Back from the miracle

[Ian Royal]

Feds is escaping a lot of criticism on here. Had we lost, I'm sure we'd all be talking about how he should have saved the second goal.

It looked poor from the East Stansd to me. However having seeen it on replay there is no way he could have covered the near post without leaving a huge gap the other side . Lukaku was getting towaqrds the centre when he shot.

Having now seen the goal on TV, I think that's a pretty fair assessment despite the commentator (who doesn't know the offside law, so probably knows even less about goalkeeping) saying that Federici would be disappointed.

Glad I'm not the only one.

[John Madejski's Wallet]

I've had a pop at Guthrie on here in the past after refusing to play or playing shit, but he was class today. Kept the team moving in the second half.

Amazing game, amazing result, just want to give a big two fingers to the North Stand for two reasons:

1) booing the sub of Karacan for ALF and singing "you don't know what you're doing"

2) shouting "fook off back to Russia you useless Russian pcunt" at Pav with 10 mins left

Seriosuly you lot are all oxf*rd and I hate you.

North stander here, heard none of that. Can't have been that loud.

Loads of it in Y20.

Lots of bitching about Pog, shouting that that was useless, not trying & needed to be subbed. They all started chanting for ALF then loads started booing when Jem's number went up as they wanted Pog off.

Never mind that Brian was changing to a 442, the utter phucking divs


To all those that did: Every single one of you spastics needs to take long hard look at yourselves and decide whether you actually support this club and whether you do actually know anything about football. Because right now you're an embarassment

[Divvy]

That felt like the worst 80 minutes we have played this season, but I've said that now on a few occasions. Is 4-5-1 really going to keep us up? Yes we've tightened up at the back, although we're still conceding too many goals, however offensively we are struggling with it. Continuously lumping it forward for Pogrebnyak to try and hold it up rarely seems to work for us, and for all his efforts, he really struggles with it too. We're also still failing to get bodies forward to support him, so when we do get a rare opportunity to hurt the opposition, we're all too often wasting it. The change to 4-4-2 made all the difference. Le Fondre's work-rate is often unappreciated judging by the comments online, but he continues to make the difference when he's out there, and could be forgiven for feeling a little aggrieved at starting from the bench at the moment. For me he is a lot more effective than Pogrebnyak.

The last ten minutes are just a blur. I couldn't find it in me to celebrate Kebe pulling it back to 2-1, I was just fed up with the poor performance up until this point; and then suddenly we have the penalty and we're 2-2 and on the front foot. The atmosphere was absolutely fantastic, and the smugness wiped off the Baggies faces was great to see. I can't comment on the winner. I saw the ball sit up in the box and then bang, all hell broke loose as Pogrebnyak put it away. It was one of those moments where your heart races so much so that you can't catch your breath when you try and sing and enjoy sticking one up at the opposition fans. In fact, I think I may have got a little carried away, as royalexile appeared to catch on camera.

Stand-outs for me we're McCleary again, who is a far greater threat than McAnuff, who continues to frustrate. Guthrie was also superb today. He has a fantastic range of passing, and he put himself about a bit as well. You could see he wanted the ball, rather than hide, and on several occasions he was talking to the bench and taking instructions; and Brian commented after the game he was delighted with how he took them on board and Guthrie's patience paid off in those final minutes. Mariappa also continues to impress me. His pace especially. I'm a fan of Morrison, especially for set-pieces, but it's hard to justify dropping Pearce or Mariappa to make room for him.

Delighted with the result, but it papers over a lot of cracks.

It's hard to disagree with most of that. we still need to tighten up at the back and we've got to learn to support Pog up front. In 4-5-1 you usually see the two wingers bomb forward to make a 3 up front, but ours are designed to be more defensive. If we don't conquer that, we go down.

[John Madejski's Wallet]

we still need to tighten up at the back and we've got to learn to support Pog up front. In 4-5-1 you usually see the two wingers bomb forward to make a 3 up front, but ours are designed to be more defensive. If we don't conquer that, we go down.

^^ This

Felt really sorry for Pog today. Battered around by two big centrebacks and got nothing from the ref. Worked his arse of with almost zero support from the wingers. Better in the second as Jobi did play as an attacking CM, and kebe supported better

1st half Guthrie spent most fo the half behind Carrico (who was supposed to be the DM), so Pog was completely isolated from our midfield.

[ZacNaloen]

I've had a pop at Guthrie on here in the past after refusing to play or playing shit, but he was class today. Kept the team moving in the second half.

Amazing game, amazing result, just want to give a big two fingers to the North Stand for two reasons:

1) booing the sub of Karacan for ALF and singing "you don't know what you're doing"

2) shouting "fook off back to Russia you useless Russian pcunt" at Pav with 10 mins left

Seriosuly you lot are all oxf*rd and I hate you.

North stander here, heard none of that. Can't have been that loud.

Loads of it in Y20.

Lots of bitching about Pog, shouting that that was useless, not trying & needed to be subbed. They all started chanting for ALF then loads started booing when Jem's number went up as they wanted Pog off.

Never mind that Brian was changing to a 442, the utter phucking divs


To all those that did: Every single one of you spastics needs to take long hard look at yourselves and decide whether you actually support this club and whether you do actually know anything about football. Because right now you're an embarassment

East stand just as bad then.

[Scutterbucketz]

Loads of it in Y20.

