BFTG-Fulham

[Ian Royal]

Thought Smith was unlucky to see red at the match. Watching the highlights that was a nailed on red.

Great finish by Blackman. Taylor & Pog unlucky not to score and Cox really should have buried his chance.


I'd actually be interested to see a Guthrie - Norwood midfield. They should be able to really control games and you'd expect them to be able to move the ball well between them. I don't think it'd be too lightweight either. Neither are great enforcers, but they're not wet blankets either. Likewise, once Kuhl has aged a bit and gathered some more experience I think he's shown him and Norwood could work too.

[JC]

Thought Smith was unlucky to see red at the match. Watching the highlights that was a nailed on red.

Great finish by Blackman. Taylor & Pog unlucky not to score and Cox really should have buried his chance.


I'd actually be interested to see a Guthrie - Norwood midfield. They should be able to really control games and you'd expect them to be able to move the ball well between them. I don't think it'd be too lightweight either. Neither are great enforcers, but they're not wet blankets either. Likewise, once Kuhl has aged a bit and gathered some more experience I think he's shown him and Norwood could work too.

I am not sure that Guthrie-Norwood would work. It was noticeable today that Akpan had one of his best games and I think that was because Norwood holding the midfield gave him much more freedom to get around the pitch. I think that Guthrie would want to play the same role as Norwood albeit, on recent experience, not as well

[St. Brynjar]

Thought Smith was unlucky to see red at the match. Watching the highlights that was a nailed on red.

Great finish by Blackman. Taylor & Pog unlucky not to score and Cox really should have buried his chance.


I'd actually be interested to see a Guthrie - Norwood midfield. They should be able to really control games and you'd expect them to be able to move the ball well between them. I don't think it'd be too lightweight either. Neither are great enforcers, but they're not wet blankets either. Likewise, once Kuhl has aged a bit and gathered some more experience I think he's shown him and Norwood could work too.

I am not sure that Guthrie-Norwood would work. It was noticeable today that Akpan had one of his best games and I think that was because Norwood holding the midfield gave him much more freedom to get around the pitch. I think that Guthrie would want to play the same role as Norwood albeit, on recent experience, not as well

Disagree, I think Guthrie-Norwood would be a fantastic partnership. One of the two sitting deep would allow the other to maraud the box. The only issue I have with it is that it would keep Williams and Karacan out of the team!

[Hoop Blah]

Name - Passes - Accuracy - Long balls - Accuracy
Norward - 106 - 92% - 19 - 79%
Pearce - 81 - 93% - 3 - 0%
Hector - 78 - 88% - 10 - 50%
Gunter - 65 - 91% - 7 - 43%
Akpan - 53 - 89% - 5 - 60%

Just out of interest, at what distance does a pass become a long pass? There must come a (probably arbitrary) point when the stattos call a pass 'long'.

25 yards.

Despite Fulham being so bad that it takes the edge off our performance I thought it was a very good showing from us and the new boys, along with Obita returning to his best position, gave us a much more balanced and threatening side.

Still think there's a lot more to come from this squad but if we can put in a few more performances like that the confidence should grow and we'll have a chance of doing well this season.

[urz13]

Good performance. Disappointed we didn't try properly to score more. I think many are getting carried away though - had Smith not been sent off it wouldn't have been anywhere near as comfortable and Fulham are a dreadful side at the moment.

Federici - 7
Gunter - 5.5 no ambition to ever take on his man, just stops and passes back. Crosses, when he did get into advanced areas, were very poor. One great tackle though.
Pearce - 6
Hector - 7
Obita - 8
Mackie - 5.5 worked hard but was very ineffective - didn't beat his man once or get any crosses in. Has no pace also.
Norwood - 7.5
Akpan - 7 had a good game for the first time in ages, which I was very pleased to see, hopefully he can have a couple more now. Didn't misplace any easy passes!
Taylor - 6.5
Cox - 7 lively and intelligent
Murray - 8 great performance

[3points]

I don't think that yesterday's team is too far away from our first choice starting XI. I would put McCleary in for Taylor and Williams for Akpan. Though I think Karacan might get the nod instead of Williams.

Not much of a future for some of our players though

[P!ssed Off]

Missed 2 home league games in 2014 and subsequently missed 10 goals.
7-1, and now 3-0.

At Home in the league (2014)
Games Seen: 13. Reading goals seen: 16. (1.2 gpg)
Games Missed: 2. Reading goals missed: 10 (5 gpg)

I'm going on Tuesday so if you're after a goalsfest don't bother coming.

[Maguire]

Good performance made easier by a blatant red card. Just to pick out a few:

Murray - really knows what he's doing. Two goals on debut and some great forward play, looks like an excellent acquisition

Akpan - thought he played well having been given a bit more freedom to get forward, deserved his good reception when he went off

Obita - how much better does he look on the left? Superb delivery and loads of energy

Norwood - good range of passing, remains to be seen if he can dictate games in this league but he looked tidy

Blackman - he's a good player so get off his back. Plus he should start instead of Taylor when he'd fit

[The Real Sandhurst Royal]

Great result against a very, very poor Fulham side.

