BFTG Barnsley

[winchester_royal]

There was a Barnsley player who literally pushed Gunter in the same manner right after the McCleary shove, the only difference was the Barnsley player was a pansy and barely made Gunter lose his balance.

Well exactly. If every push resulted in a sending off there'd be 7 men left on the pitch by the end, 3 of which would be officials.

[Kitsondinho]

Back home, after a stop for a meal in Sheffield. A superb performance today, really enjoyed it! Happy to admit Stam is proving me wrong and is clearly building a very decent team. I haven't seen us defend as well as we did today for about 4/5 years! Superb for 50 odd mins with 10 men!

GMac was amazing until his (sadly) deserved red. I know the Barnsley captain got Williams with a nasty tackle and then got in his face.....but you can't run over and push someone like that without getting a red. It may have been harsh, but as soon as GMac raised his arms, he was off. Agree that Gunter had the same thing happen to him 3 mins later, but he didn't roll round like a pig in ox***d. Suspect it looked less obvious to the ref so he didn't react. He wasn't great today....far too card happy and certainly influenced by the home fans (see Blackett's yellow for 'time wasting').

In terms of the team, thought Obita did an excellent job when came on and really helped close off their main threats. Evans is looking better with each game and Al-Habsi had one of his outstanding days. Overall a very enjoyable day out!

[Snowball]

Sounded like Williams had a very good game, too.

Not my favourite midfielder, but fair play to him.

Just one point behind 3rd place and we've played

3rd Away
4th Away
5th Home
7th Home
10th Away
11th Home

That is a tough start, so maybe we have the makings of a real side here.

(and 19th H and 24th A)

[maffff]

There was a Barnsley player who literally pushed Gunter in the same manner right after the McCleary shove, the only difference was the Barnsley player was a pansy and barely made Gunter lose his balance.

That was in retaliation to what looked like Gunter running over and elbowing him in the head.

[Royalwaster]

Look at the pictures on the OS and the way Kermy celebrates the final whistle .... got to give it to him, he looks like he's celebrating promotion!

[maffff]

Look at the pictures on the OS and the way Kermy celebrates the final whistle .... got to give it to him, he looks like he's celebrating promotion!

Love seeing our players actually giving a shit.

[Gunny Fishcake]

Stam starting to make his mark early on....top performance sort of performance we've seen in the good years , true spirit and dying for the shirt , very ecouraging

[Kitsondinho]

Look at the pictures on the OS and the way Kermy celebrates the final whistle .... got to give it to him, he looks like he's celebrating promotion!

Love seeing our players actually giving a shit.

Plus he ran his socks off and won 90% of the battle in the air with the Barnsley CBs. Especially impressed with his work after half time!

[Stockport Royal]

One of the best first halfs I've seen a reading team play in a good few years.

McCleary was stupid, good of him to hang about after the game for pictures with the fans though after the game.

Most positive I've felt in a while about reading fc

Good times are coming back I reckon

[CountryRoyal]

Hands down the best performance of the season, especially considering we were playing with 10 men for 60 minutes against the league's highest scorers who previously had a 100% home record.

We looked sharp, bright, and hungry. We defended astutely and attacked with purpose. Don't really remember us passing around the back four. Our passes were quicker and more accurate, there were overlapping runs, people coming in short, running behind... Everything was at a much higher tempo and there seemed to be a greater understanding.

I thought the referee was dire and that the red was harsh (didn't they stamp on someone?). He pushed him over.. big deal. How many times have we seen that and it has been a yellow? His hands didn't touch his face, he didn't punch him, slap him, spit at him...etc He oxf*rd pushed him. Big deal. Unfortunately this is probably going to mean McCleary out for the next 3 games as it falls under the category of "violent conduct". I'm just so glad it didn't fully spoil the game. In fact such, was our dominance and level of performance, even after the sending off we still looked like we had more players on the pitch and were the only team likely to get a goal.

Half time came and it was always going to be a different encounter second half, but it was far from being one sided imo. Barnsley put us under the cosh at times and did have their chances, but through a combination of poor finishing and excellent defending we prevailed.

I can't be bothered to do ratings as everyone was terrific but special shout out to Williams who I thought was excellent.
Not many negatives from the game bar we still don't create a huge amount of really clear cut chances, a long range effort and another (still counts) penalty, obviously we may have created more had we not been down to 10 men for most of the game. BUT please don't think I'm criticizing the performance, I said if I had to find a negative. After seeing that I am far more confident in the direction we are going and that in time we will start scoring more goals and creating more clear cut chances. The play in the middle of the park was fantastic today and coupled with our more resolute defending as of late there are certainly grounds for optimism (if we continue to improve now we have demonstrated that we can actually play). Every successful team needs to build from the back and that's exactly what we have done.

