Back From the Game

[Stranded]

Kitson and Doyle both back from injury - needing games - we've not played in ages and then get 2 games in 3 days - that's not saying much about our fitness levels. Do you think that if were in a relegation battle, we would have put that team out last night? Of course we wouldn't. Coppell had no intention of winning that game.

That is a very strong accusation to make. Could turn that round and say playing Kitson and Doyle would be not trying to win the game as we're using it to get them back to fitness.

Looking at the changes. Bikey in for the injured Duberry no brainer.

Seol in for Oster - Oster didn't set the world on fire against Liverpool but was OK, can see why a change was made. IMO Seol played well and proved the worth of his start.

DLC for Gunna - had no real impact on the team as both have played similar amounts of games. Gunna played well on Sat but DLC played well last night and Halford did OK the game before Gunna came in.

Lita has been our form striker for a while so him coming back in is hardly weaking the side.

The only one you could say is Long who wasn't great last night and should have come off.

Beyond that we were on top and at time all over them. Coppell doesn't make changes (rightly or wrongly) when his team are doing what we were doing last night.

Do you think that if we were in a relegation battle, we'd have put that team out last night?

Hard to say, if we were in a relegation battle then the players you wanted in last night wouldn't have been cutting it anyway so may have been dropped some time ago.

But in theory and given the resources available to us at this time the only change I think we would have definitely seen would have been Kitson for Long.

We may have possibly have seen Gunnarsson in for DLC and Oster for Seol but both are very interchangable with Oster possibly being on the bench as he can offer cover for two roles if things need changing.

[Royal Lady]

Kitson and Doyle both back from injury - needing games - we've not played in ages and then get 2 games in 3 days - that's not saying much about our fitness levels. Do you think that if were in a relegation battle, we would have put that team out last night? Of course we wouldn't. Coppell had no intention of winning that game.

That is a very strong accusation to make. Could turn that round and say playing Kitson and Doyle would be not trying to win the game as we're using it to get them back to fitness.

Looking at the changes. Bikey in for the injured Duberry no brainer.

Seol in for Oster - Oster didn't set the world on fire against Liverpool but was OK, can see why a change was made. IMO Seol played well and proved the worth of his start.

DLC for Gunna - had no real impact on the team as both have played similar amounts of games. Gunna played well on Sat but DLC played well last night and Halford did OK the game before Gunna came in.

Lita has been our form striker for a while so him coming back in is hardly weaking the side.

The only one you could say is Long who wasn't great last night and should have come off.

Beyond that we were on top and at time all over them. Coppell doesn't make changes (rightly or wrongly) when his team are doing what we were doing last night.

Do you think that if we were in a relegation battle, we'd have put that team out last night?

Hard to say, if we were in a relegation battle then the players you wanted in last night wouldn't have been cutting it anyway so may have been dropped some time ago.

But in theory and given the resources available to us at this time the only change I think we would have definitely seen would have been Kitson for Long.

We may have possibly have seen Gunnarsson in for DLC and Oster for Seol but both are very interchangable with Oster possibly being on the bench as he can offer cover for two roles if things need changing.

I only mentioned Doyle and Kitson! You think they'd have been dropped some time ago??

[Bucks Dave]

Well, Reading fans have made the transition.

Last night I sat in a packed stadium with a crowd desperate for a win. A team fighting for its life, with bags of premiership experience and expensive players, did everything they could to beat us, yet we held our own and were unlucky not to get a penalty and certainly created as many chances as they did. In the end, Pards gave us credit for a well worked display.

If this had been the first match of our new premiership season we would have been more than satisfied. Now a lot of us sound like West Ham fans because we didn't win.

C'mon lads, more slagging off of Coppell and the team. You really are becoming Premiership.

[Maguire]

Completely agree, that was a cracking game of football. My eyes were glued from beginning to end.

Sarcasm or not?!

It was fcuking rubbish! I spent the entire second half eyeing up the exit. Wish I'd watched it in the pub and saved a bit of money.

Wouldn't say it was cracking, but also wouldn't agree that it was rubbish. I would describe it as a watchable goaless draw myself

You'd feel different if you'd been sat in South London with your hangover starting to kick in about 30 minutes into the game. I can only remember us having one shot at goal in the entire game, although it's entirely possible that we did have others, only I was asleep at the time.

[zac naloen]

Completely agree, that was a cracking game of football. My eyes were glued from beginning to end.

Sarcasm or not?!

It was fcuking rubbish! I spent the entire second half eyeing up the exit. Wish I'd watched it in the pub and saved a bit of money.

