towers?
Loads of disinterested parents, many who knew less about football as a game than they knew about Reading.

Special thumbs up to the tw@t directly behind me, who in the loudest voice extolled the virtues of the best way to book a holiday, Spanish holidays in general, his kid’s holiday booking, purple bricks, zoopla, Lower Earley, Tilehurst, fish and chip shops in the area,
Didn’t comment on the game once and then decided that Reading were not going to score again and fvcked off home (thank god) with his contingent at half time.
Parents in front of me spent half the match showing each other their holiday photos.
Now I’m all for new blood, but these cheap seat one nighters, I think we could do without.

No, no we can't. Because some of the kids that were brought along will want to come again. and again. And will eventually turn into "proper" fans. If you want the club to grow, you can't restrict attendance to the people that already have a culture of going, or know anything about the game. It's elitism. And it doesn't help the club.

In a normal game, without free seating, that type of attendee will be safely tucked away in North, and won't be bothering you with their inanities.

[Hound]

It was games like last night that I first took my kids to to get them interested, when it was a bit more relaxed and a bit more space for them to mess about in if needed. We'd probably have been the annoying family 2 years back.

Now we are season ticket holders, and the kids watch every minute of the game (when they are not going to the toilet for the 15th time), buy the merchandise etc

[Pandoras Box]

In another vein of BFTG.
Why were there SO many first timers there last night?
The haribo brigade. Was it that the £3-£7 ticket made it a better prospect than Chessington or Alton Towers?
Loads of disinterested parents, many who knew less about football as a game than they knew about Reading.

Special thumbs up to the tw@t directly behind me, who in the loudest voice extolled the virtues of the best way to book a holiday, Spanish holidays in general, his kid’s holiday booking, purple bricks, zoopla, Lower Earley, Tilehurst, fish and chip shops in the area,
Didn’t comment on the game once and then decided that Reading were not going to score again and fvcked off home (thank god) with his contingent at half time.
Parents in front of me spent half the match showing each other their holiday photos.
Now I’m all for new blood, but these cheap seat one nighters, I think we could do without.

No, no we can't. Because some of the kids that were brought along will want to come again. and again. And will eventually turn into "proper" fans. If you want the club to grow, you can't restrict attendance to the people that already have a culture of going, or know anything about the game. It's elitism. And it doesn't help the club.

In a normal game, without free seating, that type of attendee will be safely tucked away in North, and won't be bothering you with their inanities.

Fully agree with your sentiment, of course we need new blood. It was a school special as a parent that got me going with my daughter many years back.
It’s not the kids that rile me, it’s the lack of respect and inconsiderate behaviour of those parents that bring them under sufferance. I mean, if you had to take your kids to a Disney film, would you sit there and have a living room chat out loud the whole way through the film, or at a concert, because you aren’t interested?
That one bloke ruined the first half for about eight people. Now we could tell him to shut the f* up but that would hardly be the welcoming attitude we are trying to perpetuate,

[bobbybottler]

Who was it that completely scuffed his shot, trod on the ball and fell over about half way through the second half?

I think that was about the only time the atmosphere soured a bit.

The O'Shea stuff was a bit of fun (I thought) and he gave us a clap at the end, he didn't seem to mind it at all. Moore got an ovation from Y24/5/6 at the end, just in case anyone was wondering what those outside the HNA bubble thought about him staying.

[PieEater]

An OK performance against the second string of one of the weaker Championship teams. For much of the second half Reading were ineffective, retreating into a Stam like shell of sitting deep and playing countless pointless cross field passes. Overall a justified result, but not the wholly convincing win we might have hoped for.

But a win is a win. For positives, look to Yiadom who is just class. Was surprised to hear Adie Williams on BBCRB criticise Ilori, who I thought was excellent - Williams was the professional footballer and a centre back to boot so I will defer to his judgement. Meite was excellent - all tricks and strength.

Swift was poor but for a beautiful free kick. I'm yet to be in any way convinced by Baldock or indeed McNaulty, but there was enough on display to suggest potential.

Hope O'Shea doesn't take what was, for me, some good natured humour as sarcasm. To be fair, he really did not put a foot wrong.

We move on, still in the competition; job done.

+1
I think we lost midfield in the second half, not convinced by Bacuna and Swift there. Swift's free kick was a cracker though.

I agree with Williams, Illori played quite a few loose balls/misplaced passes and got suckered into pulling down their attacker to give a free kick in a dangerous area.

We need to use #JohnOSheasShorts for the lol's

Overall a good result but a bit concerned about the injuries, Barrow and Meite in particular taking knocks. We need them for Bolton.

[CountryRoyal]

Again I thought it was another pretty decent performance though hard to gauge as Brum reserves were attorciois - that being said you can only beat what is in front of you.

