Back from the game-saints

[Alan Partridge]

I missed the first 20mins driving back from my game today but it was an enjoyable game for the other 70. Reading looked fit, hungry and energetic all night and caused Southampton problems but unfortunately Reading just lack a little bit of quality for all their effort. Le Fondre is a super little player and him and Church work well and I thought they both had very decent games up front. Leigertwood rightly has been praised his passing was good, he won the ball back countless times and deserved his goal. Only Davis stopped him scoring the goal of the season.

Reading are a bit naieve defensively at times and for some of the good blocks made by Gorkks and co, the goal was utterly avoidable, two players go for and get nowhere near the same ball, Mills is stood around doing nothing and his man for the 3rd goal in a week cuts in and slams home. Funnily it was the sending off whcih woke Southampton up because until then there was only one winner.

Mills is quicker and more athletic than Harte I think they are defensively both not great but Mills going forward is just not in Harte's league. What was it 15 corners? Or something similar plus some free kicks and open play crossing opportunities, lost count how many Davis dealt with and the ones he didn't were over hit passed everyone and out of play. woeful. It's the only thing you can criticise Reading for tonight really. They had numerous opportunities to put good crosses in for their lively forwards but none of those deliveries were good enough. Mills was responsible for 90% of them, McAnuff took a few corners and his were equally terrible.

It's hard to criticise Reading for the Derby and Southampton games but ultimately for me they have dominated both games pretty much from start to finish and have collected 2 points.

[MmmMonsterMunch]

Shame the whole team spoilt what would have been a fantastic performance by being very unprofessional and easing off/losing concentration for a while when Saints went down to 10 men. Clearly thought 'job done' and paid the price for that complacency.

Mills is costing us points atm. I'm sure he will improve but how often do you keep starting someone who makes so many mistakes? He lost posession so easily tonight & the corners were bloody awful in the main. Take the set pieces off him for starters. Personally I would get Harte back in.

The same Harte who once again was absolutely skinned by pace and left completely out of position soon after he came on as Saints broke down their right?

Neither Mills nor Harte is good enough if we seriously want to push for promotion.

I would agree. Hopefully they look for someone in Jan. Ryan Bertrand anyone?!

[FiNeRaIn]

Im not even judging mills by his set pieces, I don't judge a left back by them. To his credit he steps forward to take them despite them being consistently awful so he obviously has bottle. What I judge him by is his consistent mistakes. Bad first touches, passing and awareness again. I remember one time he came running for a ball missed the header and lambert simply chested it down unchallenged. He was also lucky not to make contact with a rash challenge in frost of the east stand. He gave the ball away about 4 times in the first 15 minutes.

Mills isn't a scapegoat for me, karacan needs to do way more than he is in the middle. He is a centre midfielder yet he wants to take less touches than a centre back and his passing is frankly horrid. He gets away with murder compared to everyone else and is easily the new can do no wrong love child. He's too bit part for my liking...yes he makes some good tackles, covers a lot of ground and annoys the opposition but in the middle of the park you need someone to put your foot on it and knock it around, he goes back rather than sideways. Frankly lege is a better option and we need someone who can create next to him.

Same old reading though, soft goal..not sure who was at fault but it was utterly dire and a complete travesty it was scored. We should be coming away praising the team for three points yet the scenario is the same...play crap or play well...we still fail to get three points at home. Hard to be positive when you play well yet still fail to win, especially against 10 men.

[Forty]

(I agree to a much earlier post!)

I agree - Saints looked good, and their movement was excellent. They pressed high, as did we, meaning we were always struggling to find an easy pass - hence loads of cricked necks.

Am still waiting for HRK to make an impact starting the game. Thought he was poor on Tuesday, and today. he worked hard, won lots of flicks, but rarely beat the man or get behind them. Still, neither did McAnuff really, bar once in the first half.

Mills - don't know. Want to give him time to develop, but is it my imagination, or had he been caught short in all of the last three conceeded?

Ledge and esp Jem - fantastic energy.

Pearce is looking the part now, isn't he? Playing with Gorks obviously suits him.

Woud gladly have taken 2 points from these last two, and so close to taking 4, still, progress.

[FiNeRaIn]

I can't agree that Saints were poor. They were strong at the back and in the second half created the better of the chances. To be one down with 10 men and hit back shows they have plenty of resilience. Unlike Derby they look like genuine promotion contenders to me.

