by Alan Partridge »
02 Aug 2008 18:16
Cricket called off at 12 pm made me reconsider my day and i ended up at the Madejski Playhouse for an afternoon's comedy starring Jimmy Kebe.
In all honesty Reading played alright for the most part, typical Reading performance, there was nothing new, nothing inventive, no new players or tactics, just 4-4-2, same players and nothing new learnt for me, for the first half an hour anyway. Then Cisse got injured and I got to see Karacan play for an hour, must say very impressed. He's like Harper in terms of he gets uo and down the pitch well, but he's got an eye for a pass and played some lovely slide rule passes in particular in the 2nd half. He likes a tackle as well and got involved. I like him and would prefer him to Cisse, not only that but I thought he showed Harper up for the pretty average footballer he is.
I prefer Hunt at left back than at left midfield although winced when he stood up for the penalty, utterly obvious it was going to be saved. I thought our 2 centre halves were excellent on the whole, Villa created chances mainly down our flanks not much change from Ivar and Doobs.
Going forward Doyle started slowly but got into the game more in the 2nd half and I was impressed with Lita, thought he looked sharp and he forced a couple of good saves from the excellent Friedel. Best signing of the summer anywhere. I also though Convey looked much better today than I've seen him in a while, and while it's quite clear Kebe has something about him, he's quick, he's got a bit of trickery. His crossing, passing and final end product just has to improve. He should have scored twice first and foremost and a few times he got into good positions but couldn't find the end cross.
In the 2nd half we got treated to a few changes, the young lad Kelly fitted in ok at right back with Rosenior (i still can't make my mind up on him) going to left back, Pearce replaced Ivar, Sonko for Duberry who got a knock right on half time, N Hunt for Lita, Long for Doyle and Henry for Kebe (think that's it!)
So the last 15mins or so was quite interesting, immediately a long punt was missed by the atrocious Zat Knight, Noel Hunt missed the ball with his first touch, got a lucky bounce off the defender and was left with Friedel to beat from 6 yards, no one near him and he hit the post, shocking miss. I don't recall him touching the ball after that moment.
Villa scored a deserved equaliser shortly after when a cross from the right was turned in at the near post. We had 1 more chance when Henry's corner was headed back in by Pearce and Harper fluffed the chance from 6 yards, a mixture of the defender on the line and Friedel kept it out. Harper should have scored.
Ultimately after the rain stopped and the sun came out, it was a nice enough day, 2 final points, the new shop layout is very good, i like that, the new kit, the back looks SHIT.
Seeing as though friendlies are about learning new things about players, I think the major thing is in Karacan we actually have a young player that doesn't look 1 iota out of place in the first team. Other than that not a great deal. Decent performance, decent result but not filled with mass excitemnt or hope for the new season, I don't think there is enough there to really challenge the top 2 places.