My previous two away games were West Brom in the league last year and Watford in April so it was nice to make it 3 straight away trips where we were utterly outclassed
QPR were very good and why Taarabt is playing in this league is beyond me as he's far too good. That being said he is an arrogant diver who shouldn't need to resort to such theatrics, but then neither does Ronaldo and he still does it.
I think it says a lot about the gulf between the sides when you look at the teamsheets and know that you'd gladly take around 9 of their 11 over your own so going into the game I didn't expect much.
First half we did a decent job of keeping the ball but had absolutely no threat whatsoever and I don't remember a single shot, yet alone forcing Kenny into a save. Our best chance was when Jobi got to the byline and couldn't even beat the first man with the cross :/ As for QPR they should have been 2 up before the penalty and I've no complaints with the decision, needless foul and a waste of the lives Rob Hulse had given us.
The red card then gave us a hope into the second half and we had a couple of pot shots straight away but didn't really have a big chance to shout about. Then they scored a lovely second goal and the writing was on the wall. A good goal from Shane gets us back in the game only for Smith to finish the game off and it's goodnight.
Teamwise....
Feds - 7 Brilliant save from the free-kick and shame it just happened to land to Smith.
Griff - 6 Taarabt had his number but it's harsh to hold that against anyone
Mills - 5 Honestly the guy needs to learn how to control his emotions far far better if he wants to make it to the next level
Zurab - 7 Thought he was solid all afternoon and it's great to have him here.
Harte - 5 Worst performance from him in a Reading shirt for me, didn't offer anything going forward and set pieces didn't make up for it, his positioning also seemed suspect.
HRK - 4 Didn't seem to do anything at all in the first half and was little better in the second. If Kebe isn't fit then give Antonio or Hunt a run out please.
Howard - 5 Not a good game for Brian, nearly scored late on but ineffective.
Karacan - 6 Game seemed to pass him by, he worked hard but passes were being misplaced too often
Tabb - 6 Again he worked hard but didn't have a great game and fell over once or twice when in good areas.
McAnuff - 6 Our best attacking outlet and looked the only person capable of hurting QPR today. Sadly despite some good runs his final ball was lacking and he'd all but given up by 3-1.
Long - 6 At the risk of being attacked by Snowball it was a wierd reversal day for Shane in that I felt his play outside of the box wasn't up to his recent high standards but his finishing spoke for itself with 1 shot and 1 goal. Still he busted a gut until the very end so can't fault him for that.
Subs - 6's all round.
Otherwise felt the atmosphere in the ground was pretty poor, I'd forgotten how little leg room you got as well
lol at all the Reading fans getting wound up by the 'Mexican' and a special place in hell is reserved for the little sh*t sat behind me who at every goal kick shouted in a half broken voice 'THATS YOUR HEAD READING' and if it was Feds shouted 'BIG KICK FEDDERS' first time I've ever felt I might need to physically assault someone at a game before. I'd rather have had Snowball spouting stats behind me
But meh, not too unhappy tonight and move on to Wednesday.