BFTG Forrst (H)

[Deadlock]

I was at an away game once, can't remember where now, but the attendance was sparse. One lad was standing up, and an old boy sat six (empty) rows behind him was yelling at him to sit down and shouting for stewards. There's no way he could have been blocking anyone's view.

Some people just like to moan.

[sandman]

If your main interest is in stewards and swearing, please ignore the following as I am commenting on the game ...

We were undone by two wonder-strikes either side of a scrappy scrambled goal. Even a number of our own supporters applauded that last goal!

But the writing was on the wall in the first half. After an entertaining half hour between two well-matched sides we took the initiative and penned Forest back in their own half for most of the closing 15-20 minutes. Gunter was working really well with McCleary and it was his (Gunter's) excellent cross which invited a volley at goal from Pog (or was it Cox?). Other chances were spurned in that time too and it was not surprising that we would pay for our profligacy in that period of play.

And so it proved in the second half. We didn't play badly and the team played with passion so the 'booing' at full time was, in my opinion, unjustified. Having got ahead, Forest did not 'park the bus' but, understandably, were more defensive minded and we really struggle to break down such sides. Williams and Chalobah were joining the attack leaving wide spaces in our mid-field which Forest exploited with several dangerous counter attacks. We still had opportunities to score and should have scored but somehow we never looked like doing so.

No blame attached to Feds for the goals and he pulled off one magnificent save in the top left hand corner of his goal. I thought Obita had a good game and contained Antonio (who got a pretty good reception from the Reading crowd). Chalobah showed some nice touches but was guilty of giving away the ball too often. Pearce and Hector were solid with both Forest's first and third goals coming from shots from distance. Cox worked hard but without much end product and HRK was pretty anonymous for me. Williams and Gunter were MOTM with Pog and McCleary not far behind.

All in all this was much better than those woeful home performances against Leeds and Wigan and there was a better atmosphere in the crowd too. We need to be finding the target more often and to do that we need to be releasing the ball more quickly instead of dwelling on it while the opposition regroup. But 0 - 3 flattered Forest as I'm sure they would admit(?!).

Federici definitely at fault for 3rd. He was caught too far off his line & even though it was swerving a bit, the ball was hit practically straight at him. V poor & the latest in what's getting to be a collection of errors from the arrogant Aussie that have cost goals. He's not the only one under-performing of course though

See you may have had a point about him possibly being too far off his line but then you make a statement like that and completely lose it. From where I was, in the north, sat behind the two long range shots he was more at fault for the first one more than the third. The first one looped and he had an absolute age to move for it but stood rooted appearing to think it was going over, whereas the third was brilliantly struck. However, they were both very good and well struck goals.

Can they not just have been two fantastic goals? As Michael Robinson once said about the analysis of goals on MotD:

'There is a screaming necessity for a journalist,' he says. 'Because they all speak now in a certain argot, they all sit down comfy, comfy - Lineker, Hansen, Lawrenson and the rest. And there's no journalist saying, "Why?" Hansen thinks every goal that's ever been scored is a defensive error, because when you don't understand football, you can stop a tape anywhere running up to a goal and find a rick. But everybody makes an error.

So much focus in this country with even the best goals being from a supposed defensive error rather than just a great strike or an outstanding piece of team play.

[bcubed]

Hmm quite a strong argument you make there but having considered your well made point might I suggest you shut the oxf*rd up
HTH

Lame. X

I now see why so many on here think you are such a poor poster

[M Brook]

Heres the video:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1732878430271798

If the reports are accurate then it's a oxf*rd disgrace. The soul sapping atmosphere is large part of the reason why my trips to the Mad Stad are so infrequent.

And this is the petition to get the club to apologise for the treatment of the fans:

https://www.change.org/p/reading-footba ... -behaviour

That is pathetic.
He didn't get ejected for 'supporting his team', he was ejected for behaving like an anti social ar*e.
And yes I did see it happen.

[paultheroyal]

Hmm quite a strong argument you make there but having considered your well made point might I suggest you shut the oxf*rd up
HTH

Lame. X

I now see why so many on here think you are such a poor poster

[Snowball]

I was at the game, thought we should have gone in at least one-up.

We definitely edged the first half, and I was telling the ST holder who had missed
the Leeds/Wigan games that we we three times better than in those games.

But, so often, missed chances eventually cost you.

Even if there is "blame" (not closing down, imperfect positioning by Feds,)
two of Forest's goals were really very special, more-or-less the kind of goals
you just have to applaud.

The one in between, a bit of trickery doing Pearce, well that happens too.
Nobody is perfect. It wasn't like we were a side being ripped apart.

