Blackburn (H) - Back from the game

[John Peel]

Think the comments about Akpan are harsh. I've always thought he wasn't as good as Guthrie, but first half today he was actually pretty good. And even though he dropped off second half and made a couple of howlers passes, he wasn't THAT bad. I'd still play Guthrie though ahead of him. And wish Legs was in contention (what has happened to his progress??).

Drenthe should come on every game as an impact player. He definitely isn't fit enough to start but has skill second-to-none.

Thought we were average today and Blackburn looked good and knew what they were doing. What annoyed me more than anything else was the constant hoofing by players from the back. Personally, I had enough of that under Brian.

Also, apart from the 7-1 and 5-1 wins, the number of shots on target we've had at home has been abysmal. Far too few. I can't work out if it is down to poor service or down to poor play by our forwards. Probably the former but today I thought was one of ALF's worse games in a while.

Agree about Pearce generally e.g. constantly reverting to pulling back players. But today I thought was one of his better games. Still, I'm glad Morrison is back to light training this week.

[peterroyal76]

I thought Guthrie played well when he came on today.

As a sweeper, yes. If he could just play a little higher up the pitch though..

He wasn't playing that far back.

[MmmMonsterMunch]

The stewards have a lot to answer for today. It immediately set the tone for a more sinister, aggressive atmosphere culminating in the fans getting a bit too irate & frustrated with the players.

The officials didn't help either though TBF.

A match best forgotten & I've still never seen us beat fcuking Blackburn! What a fcuking bogey team they are for us.

2 stonewall pens in both matches against them not given - they can consider themselves very bloody lucky indeed to have taken 4 points from those 2 games.

Alfie looked like he wanted to kill the ref by the end of the game. How the lino on the other side missed the cheating little cnut scoop the ball away with his hand is beyond me. The whole stand appealed where I was sat.

[SPARTA]

I thought Guthrie played well when he came on today.

As a sweeper, yes. If he could just play a little higher up the pitch though..

He wasn't playing that far back.

He wasn't supposed to be but he was dropping deep to collect the ball, rather than let the defence step up and feed the ball to the midfield. It's what Guthrie does, and to be fair he is a decent midfielder, but he has a tendency to come too deep when he would be more useful in an advanced position.

[bcubed]

Far too much moaning from us about bad officials. Everyone gets them, deal with it! Our biggest problem is we are still far too nice and far too honest in our approach. In the Premier League we were on the end of gamesmanship almost every week, and this season several times already, yet we stand there and let it happen. McAnuff stopping play today when we were on the break. It's the refs decision to decide if the game should be stopped, not the players, but he walked with the ball for what felt like 20 seconds, the fans baiting him because he should have played on, and then he put it out and shrugged his shoulders - and that's the captain // Mr Nice Guy McAnuff. What happened in the second half when they should have returned the ball to us? Did they? No, and then both the fans and the players felt hard done by! That guy who rolled around for 5 minutes until the stretcher came out, then jumped to his feet and when called back on got straight to a jog and 15 seconds later a sprint!! Gamesmanship is wrong, but it happens far too often and we are far too soft and honest for our own good. It's time to play equally as dirty. If you're nice, you get rolled over!

This was the worst of many aspects of Macanuff today
Apparently his contributions are subtle and not everyone can see them
I saw poor decisions, no end product (especially when put through by Pog) giving the ball away for the goal and weak shots.
Very good second half last week but boy was this poor today
And to cap it all the above incident when I had to question how serious he is about winning

[sandman]

He was shite. First thing he did was look around bewildered with no idea where the ball was, made a awful tackle which resulted in a Blackburn free kick and once again "our only Premier League quality midfielder" ©the official Danny Guthrie fan club created zilch. One of the reasons I wouldn't be overly upset if we don't make/go up through the play-offs is that we just may get rid of Guthrie, although God knows who would take him.

Unfortunately I also suspect he will be back in next week but that would say more about our manager than the player himself.

Sorry Sandman but your one eyed view of Guthrie is the only comment that should be laughed at. Plenty of others think Guthrie did well today & looked sharp. Guthrie>>>>>>Akpan IMO. Worth noting that Williams was decent throughout & this whole Williams can't play with Guthrie thing is a load of nonsense.

What has he done at the club apart from a couple of months at the start of the season? What has he really done in a Reading Shirt? please, please, please answer! Yeah I have a view on him but certain people have a 'one eyed view' on Akpan.

Akpan might not be the best footballer in the world but he at least looks like he wants to play for Reading whereas Guthrie looks more interested in his hair.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

So.... we are blaming McAnuff for 'not wanting to win the game' because he decided to kick out the ball for an injured professional? SHAMBLES.

[bcubed]

The stewards have a lot to answer for today. It immediately set the tone for a more sinister, aggressive atmosphere culminating in the fans getting a bit too irate & frustrated with the players.

The officials didn't help either though TBF.

A match best forgotten & I've still never seen us beat fcuking Blackburn! What a fcuking bogey team they are for us.

2 stonewall pens in both matches against them not given - they can consider themselves very bloody lucky indeed to have taken 4 points from those 2 games.

Alfie looked like he wanted to kill the ref by the end of the game. How the lino on the other side missed the cheating little cnut scoop the ball away with his hand is beyond me. The whole stand appealed where I was sat.

