Back from the game......and really angry!

[Handsome Man]

a rather unwell Shorey

Suffering from the opening of the transfer window maybe?
Giving up in a race against Utaka was one thing but his inability to tackle Glen Johnson even was pathetic.

[Forty]

Fuming today. Dean (Harry Redknapps Yellow Army!) was a total numpty - I'm not even sure it was a penalty - very Andy Johnson from what I've seen on replays. Inconsistent, trigger fingered,. Hope the assessors were watching the game, unlike.....

Tony Cottee - Sky pundit. F***wit extrodinare. "Didn't attack in second half". Probably wasn't even watching. Off having a toss over some old photo's of Tony Adams or something.

Disagree with lots of what's on here though. Our 10 did try very very hard - they never gave up (which I did pretty quickly) - and they rarely do, so Coppell is right on that front. We do need to refresh the squad though.

Oh, and Sonko. Just remember that tackle against Owen, and those two against Torres.

[Daniella]

To say this was the worst performance of the season is laughable. Credit to half the squad for having the balls to have a go, but sadly this afternoon was predictable due to our defensive frailties. As soon as benjani was goal side of sonko I thought here we go again, I hoped another player had got level with sonko so he wasn't the last man, but by the stage he made the tackle it didn't matter. Rightly sent off. Hahnemann's mistake has been coming for a while, he's just not a prem keeper IMO. No command of his area, makes bad decisions and doesn't save enough chances. Sonko and Murty are the same, not upto it. People can say they are out of form and what not, but whats form in this day and age unless you've proved yourself consistently over the years at the level you're at? How do we know they aren't playing at their peak? People who keep falling back to last season need to be realistic im afraid. We had your typical promotion momentum season, we laughed at everyone who dared suggest " second season syndrome", but in truth they had seen many teams like us and we were just a one season wonder...its proving to be the case. Everyone has invested and the standard of the prem has gone up and we have moved back because of it.
We are LUCKY and I mean LUCKY that we have quality individuals like hunt, kitson and doyle who are playing well, scoring goals and keeping us up there at the moment. We'd be next to derby without them.
If coppell doesn't invest in January its going to be a massive struggle for the rest of the season, sadly I can see the excuses lined up now. " no one wants to come to reading", " its proving harder than we thought".
I'm not buying that, if this club wants premiership status then we're going to have to spend over the odds to get quality into our defence, there is no question about it. Players will go where the money is and we can afford it. I hope im wrong and the club surprise me.

[howser]

Daniella how true all what you say, we have tried to break the premiership "on the cheap" and it aint gonna work we are rubbish, sad but true, investment or relegatuon the equation is simple !!!

[AthleticoSpizz]

Dniella, how true all what you say, we have tried to break the premiership "on the cheap" and it aint gonna work we are rubbish, sad but true, investment or relegatuon the equation is simple !!!

its worked so far...we are not rubbish, are we in the bottom three?................No we are 13th...............our "bunch of sh1te" compete and beat multi£million squads regularly


but it won't last forever..its called dynamics....people and players will change to meet the increasing business demands on the club.

[Barry the bird boggler]

I was really annoyed after the Spurs game, today I am more "couldn't care less" for some reason.

Yesterday was ruined by three things;

Sonko - AGAIN - what on earth did he think he was doing screwing us by making a stupid challenge like that TWO MINUTES into a game. After EIGHTY minutes I could perhaps understand it but to essentially throw the game away after two minutes is unbelievable.

Now I don't think its anything to do with his injury it just appears to be too many wrong decisions and too many times getting caught in the wrong position as a result he is not the player he was 12 months ago. After this period his confidence is shot to pieces and he needs to get to the ANC asap for the benefit of all.

Hahnemann. How on earth can anyone cock up a cross that easy. It was so easy even he managed to catch it, but then decided it would be more entertaining to drop it on the ground. Its just so frustrating when everyone had to be so determined and applied to the job in hand that he chooses that moment to make a complete prong of himself.

