Back from Swansea game

[Rex]

I think we've pretty much averaged 800 per game over the season.

[North Somerset Royal]

I think we've pretty much averaged 800 per game over the season.

I can understand people not wanting to travel to grounds that are difficult to get to or to mid week matches but when we are second in the league and about to play the leaders I am disappointed that so few made the effort to travel to a ground just down the M4 and on the main GW line. I also do not understand why our average home attendances are in the top third but so few are prepared to travel.

[eleventh earl of mar]

I think we've pretty much averaged 800 per game over the season.

To be fair, I think the average is higher than 800 at home.

[Rex]

I think we've pretty much averaged 800 per game over the season.

To be fair, I think the average is higher than 800 at home.

Cute

My ex-mother in law goes occasionally but cannot face the journey back if we get defeated. I can understand family commitments preventing many from going to away games. The additional cost of travel / food etc possibly puts others off as well. I love taking my daughter to away games but this season she goes to away games very few and far between.

[FiNeRaIn]

, this one is going to the wire isn't it? And we all just know that Reading will bugger it up at the end, don't we?

yes, but thats life as a reading fan im afraid. The worst usually does happen.

[FiNeRaIn]

I think we've pretty much averaged 800 per game over the season.

I can understand people not wanting to travel to grounds that are difficult to get to or to mid week matches but when we are second in the league and about to play the leaders I am disappointed that so few made the effort to travel to a ground just down the M4 and on the main GW line. I also do not understand why our average home attendances are in the top third but so few are prepared to travel.

We have this conversation every week, yet the RTG's will still try and come up with excuses to defend a shocking away support, im sure there were roadworks or something to cover up this weeks effort? We are a very poorly supported away from home, its not going to change so why does it keep cropping up. Swansea brought more to us than we did to them, says it all about how bad our away support is. We are second in the league, have recently spent two years in the prem and average 19,000 at home or so, 800 is woeful.

[Barry the bird boggler]

Total foul up from beginning to end from everyone concerned.

Firstly, yet again, the management seem to fail to set up the team to counter an opposition's 5 man midfield (or if they did the players wholly let the management down).

Then - as seems to be the norm with our recent performances - the players just failed to perform to their strengths. It seems to me that since Birmingham our players have lacked the consistency and ability to cause anyone much problems. If Watford had had a half decent strike force we could have been embarrassed last week as well.

Thanks must go to Liam for getting himself needlessly booked twice we now have to face the likes of Kightly and Jarvis with no established or experienced right back. We can't recall Murts so does SC go with Julian Kelly or play someone out of position like Gunnarsson? I certainly can't see SC bringing anyone into the club to cover one game!

Suggest the club now urgently spend the days to Wolves practising how to counter 5 man midfields as that crock of smelly stuff that was served up yesterday was totally unacceptable.

The peculiar thing is that after the recent games, SC has said he's not been entirely pleased with the performances served up, even last week he said it was fits and starts and we lacked consistency and yesterday as well he was less than impressed. But has he learned after last year's failure to bring in experienced players in the transfer window or will an effort be made?

[Southbank Old Boy]

I think we've pretty much averaged 800 per game over the season.

I can understand people not wanting to travel to grounds that are difficult to get to or to mid week matches but when we are second in the league and about to play the leaders I am disappointed that so few made the effort to travel to a ground just down the M4 and on the main GW line. I also do not understand why our average home attendances are in the top third but so few are prepared to travel.

I'd say it has a lot to do with the way the club have worked so hard to change the demographic of the home support

They encouraged a lot of women, children, families and the middle class "scarfers" - for want of a better description - in favour of the more traditional fan base

It's not just Reading doing this of course, but with our shiny new ground, lack of previous hardcore numbers, lack of football history in the town and all that goes with it we've been more successful than most. This new type of fan doesnt seem as interested in, or maybe able to afford, away day travel

[The 17 Bus]

I would prefer full houses at the Madstad than bigger away followings.

[PieEater]

Just to add to earlier comments, I did not think Swansea were actually very good. OK they had a lot of possession, but they generally failed to trouble Fed. The two goals were defensive cockups. We may have been outplayed, but they had few real chances.

[The 17 Bus]

Listening on BBC sounded like when we went 5 in the middle we would have got back into it, then Ros gets a bit silly and we were never going to win after that.

[2.8 lita injection]

Rosenior is flat track bully, give him a complicated task he spits his dummy out. He talks a good game.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Just seen the goals on the Championship. The defending for the second Swansea goal was terrible.
Bikey should come in for the Wolves game.

