MATCHWATCH : Leyton Orient (h)

[Royalcop]

Felt in the first 5 minutes we were going to struggle in this game, vibe just felt off - I’ve not checked the stats but seems like we always find it difficult to get going after international breaks?

CBC really should be out on loan making those mistakes somewhere else and learning from them before coming back. Beyond the howler for the goal, his kicking and general distribution was shockingly bad today.

Campbell looked promising, positive on the ball and really should have equalised.

Dorsett was dreadful today, we need a specialist LB in; must be someone we can loan from the leagues above who would at least be confident in the position.

[leon]

Second live game this season for me and the Brum match on TV

Can over anaylse but just a bad day for most players all round, Once Orient went ahead fair play to them for busting a gut to hold onto the lead, I thought if we equalised we would go on to win, but crowd didnt do its bit bit to raise the passion.

After the Wigan game I was saying the team is really well drilled and coached all knew what they were doing - today was a shambles

Defence was nervy - justifiable with change of keeper. Inauspicious debtus for CBC and Campell (Azeez would have scored that miss).

Midfield had a great big hole in the middle, attack suffered from high punts and messed up passes through the channels

For me the biggest issue is Wing in that position - most experienced and best chance creator - but playing quarterback he is wasted. Was ok in the Wigan as all the others around him were on fire. Today he had a pretty ineffective contribution. That DM postion should be Craig - make the tackle simple pass forward to the more creative players - Wing and one of Elliot/Savage. Wing should be playing higher up the pitch and controlling the game there, Abrefa is a FB so play him there.

Hopefully Knibbs Smith and Kelvin can sparkle in the box. Early days for Campbell so lets cut him some slack

Subs were fairly pointless on the whole apart from Knibbs

Orient didn't win the game we lost it - ultimately down to CBC howler. Shame for him - if his wordly save had gone in but he made the regulation save for the goal, then maybe less critiscm but then again keepers are there to make a difference.

First 13 is good - have a hunch the non takeover may be impacting morale

Hopefully Selles can learn and work some magic - happy with a top 10 finish

Great post. Especially on Wing. Plays too deep. Doesn’t find space and doesn’t give the out ball that he can to beat a high press.

[leon]

Anyway that was a genuinely absolutely appalling performance. Orient set themselves out and we walked right in.

As ever too many touches, ponderous, no commitment. Second to every ball. Fcuked up the basics - passing closing down position.

Came out 2nd half even worse. Well done Selles.

[Sutekh]

Looking forward to the day, sometime in the next 3 years or so, when Reading no longer have to ask a load of free agents and over taxed youngsters to perform above and beyond week in and week out.

[Harrison Delbridge]

Whoever that was in goal for us was oxf*rd shite

Ridiculously easy shot to save

[windermereROYAL]

I`m not defending CBC, far from it, but when he made that schoolboy error our hands were still warm from applauding the outstanding save he had made barely a minute earlier.
Mistakes by keepers and scrutinised closely while good saves are quickly forgotten.

[WestYorksRoyal]

I`m not defending CBC, far from it, but when he made that schoolboy error our hands were still warm from applauding the outstanding save he had made barely a minute earlier.
Mistakes by keepers and scrutinised closely while good saves are quickly forgotten.

All keepers even at the amateur levels make good saves. What separates them is consistency, and in pretty much every game CBC has started he's made a mistake that costs us a goal.

[Orion1871]

Problem is, who's going to take Boyce-Clarke when he makes mistakes in "pretty much every game" he plays?

He's not going to be playing too long at a loan club to "make his mistakes". He'd be dropped straight away and be sitting on someone else's bench instead of ours.

[Snowflake Royal]

I hate to get on his back, but CBC just seems to be far too casual in what should be non-threatening situations.

He concedes poor goals trying to pass out (Huddersfield, plus pre-season), but his long kicking isn’t good. He pulls off good saves, then spills a routine one into his net yesterday.

These don't seem to be ability issues, the kicking aside, they seem concentration. If there's one position where your concentration has to be flawless, it's goalkeeper.

He may well be a very good keeper one day, though he'll really need to be taller and he seems to have stopped growing. At 21, with youth international experience and approaching 10 professional competitive starts, I'm not seeing it and I don’t feel we can give him a lot more time, and he doesn't look very attractive to go on loan.

On the other hand, we shouldn't be fighting relegation, and we're looking increasingly unlikely to threaten the top 10, so maybe now is the time for a run in the team that can't hurt too much.

[Snowflake Royal]

Anyone else find it amusing that we beat 100% record Charlton and lost to 0% record Orient?

[AthleticoSpizz]

Anyone else find it amusing that we beat 100% record Charlton and lost to 0% record Orient?

as if it even needs quoting….”it’s the Reading way”

It’s what we do.

