BFTG Derby (H)

[sandman]

Whilst I've never been Alf's biggest fan he is a good striker and unlike Cureton he's playing at good level and hasn't run away to Korea.

[Caversham Royal]

Whilst I've never been Alf's biggest fan he is a good striker and unlike Cureton he's playing at good level and hasn't run away to Korea.

Jamie was pushed by the worst headbutter in the league

[sandman]

Nope he was a self confessed poor trainer with a self confessed poor lifestyle who was overtaken in the pecking order by a better striker who was better at a higher level.

[McClearyFuseyChop12]

Adkins is drunk, starting with no striker and bringing on blackman rather than pog?
McCleary had a wonder as usual, gunter played decent.
We just need to shooooooooot more.....

[AthleticoSpizz]

Pog is injured

Blackman did ok...and missed as many chances as the rest...but at least he had made the opportunity to have that option.

I guess you gave Akkers 3 out of 10 too

[Caversham Royal]

Nope he was a self confessed poor trainer with a self confessed poor lifestyle who was overtaken in the pecking order by a better striker who was better at a higher level.

If you mean Nicky Forster, yeah right if you say so.......
If you mean someone else, yeah right no idea who you mean then......

[McClearyFuseyChop12]

Sorry munchers, but I thought Garath was no more than average today based on recent performances

Did you go to the game? him and gunter were the best players on the pitch, setting up lefondre and akpan who missed sitters from 2 yards out.. its adkins fault, he dont no what hes on about

[Royal Ginger]

On ALF's miss - I had a very poor view of it, but I thought it was one of those awkward ones where he's beyond the back post and the ball is coming in slightly behind him, with him having to reset his body shape and pulling wide of the goal.

But if peops say it was a shocker I'll take their word for it.

How their player didn't beat McCarthy one on one I have no idea. I thought that was far and away the best chance of the match.

I know what you mean. I had a very good angle on it, and on the face of it it looked like a shocking miss, and for someone who's paid 1000s a week to pu those in it probably was. On reflection he was half a yard further back then he wanted to be and was stretching. On balance between that, his handball (didn't think it was but have since seen the stills) and Akpan's miss we should have had 1.

[McClearyFuseyChop12]

not sure why Akpan tried to head the ball at ground level when he could have possibly got a foot on it.

Have you seen Akpan kick the ball?

yeah he kicked the ball today, i saw that a couple of times

[McClearyFuseyChop12]

Mcleary was in one of his 'can't be arsed' moods today, very frustrating

My love affair with Gunter continues unabated. MOM (&POTS) for me

We missed two sitters and they should have a had 2 or 3. Hey ho

...... 0-0 and take off your main attacking threat. For Blackman

Can't be arsed moods? Not the McLeary I was watching ... he made mistake sure, but can't be arsed ... didn't look like that to me. It's like when people phone in and say 'we lacked desire' when what I saw was plenty of desire but no skill ...

McCleary, get it right

[winchester_royal]

Meh. Probably could have won that, but weren't good enough to deserve it. Didn't come close to controlling the game, which is disappointing given the level of our last two performances, and in all honesty I felt Derby edged it. Hal going off was a bummer as he was just started to get some form going...his fragile body is in danger of putting a pretty low ceiling on his career, and after that we looked thoroughly toothless with the one dimensional Le Fondre up front. The tactics weren't great either, constantly flinging balls into a box that only contained a short-arse striker. A plan b would have been nice.

Time to start getting the likes of Tanner and Tish involved. This current lot have no imagination, and very little scope for improvement. Loving the success and attention the academy is getting, but there's no point to it all if we don't bring them through...and let's be honest it's not like they're being held back because of the performances of others.

[bobby1413]

Listening to BBCRB before and Tim and Ady said:

"If he's (Pog) on the bench then he's fit. He's either fit or he's not."

To a large extent I agree as he's still taking a place on the bench.

Listening after and I was shocked to hear Adkins say Pog isn't fit. Why then is he on the bench?

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

Because he was not fit enough for 90 minutes, a short appearance possibly, sadly he wont win games off the bench, he rarely does when he starts.

As for crosses into the box to a short striker, folk moan when that happens with Pog on the pitch, as despite being tall is crap in the air.

