back from the game - norwich

[Plymouth_Royal]

great SECOND HALF.

first half we looked comfortable and that we had another gear. kebe and long looked dangerous and the back four had little trouble. second half, we delivered! Kebe was outstanding, taking people on and actually having a final end product. two assists one with his left and the other with his right. we were passing the ball on the ground, harassing when we didn't have it and we were being inventive going forward. when we were 2 up, there was some mouth watering triangles involving the midfield and attack.

hahnemann 6 - nothing to do and looked comfortable.

rosenior 6 - got forward well, gave away a couple of silly fouls but grew in confidence.
bikey 7 - won a lot of the ariel battles, dealt with that little pikey with the tattoes well.
doobs 6 - he never looks comfortable with the ball on the ground but actually played on the floor few times, pretty solid otherwise.
harding 6 - started well and then lost it abit. a couple of wayward crosses and free kicks but was sound defensively.

little 5 - wasnt on for long but he didnt do anything good when he was playing.
karacan 7 - started shakey, but as the game wore on he got better and better. he could be our answer to that sidwell replacement. he gets from one end to the other with purpose, he's got a good range of passing and he won a lot of tackles.
cisse 5 - he was terrible.
kebe 9 - outstanding. he crossed with his left, he crossed with his right, he danced passed defenders, he tracked back and won tackles....why cant he play like this more often!!!

kitson 5 - i dont know what to write here because he did nothing, he chased down the keeper alot and there 2 centre backs but that was it. i hope doyle comes in for him.
long 8 - im so glad for the boy. he was playing well and was dropped for the 'senior' pro's only for us to draw blanks. his positioning was spot on, he looked dangerous, he chased with purpose, he nearly had a hatrick and took his goals well.

subs
s hunt 6.5 - came on and looked good. harassed, crossing was jekyll and hyde, but he actually took people on and got crosses in.
matejovsky 6 - some sublime through balls and calmed the midfield when he came on.
pearce - man marked Gow, did his job well.

[strap]

Not far, Norwich to Plymouth, is it?

Can I borrow your car for tomorrow please?

[Plymouth_Royal]

lol, touche.

obviously watched it on sky but i couldnt wait for everyone to get back

[Archie's penalty]

Surely Long was a 9? Best performance in a Reading shirt from the lad.

[Norfolk Royal]

Great stuff tonight. Norwich huffed and puffed a bit in the first half but were restricted to two long shots which both went wide. Second half we mullered them getting the ball out wide and two superb crosses, think from Kebe both times, for Long to nod in unchallenged.

Norwich heads went down after we scored and we could have had a couple more late on when we were playing almost exhibition stuff.

Ratings:

1) Hahnemann - Never troubled did everything well. 7
2) Rosenior - Very tidy. 7.
3) Harding - Did everything we could have expected of him - 7
4) Doobs - I had a discussion with a Norwich fan on their board who was insisting that Alan Lee would rough Doobs up. He didn't. 8
5) Bikey - Imperious. 8
6) Little - Went off injured early second half but did well - 7
7) Karacan - Think it was him as it was first time I had seen him play. Had bite. 7
Cisse - substituted, but another solid performance - 7
9) Kebe - Moments of frustration but excellent cross for one of the goals and always a threat to Norwich - 8
10) Long - Excellent. The two goals were put away with aplomb and seems to have added awareness and ball control to his game. My MOM - 9
11) Kitson - Bit frustrating in first half but came into game well in second - 7

Subs:

Hunt - Did well when he came on and put in some good crosses - 7
Matejovskey - Controlled the ball well - 7

[Plymouth_Royal]

if longs a nine then kebe is a 10. he played very well but i havent seen enough games to say whether it was his best in a reading shirt.

[BobKnows]

KEBE HAD A SHOCKER. KEBE OUT!!!

Oh.

That's one in the face for the whingers

[Plymouth_Royal]

Great stuff tonight. Norwich huffed and puffed a bit in the first half but were restricted to two long shots which both went wide. Second half we mullered them getting the ball out wide and two superb crosses, think from Kebe both times, for Long to nod in unchallenged.

Norwich heads went down after we scored and we could have had a couple more late on when we were playing almost exhibition stuff.