The officials. Must rate as the worst set I've seen this season. The ref at best was totally inconsistent, Sonko made his first decision easy for him after that it was all down hill. How many times was Kitson hauled down by Portsmouth players with no admonishment from him yet a soon as any of our players looked in the direction of one of theirs it was time to wave the cards about. And as for the lino with the chequered flag he was quite unbelieveably awful.

The rest of the team did well having been let down by the three aforementioned. Kitson MotM again. Bikey, Hunt and Doyle did well again. With the ANC coming up it aseems we're not going to be affected as Fae and Bikey never really get games and Sonko is just absolute crap at the moment so we can only get better with him missing.

[Rawlie19]

We weren't that bad. A cock up by USA and a full back who got rinsed for pace (the fact he has been ill has nothing to do with it. He'd have been skinned if he was fully fit, because Utaka is greased lightning.)

Pompey didn't have much else and resorted to long balls forward. Given we played 87 minutes with 10 men and we had a truly shocking ref, I thought we did ok.

Agreed.

[Rawlie19]

If we had managed to hold on against Spurs for 4-4, or won it 4-3, 5-4 whatever, AND beaten Pompey yesterday, then Coppell would be highly unlikely to want to change anything in the squad and this month could be a very very quiet one. Now, we all know that even if we HAD won both those games we are still weak in certain areas and need it sorted. Having lost both those hopefully Cops will open Mads wallet and get some quality in.

<<< half full

[West Stand Flash]

Typical Reading fans blaming the referee. Jesus lads give it as rest.

The reason we lost that game yesterday is because Sonko is a liability, Marcus is just sh*t & the rest of the players have no idea or creation in them.

All of our play is soooooooooooo slow & predictable it is quite frankly embarrassing.

It did not help that all our players were absolutely hanging out of there arses. You cannot play the same 11 players for 3 matches in 6 days, there are not physically up for it. This was proved yesterday with such a lacklustre lethargic performance.

10 men or not, we were guaranteed to lose yesterday.

Lets hope Coppell brings some faith back to us fans with a couple of exciting signing's in the next 30 days. If he doesn't - We really are in a strong position to be relegated.

[Wycombe Royal]

I'm not even sure it was a penalty - very Andy Johnson from what I've seen on replays.

Then you need some new glasses. Even Andy Johnson couldn't have made it look like a dive. One of the most obvious penalties you will ever see.

[Tilehurst Mike]

Whats wrong with the sending off ? Thats about the only thing the ref got right all game.
Dont blame the ref blame Sonko

Don't blame the ref, blame the team. Murty was lucky to stay on the pitch as well. Why was Shorey playing when he was clearly unfit with a stomach bug. Did Coppell not realise this until the second goal went in?

Some supporters really need to study the rule book and understand the offside rules as many of the decisions made by Dean and the linesmen were correct. Its just that Pompey players timed their runs so well against a really square and ponderous back four yesterday!

[Peter Kay - Top of the To]

As infuriated as I was with the referee yesterday (and he was the worst I have seen since our Championship days) I have to make a few comments regarding the recent posts on SC and team selection.

SC will pick the strongest players he has for the job in hand from the squad of players available. He knows very well the level of capability required to compete in this league and regardless of how poorly a 1st teamer may be playing, he will not replace them with another player unless he is confident that player would not be out of their depth at this level.

One of our biggest problems right now is our inadequate wage structure and the difficulties this causes in attracting Premiership level squad players at our club. Injuries will happen, players will get suspended, but our weakness is our inability to build strength in depth. It is harsh to lay the blame of this totally at the door of SC.

If you look at the players who have been below their best this season (Marcus, Gunnarson, Sonko) then the common thread that stands out is the lack of proper squad competition for their places.

Where I would criticise SC is his reluctance to make substitutions before the 80th minute, unless a sending of or injury demands it. I was very suprised that Doyle, who was clearly not on form, was not replaced by Lita yesterday. Kitson should have been moved to the tip of the midfield with Lita playing forward of him as a lone striker, then we might have stood a chance. Unfortunately once down to 10 men, the demands of recent weeks had taken their toll.

