BFTG - Luton

[John Madejski's Wallet]

Bit gutted by that. Really hoped we'd hold on and get out of relegation

Luton were decent but I was quite happy with the style of football we were trying to play. If only we shifted Ince on a few weeks ago

Azeez really frustrated me again. Lots of attacking pace, but just doesn't pass early enough. Two absolutely banging corners though

And what to say about Carroll.....stupid yellow in 1st half chasing his own fukk up, awesome header, then ridiculous handball. Fukker

Fair play for holding on and trusting the youngsters though

[Millsy]

Missed the game.

Read the match thread.

Good result.

Ratings please someone.

[Hound]

Yeah hard to be too annoyed with Carroll but that act of stupidity cost us the game

Weird to come home thinking that was a missed opportunity when we get a point after playing with 10 for half an hour against the 3rd place team - but that’s how I feel

They were so there for the taking at the start of the second half - we were all over them for 10 mins

[stealthpapes]

I'll take some time to get over all of that. Tense.

First half was assured, I felt. Nothing too amazing but matched a playoff side. Silly fouls, even yellows, here and there.

Great header for 1-0, ludicrous second yellow with 30 to play. I was broadly level (GU10) and it was very clear.

When they scored, I thought that was it. They'd simply swamp us with crosses etc.

Good point but ... maybe not enough ...

[John Madejski's Wallet]

Yeah I saw it hit a hand, but assumed it was a defender's at the time

[Snowflake Royal]

Missed the game.

Read the match thread.

Good result.

Ratings please someone.

Lumley - 7 I guess, I think a good save and some good commanding of his area but didn’t get enough on the cross for the goal and then had no idea where the ball went.
Yiadom - 7 good solid Yiadom of old performance
Holmes - 7 put in a lot of good work
Sarr - 7 one of his better games for sure
Guiness-Walker - 6 got quite a lot wrong today but defenddd fairly well
Hendrick - 6 Mr average.
Casadei - 6 some good some not great, lost it a bit too much
Azeez - 6 great couple of balls in, but doesn’t look fit and lost it a lot.
Fornah - 5 I like him and the way he plays, but some errors and didn't link up too well with NGW
Joao - 8 my MotM, really good dropping into the hole getting balls to feet, holding it and getting play moving. At the heartof almost everything we did well going forward
Carroll - ? Stupid challenge for a yellow after his error. Great header to score. Haven't seen the second well enough to decide if he meant to put it in with his hand or not.

Ehibhatiomhan - 6 ran hard
Camara - 7 final ball wasn't there but this kid is good. And he put in work in defence
Abrefa - 6 contributed to get us a point. He's not been as good as his early promise, but this is all invaluable for his development and he's certainly not let us down.

[Maguire]

Thought we were distinctly second best in the first half after the opening 15mins, properly clinging on for half-time. Poor at keeping the ball and a goal looked inevitable (great block by Sarr).

Much better start to the second half, a goal, then a dumb sending off. It was so obviously handball I didn't even celebrate the goal, but wonder how the ref came to his decision as he definitely awarded the goal and the linesman didn't seem to flag (?).

Reading defended pretty manfully after that and, whilst the equaliser was a shame, it wasn't undeserved overall. Decent point but we'll need to offer more if we want to stay up.

[John Madejski's Wallet]

Thought we were distinctly second best in the first half after the opening 15mins, properly clinging on for half-time. Poor at keeping the ball and a goal looked inevitable (great block by Loum).

Much better start to the second half, a goal, then a dumb sending off. It was so obviously handball I didn't even celebrate the goal, but wonder how the ref came to his decision as he definitely awarded the goal and the linesman didn't seem to flag (?).

Reading defended pretty manfully after that and, whilst the equaliser was a shame, it wasn't undeserved overall. Decent point but we'll need to offer more if we want to stay up.

Yeah I was confused by the ref changing his decision. Didn't see the lino flag and they didn't seem to talk to each other

[paultheroyal]

Another excellent battling performance.

Started well, Carroll missed that sitter and then Luton got on top. They performed / retreated to ince ways in the first half.

Second half brighter and goal was joyful. As was the second before our hearts got ripped apart. Always sensed Luton would score and we did well to hold on.

Hate it when fans keep the ball behind the goal. All that is doing is adding pressure and additional time. It helps no one.

Sarr and Hendrick were outstanding tonight as was Holmes. There is still hope.

Hope that guy is ok who got hit by a speeding car on pelican crossing in Brook Drive. Appeared to get very heated but I didn’t stick around.

URZ!

[Millsy]

Missed the game.

Read the match thread.

Good result.

Ratings please someone.

Lumley - 7 I guess, I think a good save and some good commanding of his area but didn’t get enough on the cross for the goal and then had no idea where the ball went.
Yiadom - 7 good solid Yiadom of old performance
Holmes - 7 put in a lot of good work
Sarr - 7 one of his better games for sure
Guiness-Walker - 6 got quite a lot wrong today but defenddd fairly well
Hendrick - 6 Mr average.
Casadei - 6 some good some not great, lost it a bit too much
Azeez - 6 great couple of balls in, but doesn’t look fit and lost it a lot.
Fornah - 5 I like him and the way he plays, but some errors and didn't link up too well with NGW
Joao - 8 my MotM, really good dropping into the hole getting balls to feet, holding it and getting play moving. At the heartof almost everything we did well going forward
Carroll - ? Stupid challenge for a yellow after his error. Great header to score. Haven't seen the second well enough to decide if he meant to put it in with his hand or not.