I’ll start with the negatives. Far too lazy and careless in our passing at times. Wasteful in the attacking third again, Baldock particularly to blame to squandered a number of opportunities to either test the keeper or to slide in another player. Missed one truly guilt edged chance after a lovely move. Barrow going off was a concern but hope it’s not too serious.

Positives. Defensively solid, again. We’re much better organised in that regard and Ilori and Yiadom continue to impress. Movement much better going forward and starting to get into better areas to affect the game, opening up spaces and getting in behind, creating 2 on 2s, overloads etc. That’s a huge plus.

Walker 6 - I like him. Did everything expected of him although admittedly wasn’t overly tested. You’d be disappointed if he conceded to any of those shots. Distribution average however.

Yiadom 7 - Tank. Love him.

Ilori 7 - I thought it was another good performance from him.

Moore 6 - Good to see him back. A few poor moments early on but grew into the game. Him and Ilori were largely untroubled by a poor Birmingham attack.

Blackett 6 - Thought he did quite well without being exceptional. No mistakes.

Barrow 6 - Standard Barrow causing havoc. Hope his injury isn’t bad.

Swift 6 - Lots of careless passes, a few really good, great free kick. Has more of an impact on games and should start ahead of Kelly for me.

Bacuna 7 - Solid from Bacuna. Did a lot of running.

Meite 8 - Strong powerful energetic and willing. Worked well tracking back with Yiadom as well. Didn’t stop all game and got the goal which sent us on our way, well taken finish as well.

McNulty 6 - I like the look of him. Some very League Two moments but also some nice play, perhaps should have scored.

Baldock 5 - If passing or scoring wasn’t important than he would have had a really good game but on numerous occasions wasted an opportunity by either a poor pass, no pass, poor shot or didn’t even hit the ball. Annoyingly tried to spin the defender loads as well which seldom worked. Needs to be more clinical but I have confidence that will come. New team, new players and hasn’t played a huge amount of football for quite a while so perhaps understandable.

The John O’Shea cheers at the end were utter lolz and think one or two illicited a louder response than any of the goals. Did anyone else think that he caught the lad for the penalty shout? To me looked like he got his legs and absolutely none of the ball. Didn’t put a foot wrong beyond that. Very very very slow. If you play with him you’d have to do a 3 at the back (or 5 which is what happened) with sitting deeper.

Overall decent display against weak opponents and I hope the team can take the winning feeling out of this and get the first win of the season on Saturday. I’m impressed with us.

[Snowball]

I had been a bit disappointed by Meite previously but tonight he played really well. He's raw but showed some great touches, is strong and fast and took his goal really well. It occurs to me that we can play McNulty-Baldock with either Meite or Bod as RW, but the RW coming in for the long balls/headers. It would be a shame to drop either McNulty or Baldock. They both have "it" and could form a lethal partnership.

At first I was thinking Baldock was clearly the better player. He was buzzing around high up; but gradually I began to see the simple stuff McNulty was doing a little deeper. At times he looked like an attacking midfielder. Barring serious injuries I'd expect both of these guys to get 10+ goals this season. Looks to me like they will form a great partnership if given the time.

Walker was good. He is HUGE but gets down well to low shots and showed no nerves. He will be a no-fear back-up to Mannone.

Back four was VG. Yiadom is WAY better than Gunter and is now, IMO, "our RB". Gunts will (should) only get in as stand-in left back.

Having said that I thought Blackett much-improved and would like to see him get a run, build his confidence.

Moore was pretty much his usual solid. At least once went for the dramatic diving clearance, but we looked a lot better with him there. Thought Ilori good again. He's another who ought to keep improving.

Can't make my mind up on Swift. He looks "heavy". He's probably bulked up and getting used to his new body. Didn't Shane have a couple months that were similar? Haven't re-seen Swift's goal. Pundits saying it was brilliant, but it was hardly top corner and IMO may have been a keeper error.

Some of the close control/touches under pressure were excellent (particularly Swift and Meite) in an often-crowded very busy midfield. It seems a lot of pressing/closing down is the new thing and we are going to see more "scrapping" in midfield.

We still had that Reading 15 minutes where something mental happens, we go into our shell and let the other side back in to it. We were the FAR better side first half and should have been 2-3 up, but ion the second half we allowed Birmingham to play. It hard all the markings of a stupid 1-1 draw (then out on pens) until Swift's free-kick.

But I also saw us gradually calm things, play it around, slow the game down. First time for ages I could see "game management"

Special Mention for John OShea

It was only a cameo appearance, but what a presence. I think he won every single header and had a 100% pass completion stat. The crowd were cheering every touch. but seriously he looked Mr Solid. I think a back three with him, Ilori, Moore would be awesome. If we run out of wingers, we might have to play 3 CBs and wing-backs anyway.

[andrew1957]

My first game since we lost to Birmingham at home early this year and I said I would never attend another match until Stam was gone.