Norwood ran the midfield...what he is like in a battle only time will tell.

Cox and Murray linked well and great to see the debutante Murray get a brace.

My only criticism is we are one dimensional... We move it from side to side and eventually get the ball out to the left for Obita to take one touch and cross.

[genome]

My only criticism is we are one dimensional... We move it from side to side and eventually get the ball out to the left for Obita to take one touch and cross.

I think we were doing that because it was effective. Fulham didn't really adjust to the tactic so we kept doing it.

[loyalroyal4life]

I don't think that yesterday's team is too far away from our first choice starting XI. I would put McCleary in for Taylor and Williams for Akpan. Though I think Karacan might get the nod instead of Williams.

Not much of a future for some of our players though

Given Karacan is our captain, you would think he would actually make the starting 11.....

[Ian Royal]

Great result against a very, very poor Fulham side.

Norwood ran the midfield...what he is like in a battle only time will tell.

Cox and Murray linked well and great to see the debutante Murray get a brace.

My only criticism is we are one dimensional... We move it from side to side and eventually get the ball out to the left for Obita to take one touch and cross.

There were periods when Fulham just stopped chasing us and camped around their own box, static. So we just passed the ball amongst ourselves because we were winning comfortably.

I thought Mackie caused them problems too and we've now finally got some options on the bench to really change a game going forward.

[Royalwaster]

Yes and however poor Fulham were they occasionally did show some promise when coming forward, so it was a good idea not to give them the ball too often.

[RoyallyFcuked]

Disagree, I think Guthrie-Norwood would be a fantastic partnership. One of the two sitting deep would allow the other to maraud the box. The only issue I have with it is that it would keep Williams and Karacan out of the team!

Agree with this. Both of them could play either role, but personally I think it would work best to have Guthrie (or Williams) in a more deep lying role with Norwood free to move forward. His creative passing would benefit our wingers and strikers more.

Anyway, when McCleary gets back as well we are going to have a pretty decent team! Roll on the season!

[JakeTheRoyal]

Plus points.....Murray, Looked decent and worked hard, at last a striker.....3 points

Minus Points.....No midfield, All balls being played by defence, The guy sitting behind me in Lower West who kept saying "Well done boy" everytime a Reading player touched the ball.

Are you broken ?

[3points]

I don't think that yesterday's team is too far away from our first choice starting XI. I would put McCleary in for Taylor and Williams for Akpan. Though I think Karacan might get the nod instead of Williams.

Not much of a future for some of our players though

Given Karacan is our captain, you would think he would actually make the starting 11.....

Why? He is only club captain. McAnuff wasn't selected for a period last season and he was Captain too

[Ian Royal]

Plus points.....Murray, Looked decent and worked hard, at last a striker.....3 points

Minus Points.....No midfield, All balls being played by defence, The guy sitting behind me in Lower West who kept saying "Well done boy" everytime a Reading player touched the ball.

Are you broken ?

Hasn't Berry claimed to be a professional coach?

[Westwood52]

Don't know what effect the sending off had but best I have seen RFC play for a couple of years.

Feds: 7 One really good save, excellent distribution as usual.

Gunter: 7 Started poorly,one good interception, then got better & better.
Pierce : 6 Did his job
Hector: 7 Excellent on the ball,but heading not his strong point.
Obita: 7.5 Very good throughout.
Norwood: 8 My MOM-can Guthrie & him play together though ?
Akpan 6.5 Best I have seen him play-but the extra man clearly helped.
Taylor 5: TBF played out of position.
Mackie 6.5: Not quite at his best QPR days but will get better
Murray 8: Wow thought we were buying a cart horse, but he is a class act at this level 20 goals this season me thinks.
Cox 6.5 : Out of the game for long periods but got better late 2nd half.

Blackman 6.5 : Took his goal very well

Ref : Poor standard as usual-started well for 20 minutes- didn't duck the sending off-then it all went to pieces.

[Westwood52]

Good showing today. Within the first 5 minutes it was noticeable how much better balanced we looked having a left footed, attack minded left back.

Two minor criticisms. Felt we should have pushed on more in the last 20 as I felt we could have scored more, but we lacked impetus. Secondly, I thought Gunter had another day to frustrate. Gets forward well, but then kept cutting back onto his left foot and doing nothing with the ball.

Why bother pushing on with more goals when we have a tough game on Tuesday ?

[SCIAG]

Pierce : 6 Did his job

I spent quite a while thinking "but he's injured and didn't play..."

Alex Pearce Sweeney

Danny Graham Alexander Pierce Sweeney Todd Frazier Campbell