Ratings:

1) Hahnemann - Never troubled did everything well. 7
2) Rosenior - Very tidy. 7.
3) Harding - Did everything we could have expected of him - 7
4) Doobs - I had a discussion with a Norwich fan on their board who was insisting that Alan Lee would rough Doobs up. He didn't. 8
5) Bikey - Imperious. 8
6) Little - Went off injured early second half but did well - 7
7) Karacan - Think it was him as it was first time I had seen him play. Had bite. 7
Cisse - substituted, but another solid performance - 7
9) Kebe - Moments of frustration but excellent cross for one of the goals and always a threat to Norwich - 8
10) Long - Excellent. The two goals were put away with aplomb and seems to have added awareness and ball control to his game. My MOM - 9
11) Kitson - Bit frustrating in first half but came into game well in second - 7

Subs:

Hunt - Did well when he came on and put in some good crosses - 7
Matejovskey - Controlled the ball well - 7

cisse 7?,little 7?, kitson 7?

just because we won doesnt mean we can dish out ridiculous ratings. they did nothing

[Don Finch]

cisse 7?,little 7?, kitson 7?

just because we won doesnt mean we can dish out ridiculous ratings. they did nothing

Indeed, Kitson and Cisse were bloody awful. Good to see us starting to play some better stuff in the second half, Long was outstanding all game. Kebe frustrates and then puts in two cracking crosses, a bit of consistency please Jimmy.
Roll on Sunday [do us a favour Palace]

[Norfolk Royal]

Yes they did, they contributed to a fine team performance.

[Flip_Flop]

Surely Long was a 9? Best performance in a Reading shirt from the lad.

Has he become our player of the season? If results go our way and he gets the winnner, i expect him to be gutted he missed out!

[tlcs]

O what a night...did anybody give us away fans a 10 because we sang our hearts out.

Inflatables not too bad , but not as good as Blackburn...loved the Palm tree and Sponge Bob in the front, contributed a Union Jack lilo that got lost amongst the crowd

Overall a great night out

P.S please play Kebe on the left on sunday with SHunt on the right it seemed to work this evening, also lets have Marek starting.

[loyalroyal4life]

Obviously SSC wont but i think he should go for doyle long upfront for our big game coming up.


I never thought i could actually have love for colin (providing he does us a favour and we do our bit)

[loyalroyal4life]

i thought harding was ok tonight

i would bring back stretch and tabb for him and cisse though

[andrew1957]

The defence all did well - although I did not think any of them individually needed to be outstanding.

I did not think Cisse was as bad as some are saying and Karacan did very well again. I thought Long was outstanding all night - as was Kebe. The only real weak link to me was Kitson who did very little at all. Even SHunt had a fairly good game.

Well done to all the boys - one more win and we will either be promoted or at least go into the play offs in good form.

[RoyalBird]

Not sure why people were saying Cisse was awful. Ok he did nothing to help us attack, but he was key towards our defensive effort. It seemed like as soon as he was subbed off we were creaking defensively. The guy has such a big influence on our defence and is definitely our equivalent of a Mascherano or Makelele for Liverpool and Chelsea respecitively. Wasn't his best games but was certainly far from awful! Same goes for Kitson, wasn't great but far from awful, actually helped link up with Long a few times.

Man of the Match was definitely Shane Long. When he has been given the chance to start, he has certainly taken his chance or given a good shot at keeping his place and tonight was possibly his best performance in the shirt. Agreed with Don Finch that Kebe was fairly frustrating for most of the game and then puts in two pin point crosses. Fair enough the first was mainly because of the goalkeeper being totally out of position, but that second was close to being the perfect cross. Also I reckon we should try to sign Dan Harding. I know he's only had two starts, but he looks like such a solid back up to Armstrong and could even push the guy if he turns in two or three brilliant performances when given the chance.

Last thing is I reckon we should start with the same team against Birmingham, unless injury gets in the way, as it seems to have done with Little. I hate seeing changes being made to a team after a victory, regardless if a sub made the impact towards victory or not.

[Jeffers217]

All I can say is the game changed when Matejovsky came on we got the ball on the ground and passed it. I've said from the start of the season he should be playing alongside Karacan and I think tonight clearly shows that is the best partnership for passing and quality. Karacan was quality throughout, if only he had played all season. Bikey was a rock at the back and believe it or not Doobs actually had a good game. Disagree with Harding though...terrible, didnt enjoy his performance

[SHORT AND CURLY]

A big UP to the two Ipswich fans in our end who took the proverbial out of Narch fans all evening. They went even more mental than we did when we scored!

