never done this but needs to be done.........
congratulations to the U21's on a great result today. bit dodgy first half and quite reminiscent of the senior team - trying to play it out from the back, making poor decisions and then giving the ball away. sadly always two yards from the penalty area so brought on huge amounts of pressure. Luckily, Man City youngsters were not very good at finishing so we got away with it.
second, massively improved performance and arguably, they had been told not to concede in the first half and started to play with real determination and drive. Loads of chances created and eventually, they made it pay with two good goals (City keeper at fault for first??) and a great individual finish for the second. probably should have had two more as well.
Milk the glory, as, as much as the second half was entertaining, there are at best two players that could step up anywhere near the first team squad based on the overall performance. Maybe its harsh as first time I have watched them and there is the obvious pressure of the occasion, but......
its a trophy won which is likely to be the only one we see for a while
Congratulations to the Club as well for making the day family friendly -even my 4 year old watched 10 minutes!!!
BFTG Man City
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RoyalBlue
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EverHopeful never done this but needs to be done.........
congratulations to the U21's on a great result today. bit dodgy first half and quite reminiscent of the senior team - trying to play it out from the back, making poor decisions and then giving the ball away. sadly always two yards from the penalty area so brought on huge amounts of pressure. Luckily, Man City youngsters were not very good at finishing so we got away with it.
second, massively improved performance and arguably, they had been told not to concede in the first half and started to play with real determination and drive. Loads of chances created and eventually, they made it pay with two good goals (City keeper at fault for first??) and a great individual finish for the second. probably should have had two more as well.
Milk the glory, as, as much as the second half was entertaining, there are at best two players that could step up anywhere near the first team squad based on the overall performance. Maybe its harsh as first time I have watched them and there is the obvious pressure of the occasion, but......
its a trophy won which is likely to be the only one we see for a while
Congratulations to the Club as well for making the day family friendly -even my 4 year old watched 10 minutes!!!
Bit harsh to say that they always gave away possession two yards from the penalty area. Whilst they did lose possession on occasions through poor decisions/the odd misplaced pass, it was rarely in that sort of dangerous position. What's more, when they did, they were usually very good at defending the situation and that was just as significant as City's poor finishing on occasions.
I was very impressed by how cool they were at handling dangerous situations just in/outside their box. Maybe it bordered on naive but they quite often dribbled/played/passed their way out out of danger, rather than just hoofing the ball away (which often leads to problems when the ball lands at the feet of an opponent.
Overall, their passing and movement was considerably better than what we have recently seen from the first team and is clearly the style of football that Adkins would like to see his highly paid professionals accomplishing!
So the academy teams play good attractive possession/passing football, the women's team play good attractive possession/passing football and both setups are winning things with that style of football. If only the first team could follow their example!
Just got back myself!! That's a fair report EverH. We were really under the cosh in the first half and had Man City been able to get their shots on goal we could (and should) have been 2 or 3 goals down and game over. The nearest we got to a goal was when an unexpected and strong back pass took their GK by surprise and the ball nearly evaded him!! The report on the OS doesn't reflect the dominance that Man City had in that first half.
We were better in the 2nd half but both possession and number of chances were still in City's favour. The first substitution proved to be decisive as Fosu scored with pretty much his first touch of the game scoring well from a tight angle. The second followed a minute or two later (from a City mistake I think) and then it was a nail-biting last 15 mins (+ 3 minutes added) for us to see out. We were by no means just on the defensive in those last minutes though and maybe should have taken one of the 2 or 3 chances we had to punish them on the break. Uguwu and Kelly were both through on goal with team-mates in good positions but tried holding on to the ball too long and lost it.
The result was all the more creditable as our captain and playmaker - Aaron Kuhl was missing from the team (although on the team sheet) so I assume he must have received a knock. He was at the ground and kitted out to receive the plaudits with the rest of the team though.