[ILoveMoonPig]

I felt Orient's tactic was literally just to stop us playing. I think we should have a moments silence for the Orient fans having to sit through that much time wasting week in, week out. It was so tedious. It confused me because when they actually bothered to play, some of their passing was pretty good and they could have had a decent match of it. A team that picks up that many yellow cards is going to struggle around Christmas time with suspensions.

That said, we did not adapt well. Didn't seem to use our high press, didn't create any space in the middle and didn't get the ball out wide effectively at all.

I'm giving the benefit of inexperience to CBC, if he lets the belter in and saves that one, nobody bats an eyelid. He's young and needs time to get up to speed with the first team.

We need to get used to teams just throwing bodies in the way, going down to stop play, endless cynical fouls etc, to stop us from playing because it's going to happen more.

[Royal_jimmy]

I hate to get on his back, but CBC just seems to be far too casual in what should be non-threatening situations.

He concedes poor goals trying to pass out (Huddersfield, plus pre-season), but his long kicking isn’t good. He pulls off good saves, then spills a routine one into his net yesterday.

These don't seem to be ability issues, the kicking aside, they seem concentration. If there's one position where your concentration has to be flawless, it's goalkeeper.

He may well be a very good keeper one day, though he'll really need to be taller and he seems to have stopped growing. At 21, with youth international experience and approaching 10 professional competitive starts, I'm not seeing it and I don’t feel we can give him a lot more time, and he doesn't look very attractive to go on loan.

On the other hand, we shouldn't be fighting relegation, and we're looking increasingly unlikely to threaten the top 10, so maybe now is the time for a run in the team that can't hurt too much.

I want him to succeed and he showed a lot of promise only a few years ago. He seemed to stop growing in height and much in terms of his footballing development since he was 17. He's short for a keeper, I think even Southwood is taller than him. He never looks commanding and struggles to save low shots which all squirm under him. He definitely needs to work a lot on that and bulk up

[Zammo]

We've been playing some lovely football this season so I have no idea what happened yesterday. Never seen so many long balls. Kick-off switcheroo wasn't a great start (do players even care about that stuff?). From the off, Campbell looked uneasy. Can't believe Selles wouldn't have drilled him well tactically beforehand, but he seemed very unsure throughout the first half. Maybe the Orient fullback had his number. It happens. Either way, it wasn't a debut to remember. Everyone just looked off it. It was like they'd all been told before the game that the takeover was off and they'd be no wages next month

[Snowflake Royal]

We've been playing some lovely football this season so I have no idea what happened yesterday. Never seen so many long balls. Kick-off switcheroo wasn't a great start (do players even care about that stuff?). From the off, Campbell looked uneasy. Can't believe Selles wouldn't have drilled him well tactically beforehand, but he seemed very unsure throughout the first half. Maybe the Orient fullback had his number. It happens. Either way, it wasn't a debut to remember. Everyone just looked off it. It was like they'd all been told before the game that the takeover was off and they'd be no wages next month

Or they assumed all they had to do was turn up because Orient had lost all four league games.

We know this team does quite well when the opposition try to play nice football. And that they struggle against physical, direct sides.

[Royal_jimmy]

We've been playing some lovely football this season so I have no idea what happened yesterday. Never seen so many long balls. Kick-off switcheroo wasn't a great start (do players even care about that stuff?). From the off, Campbell looked uneasy. Can't believe Selles wouldn't have drilled him well tactically beforehand, but he seemed very unsure throughout the first half. Maybe the Orient fullback had his number. It happens. Either way, it wasn't a debut to remember. Everyone just looked off it. It was like they'd all been told before the game that the takeover was off and they'd be no wages next month

Or they assumed all they had to do was turn up because Orient had lost all four league games.

We know this team does quite well when the opposition try to play nice football. And that they struggle against physical, direct sides.

I know what you mean, Wrexham were direct against us to great effect. I disagree that Leyton Orient were playing that similar a way though. They marked us out of the game, slowed the game down, time wasted and at times passed the ball forward well and quickly.

Teams will often set up like that at our ground, especially the smaller clubs. We have to score first if we're to win because we don't have it in us to win from behind. We used to salvage points a lot from losing positions under McDermott. We rarely have since he left.

[karbota]

Good point Royal Jimmy, Reading FC had terrific team spirit fight and tenacity under McDermott and Coppell , lts no coincidence British owners, British management, British coaches, and the majority British players.

[Royal_jimmy]

Good point Royal Jimmy, Reading FC had terrific team spirit fight and tenacity under McDermott and Coppell , lts no coincidence British owners, British management, British coaches, and the majority British players.

We had plenty of foreign players under Brian. Gorkss, Kebe, Federici, Harte, Hunt, Afobe, Gunnarsson etc. Not sure that nationality of players comes into it.

[Hendo]

[SCIAG]

We had plenty of foreign players under Brian. Gorkss, Kebe, Federici, Harte, Hunt, Afobe, Gunnarsson etc. Not sure that nationality of players comes into it.

Afobe was Dagenham born and raised.