Back from the game - S****horpe.

[Millsy]

(My first ever "back fro the game" - is it only used for away games? Should this go in the match thread? If so pls let me know by PM so I don't do it again and feel free to lock this sorry mods.)

First goal ... was it offside? Linesman gave it but ref for some reason overuled it. It was ALL us till that point. I think it was the first time they even got into our half.

I missed our goal.. grrrrrr....

Key points....

1) OUR CENTRAL DEFENCE IS FAR TOO SLOW
2) WE HAVE NO FINISHERS
3) Our central defence lacks pace
4) We have no strikers who can finish
5) The acceleration and speed of our central defenders is woeful
6) We lack strikers who can put a ball away

Other points...

Tabb is a battler. Good on him.
Antonio looked good but has the first touch of a blind donkey.
Kebe picked up where he left off - awesome.
McAnuff did well then faded.

Man of the Match - GRIFFIN for successfully defending against FOUR (yes FOUR) Scunthorpe players.... absolutely amazing defending and he was a class act all game. Love him!


Overall - not too upset by the defeat. rather lose now so the tight Madejski can get buy a fast defender and maybe a finisher in this window than win and have a below-par suad, which, to be fair, is exactly what our squad is at the moment.

[SLAMMED]

Hilarious thread name.

[Ian Royal]

Replays apparently showed the ref got their first goal spot on. Something about the ball coming off a Reading player and deflecting to their man. This is according to Reading Player and Sky Sports News as well, I think.

[RIP ELM Park]

Pearce - too slow
Mills - Injured
Jobi - Injured
Long Injured
Jem - Injured
Sig - Excelent
Feds - OK
Bryn - Excelent
Williams - Need to see more
Kebe - Legend
Griffin - One man back four

[John Madejski's Wallet]

Replays apparently showed the ref got their first goal spot on. Something about the ball coming off a Reading player and deflecting to their man. This is according to Reading Player and Sky Sports News as well, I think.

Indeed it did.

But I thought a deflection didnt count.... rather that the "reading player" would have to have intentionally struck the ball


Shows what I know


//Oh and our defence is woeful (Griffin excepted). Williams looks decidedly average too. Kept on standing off players and letting them get the crosses in

[SLAMMED]

But I thought a deflection didnt count.... rather that the "reading player" would have to have intentionally struck the ball


Shows what I know

That's what I thought, because if you score after the keeper has saved another shot, and you were in a n offside position when that first shot was taken, then the goal would be disallowed.

[Ian Royal]

Clearly I haven't seen it, so I can't say what happened.

But I thought it was offside if the player is offside when the ball is originally played by a team mate. But not offside if he is onside at that point, but moves "offside" before the point it comes off the defender.

[floyd__streete]

Same old same old. Apart from a mediocre left back and an aged, solid old pro at left back this isn't far off the team who stank out the division from August to January last season. Plenty of half chances but we do not have the quality of forward to finish them off. Name me one Reading player who played particularly well today. Really poor effort which stank of self-conceit and delusional arrogance.

[Wimb]

Well, Radio Berks got it right in their post match when they said it was a 'balloon' day, feeling very deflated generally after watching that.

First of all credit to Scunny who I thought defended well after a sloppy first ten and who made good use of what chances they did get. I thought Forte looked a very good player and their centre backs were both excellent.

As far as Reading are concerned Pearce and Mills just do not play together well and it's gradually becoming more clear that Pearce is not a top half Championship player, at the very least not today anyway. Mills didn't have an amazing game either and Griffin whilst not that bad, was clearly losing the battle with the aforementioned Forte.

Elsewhere I cannot comprehend why Jem and Gunnar were picked to start this game unless Howard and Tabb are unfit, why on earth would you change such a successful partnership? Long did his best to win the flick ons and hussle about but he had bugger all service really. Sig was average and it just didn't really come off for McAnuff or Kebe today. Also nice to see we might have a new weapon with Antonio, that throw looked pretty handy.

Not panicking as of yet as the performance wasn't THAT bad but I fear that if we don't get a new centre back in then we'll keep slipping up like this and fail to make the top 10 yet alone top 6.

[Thomas L'Heureux]

I missed our goal.. grrrrrr....

Unlucky, it was fantastic.

[Royal Lady]

I thought Griffin was MOTM - he was getting stuck in as much as he could and we should NEVER have left him in a position where he was on his own against 4 of the opposition when they broke. He did brilliantly, imo, to eventually get the ball.

The ref ruined the game for me. All those shoves on us, a couple of times one of our players was practically thrown to the floor and he did nothing. Took his time booking the goalie for time wasting too.