For me it was like playing decently against a premiership side and eventually
getting picked off by 1-2-3 good goals. (Don't mean Forest were Prem quality
but their goals were.)

First half Gunter-McCleary were very good indeed, but nothing quite happened
for us on the day. Cox has lost a lot of confidence shooting - happens to most strikers -
I remember arguments here about Shane Long who couldn't (and wouldn't ever)
score from open play.

We had good possession, made enough chances to have won most games, were never
sliced apart. despite the result, stand back and think, we played pretty well overall.

Previous game we lost to three very poor individual errors.

This game we lost to three top-drawer goals and our own profligacy
in front of goal. Confidence is low, luck is low. As long as the manage
can head off a total collapse in confidence, we'll be fine.

[P!ssed Off]

Heres the video:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1732878430271798

If the reports are accurate then it's a oxf*rd disgrace. The soul sapping atmosphere is large part of the reason why my trips to the Mad Stad are so infrequent.

And this is the petition to get the club to apologise for the treatment of the fans:

https://www.change.org/p/reading-footba ... -behaviour

That is pathetic.
He didn't get ejected for 'supporting his team', he was ejected for behaving like an anti social ar*e.
And yes I did see it happen.

Single-handedly responsible for creating the best home atmosphere all season; I couldn't care less if he's an anti-social arse.
He made my experience, and thousands of others, more enjoyable.
It's the absolute pcunt of a fan that dobbed him in to stewards for swearing that deserves a banning order.

[Snowball]

Single-handedly responsible for creating the best home atmosphere all season; I couldn't care less if he's an anti-social arse.
He made my experience, and thousands of others, more enjoyable.
It's the absolute pcunt of a fan that dobbed him in to stewards for swearing that deserves a banning order.

AGREE ON THE ATMOSPHERE

Seriously think we should wind up the stewards by separate blocks
standing in turn. If it riles them, then riles up the crowd, if the noise increases,
it will be good for everyone (except the stewards and away fans)

[Snowball]

On standing/sitting.

Happy to stand all game (feels more real),
happy to sit all game (getting older)
but I hate this up-down like a yo-yo stuff like in Y26

[bobby1413]

Was there a forest fan in the home end at Y26? I think there was as just after about 200 of our firm ran out the stadium.

The guy behind me was one and 5 minutes later came back announcing "he got a slap mate, got a farking slap"

[Esteban]

Heres the video:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1732878430271798

If the reports are accurate then it's a oxf*rd disgrace. The soul sapping atmosphere is large part of the reason why my trips to the Mad Stad are so infrequent.

And this is the petition to get the club to apologise for the treatment of the fans:

https://www.change.org/p/reading-footba ... -behaviour

That is pathetic.
He didn't get ejected for 'supporting his team', he was ejected for behaving like an anti social ar*e.
And yes I did see it happen.

In your opinion, he was anti-social. But in many other people's opinion, he was only doing what you expect to see at a football match. He was about two blocks away from where I was and he didn't seem to be doing anything over the top.

It's the complete lack of a common sense approach from the stewards that is the biggest issue and has been for a long time. Offer him the opportunity to move in to one of the thousands of other empty seats that were around first, somewhere his chanting would be appreciated. Then if he doesn't comply, eject him. And to wait until half time before jumping him in the concourse was ridiculous, the stewards knew they'd be unpopular and bottled it.

Aside from the ffootball, the lack of atmosphere at the ground is the fan's biggest gripe. The club have got to get a handle on that and create an area where fans understand that standing, shouting, swearing, whatever rules they want to enforce are clear, communicated properly and understood. You can't have your manager publically call for your fans to create an atmosphere and then prevent fans from doing so.

Ejecting fans should be a final resort, not the default position of the stewards.

Anyway, the game: they deserved to win, because we cannot score. But 3-0 definitely flattered them.

[Caversham Royal]

If your main interest is in stewards and swearing, please ignore the following as I am commenting on the game ...

We were undone by two wonder-strikes either side of a scrappy scrambled goal. Even a number of our own supporters applauded that last goal!

But the writing was on the wall in the first half. After an entertaining half hour between two well-matched sides we took the initiative and penned Forest back in their own half for most of the closing 15-20 minutes. Gunter was working really well with McCleary and it was his (Gunter's) excellent cross which invited a volley at goal from Pog (or was it Cox?). Other chances were spurned in that time too and it was not surprising that we would pay for our profligacy in that period of play.

