Basingstoke Royalgrey_squirrelSCIAG I hope Mills is back ASAP
And I hope you have too much Xmas Sherry typing that!
We do need mills back. The last couple of games he played he was excellent.
Cripple Creek An interesting perspective you get as one who is a lifelong fan but who never gets to watch games because of my location is that which appears on threads such as Back From The Game. I kind of rely on it for opinion and match reports from other fans. There is a lot of unanimity - for example, while views on Jimmy Kebe are mixed there appears to be a general agreement that "when on form he is great and very hard to play against". Similarly, while views vary on Reading's two goalkeepers "the ongoing Federici, McCarthy debate" - there is again general unanimity that they are both good goalkeepers and that the club has a very healthy "goalkeeping situation". However, there are other players about whom it is very hard to fathom. It is almost impossible as a non-spectator, for example, to have any real idea of the quality of J. Mills. Some seem to think he should be automatic first choice while others are vociferous in their views that he is barely a championship quality player. Same goes, although to a lesser extent, with Karacan.
Just an observation I thought I would share with those of you who read this far.
Handsome Man They played neat attacking football with Mackail-Smith looking a handful and their right winger also strong during the second half. However, their play-acting was pathetic: three times the ref didn't even give a foul let alone the red card all the writhing on the floor seemed to demand.
)BenReadingFC I quite liked this from NSC
In the mid-70s, in another life, I produced a poster for Royal Mail featuring the Albion. The headline was "Seagulls soar over BN3 7DE" and it featured a game at the Goldstone against Port Vale. It went down pretty well - people were nicking them off the sides of mail vans - and Reading asked for their own version so I went up to Elm Park one midweek morning.
As a I remember, the main stand backed on to a road, like the West Stand at BN3 7DE, and was clad in corrugated iron. Right down at one end was an elderly man up a ladder. He had a pot of blue paint and was painting the cladding in the house colour using a not-exactly-large brush. I asked the club's commercial guy about this heroic effort and he explained that the gent was a lifelong fan, now retired, who was painting the stand as a gesture of support for the club he had followed for 60 years. He wasn't charging.
Six weeks later I returned with a supply of posters. The man on the ladder was still there, but right down the other end of the stand, which was now a pretty strident blue. He'd been there every day for almost the whole summer.
From this I learnt one thing. To its supporters each club is the best club in the world but for this same reason no one should claim that other clubs are second rate. However successful, rich or well-supported a club is, it is no better than any other. It is just a matter of opinion and the postcode of the person speaking's maternity hospital. That needn't reduce the passion we have for our own club, but it should increase the respect we have for others'. Thank you, elderly Reading gent of 35 years ago.
Royal With CheeseBenReadingFC I quite liked this from NSC
In the mid-70s, in another life, I produced a poster for Royal Mail featuring the Albion. The headline was "Seagulls soar over BN3 7DE" and it featured a game at the Goldstone against Port Vale. It went down pretty well - people were nicking them off the sides of mail vans - and Reading asked for their own version so I went up to Elm Park one midweek morning.
As a I remember, the main stand backed on to a road, like the West Stand at BN3 7DE, and was clad in corrugated iron. Right down at one end was an elderly man up a ladder. He had a pot of blue paint and was painting the cladding in the house colour using a not-exactly-large brush. I asked the club's commercial guy about this heroic effort and he explained that the gent was a lifelong fan, now retired, who was painting the stand as a gesture of support for the club he had followed for 60 years. He wasn't charging.
Six weeks later I returned with a supply of posters. The man on the ladder was still there, but right down the other end of the stand, which was now a pretty strident blue. He'd been there every day for almost the whole summer.
From this I learnt one thing. To its supporters each club is the best club in the world but for this same reason no one should claim that other clubs are second rate. However successful, rich or well-supported a club is, it is no better than any other. It is just a matter of opinion and the postcode of the person speaking's maternity hospital. That needn't reduce the passion we have for our own club, but it should increase the respect we have for others'. Thank you, elderly Reading gent of 35 years ago.
That's a great story - some of our younger fans would do well to remember this sort of gesture in years gone by.
and now 1 point and 2 places above them and as for the woeful play acting, spare me. Two highlights - LuaLua sneaking a look up off the ground before collapsing back to his prone position, and Buckley getting tackled by Griffin then deciding he'd lost the will to play on so had a nice sit down. And our fukking players always put the ball out. WHY? Play on, it's their own fault they're a group of nancy boys.
chilipepper91 Don't get all the Karacan (of) love. Yes he runs around a lot but he can't play a forward pass to save his life. The one time he did to release McAnuff it went straight through his legs - presumably because Jobi was so aghast to see the ball travelling towards him and not bloody Griffin or Gorkss.