Wouldn't say it was cracking, but also wouldn't agree that it was rubbish. I would describe it as a watchable goaless draw myself

You'd feel different if you'd been sat in South London with your hangover starting to kick in about 30 minutes into the game. I can only remember us having one shot at goal in the entire game, although it's entirely possible that we did have others, only I was asleep at the time.

Your over indulgence is hardly the teams fault mate.

[Stranded]

In reply to RL:

If in a relegation battle possibly as they may not have been cutting it. For us to have been in a relegation dogfight we'd have had to score less than we have.

That would mean that our strikers would not have been scoring so we could have gone out and bought another one to help keep us up esp. as Kitson was out since August and only just returning in Jan.

[Schards#2]

Well, Reading fans have made the transition.

Last night I sat in a packed stadium with a crowd desperate for a win. A team fighting for its life, with bags of premiership experience and expensive players, did everything they could to beat us, yet we held our own and were unlucky not to get a penalty and certainly created as many chances as they did. In the end, Pards gave us credit for a well worked display.

If this had been the first match of our new premiership season we would have been more than satisfied. Now a lot of us sound like West Ham fans because we didn't win.

C'mon lads, more slagging off of Coppell and the team. You really are becoming Premiership.

It's not the fact that we didn't win, it's that we didn't try our best to win.

[southbank1871]

Well, Reading fans have made the transition.

Last night I sat in a packed stadium with a crowd desperate for a win. A team fighting for its life, with bags of premiership experience and expensive players, did everything they could to beat us, yet we held our own and were unlucky not to get a penalty and certainly created as many chances as they did. In the end, Pards gave us credit for a well worked display.

If this had been the first match of our new premiership season we would have been more than satisfied. Now a lot of us sound like West Ham fans because we didn't win.

C'mon lads, more slagging off of Coppell and the team. You really are becoming Premiership.

It's not the fact that we didn't win, it's that we didn't try our best to win.

In your opinion.

My opinion is that we did.

[Stranded]

Well, Reading fans have made the transition.

Last night I sat in a packed stadium with a crowd desperate for a win. A team fighting for its life, with bags of premiership experience and expensive players, did everything they could to beat us, yet we held our own and were unlucky not to get a penalty and certainly created as many chances as they did. In the end, Pards gave us credit for a well worked display.

If this had been the first match of our new premiership season we would have been more than satisfied. Now a lot of us sound like West Ham fans because we didn't win.

C'mon lads, more slagging off of Coppell and the team. You really are becoming Premiership.

It's not the fact that we didn't win, it's that we didn't try our best to win.

In your opinion.

My opinion is that we did.

And in mine.

[Royal Lady]

Let's do a poll!!

[zac naloen]

Well, Reading fans have made the transition.

Last night I sat in a packed stadium with a crowd desperate for a win. A team fighting for its life, with bags of premiership experience and expensive players, did everything they could to beat us, yet we held our own and were unlucky not to get a penalty and certainly created as many chances as they did. In the end, Pards gave us credit for a well worked display.

If this had been the first match of our new premiership season we would have been more than satisfied. Now a lot of us sound like West Ham fans because we didn't win.

C'mon lads, more slagging off of Coppell and the team. You really are becoming Premiership.

It's not the fact that we didn't win, it's that we didn't try our best to win.

In your opinion.

My opinion is that we did.

I agree, it's unfortunate that our strikers just lack that killer instinct at the moment. I blame coming up against some of the best defenders in the premiership in recent weeks. Doesn't mean they didn't try though.

[southbank1871]

Completely agree, that was a cracking game of football. My eyes were glued from beginning to end.

Sarcasm or not?!

It was fcuking rubbish! I spent the entire second half eyeing up the exit. Wish I'd watched it in the pub and saved a bit of money.

Wouldn't say it was cracking, but also wouldn't agree that it was rubbish. I would describe it as a watchable goaless draw myself

You'd feel different if you'd been sat in South London with your hangover starting to kick in about 30 minutes into the game. I can only remember us having one shot at goal in the entire game, although it's entirely possible that we did have others, only I was asleep at the time.

All day drinking before an evening game always results in this.

Had you been watching the game not in a drunken haze, you may have realised it wasn't actually too bad.

