Back from the Game - Burnley

[AthleticoSpizz]

johnny5 wrote:
The only signing we'll make is Leigertwood on a permanent deal!....

Royalee wrote:
I hope we send him back to QPR permanently, he's utter shit.



Spot on again

[SHORT AND CURLY]

As far as I am concerned if we had a striker to play off Long we would be in with a shout of play off's minimum. (Hope the Mad Man realises this)
Hunt and Church are simply not good enough.

Legs my MOM closely followed by Long.
Both had 9/10 performances today.

All this debate about the defence is rather fruitless because we are hardly getting stuffed week in week out.

Seven out of 12 points over Xmas is heading in the right direction.

[Pat Butchers Ring]

As for the atmosphere, pathetic. It started with that death march music they play before the game.

Have to agree. I remarked at the time that the music sounded like the kind of crap they pipe in when you're queuing for a roller coaster at Alton Towers.

Apart from the music, the atmosphere was quite good.

Let me guess. You either sit with the group of 15 year old mongs at the back of y26 or you are the CrAzY Reading drummer? The atmosphere has been flat as a pancake all season.

[Snowball]

You can blather on as much as you like about whether Harte IN YOUR OPINION is no good

but here is the defensive record when he's played

1
0
0
3
0
0
1
1
1
0
3 Zurab Played
3 Zurab Played
1 Zurab Played
3 Zurab Played
1
0
0
1
1
1
1


Look at it like this

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 = 7 Clean Sheets
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 = 11 games conceding just 1 goal
3 3 3 3 A loss at QPR, crazy games v Doncaster and Norwich, the defeat at Boro

Just look at the four "poor games" and see who was responsible for the goals.

[Turns8]

Apart from the music, the atmosphere was quite good.

Let me guess. You either sit with the group of 15 year old mongs at the back of y26 or you are the CrAzY Reading drummer? The atmosphere has been flat as a pancake all season.

Unbeaten at home since mid-october with a flat atmosphere....HAPPY DAYS...as far as I'm concerned...atmosphere seems to make zero difference on the outcome on the pitch...

[Platypuss]

From what I have seen of the highlights, recently we do appear to be allowing teams far too many good opportunities in front of goal. Fortunately we have getting away with it, but it can't be allowed to continue if we really want to keep up a concerted challenge for the playoffs.

[andrew1957]

feds 7- didnt have to do that much made one decent save in 2nd half
griff 8- calm, sure and compossed a usual griffin performance
mills 7- done some good tackles at important times, but needs to stop hoofing the ball and start to play it into our midfield instead of straight up to the strikers
pearce 7- solid as usual
harte 5- looks disinterested at times, gets done too easily, is only in the team for set pieces
kebe 7- much better today, starting to get back to his usual self
karacan 7- energetic, played a superb ball through to long who should of scored, suprised he got taken off
elwood 9- MOM, Superb today, broke up the burnley moves and was decent going forward as well, a must buy!
mcanuff 7- his usual energetic self, was effective at times, but needs to learn when to release the ball at the right time
hunt 7- lovely assist for our first goal, got out muscled alot today though
long 9- another 2 goals, really starting to find his feet now, he has been superb for the last 5-6 games now and at the moment is unstoppable

church 6- didnt really do that much
hrk- same as church

ref 3- another poor ref should have had a stone wall penalty in the first half and missed alot of blatent decisions

I think these ratings are pretty much spot on.

I actually thought that the ref was one of the best we have seen at the Madstad in a long time. At least he tried to keep the game flowing - BUT he did bottle two major decisons - the possible sending off and what looked like a nailed on penalty.

[andrew1957]

Yeah, good game that wasn't it. Credit to Burnley, probably the best side I have seen this season. But their finishing was Reading-esque! Four glorious chances first half as they carved us open and an absolute sitter missed after we had gone 2-1 up. Eagles ran Harte ragged and their midfield of Wallace, Cork, Marney and Elliott were a joy to watch in the first half. Second half Reading imposed their game on Burnley, moving the ball into the channels and getting the ball into the box. Good to watch from both sides. Long and Leigertwood the pick for Reading. Good six points against a very decent side.

Very good summary Floyd - cannot disagree with any of that.

[Man Friday]

Sat in Y24 for the first time in a while and the atmosphere seemed good from there. Players seemed to appreciate the support - Jobi, Shane and Harte. Surprised that the "C" word was allowed to be shouted with abandon, though, and that a group of lads in their early 20's were allowed to stand for a large part of the match. (Just meant that I had to stand up which obstructed some kids behind me.)

Neither activities correspond to the "Stadium Rules".

Stewards not prepared to earn their money though.

[Chaney]

for the 3rd time in 4 games I think top marks went to the woodwork again.

[Factfinder]

Burnley were pretty poor and only really turned up during the last 5 minutes. '

Where did you watch the game from?