Lots of bitching about Pog, shouting that that was useless, not trying & needed to be subbed. They all started chanting for ALF then loads started booing when Jem's number went up as they wanted Pog off.

Never mind that Brian was changing to a 442, the utter phucking divs


To all those that did: Every single one of you spastics needs to take long hard look at yourselves and decide whether you actually support this club and whether you do actually know anything about football. Because right now you're an embarassment

Well said. It was fukking embarrassing. The two chaps behind me were berating him all game, not that he would have heard, but it seems people expect him to perform miracles when he gets absolutely zero service and our set pieces are terrible.

Thought Guthrie was very good today but his corners and set pieces were woeful. Hartes also hit the first man or went straight to the keeper.

[USA_Loyal_Royal]

i remember seeing the scoreline of 2-0 at work with 70 minutes to go and thinking "i bet everyone on hna is saying sarcastically we will win it 3-2". funny thing football is isnt it?

[blythspartan]

I couldn't go to the game to today as I was working and after reading the comments on here I thought we had fluked it. Just watched the game on "Football First" and I thought we weren't too bad. WBA actually defended really well and Lukaku is a 15m plus striker for fcuk sake, so you would expect him to look good.

[cmonurz]

There's obviously more context if you we're there, and I wasn't, but having watched the game on Football First I'd concur with the view that we weren't terrible, especially in the second half, where West Brom defended pretty well.

[RoyalBlue]

Loads of it in Y20.

Lots of bitching about Pog, shouting that that was useless, not trying & needed to be subbed. They all started chanting for ALF then loads started booing when Jem's number went up as they wanted Pog off.

Never mind that Brian was changing to a 442, the utter phucking divs


To all those that did: Every single one of you spastics needs to take long hard look at yourselves and decide whether you actually support this club and whether you do actually know anything about football. Because right now you're an embarassment

Well said. It was fukking embarrassing. The two chaps behind me were berating him all game, not that he would have heard, but it seems people expect him to perform miracles when he gets absolutely zero service and our set pieces are terrible.

Thought Guthrie was very good today but his corners and set pieces were woeful.

Several of his corners and set pieces were very well hit and placed. Hit with pace and accuracy into danger areas but for some reason his team mates failed to attack those areas. I remember one corner that was set up on a plate for one of our big defenders coming in around the back but unusually we didn't appear to be doing that in this game.

[SPARTA]

[Tony Le Mesmer]

Harte was not great also

I wouldnt say he was MOM but how the hell can you go to the game and come to that conclusion? Just watched the match again and apart from giving the ball away badly right at the start of the 2nd half some of his passing was superb. Influential in 2 of the goals as well, as he so often is. Just what the hell are people expecting from him? Every week people seem to be waiting to slate him and i have no idea why.

[Millsy]

So watching it on video shows you all the moves off the ball does it ?? and players working off the ball does it ??

You had to be there to post how the players did MATE !!

Comedy backpedalling.

You're embarrassing yourself buddy.

Maybe HNA isn't for you old boy. If you manage to get onto the Internet again one day, join another forum to make your 174 posts in 8 years.

[Royalee]

Federici: 6
Harte: 6
Pearce: 8
Mariappa: 6
Gunter: 4
McAnuff: 4
Carrico: 5 but clearly not fit, he'll be fine
Karacan: 6
Guthrie: 6
Kebe: 6
Pog: 7

McCleary: 6
ALF: 7

[Ian Royal]

Wow, the penalty was actually two penalties, handball and a foul.

Yep see some pretty good passes from Guthrie in there involved in our chances at the end, missed those first time waiting to see the result of the chances. Spotted the first poor effort to Kebe that was cut out for the McCleary miss, but didn't notice he picked it up from the clearance and then played the second great ball into Kebe. Great ball for Pog to run onto a bit later too.

[Tony Le Mesmer]

Pearce: 8

lol. This thread just gets better.

[Ian Royal]

Pearce: 8

lol. This thread just gets better.

Not really at fault for either goal, assist on the winning goal.

[MouldyRoyal]

He let Lukaku turn him and get away too easily for the first goal I believe*

*This is from my memory of the game live, haven't seen highlights.

[joeroyal]

Federici: 6
Harte: 6
Pearce: 8
Mariappa: 6
Gunter: 4
McAnuff: 4
Carrico: 5 but clearly not fit, he'll be fine
Karacan: 6
Guthrie: 6
Kebe: 6
Pog: 7

McCleary: 6
ALF: 7

You must be some sort of a sad person, with all them post's have you not got a Wife, G/freind, or Mother you can talk to

[Ian Royal]

He let Lukaku turn him and get away too easily for the first goal I believe*

*This is from my memory of the game live, haven't seen highlights.

I've seen it a few times now. I think Lukaku is incredibly clever, he subtly body checks Pearce and then goes away from him into the space. Pearce's momentum is checked and he's not the quickest so he can't get back to him. Carrico's blowing out of his arse and can't get close. Harte can't get to him quick enough and reach round him to win the ball.

All came from Pog slightly over-running a pass that McAnuff hit a little too far behind him and us losing possession. Could argue Kebe should have been closer to picking up the loose ball from that pass given where it was going to. TBH, I think it was just one of those cases where no one really does much wrong and it's excellent play. I've criticised Mariappa for a few things, but I wouldn't say he even did particularly badly in trying to stop Morrison put it across.

I'll refrain from criticising Royalee's scores, would be a bit hypocritical.