And so it proved in the second half. We didn't play badly and the team played with passion so the 'booing' at full time was, in my opinion, unjustified. Having got ahead, Forest did not 'park the bus' but, understandably, were more defensive minded and we really struggle to break down such sides. Williams and Chalobah were joining the attack leaving wide spaces in our mid-field which Forest exploited with several dangerous counter attacks. We still had opportunities to score and should have scored but somehow we never looked like doing so.

No blame attached to Feds for the goals and he pulled off one magnificent save in the top left hand corner of his goal. I thought Obita had a good game and contained Antonio (who got a pretty good reception from the Reading crowd). Chalobah showed some nice touches but was guilty of giving away the ball too often. Pearce and Hector were solid with both Forest's first and third goals coming from shots from distance. Cox worked hard but without much end product and HRK was pretty anonymous for me. Williams and Gunter were MOTM with Pog and McCleary not far behind.

All in all this was much better than those woeful home performances against Leeds and Wigan and there was a better atmosphere in the crowd too. We need to be finding the target more often and to do that we need to be releasing the ball more quickly instead of dwelling on it while the opposition regroup. But 0 - 3 flattered Forest as I'm sure they would admit(?!).

Federici definitely at fault for 3rd. He was caught too far off his line & even though it was swerving a bit, the ball was hit practically straight at him. V poor & the latest in what's getting to be a collection of errors from the arrogant Aussie that have cost goals. He's not the only one under-performing of course though

See you may have had a point about him possibly being too far off his line but then you make a statement like that and completely lose it. From where I was, in the north, sat behind the two long range shots he was more at fault for the first one more than the third. The first one looped and he had an absolute age to move for it but stood rooted appearing to think it was going over, whereas the third was brilliantly struck. However, they were both very good and well struck goals.

Can they not just have been two fantastic goals? As Michael Robinson once said about the analysis of goals on MotD:

'There is a screaming necessity for a journalist,' he says. 'Because they all speak now in a certain argot, they all sit down comfy, comfy - Lineker, Hansen, Lawrenson and the rest. And there's no journalist saying, "Why?" Hansen thinks every goal that's ever been scored is a defensive error, because when you don't understand football, you can stop a tape anywhere running up to a goal and find a rick. But everybody makes an error.

So much focus in this country with even the best goals being from a supposed defensive error rather than just a great strike or an outstanding piece of team play.

Having watched the tv footage of the goals, my opinion of the 3rd remains the same as when I saw it from the East stand Sat. And my opinion of Federici as a character is based on how he has progressively come across during his time as first choice at Reading. I don't think I'm the only person that thinks that about him somehow. Sorry if that means I've 'lost it'....once again.......

[Will95]

Was there a forest fan in the home end at Y26? I think there was as just after about 200 of our firm ran out the stadium.

The guy behind me was one and 5 minutes later came back announcing "he got a slap mate, got a farking slap"

I noticed him being a cunt jumping and celebrating their goal, typical Reading fans ignored him, stewards grabbed him, then once he was almost out and safe as houses, Reading fans start to chase him. We're almost like Millwall

[Will95]

Anyway, first half was decent but boring, second half was absolute shit, stewards are cunts and two of their goals were great strikes.

[RG30]

He needed the Tadley Royals to give him a good seeing to

[Will95]

He needed the Tadley Royals to give him a good seeing to

I love how this is a running thing even though all but one of us until this season have gone for years and never been noticed on this forum but now we have a flag it's all changed

[bobby1413]

The pog he apparently upset a Forest fan:

[Victor Meldrew]

Where's Wally Downes these days?
When we were more recently in the Prem we had a dreadful habit of dropping off and letting players shoot and the habit has continued.
Normally at this level you don't get punished for doing it but yesterday we did.
Apart from the bleedin obvious that we don't have a genuine striker who can play for 90 minutes (Samuel, Tyson and Cureton all scored again yesterday FWIW) our full-backs also give the opposition room to cross when surely one of the main points of full-back play is to block any attempt to cross the ball.
I think it is a problem in English football generally with so many full-backs now being converted wingers and , apart from Kelly, our normal two are ridiculously weak in that area.

Fortunately for me I failed a fitness test for both the Wigan and Forest games but the performance (?) against Leeds is still fresh in the mind and I am just pleased that we have managed to raise our game for enough matches to be probably safe from relegation but this team of ours is one of the most spineless I have seen in all my years.

You know things are bad when the main concern is not blaming the ref for all of our faults but this time the stewards and who next time, the programme and lottery ticket sellers?

[me]

Didn't Pog arrive on the team bus with the rest of the squad?

[handbags_harris]

Didn't Pog arrive on the team bus with the rest of the squad?

Yeah, but they all park up at the ground and are bussed to Hogwood at 11am. They don't go back to Hogwood post-match.