[Big Foot]

Re: Harte, he isn't the best left back in the world but he's got an experienced head on him. Little things like late on telling the ball boys to slow down with returning the ball for throw ins etc, they went a log way towards us holding out today.

I also would say it's no coincidence that Pearce has been on good form as he's got a steady, older head in Harte next to him.

[Handsome Man]

Long was amazing today, he is McDermott's Reading at the moment, and Ligertwood ran him close for man of the match. I liked Pearce and Karacan, while MacAnuff and Kebe attacked with real pace and passion.

I am a bit pissed off that we seem to have picked up a new escape goat. Harte was seriously exposed at times in the left back position: nobody can keep out two players at the same time.

It was nice to see Charlie Austin for 15 mins on Sky - he's their Gylfi and we should buy him.

[SouthDownsRoyal]

Playoffs here we come - but we need more goals striker please

[NR_Royal]

I still think we'd struggle to make the playoffs for as long as Norwich, Leeds, Swansea, Forest and Watford are in form.

[Snowball]

We played well today and I include all Burnley's chances.

Going forward they looked a Premiership outfit and if their new manager proves OK
they will put 5 or 6 on a few clubs in the next 20-or-so games. They still have Prem
players and a good squad. They may well still make the top six, as predicted. They
have money, too and could buy in January (but please, not Shane).

Don't agree that Harte had a bad game. He knows he's slow and he plays accordingly.
The manager knows that overall he's better for the defence than Stretch. He's still
quality and if he had genuine pace he'd still be at the top level. He had two to mark
on his wing God knows how many times, and they were seriously good players who
we'd love to have in our squad.

7.5 Federici
8.0 Griffin
8.0 Pearce
7.5 Mills
7.5 Harte

9.5 Elwood. A near perfect game, one mistake I remember. He wins tackles he shouldn't, some good runs, does the simple well. SIGN HIM!
8.0 Karacan. Elwood needs the buzz-saw but they are a VG pair. Maybe not top-three, but play-off quality.
8.0 McAnuff. Played well today, did a lot of work
7.5 Kebe A few flashes but still not the Kebe of earlier this season. Unlucky tho' not to score

8.0 Hunt. Not always at his best but good with Long and some sublime flicks.
9.2 Long. Got two excellent goals, always a threat, should have had a penalty.


7.5 HRK Showed a lot of energy, should be a VG player one day, great break but should have passed and not squandered the chance.


Burnley team were classy in middle and up front, and really should have scored 2-3 even 4. I thought they looked like a promotion side when they had the ball. We beat them through tenacity and (!) finishing.

[Kitson12]

Rating for Church Snowball?

[Snowball]

I still think we'd struggle to make the playoffs for as long as Norwich, Leeds, Swansea, Forest and Watford are in form.

QPR, Forest, BURNLEY, Swansea, Watford, Norwich, Leeds, Cardiff, Millwall and look out for Leicester. Even Bristol and Hull could shock yet.

Maybe Watford will lose a couple in the window (hope so).

Other than QPR (and they are wobbly) I don't see much difference between 10-12 clubs.

It may come down to good/bad luck and the six-pointers. Burnley are still there despite us beating them twice. If they had beaten US twice we'd be ten points behind them.

I suspect Leicester will surge now and probably make the top six. I'd pick QPR, Leicester, Forest and probably Burnley as the top four, with any two from 13 for the rest. That's crazy.

With very little extra going for us we could be battling for second but we could play as well as we have and be 15th. It's that tight.

[Snowball]

Rating for Church Snowball?

He looked better today, worked closer to Long. 7.5

[Hoop Blah]

I thought Long had another excellent game today. Thats more the kind of performance we needed from him for the first few months of the season, irrespective of the goals he's added over the last couple of weeks. He should've had yet another penalty as well. He certainly benefits from having Hunt up alongside him (even if he was a bit poor today) especially against a pretty slow and cumbersome pair of centre backs as Burnley had today.

I thought Kebe had a right stinker, and with McAnuff struggling to be a consistent threat down the left I'd still like to see us get in another winger this month (Robson-Kanu and Antonio aren't good enough to start yet) to give us a bit more.

Harte was poor. You can't just blame McAnuff for not picking up Mears on the overlap etc, Harte needs to take control there and sometimes that meansa fullback tracking the runner whilst pulling their midfielders closer. It happens too often, and although the winger isn't blamless, Hartes inability to recover from the situation makes it too easy for the opposition to get in unopposed crosses. It happens on the right at times too, but no where near as frequently.

As for Armstrong, well I'm still not convinced he's fit. I was amazed to ever see him in a Reading shirt again after the last 18 months of injuries but if he's in and out of the squad still I have a doubt that he's ever likely to be in regular contention for a starting place. IF he could get back to near his best then he'd be far superior to Harte.

Special mention to Burnley though, as Flloyd said, that was probably the best performance against us that I've seen. Their midfield played some great stuff and made for a pretty entertaining second half once we got ourselves going, although much like ours, their slow defence helped make things interesting!