Happy days.

Just to add well done to those that travelled and i thought the fans were pretty good. I also really like Oakwell, nice ground and the stewards were class.

[3points]

Sounded like a great performance. It is often the case that we need a team to come and play against us rather than just sit back like Birmingham did. I think we may see some fairly dull fair at the Mad Stad as too many teams just come for a point these days. Swift seems to be a real find; pity we couldn't have got Tammy Abraham as well.

Really pleased with today and look forward to next Saturday.

[SCIAG]

pity we couldn't have got Tammy Abraham as well.

Tammy Abraham is the only player I've heard booed at a youth match. No thanks.

[CountryRoyal]

I'm surprised there weren't more clubs in for Armstrong. 20 goals last season and already 3 in 4 in this.

[Platypuss]

A) it was provocated.

Are you suritated about that?

[Royal Ginger]

Look at the pictures on the OS and the way Kermy celebrates the final whistle .... got to give it to him, he looks like he's celebrating promotion!

Love seeing our players actually giving a shit.

This is why I'm not particularly upset at McCleary. Yes, clear sending off and clearly stupid, but if it's because he's pumped up playing with pride and passion then I'll happily take a couple of silly sendings off in exchange for the apparent entheusiasm. We'll get a good look at Harriott over the next few weeks too.

[CountryRoyal]

Look at the pictures on the OS and the way Kermy celebrates the final whistle .... got to give it to him, he looks like he's celebrating promotion!

Love seeing our players actually giving a shit.

This is why I'm not particularly upset at McCleary. Yes, clear sending off and clearly stupid, but if it's because he's pumped up playing with pride and passion then I'll happily take a couple of silly sendings off in exchange for the apparent entheusiasm. We'll get a good look at Harriott over the next few weeks too.

I'm not upset with him at all. I loved the reception he got when he went off and I liked the sense of togetherness with the players and everyone.

[Royal Ginger]

Listened to the game on Radio Berks-Deller's commentary still awful.

Strongly disagree. I don't get to many of the long haul away games so listen to them on the radio. Sure he has off days, but today he had me on the edge of my seat and painted quite a vivid picture whilst injecting a bit of personality. I'm not sure what else you could have wanted today.

[Winchester Royal]

Within reason, what else was McCleary to do while that northern gobshite stood over Williams and gave him an earful? Tap him on the shoulder and say 'excuse me, could you kindly not do that?'?

Great to still pick up 3 points after that incident.

[Nameless]

Two good teams, a very good game. Happy to see that sort of thing every week.
Shame McLeary let himself and the team down. You won't see a more obvious red than that and I can't believe people are trying to defend it. I understand looking out for your team mates and by all accounts Williams was being subjected to pretty nasty abuse but he was not being physically assaulted and McLeary should have let the ref deal with it. If he had it would probably have been a red the other way but by acting the way he did he deflected attention from the real villain. Still. His team mates helped him out by putting in a huge performance and it will be good to see Harriott

[sandman]

Good performance in the first half until McCleary's stupidity, which he was rightly sent off for. After that it was backs to the wall but we showed some spirit to get the win. McCleary's behaviour was even more disappointing given the fact he was the best player on the pitch. Pleased to see us playing further up the pitch and not going back to Al Habsi every five seconds.

Al Habsi - Great save at the end to keep the points. 7

Gunter - Usual self. The new system, with Evans dropping in to defence, seems to hide his defensive liabilities. 6
McShane - Solid for the most part but almost gave the points away with a terrible pass which led to Barnsley almost scoring. 7
Moore - Comfortable on the ball and looks a class above at this level. 7
Blackett - Steady for the most part, over committed once and almost got caught out in the first half. 6

Evans - Better than recent performances, looked for the ball more often and tidy in possession. 7

Williams - Hustle and bustle as usual, some very good tackles. Just lets himself down by being such a hot head, could easily have been sent off instead of getting away with the yellow. 7
Swift - Great goal and did well to win the penalty, we look much more creative with him in the team. 7

McCleary - Let down by his moment of madness, not sure how anyone can think it was harsh. Before then he was brilliant. Ran the LB ragged and if he'd have stayed on he and we could have had a couple more goals. 7 (sure it would have been a 9 if he'd stayed on)
Kermorgant - Worked hard but has no pace. 6
Beerens - Fairly quiet as most of our attack was going down the right when McCleary was on. Did well when we were down to 10 as he's not the sort of player you want in a backs against the wall situation. 6

Subs:

Obita - Did well when he came on and helped Blackett well. 6
Quinn - Steady. 6
Mendes - Hope he's just adjusting to a new country. Can't believe Samuel isn't seen as a better option. 4