Back From The Game - Sheff Wed (H)

[under the tin]

I

thought Church did ok, but as in previous games he didn't convert enough chances, was pushed off the ball too easily and some how got out paced by the Wednesday centre back when through in goal. You can tell he is still fairly raw as someone with more experience would cut across the defender to make it difficult to win the ball without commiting the foul and probably being sent off. He will get better and better, just needs to continue maturing.

On the money.

Simon also tries to be too certain with his finishing sometimes. As Lineker always used to bang on, sometimes you need to hit it early, so the defender/keeper don't have time to get into position to make the block/save. Tevez's goal yesterday was a perfect example.
Churchy will learn, and will turn out to be a good little player

[rfctabs]

Gooding and Dellor were enthusing about the performance during the 1st half and seemed to agree that it was probably the best half of football seen at the Mad Stad all season.

Vaguely interesting that a number of above comments are very much to the contrary.

Totally wrong! Gooding and Dellor must've been watching a different game on their monitors and got them mixed up.

Brendan Rogers produced some excellent, attacking displays earlier in the season where we did everything except score. I was far more excited and engaged by those than I was with the first 43 minutes of this game. Corners and dead balls were especially woeful, and there were far too many long balls for Church to chase hopefully.

The first 10 minutes we looked really good, but then we didnt really create much in the way of chances despite some reasonably constant pressure. The game got quite scrappy for 30 mins and despite our pressure, possession and territory advantage we didnt look like scoring.

The two goals completely changed the game though.

Was a good performance, not saying it wasnt, but I just didnt think it was any better than a lot of other games this season apart from the one vital factor, we were very clinical in front of goal

Spot on, Southbank Old Boy. The BBC stats show possession at 50/50, which surprised me cos the Owls had real trouble getting and keeping the ball in the second half.

And that Church goal. What a wonder strike. Worth the entrance money on it's own. I was screaming for him to lay it down the line for Kebe, who had acres of space to run in to, and when he kept it and turned inside I was politely suggesting he didn't know what he was doing Teach me to keep my gob shut in future...

And one final word for the ref - t**t! Either he forgot his cards, or they don't come with the Junior Refs Kit. How he could get through that game without at least a few yellows (and maybe a couple of reds) is beyond me. If he officiated like that with some other teams there'd have been a free-for-all before half time. Abysmal. And, of course, it takes away protection from the tricker, faster players like Kebe. If the opposition think they can get away with it they do it more and it gets more dangerous. I hope the observers report picks this up, cos Mr Hegley really needs to understand where and when to draw the line.

[Maguire]

Henry - 6 - Nice to see him back but felt he was wasted out on the left, struggled to get involved in a game that was winding down

Didn't he play on the right?

[rfcjoe]

Wimb was sat in the North stand, so its his left.

[URZZZZZZZZ]

Its my fault that we weren't as good in the first half!!

Over Xmas I found my 2003 RFC home shirt, and have worn it to every game since. With the exception of the Liverpool and WBA draws we have won every game I've seen (6 in total)!

Now today, en route to the game my car broke down, and I didnt get the game until 50 mins in. From then onwards we were superb, and I was finding my seat when Church's went in! Needless to say said shirt will be in attendance a week tomorrow, lets hope for the same outcome!

Car breakdown excluded.

If we beat Villa 5-0 I will take one for the team and miss the first 50 minutes!

[Wimb]

Wimb was sat in the North stand, so its his left.

You sir are correct and YWMFP

[fester_royal]

LOL!

Ah, this is the infamous "fat old bloke"!

for all that is holy!!
from where i sat he looked marginely smaller than that!! thats the hugest navel ive ever seen

[fester_royal]

i think my hang over gives a fair indication as to how i felt about yesterday. its been so long since ive seen a royals performance where everything just seemed to click for us.
first half it looked like sheffield were going to muscle us off the ball and hope to hit on the break. we looked a little shakey up front with early chances not coming to much. the important first goal came via a hugely fortunate deflection and after that we were quids in as they just crumbled.
cant give a rating of less than 8 to any player really, feds had very little to do so probably gets the lowest rating only for that fact. kebe and church get joint motm for me. jimmy is a man transformed, terrorised wednesday all day and i thought church did a lot of work harrassing and chasing the ball up front plus holding the ball up well and a sublime shot for the goal too.

[gazzer, loyal royal]

i got the impression that Griffin wouldn't come off-so McDermott had to get the 4th official to put the board up to get him off the pitch.

Very good team performance-Rasiak played well and thought Church's movement into the channels was very good. Kebe's best performance in a Reading shirt. I thought he was going to leave his second for Rasiak who was on a hat trick but the finish was one of a guy who has very high confidence. We'll see a lot more of Tabb and Howard in the middle as well, as they let our wingers play very high.

