Back from the game - Barnsley (h)

[Arch]

Congratulations and kudos to 15k+ Reading fans who turned out on a frigid January. Given our circumstances, the fan base is proving pretty robust.

[Armadillo Roadkill]

Mills MOTM - hardly put a foot wrong. I like everything about Griffin, superb positioning, simple passes. Bertrand pure class - begining to look like a Chelsea player all round.

Karacan had a poor one, McAnuff wasn't at the races but was neither lazy like some say or not interested. If it wasn't for his usual high standard we'd be raving about him.

Best game from Long - I usually don't rate him at all, but today hats off he was good. Sigurdsson quiet in second half. Ginarsson bookings - no arguament from me - looked pretty reckless.

Ref OK, Barnsley poor, 15k pretty decent given where we are - accusations of plastic fans and glory hunters not looking so justified now.

[Royalwaster]

Mills MOTM - hardly put a foot wrong. I like everything about Griffin, superb positioning, simple passes. Bertrand pure class - begining to look like a Chelsea player all round.

Karacan had a poor one, McAnuff wasn't at the races but was neither lazy like some say or not interested. If it wasn't for his usual high standard we'd be raving about him.

Best game from Long - I usually don't rate him at all, but today hats off he was good. Sigurdsson quiet in second half. Ginarsson bookings - no arguament from me - looked pretty reckless.

Ref OK, Barnsley poor, 15k pretty decent given where we are - accusations of plastic fans and glory hunters not looking so justified now.

Good post - agree Mills was very good today; some great last ditch tackles. Agree also re. McAnuff - how anyone can call him lazy or disinterested beats me. It's one of the worst cliches bandied around - I saw him race but numerous times to intercept the ball; actually the whole team did that today and deserve a lot of credit for showing that amount of passion. You can't rubbish the whole team for poor finishing up front. As I said before with someone up front who could put it away we'd be saying how great everyone was .... and not disinterested and lazy.

[Percy's Rocket]

My main conclusion from today is frustration that teams as poor as Barnsley, scunny etc are mid table so it would have taken so little investment to ensure we were safe at least and enjoying a good cup run. A bit of experience at the back should be making us more competitive if we can be that solid away (which of late we have not been though) but we are still woeful in their box. Barnsley virtually gave us that goal and we should have had at least one more, especially Mcanuff hitting the post from 2 feet. Cannot follow how Bignall gets on before the new guy though I suppose BM was looking for speed against a very slow centre half but Bignell does not look like the answer to anything for me. ...I cannot see us a strong enough to pull away from this mess but I do hope I am wrong.

[RoyalBlue]

So you're not happy with the win today then RB?

You really either need some help for your dyslexia or your brain in general you sanctimonious ****!

Very grateful for the three points.

Very grateful for the three points but, in another game, the hatful of great opportunities created only to be missed would have cost us dear, asindeed it has in the past.

McDermott says he will be happy with 1-0 wins but I hope he doesn't really mean that. If he does, I can only assume he was unconscious when we got relegated from the PL on goal difference!

The funds must be made available to sign a clinical finisher at this level. McDermott has already made it clear that tightarse won't sanction a permanent signing so it will have to be the wages and loan fee for a class player.

And before the disciples of Madejski bleat on about financial prudence, problems at Palace, Cardiff etc. the money is there in the form of the unexpected windfall from the FA cup run. Afterall, being such prudent and expert businessmen, Madejski and co would not have built that into their budget at the start of the season.

Win enough games 1-0 and GD becomes irrelevant. He won't be thinking of staying up by the skin of our teeth, in fact I doubt the only target he has is 1-0 or better at Doncaster.

I'm sure Coppell wasn't thinking of staying up by the skin of our teeth either. However, we didn't win enough games (1-0 or any other score) and goal difference cost us the promised land. We face a massive task overhauling other teams and it may well come down to goal difference this time around too. What's more, a one goal margin always leaves you open to the sucker punch and the loss of two points as we have seen already this season. We must convert far more of our chances - if nothing else, the long suffering fans deserve more to cheer about.

[loyalroyal4life]

I dont think anyone should give a toss about the performance, yes it wasnt the best but who cares we got 3 priceless points

I thought Gunnar was excellent today, khis should come in for Ivar and we need to sign a striker on loan and i think we should be ok!!!

[winchester_royal]

So you're not happy with the win today then RB?

You really either need some help for your dyslexia or your brain in general you sanctimonious ****!

Very grateful for the three points.

.

Yes, but you seem to be implying that BMc shouldn't be happy with 1-0 wins. No need to get aggressive....