To be honest their performance was not up to the standard I have seen from them previously. There were too many mis-placed passes and very much too much unnecessary short passing between GK and back four which got us into trouble more than once! Ugwu had a very quiet game by his standards and hardly got into the game. Tshibola took the captain's arm-band and was probably our best player despite a few horrendously misplaced passes. Lincoln made a few good saves and was confident in collecting the high balls but he must have attended the Alex McCarthy school of distribution I'm afraid. Almost all his goal kicks were short passes to one of the full backs and City soon cottoned on to that and started closing them down quickly resulting in the afore-mentioned dangerous passing in front of goal. Another disappointment was the way they seem to have copied the First Team's inability to challenge at throw-ins.
But they won the cup!! Our defence looked pretty sound under intense pressure for most of the game and we took two of our limited chances and they took none of their many chances. So we win!! And congratulations to all playing and all others involved.
Sir JM was there but I didn't see NA. That is not a criticism because, whatever you think about him, there is no doubting his belief and support for our Academy and U21 teams. But we have another place in history - winners of the very first U21 Premier League Cup!!!
We were better in the 2nd half but both possession and number of chances were still in City's favour. The first substitution proved to be decisive as Fosu scored with pretty much his first touch of the game scoring well from a tight angle. The second followed a minute or two later (from a City mistake I think) and then it was a nail-biting last 15 mins (+ 3 minutes added) for us to see out. We were by no means just on the defensive in those last minutes though and maybe should have taken one of the 2 or 3 chances we had to punish them on the break. Uguwu and Kelly were both through on goal with team-mates in good positions but tried holding on to the ball too long and lost it.
The result was all the more creditable as our captain and playmaker - Aaron Kuhl was missing from the team (although on the team sheet) so I assume he must have received a knock. He was at the ground and kitted out to receive the plaudits with the rest of the team though.
To be honest their performance was not up to the standard I have seen from them previously. There were too many mis-placed passes and very much too much unnecessary short passing between GK and back four which got us into trouble more than once! Ugwu had a very quiet game by his standards and hardly got into the game. Tshibola took the captain's arm-band and was probably our best player despite a few horrendously misplaced passes. Lincoln made a few good saves and was confident in collecting the high balls but he must have attended the Alex McCarthy school of distribution I'm afraid. Almost all his goal kicks were short passes to one of the full backs and City soon cottoned on to that and started closing them down quickly resulting in the afore-mentioned dangerous passing in front of goal. Another disappointment was the way they seem to have copied the First Team's inability to challenge at throw-ins.
But they won the cup!! Our defence looked pretty sound under intense pressure for most of the game and we took two of our limited chances and they took none of their many chances. So we win!! And congratulations to all playing and all others involved.
Sir JM was there but I didn't see NA. That is not a criticism because, whatever you think about him, there is no doubting his belief and support for our Academy and U21 teams. But we have another place in history - winners of the very first U21 Premier League Cup!!!
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RoyalBlue
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marlowuk Just got back myself!! That's a fair report EverH. We were really under the cosh in the first half and had Man City been able to get their shots on goal we could (and should) have been 2 or 3 goals down and game over. The nearest we got to a goal was when an unexpected and strong back pass took their GK by surprise and the ball nearly evaded him!! The report on the OS doesn't reflect the dominance that Man City had in that first half.
We were better in the 2nd half but both possession and number of chances were still in City's favour. The first substitution proved to be decisive as Fosu scored with pretty much his first touch of the game scoring well from a tight angle. The second followed a minute or two later (from a City mistake I think) and then it was a nail-biting last 15 mins (+ 3 minutes added) for us to see out. We were by no means just on the defensive in those last minutes though and maybe should have taken one of the 2 or 3 chances we had to punish them on the break. Uguwu and Kelly were both through on goal with team-mates in good positions but tried holding on to the ball too long and lost it.
The result was all the more creditable as our captain and playmaker - Aaron Kuhl was missing from the team (although on the team sheet) so I assume he must have received a knock. He was at the ground and kitted out to receive the plaudits with the rest of the team though.