[bishbosh92]

Just seen the goals on the Championship. The defending for the second Swansea goal was terrible.
Bikey should come in for the Wolves game.

I agree bring Bikey in for Wolves but to replace ingar as Doobs played k yesterday and stoped Scotland scoring a few more!!

[readingbedding]

Glad I didn't go, sounds as though we were outplayed by a Welsh team, which is always awful to see.
Nevermind.

[swansea jack]

Fed 7

Rosenior 4
Ivar 6
Doobs 5
Armstrong 7

Kebe 4
Shunt 4
Harps 3
Cisse 4

Nhunt 6
Doyle 6

Subs -
Marek 5
Lita 4
Boris 5

All told we could have been stuffed by 4 or 5. No point in being promoted if we are to keep this side [and we won't spend enough to change it].

As for atmosphere I was sat to the left of you in the corner with the Swansea lads - couldn't hear you at all......
The Swans fans were gobsmacked at how crap we were - especially after the Madstad game.

I took great delight in pointing out we had still beaten them 4-2 on aggregate - they didn't appreciate this at all....

Still 3 points each though

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Just seen the goals on the Championship. The defending for the second Swansea goal was terrible.
Bikey should come in for the Wolves game.

I agree bring Bikey in for Wolves but to replace ingar as Doobs played k yesterday and stoped Scotland scoring a few more!!

I heard Doobs played well yesterday.

[Royalee]

Reading some rave reviews on Harper here - interesting he goes missing as soon as a team decide to attack him.

[handbags_harris]

Thoroughly depressing to be honest. I was truggling to come up with a more sound beating on the walk back to the station and train ride home yesterday and I couldn't come up with one in recent memory. To be honest I worried about this game. Swansea play a very good game, a game which invariably we struggle to counter-act. They totally nullified our attack (the best attack in England), and had more than enough in reserve to do their own stuff up front.

Incredibly angry at the timing of the first goal. If you hear the announcement of 1 minute of added time, you shut up shop. You don't allow the lone striker the amount of time to pick his corner 18 yards out 30 seconds after that announcement. That, to me, comes down to professionalism, and we didn't show a lot of it yesterday.

Substitutions yesterday were ok(ish) I thought. Despite what the whinging cretin behind me said yesterday ("what are we doing?!") it was exactly the right thing to do to get Marek on to play as the 5th midfielder, not only to counteract the fact that every time there was a loose ball their spare man simply picked it up, but also to give us potential creativity in the middle as the flanks were creating absolutely nothing. I wouldn't have taken Noel Hunt off though, I'd have pushed him out right and taken off the winger with the worst end product I have seen in a long time at RFC - Jimmy Kebe. The guy looked disinterested, ambling around giving the token effort. Once again, the man failed to deliver anything of note.

Putting Leroy on was pointless as, once again, given an opportunity to create something he chose the wrong option every time. Why can't people see that Leroy Lita is utter shit? Three or four times he looked to take a man on and walked right into another man while coming infield to look for a shot, particularly when a simple pass at 1-0 would have put Doyle clean through the middle but no, Leroy holds onto it, tries to take a man on and loses it. Infuriatingly shit, why couldn't the man go to Sheff Utd?!

Full backs, IMO, did ok against their men. Despite getting the ball wide on numerous occasions with pin-point passing, they created one real chance from wide positions. Both goals came through the middle. Alright, it was a bit peeping through cracked fingers at times, but on the whole given the almost complete lack of support from our own wingers they did ok on that side of things.

I don't know what complaints Liam Rosenior can have for being sent off. the first for dissent was never our throw in the first place, and the petulant twat then belts the ball at his own head??? And then to have the audacity to complain at a 2nd booking for a clear, cynical, sly tug back? Yeah, ok, Jason Scotland didn't exactly shower himself in glory with his insistence that the referee send him off, but on the flip side that is no different to what Liam Rosenior would do in the reverse situation. My only gripe with this is that the referee wasn't booking players all game for similar offences, but I suppose there are only so many warnings a referee can give.

Deservedly beaten, this was as one-sided a match I have seen from Reading at this level as I can remember. I'm not entirely confident for our match against Wolves, although it has to be said they are looking as shaky as us as the moment. We will score against them, but the question is will we score enough?

[Dirk Gently]

.....
Officially bored of the Reading fans chanting for Lita to come on- he's done next to nothing for the club for some considerable time, and true to form, was utter toilet when he came on.
......

Especially when we're playing 4-5-1 and none of them can say who they'd want to take off to bring him on for!

It's as though he's some magic talisman that will work miracles and make everything all right again - even though it never has at any time in the past!