[Franchise FC]

The team can't do right.

They lose - they're crap
They win - they're still crap

Get real people - one win is not enough to claim we've turned the corner, but it's still a win.
As far as the rest of the season is concerned, I'll still take another dozen 1-0 wins even if we lose the rest 5-0 - mainly because with that number of points we'd have no issue with goal difference.

[howser]

[quote="loyalroyal4life"]I dont think anyone should give a toss about the performance, yes it wasnt the best but who cares we got 3 priceless points

I thought Gunnar was excellent today, khis should come in for Ivar and we need to sign a striker on loan and i think we should be ok!!![/quote]

The "we need a striker on loan" absolutely, no doubt, we do but, sadly "reality" strikes and the chances of us getting one I suspect are very low, we have tried Raz, Church, Long, now Bignall, we would probably give the U12's a chance before getting one in.

[andrew1957]

Good result. We made Barnsley look poor.

Fed - 5 - nothing to do - no shots on target at all
Griffin - 7 - excellent throughout
Ingi - 6 - comfortable game for him
Mills - 8 - excellent - really looking like a good buy now - why didn't Rodgers play him?
Bertrand - 7 - good solid game
McAnuff- 5 - two men on him most of the game - did not have much effect as he was marked out of it
Karacan - 6 - thought he was solid - odd stray passes but he gave 100%
Gunnar - 7 - excellent throughout - for me we always look more solid when he is in CM
Sig - 6 - not his best game but set up the goal
Church - 7 - ran his socks off
Long - 8 excellent today - toss up between him and Mills for MOTM

Ref- very good but no difficult decisions - an easy match to ref I think.

McD - a good game to start his permanent reign

[RobRoyal]

McDermott says he will be happy with 1-0 wins but I hope he doesn't really mean that. If he does, I can only assume he was unconscious when we got relegated from the PL on goal difference!

Er... right. But if we'd turned a draw into a 1-0 win we would have stayed up.

[SteveRoyal]

The fact that Shane Long got official MOTM tells you all you need to know.

[Muskrat]

What was all that kicking off behind the South Stand at the end? As I walked past there were a few of thier fans giving it the big one "We're F***king Barnsley - come on then" and then I heard sirens and saw the Bill turn up - anybody see it?

[FiNeRaIn]

The fact that Shane Long got official MOTM tells you all you need to know.

That he was our best player today?

[John Madejski's Wallet]

Errm I don't see too much wrong with performance myself

We created a hatful of chances (oh for confident strikers and people able to make a decent decision when to pass ).... Feds had nothing to do.... the whole team put in good effort closing down (especialy Long).... Bryn fantastic....Karacan pretty woeful for once

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

What was all that kicking off behind the South Stand at the end? As I walked past there were a few of thier fans giving it the big one "We're F***king Barnsley - come on then" and then I heard sirens and saw the Bill turn up - anybody see it?

yeah, some Reading fan then shouted "we took six points off you" and they ran over to have a go at him. I think they stewards stopped it really going off though. Pity they couldn't have done that during the match (it was the same group group of thick fat gimps that were down the front), rather than having a go at the fans behind them who were only standing up because they could see over the "lads" at the front who were standing.


As for the game, it was the kind of game that the phrase "we made hard work of that" was made for. Barnsley were utterly abysmal but a shocking lack of composure across the whole field, but particularly up front, stopped us giving them the stuffing a performance like that deserved.

[The whole year inn]

I like everything about Griffin,

agreed with this, superb IMO

I dread to imagine going into this relegation battle with Rodgers signing at right back

[AthleticoSpizz]

not much to take from this low rent game other than the THREE (yes 3) POINTS

Shane, Matt and Brynaldo were the 7/8 out of 10 men today, the rest were 6's

We are still sh1t sacred of taking a shot on goal.........love Sig and Churchy....but their need for an extra touch (instead of launching it into Row Z or alternatively the back of the net) needs to be sorted out.


Loved the "winning at home" song..........if the words weren't so true, it would've been hilarious.


The Ref was 8/10 in the first half....even if he did let the Tykes players off with too many warnings
....the second half was a different person surely?...........totally lost the plot


THREE POINTS

[Smoking Kills Dancing Doe]

We've played better and lost this season.

Take the 3 points and build.

This is just what we needed.

Always Believe.....

[glass half full]

When will people stop calling players DISinterested?

The only DISinterested (neutral) people at a match should be the referee and his assistants.

Players may be accused of being UNinterested (lacking interest or enthusiasm).

Pedant mode off.....