From what I have read on here this season folk WANt Alf Pog Drenthe to succeeed, but sadly all three are incapable of a good run of games. Possibly as they think they are better than The Championship.

[paultheroyal]

Sorry munchers, but I thought Garath was no more than average today based on recent performances

Did you go to the game? him and gunter were the best players on the pitch, setting up lefondre and akpan who missed sitters from 2 yards out.. its adkins fault, he dont no what hes on about

Hi Gareth.

[WAZZOCK]

On ALF's miss - I had a very poor view of it, but I thought it was one of those awkward ones where he's beyond the back post and the ball is coming in slightly behind him, with him having to reset his body shape and pulling wide of the goal.

But if peops say it was a shocker I'll take their word for it.

How their player didn't beat McCarthy one on one I have no idea. I thought that was far and away the best chance of the match.

I know what you mean. I had a very good angle on it, and on the face of it it looked like a shocking miss, and for someone who's paid 1000s a week to pu those in it probably was. On reflection he was half a yard further back then he wanted to be and was stretching. On balance between that, his handball (didn't think it was but have since seen the stills) and Akpan's miss we should have had 1.

From my angle, it also looked like the ball was swerving around like anyone's business.

It should've been stuck in the back of the net, but it's gone now.

[If you still hate Futcher]

^^It also bounced just in front of Alf making it a bit harder, but yes you would expect a professional to be sticking those away

On Akpan's "miss" - he made a great run from the middle or the D to the corner of the 6 yard box just as McCleary released the ball but couldn't quite get there in time and so had to throw himself head first to even reach it

[Maguire]

Sometime last week I posted that I didn't get all the fuss about Gunter, so fair play to him for being a clear MOTM yesterday. Easily the best I've seen him play for Reading that I can remember.

Not sure why Drenthe is getting such good ratings though, thought he was aimless and a bit of a passenger for large periods of the game.

Derby - not a bad side really, I can see why they've done well. Jamie Ward had a good game.

Overall, pretty much cancelled each other out and once again RFC look light up top.

[Royal Ginger]

I think the praise for Drenthe is more about his application. He wasn't shying out of tackles like the rest if the team and he seemed really up for it. His positioning was questionable, but it looked like he basically had a free role. I particularly remember him making a lung busting 40 yard cross-field dash to cover Obita towards the end of the 1st half which summed it all up for me. Lots if passion, lots of effort, but needs a bit more direction.

[Victor Meldrew]

Sometime last week I posted that I didn't get all the fuss about Gunter, so fair play to him for being a clear MOTM yesterday. Easily the best I've seen him play for Reading that I can remember.

Not sure why Drenthe is getting such good ratings though, thought he was aimless and a bit of a passenger for large periods of the game.

Derby - not a bad side really, I can see why they've done well. Jamie Ward had a good game.

Overall, pretty much cancelled each other out and once again RFC look light up top.

Good to see that somebody else watched the game-Ward IMHO was the stand-out player on the pitch.
Also having listened to Radio Berks and to Adkins after the game I questioned whether I had been to the same game-they thought it was a cracking 0-0 but it is reassuring to come on here to see that they were in the minority and on a beautiful Spring afternoon the football was the only low point.

On the McCleary debate I thought that he was dreadful in the first half but our biggest threat in the second.
Two teams that were powder-puff up front (Derby haven't scored for 4 games) and it was annoying to hear that Pog was injured but still on the bench.
Should the club be looking to bring in a loan striker this week with a physical presence?
It's something that the weedy Kanu, the ineffective Blackman and the tiny Alf just don't offer.

[Agent Balti]

Ugh. A horrible midfield performance, nobody performed consistently but I guess that's the problem in a nutshell. McCleary didn't touch the ball for half an hour and only really got anywhere near going in the last 20. Odd.

HRK was totally hopeless up front. Would have preferred Blackman rather than him, imo. Akpan seems to be back to his lack of confidence phase again. The ball seems to just bounce off him, but saying that the first touch of almost of them was chronically bad. Often Derby seemed to do the basics a lot better than us.

Drenthe was our driving force, but again, lack of fitness means he can't last the 90. Still didn't put him putting in a very good shift, even ending up at left back to help out on occasion.

We missed Williams badly in the centre, for sure.