Ehibhatiomhan - 6 ran hard
Camara - 7 final ball wasn't there but this kid is good. And he put in work in defence
Abrefa - 6 contributed to get us a point. He's not been as good as his early promise, but this is all invaluable for his development and he's certainly not let us down.

Thx useful as ever.

Wow giving João an 8 and motm. Must've really impressed you. Shame about fornah Azeez and NGW

[URZZZZ]

Missed the game.

Read the match thread.

Good result.

Ratings please someone.

Lumley - 7 I guess, I think a good save and some good commanding of his area but didn’t get enough on the cross for the goal and then had no idea where the ball went.
Yiadom - 7 good solid Yiadom of old performance
Holmes - 7 put in a lot of good work
Sarr - 7 one of his better games for sure
Guiness-Walker - 6 got quite a lot wrong today but defenddd fairly well
Hendrick - 6 Mr average.
Casadei - 6 some good some not great, lost it a bit too much
Azeez - 6 great couple of balls in, but doesn’t look fit and lost it a lot.
Fornah - 5 I like him and the way he plays, but some errors and didn't link up too well with NGW
Joao - 8 my MotM, really good dropping into the hole getting balls to feet, holding it and getting play moving. At the heartof almost everything we did well going forward
Carroll - ? Stupid challenge for a yellow after his error. Great header to score. Haven't seen the second well enough to decide if he meant to put it in with his hand or not.

Ehibhatiomhan - 6 ran hard
Camara - 7 final ball wasn't there but this kid is good. And he put in work in defence
Abrefa - 6 contributed to get us a point. He's not been as good as his early promise, but this is all invaluable for his development and he's certainly not let us down.

Agreed with a lot of those, both ratings and comments. Joao was much better, although still not sure there was much cohesion between him and Carroll. Sarr probably worth an 8

Think you’re slightly influenced by pre match thoughts with Hendrick. Thought it was his best game in a Reading shirt. Could be wrong but seemed much more involved. Simple passes (but not safe passes as he’s too often been guilty of) and involved defensively.

Yiadom is an infinitely better RB than RWB. Makes such a difference having a player in front of him so he isn’t doing all the attacking down one side himself

[Jackson Corner]

I’ve enjoyed watching Carroll play for us this season. Went from hero to zero in 5 minutes. I can only assume the ref went by the Luton players as he gave the goal, and the Lino kept his flag down. Really disappointed and we miss him on Saturday.

[Orion1871]

Needed to win that if we were to stand a chance. Unfortunately can't see anything other than two away losses and that being that.

Stopped doing the things that were working in the first 15 minutes of the first half and let Luton dictate the the rest of it meaning we were hanging on for half time.

Second half started brilliantly, good goal from Carroll, and then the referee and linesman decided to send him off. From then on we were hanging on and we almost got away with it.

The final decision making from the likes of Azeez and Fornah leaves a lot to be desired which is ultimately what will cost us. Camara should have kept going with his run and he could've got a chance to shoot, but again the decision making wasn't there.

Joao deserves credit for working hard. I feel his work is a little too deep and we need him further up the pitch challenging defenders as well as he is challenging midfielders at the moment. Still no effort from him when the ball is in the air though sadly, he does it defending corners so don't know why he can't do it in attack.

[Mr Sitter]

Referees and their Assistants are in constant communication via earpieces.

[Stranded]

Decent display. Agreed after a bright start we rode our luck to go in level but we started the 2nd as we did the first and AC hit the target this time.

We looked good and like we would get the win. Then madness and we did well to get the point. Shame their goal was so scrappy but can't say they didn't deserve one.

Feels like big moments are going against us. QPRs fluke equaliser at WBA and AC's brainfart at 1-0. 2 key WTF moments that have seen a 4pt swing away from us.

[Hound]

Having seen the highlighted, their goal was ridiculously lucky. Thought they’d ran out of ideas a bit as well at that stage

Not sure if Lumley takes some blame for it but I thought generally he was top class again last night. Looking a decent keeper atm

[YorkshireRoyal99]

I thought Joao, Lumley and Hendrick did well last night, credit to Azeez for a couple of really good deliveries as well, especially for the goal and then Carroll's red card which he said was "accidental".

We've just got to keep battling, we've got to believe we can go to Coventry and get something, but maintained that if we win our last 2 games (or 2 of our last 3 as it is now) then we will stop up. I genuinely believe that a win will make a huge difference for us though, it's just about where we can get that from and Wigan presents a far better chance than Coventry.

How many players do we have missing for Coventry now? 11?

[Sutekh]

This isn’t over yet. An over eager striker who really should have known better, considering he was on a yellow already, got carried away (and let’s face it we see strikers get away with that from time to time so he thought it worth a try).

I expect absolutely nothing at Coventry other than a two/three goal defeat which leaves 2 games for the club to save itself. QPR are likely the realistic target to catch and, thankfully, they have an equally dodgy 3 games left so it’ll go to the wire, at least now we have a management team who seem to be “clued in” and the performances have a bit more energy and belief about them so the game is on!

[Sutekh]

How many players do we have missing for Coventry now? 11?

Yes, 11, of which only Meite and Ince would seem to have a chance of making it back before the end of the season - but what a pair to get back!

[Maguire]

Referees and their Assistants are in constant communication via earpieces.

Sure, but the linesman didn't flag and the referee awarded the goal so I initially thought they'd missed it.