To be honest their performance was not up to the standard I have seen from them previously. There were too many mis-placed passes and very much too much unnecessary short passing between GK and back four which got us into trouble more than once! Ugwu had a very quiet game by his standards and hardly got into the game. Tshibola took the captain's arm-band and was probably our best player despite a few horrendously misplaced passes. Lincoln made a few good saves and was confident in collecting the high balls but he must have attended the Alex McCarthy school of distribution I'm afraid. Almost all his goal kicks were short passes to one of the full backs and City soon cottoned on to that and started closing them down quickly resulting in the afore-mentioned dangerous passing in front of goal. Another disappointment was the way they seem to have copied the First Team's inability to challenge at throw-ins.
!
I didn't realise they sold alcohol that strong in the concourse!
IMO (and that of some others on here) Lincoln's distribution was excellent throughout. Any issues that 'came' from his distribution were a consequence of the receiver not being alert and quick enough to move the ball on as they were closed down and/or keeping possession and turning into trouble. Furthermore, City were only successful in closing us down like that on our left, we didn't appear to have the same problem when the ball was distributed to the right and Lincoln soon caught onto that.
I also thought that they were far better than the first team at throw-ins.
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Ginger Ninjas
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My comments from the other fred...
City bossed the first half and were pretty wasteful in front of goal, but didn't have many (any?) clear cut chances. Started the second half a bit brighter and the game gradually became more stretched. The introduction of Fosu added to this and he took the goal very well. This seemed to galvanise our lads whilst City looked deflated, a second duly followed with Stacey (who had been pretty anonymous, though must have been our youngest player?) finishing impressively after a beautiful flick chest pass from Tanner. Pretty composed from Reading after going two up, and whilst it would be hard to argue that the victory was deserved (in terms of chances at least), you couldn't fault their effort and commitment against a strong City side. Quick word on their No. 8 who I thought ran the show, played a bit like Vieira in hie early career, roaming forward from centre midfield with pace and power - he could be a top, top player (as a generic pundit would say).
Lincoln - quite a bit to deal with, looked good on crosses, some of his distribution was very good (particularly his throws), other parts poor - 7.5
Long - maybe a bit harsh, but didn't offer much going forwards and looked a bit shaky in defence - 5
Griffin - poor in the first half, much better after the break - 6.5
Keown - ok at centre back, looked a bit more comfortable when at right back - 6.5
Cooper - I thought he played really well against some tough opposition, obviously strong in the air (how tall is he?!) but also competent on the deck - 8
Tshibola - outnumbered at times, but composed on the ball, can't possibly be any worse than Akpan - 7
Sweeney - ok in midfield, but definitely looked more suited to centre back - 7
Stacey - as above, he came to life later on and took the goal superbly - 6.5
Kelly - good on the ball, but unsurprisingly outmuscled on occasions by the City midfielders - 6
Tanner - whenever he got on the ball in attacking positions he looked dangerous, great assist(s?) - 8
Ugwu - good work rate and held the ball up well, although very isolated in parts - 7
Fosu - very well taken goal and gave us the width we'd been missing earlier in the game - 8
City bossed the first half and were pretty wasteful in front of goal, but didn't have many (any?) clear cut chances. Started the second half a bit brighter and the game gradually became more stretched. The introduction of Fosu added to this and he took the goal very well. This seemed to galvanise our lads whilst City looked deflated, a second duly followed with Stacey (who had been pretty anonymous, though must have been our youngest player?) finishing impressively after a beautiful flick chest pass from Tanner. Pretty composed from Reading after going two up, and whilst it would be hard to argue that the victory was deserved (in terms of chances at least), you couldn't fault their effort and commitment against a strong City side. Quick word on their No. 8 who I thought ran the show, played a bit like Vieira in hie early career, roaming forward from centre midfield with pace and power - he could be a top, top player (as a generic pundit would say).