[Ark Royal]

I

thought Church did ok, but as in previous games he didn't convert enough chances, was pushed off the ball too easily and some how got out paced by the Wednesday centre back when through in goal. You can tell he is still fairly raw as someone with more experience would cut across the defender to make it difficult to win the ball without commiting the foul and probably being sent off. He will get better and better, just needs to continue maturing.

On the money.

Simon also tries to be too certain with his finishing sometimes. As Lineker always used to bang on, sometimes you need to hit it early, so the defender/keeper don't have time to get into position to make the block/save. Tevez's goal yesterday was a perfect example.
Churchy will learn, and will turn out to be a good little player

I remember a reporter asking Gary Westwood why Trevor Senior was such a great goalscorer and his reply was: "He hits it early." Trevor was never a scorer of great goals, but he was a great scorer of goals. I think Church could become that.

[Victor Meldrew]

After yesterday's energetic performance can we now put to bed the cobblers that comes out about fit players needing to be rested.
In fact in recent years we have often been at our worst when there has been a long break.
Excellent result yesterday-just one goal less than last year.
If ever there was a "can we play you every week?" it must be Sheffield Wednesday.
BTW I thought Rasiak put everything in yesterday right from the off as if he knew that he wouldn't be selected next Sunday as we will surely go with 4-5-1.

Whether or not it turns out to be beginner's luck with Brian time will tell but so little has gone wrong with his selection policy and with Mills and Kebe especially showing much better form and Tabb's attitude and words from a player who has hardly had a look-in the spirit at the club seems so much better and credit for that must go to the manager.
Well done Brian-we prefer the quiet and unruffled approach from you and Coppell rather than Billy Bigtime stuff from Pardew and Rodgers and actions are so much better than words.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Marek - NA - Did he even touch the ball?

he probably did, but pretty much, his first bit of involvement was to concede a free kick for a foul.
Normally, it could've been a carding.......But Grant Hegley was in the best of moods yesterday.

Nice boots

[rob the royal]

If you compare that to some of the big wins in the Championship winning season it wasn't up there amongst the top performances, but nevertheless 5-0 can't be bad can it?

Definitely areas where we could improve - such as the set pieces, but can't complain with a 5-0 win when we've struggled to score goals for the first half of the season.

Wouldn't have been 5-0 against a better team, just need to make sure we keep the level up in our next few league games and don't have another non-show like Blackpool...

[Rex]

I think we'll take the goal difference though. It might be crucial.

[SWLR]

Church - Best game yet. Movement along the line has really come on. Involved in 2 goals and please he scored such a cracker.

Henry - Not much chance to get in the game, but what an odd runner. Legs can't be more than a 1/4 of his body length. Ass sticks out.

[facaldaqui]

Nothing wrong with a low centre of gravity. It could make him a good chimpionship player.

[Mr Angry]

I don't think Wednesday were the worst team to visit the Mad Stad this season - on that performance they are certainly better than say Scunthorpe were.

They had 2 great chances in the first half, both of which Fed did well to save.

Where they were weak though, was at the back; their 2 central defenders (the 5 and the 15) were both slow and lacking any genuine nous (as was seen in the comedy defending for the 5th goal) and I felt that if we could get 1 goal, we would get 3 or 4.

I felt that after the first 10 minutes, their midfield bossed the first half until the 1st goal. What was worrying from their fans' point of view was how their heads dropped so markedly when the 3rd goal went in; doesn't auger well for tough battles to come for the rest of the season as teams try to avoid taking the 3rd relegation spot (Posh and Plymouth are nailed on IMHO).

[Hoop Blah]

I'd agree that Wednesday didn't offer much Mr A, I still think their performance was better than those we saw from the likes of Scunthorpe or Leicester though.

As for the two centre backs, up until the time when we went 3-0 up, when their whole team pretty much gave up, I thought they did quite well. Church didn't really get away from them despite being put through in some promising positions, and I thought they looked alright. Not the best pairing we've seen obviously, but not the worst.

[exileinleeds]

Nothing wrong with a low centre of gravity. It could make him a good chimpionship player.

[rhroyal]

McDermott always talks about the players, team and squad. How many times do you think he's used the words "I" and "Me" in his interviews? I imagine Rodgers reached a higher count in his opening interview. It's all about the team, and his words of praise for the likes of Kebe, Mills, Howard and Church are clearly working. Equally, great effort to single out Tabb. The only time I've seen him even say "we" is when he's not entirely happy, where he puts some of the blame on himself. Interviews are important in making a good manager, the words are published all over the place and influence both the players and fans. Often overlooked in what makes a good manager.