BFTG - Wednesday

[CountryRoyal]

Frustrating. That's 3 very soft goals we've conceded this season.

First half poor, second half improved. Still not creating enough clear cut opportunities, and we're wasteful with the ones we do.

Bond 3 - no saves to make, distribution poor, would have given a 5 but for the error, so he's been dropped 2 points, as he made us do tonight

Gunter 6 - unremarkable, didn't make any mistakes iirc

McShane 7 - good solid performance we've seen from him so far

Ferdinand 7 - again, decent

Taylor 6 - slotted in well

Norwood 6

Williams 8 - best player for us topped off with a well deserved, and well taken goal

Quinn 7 - he's like a better, ginger karacan

Tshbola 5 - too many mistakes for me, but a lot of the time he had the right idea which is encouraging. 5 feels a tad harsh

HRK 6 - less shit than usual

Sa 7 - biggest plus point for me today, really impressed me. It's a shame that 50% of the time when he received the ball it was blasted at him at shoulder height. Did well when ball was played to feet.

Cba to do subs.

Thought ref was mediocre.

I'm not really going to blame Clarke for this, had we held on to win we would have been commending his defensive substitutions to see out the game. Had we not made them and conceded a goal we would have bemoaned his lack of tactical awareness...etc

Al-habsi for MK Dons for me. We have the competition so why not use it, let bond learn from this and fight for his place again.

[blueroyals]

Bond - 3. Poor distribution and at fault for goal. Hasn't really had a chance to prove himself yet so will reserve judgement for now.

Gunter - 5. Average performance
Ferdinand - 6. Did well against their huge striker.
McShane - 7. See Ferdinand but gets an extra point for his passing + composure.
Taylor - 5. See Gunter.

Norwood - 6. Good passing and linked up defence + midfield well but was weak in the tackle.
Tshibola - 8. MOTM for me. Started the move for the goal with great vision. Unlocked the defence a couple more times after that. Good passing and composure and also great at tackling. What a player.

Williams - 8. Scored the goal and worked hard. Clearly not a winger and we lacked width + creativity on the right.
Quinn - 7. Worked hard and won the ball back a lot. Again, not a winger so lacked width.

HRK - 6. Mainly anonymous but showed signs of some good link up play with Sa. Played him through a couple of times. promising...
Sa - looks a great player if we play to his strengths. Definitely plays better with another striker to play off. Will score goals.

[tidus_mi2]

Al-habsi for Pompey and so long as he doesn't completely oxf*rd it up he should go in goal for MK Dons. We have the competition so why not use it, let bond learn from this and fight for his place again.

MK Dons game comes first.

[CountryRoyal]

Al-habsi for Pompey and so long as he doesn't completely oxf*rd it up he should go in goal for MK Dons. We have the competition so why not use it, let bond learn from this and fight for his place again.

MK Dons game comes first.

Yes it does

Ah Well, he's had 2 ropey performances on the trot. Give Al-habsi a chance anyway.

[Extended-Phenotype]

Sa appears to be settling into the typical Reading FC striker mould - can't hit a barn door but has the "works hard" excuse already in full flow.

[winchester_royal]

Sa appears to be settling into the typical Reading FC striker mould - can't hit a barn door but has the "works hard" excuse already in full flow.

Nope. He has plenty of quality to go with his work rate and showed that last night.

McShane was my MOTM, closely followed by Sa and Tish.

No bad performances, and for 89 minutes we did a real job on them. One moment of madness robbed us of 2 points, but if we play like that the rest of the season we'll pick up plenty of away wins.

The key now is to find a way of playing at home which allows us to force the issue.

[LWJ]

Al-Habsi who nearly cost us the Colchester game with an even easier catch than Bond's last night?

[The Cap]

What is it with our keepers? They both seem to have the ability to drop regular clangers. Why is that? Is it that Bond, still being young, is too anxious to impress and as for Habsi, well we all know that he has the odd 'dropsy' in his repertoire. Surely current form can't be filling the fans with confidence or the defence for that matter. Could it be time for the man Beasant to adopt the shirt for a while and show them how it's done. Obviously there's a hint of cynicism within that last sentence but hey, the irony of it all. I'd be interested to know peoples' thoughts on this matter.