Agree with all this

Stewards very distracting
Ref and linos very shit - offered no protection against a to put it mildly a no nonsense team who perpetually scythed our players down

[bobby1413]

- Y25 stewards. They relaxed for a long time with standing (didn't they?) so why in the last 2-3 games have they got worse, and today was the worst example. It's distracting as you just get about 10 orange jackets and everyone staring at them and not the game. Ignoring it is a fruitless exercise - particularly as it was more interesting watching them than the actual game.

Surely the blokes that got taken out did something worse than just standing up? Anyone know what that was about?

I don't know what they said, but they certainly didn't do anything other than standing - I was watching them from the moment the first steward walked into the row to talk to the people involved.

[bcubed]

So.... we are blaming McAnuff for 'not wanting to win the game' because he decided to kick out the ball for an injured professional? SHAMBLES.

Not his job

[Winnershroyal]

There was a scuffle, albeit a one punch scuffle, at the back of the North stand today, strange atmosphere, sheeite game.

QPR game drifts from memory very quickly.

[MmmMonsterMunch]

Not sure what bit was more comical - the utter failure of the Drenthe / McAnuff free kick routine or Drenthe running to collect the ball from our half & then stacking it by the lino because he was completely fcuked having ran for all of.....6 seconds.



Wish some people would stop jumping on Adkins' back after each defeat though. Last week it was "Fair play Adkins you've proved me wrong" etc etc & now we lose a scrappy sh1t game (with the opposition doing their best to make it that type of contest) & it's "Adkins football is bad, shouldn't have sacked McD" blah blah all over again.

It's getting oxf*rd tedious now.

The fact 'Arry lost at Charlton & hasn't won in 4 games should tell you all you need to know - this is a hard league to get out of.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

So.... we are blaming McAnuff for 'not wanting to win the game' because he decided to kick out the ball for an injured professional? SHAMBLES.

Not his job

No, you're right. Stuff sportsmanship. It's hardly like we were through on goal..

[bcubed]

So.... we are blaming McAnuff for 'not wanting to win the game' because he decided to kick out the ball for an injured professional? SHAMBLES.

Not his job

No, you're right. Stuff sportsmanship. It's hardly like we were through on goal..

It's the refs decision and he saw it clearly
Play to the whistle

[MmmMonsterMunch]

What has he done at the club apart from a couple of months at the start of the season? What has he really done in a Reading Shirt? please, please, please answer! Yeah I have a view on him but certain people have a 'one eyed view' on Akpan.

Akpan might not be the best footballer in the world but he at least looks like he wants to play for Reading whereas Guthrie looks more interested in his hair.

Most people on here including me think Akpan has done ok & have said as such. You spout this hate filled bile against Guthrie for no good reason that I can see other than well....you just don't really like the guy & don't judge him based on football reasons.

How on earth can you deduce Guthrie doesn't want to be here?? When all was at sea the first 2 months, he held the team together. The team was bit tinkered with a bit and then his form dipped which coincided with a bad shoulder injury. He was having painkilling injections for quite some time when we had loads of injuries & was not 100% yet still played. That doesn't show me a player that doesn't want to be here.

For me he is more composed on the ball, can take good set pieces & has a better range of passing & actually looks when he passes which sometimes I don't think Akpan does so well. I think it's good that Akpan is now nipping at his heels after an extended run in the team, but I'd still pick Guthrie over him each time.

If you're going to make a decent argument at least say something meaningful other than you don't like him or his hair.

[The Real Sandhurst Royal]

No idea, no second game plan, all we did was continually pump the ball up field to give the Blackburn central defenders heading practice.

Blackburn came to do a job and we played right into it.

[SCIAG]

This team is far too inconsistent to finish in the top six.

That seems a stretch. We've not been too inconsistent to place in the top six for most of the season. Our inconsistency may yet be our undoing, but we're plainly not far too inconsistent.

[Pandoras Box]

No idea, no second game plan, all we did was continually pump the ball up field to give the Blackburn central defenders heading practice

Thought that was Gunter's first and only plan.
Don't mind losing - but headless chicken hoofball every time we go one goal down is getting a bit depressing.
How many shots do we have on target when we revert to this style of play? F* all, that's how many.
Worse - even when we are running around in shapeless panic, it still isn't entertaining or exciting - How do they manage that?

[John Madejski's Wallet]

One of those days really. Some players just not at the races and plodding through on the back of the QPR result (I'm looking at you McCleary)

Pretty dreadful all round, compounded buy some insanely bad substitutions from Adkins (surprise, surprise)

Taking off Pog at 1 down is just and the replace him with HRK is just .... did he even touch the ball?
Guthrie the better player, but prefer Akpan in the middle

[Four Of Clubs]

One of those days really. Some players just not at the races and plodding through on the back of the QPR result (I'm looking at you McCleary)

Taking off Pog at 1 down is just and the replace him with HRK is just .... did he even touch the ball?

... agree on the McCleary comment but thought HRK looked more threatening with his few touches on the edge of their box, than ALF & Pog had done combined for the previous hour.

Pog seemed to have put in one of his 'floppier' shifts today - kept being nudged off the ball and fell over at every opportunity with minimal contact. Think the ref just ignored him from about 20' on.