Back from the game - West Ham

[The Rouge]

No. But he has to hurdle the challenge. He bought it but I still think it is a yellow.

[Ian Herring]

Decided to go at 20 past two. Really thought we get hammered.

So so glad!!

I reckon we would have won it without the sending offs, they were toothless, big Lolz on the way back to the HP car park from the Spam fans,

"facking useless" "Noble can fack off" lol

my ST is in the West Upper and there were a few in there, most left at the fire drill.

Jimmy will definitely get done at their place !!

Sadly he will have been offski by then.

The Mad House Xmas Sales are just around the corner. The Chairman's just squirting a bit of WD40 on Arkwright's till!

Good use of 'squirting' there.

[gazzer, loyal royal]

The first half was a bit meh, didn't really create anything. Watching the football league show Noel did brilliantly to get back on the line.

Second half the game only really game to life after the first red. O'briens first booking was totally irresponsible, he didn't need to react to a perfectly good block like that. It was good to see us punish teams though. Mcanuff did brilliantly for the first goal, didn't panic. Alf did well for the second goal and the third was a brilliant delivery.

I hope the injury Noel came off with isn't too bad. Thought he ran the line very well, won his fair share of headers and linked well with alf. Ledge was excellent and when hes paying well we really tick, but would still love to see jem get forward more often. Regardless of what snowball says, 6 goals a year for a centre mid with karacans energy is not good enough.

Tompkins for me was pure class. Their best player by a mile, I doubt they'll hold onto him.

It's the same time of year as last years upturn in form. If we can put a small run together we will climb the league.

Best performance of the year for me. Bring on leeds

[PieEater]

The first half was stalemate, with West Ham looking solid but creating nothing, and us struggling 442 v 451 with Diopp holding. I was fearing West Ham might nick a goal but they really looked pretty uncreative and I can't remember Fed having to make a save, I don't know why Piquionne starts ahead of Cole as he was pants. Legs and Jem did a fantastic just against their midfield, with a lot of help from Alf and Noel.

As soon as Sam changed it to 442 I really thought we had a chance and we started to control it before the sending off, but afterward West Ham just seem to give up, as did most of their support.

Disgraceful comments from Claridge, he was almost excusing the dreadful racked studs challenge on Kebe because he's not English. Not one mention of how bad that challenge could of been to his knee. Tosser.

[Far Canal]

Disgraceful comments from Claridge, he was almost excusing the dreadful racked studs challenge on Kebe because he's not English. Not one mention of how bad that challenge could of been to his knee. Tosser.

Absolutely. Claridge out (seriously).

Make your complaints here:
(telephone and snail mail unfortunately, they clearly don't want to make it too easy)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/


Oops! Yahoops beat me to it in the Jason Roberts idiot thread:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/forms/ ... B80#anchor

[Svlad Cjelli]

I'll repost thiss here as this is maybe a better place :

It seems that lots of people here can't tell the difference between "explain" and "excuse".

The vast majority of the pundits are explaining why Collinson had the red mist - which is that Kebe did something that professionals just don't do, taking the piss in a match situation. In every profession there's an unspoken code that no-one oversteps - but Kebe didn't just overstep it, he drove a coach and horses right through it. (And LOL at those calling Claridge racist - he's quite right that this is is cultural thing in England, something a foreign player is less likely to understand).

So why are people getting themselves so wound up when pundits say that they understand why Collinson did it? That's quite different from saying that he was justified or shouldn't have been sent off.

[melonhead]

good game, tactically did a job on em first half, and pshycologically in the second.
restricted them to bits and pieces while we played well, but struggled toget final balls, or to finish
second half looked more fluid, had chances before the sending off, but from that instant we were well on top, three good goals, and some seriously entertaining showboating from sir jimmy of kebe.
who had a very good game all round, though still is a bit off with his decision making. good to see him tipping it round the full back and running by him alot more.

fed- didnt have much to do - 7
cummings- coped well with them - 7
pearce/gorkss - solid and a goal for pearcey-8
harte - awful defending in the first, awful set pieces, just about made amends with a couple of nice free kicks at the end - 6
jobi- had a decent game, lovely skills to get to the by line, and cut back for pearce
ledge- back at his best -8
karacan- unlucky with that glanced header, played ok - 7
jimmy kebe - looking better and better over the last few weeks - sockg8 aside an 8, with sock g8 a 10 an extra point for each sock
le fondre - played well again- nice work for the goals - 8
nhunt- did ok - 6

church - so pleased for him 7

[RoyalBlue]

I'll repost thiss here as this is maybe a better place :

It seems that lots of people here can't tell the difference between "explain" and "excuse".

The vast majority of the pundits are explaining why Collinson had the red mist - which is that Kebe did something that professionals just don't do, taking the piss in a match situation. In every profession there's an unspoken code that no-one oversteps - but Kebe didn't just overstep it, he drove a coach and horses right through it. (And LOL at those calling Claridge racist - he's quite right that this is is cultural thing in England, something a foreign player is less likely to understand).
.

And as I said elsewhere, Claridge should learn to express himself more clearly/sensitively. He didn't say any of the words that you use but merely attributed it to the fact that Kebe was not English, thus leading to his words and sentiments being misinterpreted. Kick him out and bring in someone more articulate - Murts?

