BFTG - Bradford

[Kitsondinho]

Decent result, awful game of football. Pog/Mackie excellent. Yak a nuisance when he came on. Norwood ran around a lot but wasn't great. Glad replay is probably on the Mon. Should be able to get down from Chesterfield! If the club doesn't repeat Bradford's general sale chaos with ticket sales

[3points]

agree with most on the game thread. Chalobah and Hec were very good. Pog deserves a lot of credit too, as well as Mackie, Kelly and Pearce. Also thought Feds made sure everyone stayed calm and did the basics and came for crosses and balls into the box. 7"s all round with 8 for Chalobah and Hec

Also glad the replay is on a Monday, as I couldn't make the Birmingham game

[TBM]

Bar the tackle on Stead, Kelly was poor I thought

[AthleticoSpizz]

[TBM]

:shock:

If that was aimed at my comment then he was...first half he looked lost, he gave the ball away far too much and was to blame for when they hit the post (jogging to close the man down). 2nd half he was better but i would much prefer Gunter there a week Monday.

[AthleticoSpizz]

I thought he had a decent game.

But thanks for the explanation

[3points]

Kelly spent most of the game up against Hanson who is a real handful. He put pressure on Hanson throughout the game, something Gunter would not have done.

[NR_Royal]

My thoughts:

Feds - 8 - Confident, played well when tested
Kelly - 6 - Tried a little, but didn't offer much. Positioning was ok.
Pearce - 8 - Controlled Stead well, looked a little dodgy at times but clean sheet so all good
Hector - 6 - Miscontrolled the ball far too many times, kicking it into dangerous positions. Got better as the game carried on.
Obita - 6 - Tried hard but lets a few too many crosses in.
Mackie - 8 - One of the few players who looked like they wanted to score/assist today. Hard worker.
Chalobah - 5 - Constantly kicking the ball upwards and panicking when in space - Infuriating to watch today
Williams - 7 - Tried getting the ball down most, looked like he cared.
Norwood - 6 - Not great but not bad. Set pieces weren't awful.
Robson-Kanu - 5 - Is this guy a winger or a striker??? The amount of times we had no-one on the LW was annoying.
Pogrebnyak - 7 - Tried really hard today, unlucky with the post shot.

Yak - 7 - Looks dangerous at times, but didn't have enough impact
McCleary - 6 - Improvement on HRK but needed to play on the wing, not upfront.
Akpan - I'm convinced he's no worse than Chalobah.

[CountryRoyal]

That was atrocious. The worst game of football I have seen in some time, the pitch combining with our aerial inadequacy combined to cause this.

I don't think we played more than 3 consecutive passes to each other, and even though the pitch was dire, we looked scared of even attempting to play it on the ground. This resulted in the biggest display of hoofball i can I remember in some time, which in itself wouldn't necessarily be a bad way to combat the conditions if we were actually any good at it. The vast majority of hoofs were thoughtless and headered away repeatedly. We were second to most balls and didn't win many headers, it was overall really quite poor. Credit to Bradford, they are familiar with their pitch (obvs) and used the conditions to their advantage. They were really organised, especially their defensive unit, and pressed well - giving us little time and space to operate. However, when we were afforded any time and the pitch opened up a bit;, we often made the wrong decision, slowed the play down, booted it away, got pushed off the ball, dribbled out of play... Or any combination of the above. Bar the shot that hit the post we never really looked like scoring and even though Bradford didn't either, they always seemed a bit more dangerous and got close on a few occasions.

Feds 7 - don't remember him having a shot of note to save but did everything that was required of him, that one handed take was decent. Could have maybe distributed faster

Kelly 5 - generally poor, especially offensively, but made a crucial last ditch tackle to prevent a certain goal.

Pearce 7 - dealt with most things, as with everyone else in the team poor passing

Hector 6 - as above but a bit worse

Obita 5 - beaten too easily, poor attacking, poor passing

Williams 7 - showed a lot of determination and energy, relatively in negetive, had one of the only two shots

Chalobah 7

Norwood 3 - absolutely dreadful. Wanted too much time on the ball, got dispossessed and ended up misplacing and or over hitting his passes... Really poor

Mackie 6 - good energy and passion but pretty innefective, gave away a few throw ins needlessly, nice touch giving his shirt to a kid (?) at the end.

Robson-kanu 3 - different sort of player to Norwood but equally as terrible on that showing, did nothig of note apart from fall over himself and annoy me

Pogrebnyak 7 - tried hard and when he had the ball at his feet often managed to find a pass, but beyond that pretty useless, why he can't win a header just once is beyond me. Unlucky with his shot which hit the post.

Cba to do subs

Ref was shocking, no idea what him/linesmen were playing at but I don't remember a game when so many decisions were ignored/overturned. One second we give a way a foul on the edge of our box, then he takes it back for a foul throw on the edge of theirs... Numerous ogre head scratching moments.

Great turn out by reading fans who were decent, really good for first 20 mins or so.

Lol at the guy wih the flare - just lit it randomly and then chucked it away as soon as he saw a steward walking up.

Roll on the replay but based on this showing, whatever team wins it is going to get destroyed in the semis.

[tlcs]

The question is .... What exactly does HRK bring to our club ?

[winchester_royal]

The question is .... What exactly does HRK bring to our club ?

Apart from the two goals that got us to today you mean

[kwik-silva]

quick initial thoughts from the train home

Pog/Mackie excellent. Back four solid enough. HRK/Norwood must do better. Quite liked our shape though. Felt like Yakubu should've been given twenty minutes but think Clarke was always gonna settle for a draw

[From Despair To Where?]

Kelly spent most of the game up against Hanson who is a real handful. He put pressure on Hanson throughout the game, something Gunter would not have done.

I was in the second row and Kelly and Hanson spent most of the first half within 20 yds of me. Kelly's handling of Hanson was excellent. Yes, his distribution was poor but that could be said of most of the team.

And whoever gave Chalobah a 5 is plain wrong IMO, he was winning headers in front of the back 4 and giving them great protection all afternoon.

[kwik-silva]

'Greed. Chalobah did exactly what we needed.

[tlcs]

The question is .... What exactly does HRK bring to our club ?

Apart from the two goals that got us to today you mean

I must remember that next time I watch him

[Snowball]

The question is .... What exactly does HRK bring to our club ?

Apart from the two goals that got us to today you mean

and the assist for the winning goal at Derby

[tlcs]

The question is .... What exactly does HRK bring to our club ?

Apart from the two goals that got us to today you mean

and the assist for the winning goal at Derby

So , besides the 2 goals and the assist
What exactly does he bring then ?

Is this a Monty Python moment

[Plymouth_Royal]

Not sure why a lot of you are scoring Hector so low. It was a horrible pitch, with a lot of high balls and the sun beaming straight in your eye. Despite all this he was brilliant. Chalobah my man of the match.

[winchester_royal]

Hector my MOTM by several country miles. Was really worried about how our creaky defense would cope against the Hanson/Stead combo but they didn't really threaten.

Chalobah did a good job, but I can't give MOTM to any of our front 6 given just how insipid we looked in their half. Big changes still needed in the summer, but was great to see plenty of spirit out there on the pitch. Bodes well.

[Ascotexgunner]

I really don't get you lot on here saying rubbish game and we were awful etc. It was a monumental result. They set the pitch up for them. Their home record in the cup is amazing. Premier league clubs like Arsenal have gone there and lost. We kept a clean sheet and hit the woodwork twice. Feds really wasn't troubled apart from a cross that beat everyone. Hector and Pearce were rock steady. I just don't get you lot sometime.