Lincoln - quite a bit to deal with, looked good on crosses, some of his distribution was very good (particularly his throws), other parts poor - 7.5
Long - maybe a bit harsh, but didn't offer much going forwards and looked a bit shaky in defence - 5
Griffin - poor in the first half, much better after the break - 6.5
Keown - ok at centre back, looked a bit more comfortable when at right back - 6.5
Cooper - I thought he played really well against some tough opposition, obviously strong in the air (how tall is he?!) but also competent on the deck - 8
Tshibola - outnumbered at times, but composed on the ball, can't possibly be any worse than Akpan - 7
Sweeney - ok in midfield, but definitely looked more suited to centre back - 7
Stacey - as above, he came to life later on and took the goal superbly - 6.5
Kelly - good on the ball, but unsurprisingly outmuscled on occasions by the City midfielders - 6
Tanner - whenever he got on the ball in attacking positions he looked dangerous, great assist(s?) - 8
Ugwu - good work rate and held the ball up well, although very isolated in parts - 7
Fosu - very well taken goal and gave us the width we'd been missing earlier in the game - 8
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ZacNaloen
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RoyalBluemarlowuk Just got back myself!! That's a fair report EverH. We were really under the cosh in the first half and had Man City been able to get their shots on goal we could (and should) have been 2 or 3 goals down and game over. The nearest we got to a goal was when an unexpected and strong back pass took their GK by surprise and the ball nearly evaded him!! The report on the OS doesn't reflect the dominance that Man City had in that first half.
We were better in the 2nd half but both possession and number of chances were still in City's favour. The first substitution proved to be decisive as Fosu scored with pretty much his first touch of the game scoring well from a tight angle. The second followed a minute or two later (from a City mistake I think) and then it was a nail-biting last 15 mins (+ 3 minutes added) for us to see out. We were by no means just on the defensive in those last minutes though and maybe should have taken one of the 2 or 3 chances we had to punish them on the break. Uguwu and Kelly were both through on goal with team-mates in good positions but tried holding on to the ball too long and lost it.
The result was all the more creditable as our captain and playmaker - Aaron Kuhl was missing from the team (although on the team sheet) so I assume he must have received a knock. He was at the ground and kitted out to receive the plaudits with the rest of the team though.
To be honest their performance was not up to the standard I have seen from them previously. There were too many mis-placed passes and very much too much unnecessary short passing between GK and back four which got us into trouble more than once! Ugwu had a very quiet game by his standards and hardly got into the game. Tshibola took the captain's arm-band and was probably our best player despite a few horrendously misplaced passes. Lincoln made a few good saves and was confident in collecting the high balls but he must have attended the Alex McCarthy school of distribution I'm afraid. Almost all his goal kicks were short passes to one of the full backs and City soon cottoned on to that and started closing them down quickly resulting in the afore-mentioned dangerous passing in front of goal. Another disappointment was the way they seem to have copied the First Team's inability to challenge at throw-ins.
!
I didn't realise they sold alcohol that strong in the concourse!
IMO (and that of some others on here) Lincoln's distribution was excellent throughout. Any issues that 'came' from his distribution were a consequence of the receiver not being alert and quick enough to move the ball on as they were closed down and/or keeping possession and turning into trouble. Furthermore, City were only successful in closing us down like that on our left, we didn't appear to have the same problem when the ball was distributed to the right and Lincoln soon caught onto that.
I also thought that they were far better than the first team at throw-ins.
He kicked it out of play a couple of times, but that was mostly because the defender gave him a poor ball and felt safer just getting rid rather than trying to find someone.
He's quite one footed as well so struggled to clear with his left.
Can't be critical though, not like we conceeded is it?
EverHopeful there are at best two players that could step up anywhere near the first team squad based on the overall performance
Well let's be realistic - if we can promote 2 players from the U21's into regular 18 man 1st team squads per season, then we will be in very good shape.
Tanner and Kuhl next season anyone? Give the rest another season, and we could see Tshibola and Stacey the year after etc etc.
Despite this season being disappointing at 1st XI level, (and how many clubs would actually like to swap with us on say an 8th place finish!), I really do think we could develop as a club over the next 2 or 3 years. It may grate with some here, but I do believe with Adkins at the helm, and Eamon Dolan doing his thing at the Academy, if we have patience, we could develop into something we could all be proud of.
Not RTG or anything, just my opinion.
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ZacNaloen
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As someone on twitter, who decided to rain on my parade earlier said, we could end up in the 2nd division of the u21 league next year.