They were really, really bad for a team top of the league. Had I not known they were top I would have assumed lower half of the table as frankly they created nothing and didn't string and passes together at all in the first half. They snatched a point which was more our doing than theirs, I can't believe anyone has come away from that being impressed by them at all.

[Ian Royal]

(I agree to a much earlier post!)


Mills - don't know. Want to give him time to develop, but is it my imagination, or had he been caught short in all of the last three conceeded?
.

No. He was no where near being at fault for at least one of Derby's goals. He was marking someone on the edge of the box.

[Simon's Church]

I thought Mills was ok today as well and some of his corners were put into an excellent area we just had nobody attacking them. One of the CBs was at fault for the goal, will have to watch it again to see who should have gone for it. We were really good for the first 80 and understandably started to tire towards the end.

[PEARCEY]

I can't agree that Saints were poor. They were strong at the back and in the second half created the better of the chances. To be one down with 10 men and hit back shows they have plenty of resilience. Unlike Derby they look like genuine promotion contenders to me.

They were really, really bad for a team top of the league. Had I not known they were top I would have assumed lower half of the table as frankly they created nothing and didn't string and passes together at all in the first half. They snatched a point which was more our doing than theirs, I can't believe anyone has come away from that being impressed by them at all.

Like I say they created the better chances in the second half. They created nothing in the first half but for all our pressure we failed to get behind them. Their keeper made a good save from Leigertwood but most of our other efforts were straight at him. For all our pressure we rarely created clear openings. In the second half Feds had to make a fine save from their header and was it Chaplow who was free on the edge of the area and had a good chance. Most teams would wilt given the pressure we put them under but they came back well when down to 10 men. They will be right up there I reckon come the seasons end. So will we if we turn these draws into wins...we really are not far away at all as tonight and Tuesday night showed...but we have to stop conceding when we are not under pressure. It happened twice against Derby and again tonight and its bloody frustrating.

[chilipepper91]

Im not even judging mills by his set pieces, I don't judge a left back by them. To his credit he steps forward to take them despite them being consistently awful so he obviously has bottle. What I judge him by is his consistent mistakes. Bad first touches, passing and awareness again. I remember one time he came running for a ball missed the header and lambert simply chested it down unchallenged. He was also lucky not to make contact with a rash challenge in frost of the east stand. He gave the ball away about 4 times in the first 15 minutes.

Mills isn't a scapegoat for me, karacan needs to do way more than he is in the middle. He is a centre midfielder yet he wants to take less touches than a centre back and his passing is frankly horrid. He gets away with murder compared to everyone else and is easily the new can do no wrong love child. He's too bit part for my liking...yes he makes some good tackles, covers a lot of ground and annoys the opposition but in the middle of the park you need someone to put your foot on it and knock it around, he goes back rather than sideways. Frankly lege is a better option and we need someone who can create next to him.

Same old reading though, soft goal..not sure who was at fault but it was utterly dire and a complete travesty it was scored. We should be coming away praising the team for three points yet the scenario is the same...play crap or play well...we still fail to get three points at home. Hard to be positive when you play well yet still fail to win, especially against 10 men.

Agreed with most of the sentiments here, if to a slightly less extreme extent

Mills is only taking the free-kicks and corners because he has a left foot (the others in the team being Gorkss and HRK). While you can't technically blame him for that, you would think that a significant part of his training would go into practising set pieces if we know he will be starting at the weekend. McAnuff isn't much better with corners, and let's be honest, I was surprised he hit the post with that free kick today. Also I don't really remember Mills making more than about 5 passes on the ground today, just lumped it forward.

Karacan, I agree with FR. He is more and more becoming the new Harper. Backwards and sideways passes constantly; if he plays the ball forward it's either to get rid or one of our patented balls down the channels to nobody in particular. Yes, he runs and runs and runs, but he is utter turd on the ball.

Having said all that, it's another two points dropped. We score, they lose a man - on paper that's game over. So why can we not shut the game out? We don't know how to defend a lead, only how to chase a game. What was wrong with using the same game plan that had shut them out for 75 minutes with only one decent shooting opportunity? We panic. We're inexperienced. It's a shame because we seem to be able to just about grind out these results and get them tactically spot on, but these isolated slips in game-plans and concentration cost us at vital moments.

[CayeneMatt]

We need a new LB. Sorry but Mills was useless.

What the hell are you on!?

I normally pay attention to your posts but you're completely wrong here. Mills is costing us. Yes, he has energy, and he's good at getting forward. But he can't pass, he's continually under hitting, over hitting or missing it altogether. And my 9 yr old can read the game better.