Someone on BBCRB texted in to say Mills and Williams were awful - but I thought that, after Griffin, they were our 2 better players, along with Kebe.

But what do I know. Sometimes I think I watch a different game to some people

[SLAMMED]

Another point is the fact that Shane Long is never in the middle of the box where he should be...

Discuss...

[SteveRoyal]

No need to overreact - it was the first game.
One game isn't enough to go on and foresee the future.
However, we knew already that we needed another CB.
Church should've started.

[Royals-lad14]

Feds-6 didnt have too do that much, a few poor kick outs.
griff-8 superb defending when it was four against one, tough battler played some good balls up pitch as well.
mills-6 some good headers, lacks pace.
pearce-5 too slow gets beaten every time, some decent headers, however was sloppy with decision making.
williams-7 some good link up play, however does leave space at the back when he goes forward.
kebe-7 some good runs, however he didnt look match fit.
jem-7 some good play in the middle, however i think him and bryn do not work as a partnership
bryn-7 some good play in middle, like jem, great determination.
the sig- 8 MOTM superb goal, some good play, good pressuring.
long- 6 didnt do that much up the final third, couldnt win any headers coz of scunnys number 5.

Church-6 should of scored his second chance.
tabb-8 great battling from tabby as usual.
antonio-7 showed some promise with good skill, needs to improve first touch otherwise he will turn into long

decent performance, need a finisher and urgently need a pacey CB otherwise we will be leaking goals this season!

[The Prisoner]

McAnuff and Long seemed to be injured for most of the game

Great finish by the sig. Awful finishing by everyone else

Thought Antonio looked good when he came on and offered a plan B

We ran out of ideas a little but didn't deserve to lose, so not too downhearted.

I thought the injury to their no 15 seemed to knock the stuffing out of the game a bit at the start of the second half

[Readingfanman]

Well that was a bit average.

Undone by an odd bit of refereeing and some terrible marking, however we played our worst finisher up front on his own, we won't set the world alight with the amount of goals we score if we play 4-5-1 (4-2-3-1 whatever it is meant to be) with Long up front. Hopefully Hunt makes that position his own if we hold onto that formation. Can see him doing well in it, as he can finish a ball!

Hoping really though that we can get some sort of a centre back to replace Pearce. The more I watch the less I'm convinced, slow and poor technically. Also didn't think too much of Williams, however willing to let it go, considering it's his first game for the club etc. What is with playing Karacan in midfield as well? Am I the only one who can see he doesn't really seem to do that much on the pitch (I know he's not alone, McAnuff looking at you).

[The Prisoner]

Another point is the fact that Shane Long is never in the middle of the box where he should be...

Discuss...

He got a knock before half time, but then got totalled just after we made our last change, so they moved him on to the wing and played mills, Antonio and whoever alongside church. He couldn't walk at one stage

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Defender needed urgently. Alex Pearce is far too slow to be considered. I thought we were average today, but there were glimpses of promise.

Michael Antonio was pretty decent and should be given a start against Torquay.

And where was Y25 today?

[floyd__streete]

decent performance

[Stuffed Crust Pizza]

IMO we looked good for the first 10 minutes and it was apparent that we'd settle into a comfortable victory. However Scunthorpe were clearly a more capable side that we'd given them credit for. From what I could see from Y25 it appeared that the impressive Forte was tackled out wide and a Reading player (either Sig or Griffin) appeared to slice the ball into our box as a result and a finish was applied. A valid goal and an excellent decision from the referee to overturn the linesman's flag. A massive lol to the pathetic Reading fans who are ill-informed of the rules of the game and greet any decision that an official dares to give against their team to a pantomime-like chorus of boos.

Huge questionmarks remain over Alex Pearce's ability as a Championship centreback. Flat-footed, lacking pace and a reluctance to both head the ball and play it on the deck do not a good centre-half make. I also once again find myself questioning why we continue to give the number 1 shirt to Federici. He once again proved his lack of confidence in coming for a cross. The first a keeper learns at very young age is to come for the cross, and not only take the ball but also the player. He failed once again to do either. Also felt his distribution, usually a better atrribute of his game, was suspect at times.

This all rather predictably fails to back up Mr Mad's pathetic Premiership push garbage that he's been spouting in the local press and investment is clearly needed. The squad has only been weakened during the summer and I very much hope that McD is given the green light to bring in a few new faces, a centreback is a must.

So a dissapointing start to the season and my probably my last game until the end of September. I'm hoping for a big improvement.