[West Stand Man]

Don't you just love footy fans. When an opposition player is sent off the ref is a hero for spotting the misdemeanour; when your own player is sent off the ref is a useless, blind idiot. We all do it to some degree, but that doesn't make it any more correct.

Sonko made a criminally bad error of judgement and he deserved to go off. He was faced with 3 options;

Option 1, keep chasing Benjani but don't commit to the tackle/foul; hope that the pressure I exert will put him off when he comes to shooting. Probability of a goal - pretty high; result, we have 87 minutes, nd a full team, to regain the situation (and have been quite good at doing so).

Option 2, give up the chase completely and let Benjani have a free shot on goal. Probability of a goal - high; result, we have 87 minutes, and a full team, to regain ........

Option 3, go for an impossible tackle, inevitably foul the player as he gets away from me and concede a penalty. Give the Ref little option (if he sticks to the letter of the law) but to send me off. Probability of a goal from the resultant penalty - higher than the in-play goal scoring opportunity that i am trying to prevent; result, we have 87 minutes to regain, but with a player short.

It is pretty clear to me that option 3 is not the best one - yet in the heat of the moment and under some pressure, he chose it. You can't blame the referee for that; I am sure that Sonko is mortified by what happened, and that Wally Downes will be having a chat with him about decision making (or, at least, he should be).

Look on the bright side, at least we didn't score 4 goals and lose, we allowed their keeper to keep a clean sheet! (ok so that isn't very much on the bright side - but what the hell!)

[West Stand Flash]

As infuriated as I was with the referee yesterday (and he was the worst I have seen since our Championship days) I have to make a few comments regarding the recent posts on SC and team selection.

SC will pick the strongest players he has for the job in hand from the squad of players available. He knows very well the level of capability required to compete in this league and regardless of how poorly a 1st teamer may be playing, he will not replace them with another player unless he is confident that player would not be out of their depth at this level.

One of our biggest problems right now is our inadequate wage structure and the difficulties this causes in attracting Premiership level squad players at our club. Injuries will happen, players will get suspended, but our weakness is our inability to build strength in depth. It is harsh to lay the blame of this totally at the door of SC.

If you look at the players who have been below their best this season (Marcus, Gunnarson, Sonko) then the common thread that stands out is the lack of proper squad competition for their places.

Where I would criticise SC is his reluctance to make substitutions before the 80th minute, unless a sending of or injury demands it. I was very suprised that Doyle, who was clearly not on form, was not replaced by Lita yesterday. Kitson should have been moved to the tip of the midfield with Lita playing forward of him as a lone striker, then we might have stood a chance. Unfortunately once down to 10 men, the demands of recent weeks had taken their toll.

Well said that man. Spot on.

[Oi Oi Saveloy]

I'm not even sure it was a penalty

You are either blind, stupid or possibly both.

[Huntley & Palmer]

After all is said and done, we can count ourselves thankful that there are at least three teams that are shitter than us. Which in a way, is kind of depressing

[Gordons Cumming]

The Sun today reckon the referee Mr Dean was Man of the Match

In what respect I might ask?

[Dirk Gently]

The Sun today reckon the referee Mr Dean was Man of the Match

In what respect I might ask?

He is the one who's perfomance will be most remembered from this match - a performance which most caught the eye. He is alsao the one who had the most impact on making the game turn out the way it did.

[West Stand Flash]

The Sun today reckon the referee Mr Dean was Man of the Match

In what respect I might ask?

He is the one who's perfomance will be most remembered from this match - a performance which most caught the eye. He is alsao the one who had the most impact on making the game turn out the way it did.

Because Sonko made it too easy for him with a pathetic attempt at a challenge.

I do find it funny that Reading fans always blame the referee for a defeat. How about the players on the field were simply not good enough & lacked any ideas.

[Nick Shorey my Lord!]

After all is said and done, we can count ourselves thankful that there are at least three teams that are shitter than us. Which in a way, is kind of depressing

What he said.

And a big LOL @ this thread. We hardly ever beat Portsmouth home or away.