[ZacNaloen]

I'm still confused as to why we got rid of Lincoln tbf so obviously I know sod all about keepers but that looked an easy catch.

[John Smith]

I've seen it once but it looked like a punch might have been a safer bet. Still I wouldn't want to see any player dropped after one mistake. Bond has to be kept in for me and given a chance to make amends.

[genome]

Bond is a young keeper and you'd like to think that these are the sort of mistakes most keepers commit and then learn from. I don't think you'll find him losing concentration in the 90th minute again for a while.

[melonhead]

Gutted.

Decent away showing.
Defence look solid.
Sa starting to show a bit
Hrk better
Controlled game, keeper had nowt to do, blown by a rush of blood/fumble

Oh well. Getting there imo

[Hoop Blah]

What is it with our keepers? They both seem to have the ability to drop regular clangers.

Regular clangers? They've played how many games for us?

I'm not saying they, like all keepers at this level and every other level, don't make a few mistakes but I think that's getting a little carried away after a couple of games.

[Stranded]

Of course, it should be noted that, our last custodian was perfect and never dropped a clanger at an important moment.

[RG30]

Credit to those who went up and travelled, wasn't prepared to pay the £20 increase from last season's match

[Upper West Ginger]

The overall performance was very encouraging, as we dominated Wednesday for long periods. I was impressed by Tshibola too, until he lost possession needlessly in the second half, launching a (rare) Wednesday attack. McShane and Ferdinand are the best pairing we've had in central defence for a long time - certainly an upgrade on Pearce +1. Williams my MOTM.

[Ouagadougou]

I never understood why we were playing a largely unproven rookie goalkeeper in the league ahead of an experienced ex-Premier League one. Surely it would've made so much more sense for Bond to have been the League Cup goalkeeper to get some more games under his belt before throwing him in at the deep end. Clearly not ready

[SCIAG]

I never understood why we were playing a largely unproven rookie goalkeeper in the league ahead of an experienced ex-Premier League one. Surely it would've made so much more sense for Bond to have been the League Cup goalkeeper to get some more games under his belt before throwing him in at the deep end. Clearly not ready

Bond was much better than Al-Habsi in pre-season. He's not especially inexperienced either, 22 Championship appearances plus 11 further Football League matches - more than Federici when he became first choice.

I'm not convinced he's an improvement on Lincoln or Henly, but I think we should give him more of a chance.

[Ouagadougou]

I never understood why we were playing a largely unproven rookie goalkeeper in the league ahead of an experienced ex-Premier League one. Surely it would've made so much more sense for Bond to have been the League Cup goalkeeper to get some more games under his belt before throwing him in at the deep end. Clearly not ready

Bond was much better than Al-Habsi in pre-season. He's not especially inexperienced either, 22 Championship appearances plus 11 further Football League matches - more than Federici when he became first choice.

I'm not convinced he's an improvement on Lincoln or Henly, but I think we should give him more of a chance.

Fair play, I'm yet to actually see Al Habsi play in a Reading shirt, but I find it hard to believe he could be doing a worse job than our resident spiller. I would say let Bond start against Dons to give him a chance at redemption, but if he has another shocker then defo bring in Al Habsi.

[RoyalBlue]

Bond is a young keeper and you'd like to think that these are the sort of mistakes most keepers commit and then learn from. I don't think you'll find him losing concentration in the 90th minute again for a while.

When I first saw the incident I thought that he had inexplicably fumbled the catch under no real pressure. Then one of the GKs in the family watched it with me and pointed out how quickly Bond had to move across to take the ball, which would have made it far more difficult to take what, on the face of it, seemed an easy take.

So should he have gone for it in the first place? if so, was he late deciding/reacting thus ending up having to move really quickly and putting himself under pressure for the catch. And, once in that position, would he have been better opting to punch away or help the ball on its way out wide, rather than try to catch?

I'm sure these are all the type of things he will have been asking himself throughout last night and have been running through with Beasant this morning.

Anyway, like Norwood, I was really p*ssed off and couldn't help expressing my frustration in the heat of the moment last night. Now I am back in the GKU. He will have learned from this and should be given further opportunities to prove his worth.