Having looked at our results, it's that period early on where we lacked Tanner due to his ankle operation and Tshibola to an injury I can't recall where we suffered. And this was before Kuhl stepped up and started playing for them regularly as well iirc.
So they could suffer next season on the back of poor early season form. Still, they could finish as high as 10th as we have two games in hand on most clubs so this may not come to pass.
My dad has said they may be doing this on purpose so they can hopefully experience a promotion campaign or something (personally consider that wishful thinking, surely they'd want to be playing the best possible opposition?)
Having looked at our results, it's that period early on where we lacked Tanner due to his ankle operation and Tshibola to an injury I can't recall where we suffered. And this was before Kuhl stepped up and started playing for them regularly as well iirc.
So they could suffer next season on the back of poor early season form. Still, they could finish as high as 10th as we have two games in hand on most clubs so this may not come to pass.
My dad has said they may be doing this on purpose so they can hopefully experience a promotion campaign or something (personally consider that wishful thinking, surely they'd want to be playing the best possible opposition?)
RoyalBluemarlowuk Lincoln made a few good saves and was confident in collecting the high balls but he must have attended the Alex McCarthy school of distribution I'm afraid. Almost all his goal kicks were short passes to one of the full backs and City soon cottoned on to that and started closing them down quickly resulting in the afore-mentioned dangerous passing in front of goal. Another disappointment was the way they seem to have copied the First Team's inability to challenge at throw-ins!
I didn't realise they sold alcohol that strong in the concourse!
IMO (and that of some others on here) Lincoln's distribution was excellent throughout. Any issues that 'came' from his distribution were a consequence of the receiver not being alert and quick enough to move the ball on as they were closed down and/or keeping possession and turning into trouble. Furthermore, City were only successful in closing us down like that on our left, we didn't appear to have the same problem when the ball was distributed to the right and Lincoln soon caught onto that
When he threw the ball, Lincoln was good. It was his goal kicks (to the left and right) that I found frustrating. He did the short pass to one of the full backs so often that I thought he had a problem with his ability to launch a dead ball effectively. I wasn't the only one to think so. There were moans all around me when he continued to do this even when City had decided to press those full backs and make life difficult for them. I don't want to over-emphasise this as he is a good keeper and, as you said, we kept a clean sheet and we won the cup but it was a tactic that put us into trouble on several occasions.
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Very near...far away
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No Zinga then? He's usually around when the silverware gets handed out.
Yes great win yesterday. The idea that these players are ready for the champ. however is sadly misguided. At best I would say 2/3 players will come through. The under 18's really looked classy so it may be a while before we can build the new Reading team around our youngsters. Not sure where that leaves us for next season if there are no new owners and we are cutting out cloth. At best mid table survival.
Can't be relegated this season, as promotion/relegation doesn't come into the U21 level until next season. Even if there was, it's a 21 game season so that means we can't come any lower than 18th (out of 22).
http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/matchday/barclays-u21-premier-league-tables.html?paramYouthStage=NATIONAL
http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/matchday/barclays-u21-premier-league-tables.html?paramYouthStage=NATIONAL
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Royal Ginger
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glass half full
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Royal Ginger
Great picture!
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Royal Rother
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I don't think we should be critical of a young team passing it out from the back.
Getting that in their DNA is a very positive thing.
Getting that in their DNA is a very positive thing.
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Tony Le Mesmer
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The best reward for these players would be to play them in the 1st team v Burnley.
The match will be a dead rubber anyway, but these players deserve it. It will also be a kick in the face that the 1st team deserve.
The match will be a dead rubber anyway, but these players deserve it. It will also be a kick in the face that the 1st team deserve.
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ZacNaloen
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Unless they get absolutely ruined.
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Ian Royal
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Hey Cooper, Sweeney, Griffin, Keown. Congratulations on the silverware. As a reward you get to have a new arsehole torn for you by the best strike force in the division. Enjoy!
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Royal Rother
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Tony Le Mesmer
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Ian Royal Hey Cooper, Sweeney, Griffin, Keown. Congratulations on the silverware. As a reward you get to have a new arsehole torn for you by the best strike force in the division. Enjoy!
Will prepare them nicely for next season!
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