[Svlad Cjelli]

Quite! Claridge is an utter prat and I can't quite believe he's got that job (or that I'm defending him - first time ever!) But for people to suddenly be playing the racist card at him is quite laughable.

The fact is that 90% of people on here are thinking like fans, without understanding how players (or ex-players) think. To fans these are the opposition so it's OK to mock and abuse them - but to the players they're fellow professionals and there are expectations in how they treat each other - there's an understood level of mutual respect (no matter how badly they're winning/losing) and an unwritten rule that you don't publicly take the piss.

[Snowball]

Quite! Claridge is an utter prat and I can't quite believe he's got that job (or that I'm defending him - first time ever!) But for people to suddenly be playing the racist card at him is quite laughable.

The fact is that 90% of people on here are thinking like fans, without understanding how players (or ex-players) think. To fans these are the opposition so it's OK to mock and abuse them - but to the players they're fellow professionals and there are expectations in how they treat each other - there's an understood level of mutual respect (no matter how badly they're winning/losing) and an unwritten rule that you don't publicly take the piss.

So Svlad...

Billy Bremner, Georgie Best, Balotelli, Van Persie and Henry, Ronaldo, Adebayor

any time someone does a step-over or a reverse pass for fun, that Colombian keeper with the scorpion kick

and how many other times?

[Svlad Cjelli]

Quite! Claridge is an utter prat and I can't quite believe he's got that job (or that I'm defending him - first time ever!) But for people to suddenly be playing the racist card at him is quite laughable.

The fact is that 90% of people on here are thinking like fans, without understanding how players (or ex-players) think. To fans these are the opposition so it's OK to mock and abuse them - but to the players they're fellow professionals and there are expectations in how they treat each other - there's an understood level of mutual respect (no matter how badly they're winning/losing) and an unwritten rule that you don't publicly take the piss.

So Svlad...

Billy Bremner, Georgie Best, Balotelli, Van Persie and Henry, Ronaldo, Adebayor

any time someone does a step-over or a reverse pass for fun, that Colombian keeper with the scorpion kick

and how many other times?

And they can expect the approriate reaction from an opposition midfielder. That's the reality of football - somneone takes the piss, they get clattered.

Maybe not as obviously as Collnson did, but they still get clobbered at an approriate opportunity.

[Hampshire Royal]

You do realise, Snowball, that none of the players you mention are English...

Imagine if it was a West Ham player who did that to (say) Pearce, and he then clattered him. What would be the reaction of Reading fans?

[southstand67]

You do realise, Snowball, that none of the players you mention are English...

Imagine if it was a West Ham player who did that to (say) Pearce, and he then clattered him. What would be the reaction of Reading fans?

Isn't Pearce a Scot?

[The Cube]

...to the players they're fellow professionals and there are expectations in how they treat each other - there's an understood level of mutual respect (no matter how badly they're winning/losing) and an unwritten rule that you don't publicly take the piss.

What level of mutual respect do you think West Ham's players show to ours?

[royal-ross]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxFEHgt3 ... e=youtu.be

Watch, laugh and enjoy

[Hampshire Royal]

The bastrad!!

And Collison is of course Welsh.

[Svlad Cjelli]

...to the players they're fellow professionals and there are expectations in how they treat each other - there's an understood level of mutual respect (no matter how badly they're winning/losing) and an unwritten rule that you don't publicly take the piss.

What level of mutual respect do you think West Ham's players show to ours?

I've seen no blatant shows of disrepect from them - have you? Apart from a couple of young players losing their tempers they behaved like fellow-professionals.

But even if they had, are we now on the "two wrongs make a right" or "they did it to us so we're allowed to do it to them" arguments?

[Hampshire Royal]

I don't know if they've done anything like that to us, but IF they did their reaction was just a bit hypocritical.

[Snowball]

You do realise, Snowball, that none of the players you mention are English...

Imagine if it was a West Ham player who did that to (say) Pearce, and he then clattered him. What would be the reaction of Reading fans?

I would say Pearce should be banned for a dozen games

There's a difference between an over-robust, even dangerous challenge,
and a two footer trying to win the ball in midfield


But when a player consciously and deliberately tries to injure another player
he is guilty of a criminal offence and should spend a lot of time out of the game.

Why is "sledging" OK, and boxers winding each other up, OK, but poor sensitive footie players can't cope?

[andrew1957]

I think this was probably the best performance of the season. For the first time since August RFC looked like a side that might just make top 6. I really did not think we had it in the team this season but there was a steely determination shown that has simply not been there before this season so far.

Could not really fault anyone and great to see Kebe come back to form at last. I have been very critical of him this season as to me he has simply not tried and I just hope this is not just a case of putting himself in the shop window for January.

Good for Churchy too. I think he has just lacked confidence and those two goals might just be the making of him. If I were Brian I would still keep in on the bench for now though and just ask him to play the super sub role. Hunt is great at running a defence ragged and ALF is looking more and more of a class act to me.

Let us just hope that this performance is the spring board for a fantastic second half of the season.