[Huntley & Palmer]

Some very odd selection choices by Coppell last night, brings Seol straight into a team he hasn't even been involved on the bench with since January when Oster has made a few sub appearances and a first team start against Liverpool. Starts DLC when Halford is deperate for Premiership match fitness. Starts Long when Doyle is crying out for match fitness. Gunnarsson has a great game against Liverpool at right back but is dropped straight to the bench to allow Sidders and Harps to play yet another game together, you would have though this would have been a game to rest either or both to keep them fresh for the final five games. All very odd, it's just a good job that Charlton were so similar in their style of play to us last night and in the finishing department otherwise that could have been quite embarrassing. I may consider ditching my trip to Bolton if they can't be arsed to put a full strength team out, it's a joke

[southbank1871]

Let's do a poll!!

What, book a player three times and not send him off?

[papereyes]

Thoughts ...

1) Song's challenge on Sidwell was a red card foul made 20 yards too early. No attempt to play the ball, every attempt to stop a break developing.

2) Soel was ... OK. Some moments of real class. Some of real ... lack of desire? I don't know. Just something missing. Hunt got everywhere, some good moments, some less good.

3) El-Kark's shove was blatant. I spotted it straight away from the body shape. Mates in pub disagreed. Replay showed me that I was right. Huzzah for me.

4) We dominated but didn't convert and didn't really threaten. Wide play wasn't great, but our midfield did have the running of theirs. Thought Long was pretty anonymous, Lita marginally better.

5) We should have made an attacking substitution. Why? Because defenders don't like change. They get used to a certain style of play and it does take them some time to get used to changes. Kitson on for 20 minutes for Long or Lita would have meant that they'd have had to deal with something different. That could have given Lita a few more passes, a bit more space.

We were good, but not great. They were fair, but not good. Bit disappointed with the draw but its not the end of the world.

[brendywendy]

Just got back at twenty past midnight about £150 lighter. What a waste of time and money to watch a team who really didn't care about winning.

I wouldn't blame the other sides in the relegation zone for seething about the starting line up and the use of zero subs despite having Kitson and Doyle on the bench and with Long making it akin to playing with ten men. What does anyone see in Long because to me he is simply not up to this level and never ever will be.

If the club's calling it a season having stayed up, please let us know so we don't waste further time and money at the remaining games.

a little harsh

thats rubbish schards, thought we battled as hard as we have all season today, even seols work rate was upped

and coppell said he was going to have a look at these guys, plus resting some from the game we played just two days ago
theyre playing for their places next year, give copps a break


But empathise with the team selection issues (Gunnarsson dropped?)


Is SC merely running down the season having a good look at his squad for next season?

or are we just trying something new?

[silchester rovers]

It was a 'nearly' performance. The biggest plus was we seemed to want to win the game. Lack of precision in the final third - it was almost as if we weren't used to playing a side that was poorer than us, after the last few games against the top teams and weren't used to creating openings/putting them away...
Perhaps Kitson for Long in last 20 mins would have changed things.

[brendywendy]

unbelievable comments, on another night we could have won and with a bit of luck we could have won 3-0 then everyone would be saying what a great performance it was, we dominated the game from start to finish and only desperate defending and some wayward finishing stop us getting a deserved 3 points, Swndon is only a short drive up the M4 why dont you lot go and support them?

nice 1

agree totally

[Schards#2]

Well, Reading fans have made the transition.

Last night I sat in a packed stadium with a crowd desperate for a win. A team fighting for its life, with bags of premiership experience and expensive players, did everything they could to beat us, yet we held our own and were unlucky not to get a penalty and certainly created as many chances as they did. In the end, Pards gave us credit for a well worked display.

If this had been the first match of our new premiership season we would have been more than satisfied. Now a lot of us sound like West Ham fans because we didn't win.

C'mon lads, more slagging off of Coppell and the team. You really are becoming Premiership.

It's not the fact that we didn't win, it's that we didn't try our best to win.

In your opinion.

My opinion is that we did.

And in mine.

In what way is starting a striker who is vastly inferior to two you have on the bench and then pesevering with him for the entire game when he hasn't had a kick, trying your best to win?

[brendywendy]

Kitson and Doyle both back from injury - needing games - we've not played in ages and then get 2 games in 3 days - that's not saying much about our fitness levels. Do you think that if were in a relegation battle, we would have put that team out last night? Of course we wouldn't. Coppell had no intention of winning that game.

bohololohocks!

we arent in danger of relegation, due to the fantastic season we have had, and therefore have earned th eright to do whatever the hell we like in the run in.if copps thinks its better to have a look to see if certain players are worth their places next season, then fair enough.
thought DLC and seol did well actually
and i am starting top agree that long would benefit from a season of 1st team football in the championship, especially if we get someone in.