by Son of Len »
20 Dec 2008 23:49
For once I actually watched the game. Much more fun than following a transcript! Then I had to spend the day running around doing errands.
As I suspected, we give our players too high scores when we win. I thought most of the team were 6's. They did their jobs, and did them well enough. Birmingham weren't good enough for our players to work up to 9's. But I'd give Doyle an 8 (if he had scored on the Henry cross in the first half, a 9 for sure), Noel a 7, Cisse and Harper 7's. As Harps is the key to Reading's organization, he deserves the 7 since we were sloppy only in the last 15 minutes or so. And on the Cisse/Duberry "own goal." As a unit, the back 4 get a 7 or 8, but individually they get 6's. You could have slotted Pearce or Bikey into the center and produced the same result.
By the way, Cisse lost that ball on his own. He started OK, but put the ball into a position where Carsley(?) could challenge for it. That's why there was no foul. Doobs was playing the pass which the defender should do outside the box, probably, but it looks too loose, still. Cacking goal from Phillips. But so were all of ours.
First time I saw Armstrong. I think he did really well, but if he pushed forward more often, that might give Stephen a break. As it is, we he does go up, he gets successful results.
Loads of fun.
Back to my non-RW American football life where I can find Royals on the net live. As a Mac user, I haven't found anything to download that helps and as games usually start at 10:00 here, my day is usually well underway with the kids' schedules. The 12:45 start against Brum was great for today, though
We were immense! Didn't stop singing for 90 mins! One of the best away days I've seen this year (and I've been to all but a few).
