Back from the game - Doncaster

[Snowball]

Afraid howard was better than tabb today, and I'm a big tabb fan. Woeful 1v1 attempt amongst a few other bad mistakes he made, he even said on the radio that he was disappointed with the way he played and wouldn't blame the manager for starting with the team who finished todays game. Really like him as a player and a personality, he had an off day. You both need glasses if you think Howard was worse.

Well said.

I find the problem with too many on this list is that they decide how a player is going to play BEFORE WATCHING THE GAME

If they hate a player he needs to score a hat-trick to even get a grunted "He was lucky today."


Doncaster are a good, footballing side, and for the first 20 minutes they barely got a kick.

When they equalised, we, for some reason dropped confidence and stopped harrassing them.
We backed off and let a 5-man midfield start to play.


But in the second half, after we went to 4-4-2, it was Tabb and Karacan against THREE midfielders and yet we managed to stop them scoring and scored 3 ourselves.

How in Heaven's name do you do that if one of your two midfielders is playing crap?

Howard had a good game

[Royals-lad14]

Federici 6- didnt have to do much.

Harte 6- Cost us the 3rd goal, superb free kick though
Mills 7- Won most in the air, pretty solid.
Zurab 8- Very composed as usual.
Griffin 7- Him sterdy self as usual

HRK 6- only got past his man once or twice and wasted some good chances for a good delivery.
Jem 7- Workrate good as usual.
Howard 6- some poor passing, needs to stay on his feet more.
McAnuff 7- pretty good performance gave J.Mills problems at time but can be wasteful

Tabb 6- Missed a great oppurtunity didnt seem to get on the ball that much today

Long 7- Won most headers in the air, put in a good shift, but needs to score from open play soon !

Churchy 7- got us the winner.
Hunt 7- Some good flick on's. got a assist.
Antonio 7- Good running, good assist needs to come on earlier though.

[Snowball]

Though HRK was pretty p*ss-poor and disinterested right up until Antonio started warming up.

Uninterested FFS, unless you really think he was impartial, even-handed, no axe to grind. And I actually thought Taffy just looked a bit lacking in confidence, crossed when he should have had a shot, reckon he's going to come good very soon.

HRK played pretty well IMO. If we don't go up I think he'll be a regular starter next year.

He's a decent winger now, but so big and strong. Did some great tackling back today

Saw three 'errors", a slip when he went to cross, (but he got plenty of crosses in)
he let them cross for their first goal, and he should have got the header on target.

[Snowball]

I have to say we had three different teams out there today.

Team A: The first twenty minutes we totally owned them.

Team B: We were dire after they equalised, standing off and letting them play

Team C: We had no choice but to go for it. Not sure if we were good or Doncaster were rabbits in the headlights.

So I'll give marks for each section


6 Federici 6-6-7
6 Harte 7-3-8 I didn't see him getting "rinsed" Goal was silly. Didn't have to happen. Brilliant and very important free-kick
6 Mills 7-5-7 Got the goal, but a scramble really, but was OK. Didn't drag the guys together when they stopped playing
7 Zurab 8-6-7 Looked GREAT in the first 20, very good late on when we were going for it... but that middle 30 minutes?
9 Griffin 9-8-9 He is a SUPERB player and poor young Cummings is going to be waiting a while for his next chance
6 HRK 7-5-7 Thought he had a decent game throughout,a few good crosses, great tackling back. Missed a header tho'
7 Jem 7-5-8 Everyone was responsible for the bad middle, but Howard & Jem did well in the last 30
7 Howard 7-5-8 Don't understand the criticism. Played well and certainly help to make one goal
7 McAnuff 7-5-8 Really tried in that last thirty, led by example
5 Tabb 5-5-OFF Looked heavy, leggy, ill or unfit. Never at the races and missed a perfect chance set up by Shane (and i LIKE Tabb)
7 Long 8-6-OFF Excellent in our opening spell, chasing shadows for a while after. Brill flick for Tabb, VG header across goal, but lacking confidence to shoot.

7 Churchy 0-0-7 If he had not scored would be giving him 5. ran around a bit. But hugely important goal. Looks like he's vecoming our impact sub
8 Hunt 0-0-8 In a higher class altogether. Should be starting. Superb cross for Karacan goal
7 Antonio 0-0-7 Promising, but raw player. Like his randomness. Assist.

8 for the manager

[mikey0406]

sorry was some people watching a different game to me??

Harte 5 defensively...free kick was 9, he was really shocking today at the back and was caught out a few times, gave silly free kick away which led to a goal,
Tabb 6 clearly not match fit, lacked a cutting edge with his passing and tackling
HRK 6 He lacks a change in pace to beat a player and relies on a drop of the shoulder too much, passing was weak today
Long 6 cannot hold up a ball, wasted pocession in good places too often and he is to lead the line, who is he aiming his flick ons at?????