Svlad Cjellichilipepper91 Don't get all the Karacan (of) love. Yes he runs around a lot but he can't play a forward pass to save his life. The one time he did to release McAnuff it went straight through his legs - presumably because Jobi was so aghast to see the ball travelling towards him and not bloody Griffin or Gorkss.
It's James Harper all over again - a player who gets everywhere around the pitch, is constantly disrupting the opposition and always in their faces stopping them playing - and is criticised for doing that job so well by people who want every player to be an attacker. Stop the attack, give the ball to someone better placed = job done.
Would you refer someone like Marek Matejovsky, who could play some great passes forward but because he couldn't tackle to save his life he never had the ball in the firsat place to pass?
chilipepper91Svlad Cjellichilipepper91 Don't get all the Karacan (of) love. Yes he runs around a lot but he can't play a forward pass to save his life. The one time he did to release McAnuff it went straight through his legs - presumably because Jobi was so aghast to see the ball travelling towards him and not bloody Griffin or Gorkss.
It's James Harper all over again - a player who gets everywhere around the pitch, is constantly disrupting the opposition and always in their faces stopping them playing - and is criticised for doing that job so well by people who want every player to be an attacker. Stop the attack, give the ball to someone better placed = job done.
Would you refer someone like Marek Matejovsky, who could play some great passes forward but because he couldn't tackle to save his life he never had the ball in the firsat place to pass?
Harper split opinions too. But Harper generally had Sidwell alongside him, who was far more dynamic a player in terms of getting forward. "Stop the attack" = stop our own attack? I'd prefer a little bit of adventure to be honest, like Leigertwood who actually had a go on occasion. Every time Karacan got the ball he was never looking to take it forward, only to stop, turn and pass it backwards. Nearly resulted in a massive chance for them when he played a hospital ball to Gorkss, who got a very nice block from Pearce to get us out of jail.
chilipepper91 Don't get all the Karacan (of) love. Yes he runs around a lot but he can't play a forward pass to save his life. The one time he did to release McAnuff it went straight through his legs - presumably because Jobi was so aghast to see the ball travelling towards him and not bloody Griffin or Gorkss.
Brighton were Jekyll and Hyde. Created 4 or 5 top quality chances but couldn't finish any of them. CMS got his move to a bigger club - one promoted with Peterborough last year
Ref had a good game, if being a massive homer. They should've got a penalty and a few more fouls. And he should have booked their players every time they went down.
Oh yeah, Reading performances. McAnuff outstanding, the rest of them just pretty efficient really.
PieEater I think he's just saying Karacan is not creative enough. He certainly busts a gut to get forward on a break, or conversely to cover an opposition break. You certainly need someone like him in the team, someone with enough energy and running to keep going 90+mins, but creativity is just not his game.
chandog The only negative for me was unfortunately my favourite player, kebe. He really didnt seem interested once we went one up. He was getting involved nicely for the first half hour and was very unlucky not to open the scoring and also did well for the assist of jobi's first. But after that i cant really think of any times that he broke out of a jog and attacked the full backs with any real commitment. He did get another assist with the last goal but he was passed the ball and just played it across the box.
I really want to see kebe in a reading shirt every week as on his day he is our best player and will scare any defender in the country with his pace. But when he is clearly not that interested it is a bit of a wasted position as we have young and hungry players on the bench and in the reserves who would give their all if they were given a chance. I was watching him at the end of the game and perhaps worringly he was the first off the pitch, before all the brighton players. I hope im reading too much into this but yesterday his overall body language and effort didnt reflect a player who was happy at the club and enjoying the brilliant season we are having so far.
Svlad Cjellichandog The only negative for me was unfortunately my favourite player, kebe. He really didnt seem interested once we went one up. He was getting involved nicely for the first half hour and was very unlucky not to open the scoring and also did well for the assist of jobi's first. But after that i cant really think of any times that he broke out of a jog and attacked the full backs with any real commitment. He did get another assist with the last goal but he was passed the ball and just played it across the box.
I really want to see kebe in a reading shirt every week as on his day he is our best player and will scare any defender in the country with his pace. But when he is clearly not that interested it is a bit of a wasted position as we have young and hungry players on the bench and in the reserves who would give their all if they were given a chance. I was watching him at the end of the game and perhaps worringly he was the first off the pitch, before all the brighton players. I hope im reading too much into this but yesterday his overall body language and effort didnt reflect a player who was happy at the club and enjoying the brilliant season we are having so far.
TBF he's always really seemed to be disinterested a bit, even when he's playing superbly and tearing defences apart. I think it's just the way he is rather than anything we can read too much into.
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