Back from the Game - Palace

[Philly Flyer]

Best from Long for years and Harte was really good. He is slow(ish) but was only beaten on the outside once yesterday (by Danns); all other times he forced their player inside. His positional play was excellent (like Griffin) and overall made a very impressive debut. If Stretch is coming back doubt if Williams will get a game for quite a while. Howard was pretty poor; no tackling and no shots (Karacan stepped up to the Sig's role in that area) but a great ball for Kebe's goal.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Karacan is looking the real deal at the moment.

[KC Royal]

Good result, albeit bit flattering as the 2nd goal wasn't a pen, came as a surprise to me when it was given watching the game from Y20. Enjoyable game once the 1st goal went in as up until then it was heading for a 0-0 with not much going on!

Ratings

Fed 6.5 Made one decent save in the 1st half but had little else to do apart from pick himself up off the floor after a late and unnecessary challenge from Palace's new loan striker James Vaughan from Everton. Vaughan was subsequently booked and wasn't the most popular player from then on, really was a needless challenge when Fed had picked up the ball.
Cummings 7 Odd dodgy moment apart in the 1st half he had a solid game, 1 recovery tackle in the 2nd half standing out. Now seems he's our main backup for Griffin, i'd keep him in for the next game. He doesn't deserve to be dropped after this performance.
Mills 6 Usual inconsistency from Mills, awful v Scunny on the opening day, MOM at Leicester, and an unconvincing performance here. Was booked early on for a foul on the edge of the box which tbf he prob did have to make. Then made a further 3 fouls after that and with the ref being seriously fussy i thought he was prob one foul away from being sent off.
Pearce 6 Didn't notice him much but wasn't at fault for anything even though must admit I expected Zurab to come in for him.
Harte 7.5 Always thought he'd be a good signing. Made his debut and looked impressive. Solid defensively, sprayed some lovely passes around and also scored the 2nd penalty.
Kebe 7.5 Was left unmarked for the whole game but we didn't actually utilise him that much. On one occasion when we did he scored the 3rd goal in injury-time. Gains half a mark for some good defensive work in the 2nd half.
Karacan 8 My MOTM Immense, just shades Long for MOTM as thought his overall contribution over the 90 mins was higher. Closed down, won tackles very well and almost scored a Ronaldo-esque goal 2nd half when after plenty of step-overs he fired a shot that narrowly missed the top left corner. Someone who could potentially now come out of the Sig's shadow.
Howard 6 At the final whistle Dellor said "Gylfi who?" but while we persist with playing 4-5-1 at home we will miss him as Howard just isn't as good in the Sig's role. Put a shot wide when in plenty of space, Gylfi prob would have scored from the same position. He should at least have hit the target. Did make amends late on when he played in Kebe to score the 3rd goal but wasn't really involved in the game apart from those two incidents. Find it hard to believe he scored 11 goals for Barnsley one season, i'll be surprised if he scores 5 this season.
Gunnarsson 6 Wasn't at his best but he had just come back from his hamstring injury which may have played a part. Overshadowed by Karacan
McAnuff 6.5 Received plenty of the ball and didn't do a great deal with it but it was his ball that led to Long being fouled for the first penalty.
Long 8 Won two penalties (even if the 2nd one wasn't as said at the top) and scored the first one. Someone who badly needed a goal to kick start his season and the goal made all the difference to his game. In the 2nd half he held up the ball well and looked much more confident in doing so, won headers, impressive first touch too.

[Row Z Royal]

the 2nd goal wasn't a pen

[KC Royal]

Goals change games and Longs dive for the soft first penalty was the turning point. Before that I didn't think we were in the game, not that Palace had created anything too dangerous themselves mind.

Long had a good game but was still wasteful infront of goal and lazy coming back from offside positions a few times. Other than he did well up there on his own.

Harte and Karacan both did well but Cummings still looked dangerous to me. Made a couple of good tackles but was out of position a weak in possession too much for.

Tue second half we looked good though. Amazing what a dodgy penalty and a bit of confidence can do!

Tbh from Y20 viewpoint i thought the 2nd pen was the dodgy one. The first one looked nailed on.

[KC Royal]

the 2nd goal wasn't a pen

Why the laughing. I thought the Palace defender won the ball, watching it back on the Football League Show just seemed to reinforce that.

Though replies like that just make me thankful i don't post my opinions on games more often!

[Row Z Royal]

the 2nd goal wasn't a pen

Why the laughing. I thought the Palace defender won the ball, watching it back on the Football League Show just seemed to reinforce that.

Though replies like that just make me thankful i don't post my opinions on games more often!

Okay.