Man of the match.... Jem 8 real fighting spirit and sense of presence on the pitch thought he played really well

[Victor Meldrew]

sorry was some people watching a different game to me??

Harte 5 defensively...free kick was 9, he was really shocking today at the back and was caught out a few times, gave silly free kick away which led to a goal,
Tabb 6 clearly not match fit, lacked a cutting edge with his passing and tackling
HRK 6 He lacks a change in pace to beat a player and relies on a drop of the shoulder too much, passing was weak today
Long 6 cannot hold up a ball, wasted pocession in good places too often and he is to lead the line, who is he aiming his flick ons at?????

Man of the match.... Jem 8 real fighting spirit and sense of presence on the pitch thought he played really well

mikey,
You and I watched the same game.
I am no great fan of Shane Long but he won his headers however as per usual nobody was picking up on them so what is the point?
I like Brian but today I think he got out of jail.
On Radio Berks they were drooling over his making of substitutions when in fact we were 3-1 down so he had to do something and with Doncaster being weak at central defence it was obvious to everybody in the ground that we should be playing two up front.
I believe he should have started with two up front and even Church or Hunt would surely have scored the sitter that Tabb missed and that would have put us 2-0 up.

[mikey0406]

+1

[Snowball]

sorry was some people watching a different game to me??

Harte 5 defensively...free kick was 9, he was really shocking today at the back and was caught out a few times, gave silly free kick away which led to a goal,

It was HOWARD who gave away the free-kick (which wasn't a foul, anyway.

I must admit I thought it was Harte at first but was corrected. As the players came
for the second half out Howard was discussing the non-foul with the ref.

[LoyalRoyal22]

What a game, my ratings

Fed- 7
Griffin- 7
Mills- 6
Zurab- 6
Harte- 6
Jobi- 6
Robson-kanu- 6
Karacan- 7
Howard- 6
Tabb- 6
Long- 6

Howard is a good player, did you deluded lot miss the ball that sent antonio away to set up the winning goal? majority of games Howard plays for us we seem to win

[Dickie Davies]

Great game, great entertainment, 2 very similar sides playing 2 very similar games. As many pros as there were cons. Don't be too quick to knock the mistakes, if we hadn't have gone 2 behind don't think it would have sparked any come back. This side is as good as any of the top 10, lap of the gods as to where we finish.

[Snowball]

Howard is a good player, did you deluded lot miss the ball that sent antonio away to set up the winning goal? majority of games Howard plays for us we seem to win

THIS IS WHY I LIKE STATS

League Games with Howard (STARTS)

1-1 Pompey
1-1 Forest
2-1 Leicester
3-0 Palace
0-0 Millwall
1-3 Boro
4-0 Burnley
4-3 Doncaster

P8 W4 D3 L1 16-9 15 Points 1.87 ppg

League Games without Howard

1-2 Scunthorpe
3-0 Barnsley
1-0 Ipswich
1-1 Preston
0-1 Swansea
0-1 Bristol

P6 W2 D1 L3 5-5 7 points 1.17 ppg

We get 0.7 points per game when Howard plays, that is THIRTY-TWO extra points per season!!

[reading98]

Well we got 3 points but that first hour was the worst match of football I've watched in a long time. We had no idea other than to look for Shane, who'd normally win it but then have nobody to give it to. Felt so sorry for the boy getting jeered off, at the end of the day he did as good a job as could be expected of him (though he did try and pass instead of shoot on 2 occasions, deffo a confidence thing). At goal kicks you could see our set-up, pretty much 4-2-4 - no wonder we got overrun in midfield. Credit to Donny, they play beautiful football and I'm really not sure we deserved it. As I said, the first hour was atrocious, the support as well as the football - I don't think we had one single chant in the first half.

Feds - 7 - nothing wrong really.
Griffin - 8 - commanding performance, back to his usual self.
Mills - 7 - beaten a couple of times but generally good in the air.
Zurab - 8 - calm and assured in possession, thought he looked class today.
Harte - 7 - as soon as he got that free-kick I texted a mate saying we were about to equalise otherwise solid.
Karacan - 7 - great goal, once we went 4-4-2 he was a lot more prominent.
Howard - 6 - lost the ball too often and was a bit anonymous.
Robson-Kanu - 5 - always seemed to make the wrong decision, and lacked composure.
Tabb - 6 - missed a glorious chance, not sure he suits the second striker role.
McAnuff - 6 - a couple of great runs but otherwise a bit anonymous too.
Long - 7 - won most in the air, chased down blind alleys for the team, yet still got booed off.