He was marginally better this evening than on Tuesday, and yes, i was at both games. BM needs to get Harte back in ASAP, now we're playing better, Harte's pace should be less exposed. If Harte is a non-starter then we need a loanee.

[comeonyouroyals]

As far as I'm concerned both centre backs were at fault for their goal, both were sucked into the ball leaving a massive space inbehind the defence leaving a fresh legged De Ridder (who is always going to be quicker than Mills espically after 75minutes of hard work) to have all the space in the world even if Mikele did brilliantly to get back but was found flat footed. All in all a good performance by the lads and I thought HRK was the weakest link for me but should defo be ahead of Kebe as he doesn't look confident at all.
Really impressed with the partnership between Church and Le Fondre.

[comeonyouroyals]

One of the CBs was at fault for the goal, will have to watch it again to see who should have gone for it. We were really good for the first 80 and understandably started to tire towards the end.

Pearce was marking the man that recieved the ball and followed him to the edge of the area and for some reason Gorks followed leaving the whole of the box without a man in it. Gorks had a great game bar that moment shame it cost us.

[cmonurz]

McAnuff was marking De Ridder in the lead up to the goal, and simply didn't follow his run.

[PEARCEY]

What happened to Handsome Man's post?

[FiNeRaIn]

Really impressed with the partnership between Church and Le Fondre.

Agreed, clearly our best two up front and we should stick with that for a while. Beast came on and frankly...looks a poor player. I think he needs consistent games somewhere because he never looks sharp and up to match speed. He's obviously got something about him as we have seen from his goals, but he was never going to produce and that was clear after his first few touches.

Church who I have slated in the past has impressed me in recent weeks with some good all round play.

[SCIAG]

Mills' poor positioning/awareness or Harte's lack of pace?

Mills is better going forward, but it's no exaggeration to say Harte is the best free kick taker in the country.

Given that Gorkss is quicker than Mills and Kish, I think he cover for Harte if he got rinsed. He's doing the work of two defenders anyway.

Ratings for today:
Feds 7 - not a great deal to do, made one excellent save where he was lucky that the header wasn't better. Kicking from loose balls poor again.
Cummings 6- got caught out once or twice. End to an excellent run of form, hopefully just a blip.
Gorkss 8- excellent yet again. One brilliant block tackle Early bet for POTY?
Pearce 7- will need to see the goal again, but he didn't do badly against strong opposition strikers.
Mills 6 - not his best game. The shot at the end was unbelievable.
McAnuff 6.5- good free kick, don't really remember him troubling the Saints defence much but he passed fairly well.
Karacan 7- poor passing first half, but came into it more as the game went on.
Legs 8- back to his best, proving his doubters wrong.
HRK 6 - poor today. I don't think he's continued his form from the end of last season over into this one unfortunately.
Church 7- another steady performance for him. Unlucky to have the ball handled by a defender when he was through on goal.
Le Fondre 8- I thought his link up play was suppose to be bad? Didn't have a sniff on goal, but was still excellent.

Subs:
Kebe 6- didn't look interested, kept coming inside and losing it instead of destroying Fox.
Manset 6.5- didn't get much of the ball. Should have had a penalty.
Harte n/a

Fans 7/10- 2 points added for being better than any other matches this season.
Soton fans 8/10- unoriginal but noisy
Ref 4/10- kept giving the ball the wrong way (we had two extra goal kicks, Soton had an extra goal kick and an extra corner, lots of throw ins wrong). Should have given a penalty for the foul on Manset.

[NR_Royal]

There was no foul on Manset. Keeper clearly got the ball.

[bobbybottler]

Really impressed with the partnership between Church and Le Fondre.

Agreed, clearly our best two up front and we should stick with that for a while. Beast came on and frankly...looks a poor player. I think he needs consistent games somewhere because he never looks sharp and up to match speed. He's obviously got something about him as we have seen from his goals, but he was never going to produce and that was clear after his first few touches.

Maybe, although I'm happy with him coming on as an impact sub as he clearly offers a different threat to ALF and Church.

Anyway, pleased enough with a point, and I'll take a point against Palace as well. The form that they're in might make that a tougher ask than getting one today.

[SCIAG]

There was no foul on Manset. Keeper clearly got the ball.

Getting the ball doesn't stop it being a foul.

[PEARCEY]

Surprised no-one has mentioned that hand-ball in the first-half. If the Soton player hadn't handled Church was through on goal. Should have been a red card in my view.