It was as clear cut a penalty as you'll see.

[Victor Meldrew]

Heard our manager say on the radio what a good job Long did up front on his own.
I agree-the question is in my mind should he have to battle away on his own and is that progressive football?
I can understand it away from home against a good side when you are trying to stifle the opposition but at home,along with a lot of others around us,I was disappointed that we are playing that way.
A good result but it does cocern me that this is now the Reading way-hit teams on the break at home.
I know that a lot of others only care about the result but I want us to play a passing game but hey that's life and 3 points is good news.

[FiNeRaIn]

Karacan is looking the real deal at the moment.

No, he looked very good second half. Don't get carried away. Lets see if he can do it against the better teams, something he's failed to do so far this season.

[Maguire]

It was as clear cut a penalty as you'll see.

Check your head fool.

I hate to say it (and indeed maybe I already have), but Shane Long played very well.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Karacan is looking the real deal at the moment.

No, he looked very good second half. Don't get carried away. Lets see if he can do it against the better teams, something he's failed to do so far this season.

I agree about the bigger team point, but he was man of the match yesterday by a mile. Prepared to get stuck in and his passing is miles better after the 2 week break.

[FiNeRaIn]

I would have given MOM to long, by some distance. But the improvement from karacan in the second half was outrageous, hope he keeps up that level of performance.

[Alan Partridge]

I noticed yesterday that our car parking charge is £8-at that sort of price how come we have a black hole?
I bet it's not £8 in Torquay AP but then Arch would probably say that ours is a better standard of car park.

It's free. It's also not £3.90 a pint.

[Snowball]

I was a little bit drab in the first quarter

What happened after that? Did you take your anorak off?

Boom-Boom!! (t)

[Snowball]

Kind of funny that a player from League 1, was our best player. All he did was the simple ball at the right time

Simple takes a lot of learning.

[Snowball]

Heard our manager say on the radio what a good job Long did up front on his own.
I agree-the question is in my mind should he have to battle away on his own and is that progressive football?
I can understand it away from home against a good side when you are trying to stifle the opposition but at home,along with a lot of others around us,I was disappointed that we are playing that way.
A good result but it does cocern me that this is now the Reading way-hit teams on the break at home.
I know that a lot of others only care about the result but I want us to play a passing game but hey that's life and 3 points is good news.

But if opposition teams come to us and play 4-5-1, they outnumber us in midfield
and even with three players in there we don't have a DOMINANT player...

[PEARCEY]

^ Agree about Mills temper. He got booked, argued with the ref and then committed 2/3 fouls over the next 10 minutes...he was pushing his luck and it wasn't necessary.
My immediate reaction re the second pen was that it looked like a really good tackle...although I still shouted out for a pen along with half of East Stand. Looking at the pen on tv earlier this morning it was never a pen so we were a little lucky because after the second goal Palace were all over the place and we could have scored 7 or 8.

Disagree completely about the second penalty. From where we were sat in the East Stand, it was an absolutely nailed on penalty, which was probably why Long didn't even bother to appeal. Their player only got near the ball after he had wiped Long out!

Can't believe you have formed your view on the basis of the tv picture. It was shot from completely the wrong side to judge (West Stand) and therefore couldn't show what actually happened as Long was blocking the picture.

I was on the East Stand too and my immediate reaction was the Palace player had won the ball and that Long went down with the momentum of the tackle...I appealed for the pen more in hope than expectation. The tv picture shows the view from the other side and again clearly shows he wins the ball from Long and no he is not complely blocking the picture. No pen in my view.

[Victor Meldrew]

Heard our manager say on the radio what a good job Long did up front on his own.
I agree-the question is in my mind should he have to battle away on his own and is that progressive football?
I can understand it away from home against a good side when you are trying to stifle the opposition but at home,along with a lot of others around us,I was disappointed that we are playing that way.
A good result but it does cocern me that this is now the Reading way-hit teams on the break at home.
I know that a lot of others only care about the result but I want us to play a passing game but hey that's life and 3 points is good news.

But if opposition teams come to us and play 4-5-1, they outnumber us in midfield
and even with three players in there we don't have a DOMINANT player...

Just because the opposition plays 4-5-1 it doesn't mean that we have to.
Let the opposition worry about us .

[Victor Meldrew]

Just one other point from yesterday's game I was disappointed that Howard was (rightly) booked for diving.
Earlier he had stayed down when there was nothing wring with him and with play moving on it could have cost us,as it did a couple of times last season when he was caught in possession.
I'm not a great fan of his and his passing isn't good enough for an advanced midfielder.

[PEARCEY]

lol at the bloke at 0:16

Whys that then smart arse.