[Plymouth_Royal]

Not sure why people were saying Cisse was awful. Ok he did nothing to help us attack, but he was key towards our defensive effort. It seemed like as soon as he was subbed off we were creaking defensively. The guy has such a big influence on our defence and is definitely our equivalent of a Mascherano or Makelele for Liverpool and Chelsea respecitively. Wasn't his best games but was certainly far from awful! Same goes for Kitson, wasn't great but far from awful, actually helped link up with Long a few times.

Man of the Match was definitely Shane Long. When he has been given the chance to start, he has certainly taken his chance or given a good shot at keeping his place and tonight was possibly his best performance in the shirt. Agreed with Don Finch that Kebe was fairly frustrating for most of the game and then puts in two pin point crosses. Fair enough the first was mainly because of the goalkeeper being totally out of position, but that second was close to being the perfect cross. Also I reckon we should try to sign Dan Harding. I know he's only had two starts, but he looks like such a solid back up to Armstrong and could even push the guy if he turns in two or three brilliant performances when given the chance.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME
cisse was god awful. for a defensive midfielder he didnt read the game well and gave the ball away on numerous occasions. if he played well he would have read the game well, made timely interceptions and played it simple. which karacan did,plus he got forward. i do like cisse and sometimes he is unfairly criticised, BUT NOT TODAY. he didnt do his role well which explains his mistimed tackles and poor passes. maybe due to lack of match sharpness, but either way he didnt play well.

[Ian Royal]

O what a night...did anybody give us away fans a 10 because we sang our hearts out.

Inflatables not too bad , but not as good as Blackburn...loved the Palm tree and Sponge Bob in the front, contributed a Union Jack lilo that got lost amongst the crowd

Overall a great night out

P.S please play Kebe on the left on sunday with SHunt on the right it seemed to work this evening, also lets have Marek starting.

Glad you liked the palm tree, SpongeBob is becoming a regular thanks to AFers. Sadly the tree will not be returning because I couldn't be arsed to deflate it at half time so I could get it home.

I thought the first half was poor, we were sloppy and allowed Narch room to play, thankfully they looked about as likely to score as I did. Our attacks were a bit aimless and lacked precision, but we don't conceed much so that always gives us a chance.

Second half started much the same for me. I was just thinking Coppell should take off Cisse, who I thought had been ok at best to give us more attacking threat. We didn't seem to have much going through the middle.

We then spent the next 10 minutes under almost constant pressure once Marek came on and I was getting worried that we'd be over run. Good cross from Kebe (put in a couple of corkers this evening and came into his own once we went ahead.) and an excellent goal from Long attacking the ball. Something we seem to have been missing of late.

Once that went in it was only ever one team in it and we could have had a few more.

Hahnemann - 6 one good save, the rest fairly standard fair. slightly dodgy kicking, but usually under pressure.
Rosenior - 7 good game, nothing spectacular
Harding - 6.5 made a few mistakes here and there, didn't seem to offer masses going forward, but not too bad.
Duberry - 7 Didin't really give Norwich a sniff
Bikey - 7 Similar, but had me worried a few times with his slightly unconventional style and aggression
Little - 5.5 - not on long and didn't massively impress
Kebe - 7.5 - not as wasteful as I've seen him before and some good crosses. He has the talent, can he produce consistently?
Karacan - 6.5 didn't really notice him much, but I think that's more to do with my eyesight than anything else.
Cisse - 6 gave us a bit of bite in midfield, but didn't really offer anything going forward. Can't afford that with two in the middle
Kitson - 6.5 - didn't do a great deal, but some nice touches and linked up play well. a lot of teh crosses were put over his head to a shorter player for some reason.
Long - 8.5 worked his socks off, two well taken goals. I was very impressed having seen him earlier in the season. Not convinced he'll be much use if we go up, but a tidy player at this level.

SHunt 6.5 - Came into it much more once we scored and played somoe nice stuff, beating his man a few times. Set pieces still poor though
Matejovsky - 6.5 nice passes and shields the ball well, we did seem to get overrun for a while just after he came on.
Doyle - cameo so no mark.

Thought our passing got better and we looked up for it once we scored, but I feel the balls are still not weighted well enough a lot of the time. The side has a lot of potential, but it's still very far from firing on all cylinders. Really really pleased with the result. Roll on Brum!
Doyle