Church - 7 - good (easy) finish, injected energy and optimism.
Hunt - 7 - same as Church really, desperate to impress, he worked well with Church too.
Antonio - 7 - the boy is very raw, reminds me of early Kebe.

I find it very strange how we conceded 3 and yet I gave the defence the best marks

Ref - 8 - he let the game flow very well, though how their 4 and 24 didn't get yellows is beyond me.

Did you start any chants???

[Silver Fox]

The shoddy defending continued right up until the very final kick where holding on to a lead we got the offside trap all wrong and two Doncaster players practically tripped over each other.....and missed

Donny's number 4 was a treat of ineptitude all game, so glad he got himself in that position at the end

[Handsome Man]

Sixty disappointing minutes of hoofball with some shocking defending. We should have gone 2-0 up, but it was like watching Keegan's England really.

Once we moved to 442, everybody seemed in the right place and the full backs managed to pass to the wingers again. The goals were good ones and there was something to cheer.

I liked HRK and MacAnuff and though that Antonio looked a great late substitute, but Karacan was possibly the man of the match: he carried the ball back to the centre-spot when we went 3-1 down, and once he scored to get a goal back, the momentum had moved and an entertaining finish always looked likely.

The ref was an odd one (there might be two refs in the country who wouldn't have sent off Gary Neville last week) but he did seem to get most of the decisions right, played advantage well, and apart from one early on which he cocked up, allowed both teams to play early and inventive free kicks.

[Pseud O'Nym]

The shoddy defending continued right up until the very final kick where holding on to a lead we got the offside trap all wrong and two Doncaster players practically tripped over each other.....and missed

Donny's number 4 was a treat of ineptitude all game, so glad he got himself in that position at the end

Greed. I thought the ref was fairly even handed in his uselessness but how the hell that bloke stayed on the pitch, and Noel got a yellow after converting the head-lock into a body-slam.

[LoyalRoyal22]

Howard is a good player, did you deluded lot miss the ball that sent antonio away to set up the winning goal? majority of games Howard plays for us we seem to win

THIS IS WHY I LIKE STATS

League Games with Howard (STARTS)

1-1 Pompey
1-1 Forest
2-1 Leicester
3-0 Palace
0-0 Millwall
1-3 Boro
4-0 Burnley
4-3 Doncaster

P8 W4 D3 L1 16-9 15 Points 1.87 ppg

League Games without Howard

1-2 Scunthorpe
3-0 Barnsley
1-0 Ipswich
1-1 Preston
0-1 Swansea
0-1 Bristol

P6 W2 D1 L3 5-5 7 points 1.17 ppg

We get 0.7 points per game when Howard plays, that is THIRTY-TWO extra points per season!!

Snowball you ledge

[Maguire]

LOL@DOnny's #4 - he really was atrociously bad

That was the worst 4-3 I think I've ever seen. And LOL at Floyd (was it?) who said the home fans stayed with the team throughout - they booed them at 3-1!

Howard and Harte weren't great, Long just isn't a striker, and Tabb didn't have his best game. Why am I so unsatisfied with a win? I don't know really. There was just no fluidity or cohesion about the play. I actually thought HRK did fine but he'll never be a legend.

Actually, Howard was dogshhit and fck anyone who thinks he had a good game. Noel Hutn as well - deary me he was poor.

[LoyalRoyal22]

LOL@DOnny's #4 - he really was atrociously bad

That was the worst 4-3 I think I've ever seen. And LOL at Floyd (was it?) who said the home fans stayed with the team throughout - they booed them at 3-1!

Howard and Harte weren't great, Long just isn't a striker, and Tabb didn't have his best game. Why am I so unsatisfied with a win? I don't know really. There was just no fluidity or cohesion about the play. I actually thought HRK did fine but he'll never be a legend.

Actually, Howard was dogshhit and fck anyone who thinks he had a good game. Noel Hutn as well - deary me he was poor.

bore off. Noel Hunt basically one of his first touches was to play a blinding cross for the karacan goal, what are you talking bout? and apart from that he put himself about and was one of the reasons we got back into the game.

[Murts-is-Lej]

I thought the ref was fairly even handed in his uselessness but how the hell that bloke stayed on the pitch, and Noel got a yellow after converting the head-lock into a body-slam.

Actually I think the Donny #4 calmed down a lot after scoring (unfortunately as I was sure he was going to be 1st in the book). Noel's Irish rugby tackle was just awesome, although he didn't get the yellow for that but blocking the subsequent free kick. I was starting to wonder if the ref had forgotten his cards in the changing room until then...

[Maguire]

Wut?

He played like a man who didn't deserve a starting place in the side. Chekc out his "ball over the top" which sliced off his foot to nobody. Even Long was better than him and Long is fucking awful