Quite frankly RFC became an awful team to watch under Stam. Sideways passing with no point whatsoever. Clement has a big job on his hands to turn round the ship - but the signs are good. We now pass forwards and players look for space to run into. As he said himself after the match last night there is still a lot of work to do but now there is some hope.

For me Meite was superb - MOTM performance. Such a shame he had to go off injured and we can only hope that it was nothing serious.

I thought that Swift largely ran the midfield but was a bit variable with his passing. The defence did well with a special mention to Blackett who gets a lot of stick but had a good game last evening. First time I have seen Yiadom in the flesh and thought he was very good too.

And as for Walker he is HUGE. But also got down well to make a couple of smart saves. Not much else to do. Could see him becoming number 1 this season.

The signs are promising. Realistically all we can hope for is mid table this season but that might give us a platform to get back to challenging next season.

[quickwingerswife]

I posted recently about Moore maybe being a hypocrite. I was wrong. His performance last night was sublime. Yiadom will be in the Premiership next season, he looks class. Illori good but sometimes has to put it in Row J.

We still need a playmaker and a big lump up front who can bring McNulty or Baldock into threatening situations via good hold up play. Bodvarsson, good player, but a bit sinewy for working a defender with hold up stuff. Big effing Russian type maybe?

Looking good. It was me probably who took 5 local kids along last night who pissed some regular lemon suckers off in Dolan. We do breed em loud in Lambourn.
Kids had a good time. We woke some of the jockeys up, and won’t be popular today, some have some long journeys. Don’t back any Lambourn horses unless you are convinced.

[Pandoras Box]

I posted recently about Moore maybe being a hypocrite. I was wrong. His performance last night was sublime. Yiadom will be in the Premiership next season, he looks class. Illori good but sometimes has to put it in Row J.

We still need a playmaker and a big lump up front who can bring McNulty or Baldock into threatening situations via good hold up play. Bodvarsson, good player, but a bit sinewy for working a defender with hold up stuff. Big effing Russian type maybe?

Looking good. It was me probably who took 5 local kids along last night who pissed some regular lemon suckers off in Dolan. We do breed em loud in Lambourn.
Kids had a good time. We woke some of the jockeys up, and won’t be popular today, some have some long journeys. Don’t back any Lambourn horses unless you are convinced.

Ha ha. If you and the kids had a great time being loud, good on you.
But not if you were being loud espousing the Pros and cons of Purple Bricks!

[Westwood52]

More by accident rather than design last night, ended up in lower West.Wont be sitting there again;although it does make you realise how fast , intense and physical the modern Championship is.
Enjoyed the game,and a bargain for a fiver.
Clement obviously wants a fast intense game, with quick passes and plenty of width, and the performance was all the more enjoyable because of this. Although 4-4-2 system , would probably mean we would get over run by most sides.
IMHO:

Walker: 7: Some unit made even Blackett and Ilori look tiny. The archetypal Championship goalie.He looks safe however and deserves a go on Saturday.Tallest player we have ever had on the books ?

Yiadom 7: Started really well, a vast improvement on Gunts. More intense and progressive than Gunts.
Blackett 6: Good and bad in parts; but more good than bad. not really a FB.
Moore 7 : Good to see him back. Must start on Saturday, as captain.Give him a pay rise !He is not however Superman !
Ilori 7: Very comfortable.
Bacuna 6: Started badly but got better. Deserves a start in a three with Meyler and Swift on Saturday.
Swift 7: Ditto really. Still looks slow and careless.But ideal in the middle of a three.
Meighte 8 MOM: Just about MOM. Got a trick,fast, powerful and good in the air. Took some fearful clatterings. Hopefully fit for Saturday, as he gives us the X Factor.
Barrow: Not on long enough really.
McNulty 6: Needs time, as this level is a big step up for him. Hopefully he can make it.
Baldock 7: Class act. Very bright and sharp. Oh for a Dave Kitson to play alongside him. Reminds me of Forster.

Pelle: Not really a wing back, and got rinsed too often. More comfortable when coming inside.
Riamotta: Didnt do anything wrong.
Big John OS: I have been dead against this buy. But he is very good in the air and looked comfortable;looks to be a better option than the McShane of last season. Where he would be caught out by pace, is where McShane would be found wanting anyway.

Ref: Despite dire warnings on this site; I think he did OK.The bookings were correct. Maybe he should have stamped down on Brums niggedly professional fouls early doors. Missed the blatant 1st half penalty, but he could not have seen it. However the pull on Baldock in the box was right in front of the West Stand lino, and he completely bottled it.

Good to see a comfortable win; but Saturday is a must win game.No points after two home games, could easily start a slide.

[genome]

Is it just me raising a wry smile at the fact everyone's fawning over O'Shea after most completely wrote him off before a ball was kicked?