BFTG - Watford (H)

[bcubed]

Thought we played very well until the goal, after which we played utterly woefully

Succinct and accurate!

Thus wasn't much to do with Watfords tactics, more to do with heads dropping and a feeling of here we go again that seemed to pervade our players. McCleary seemed to lose interest and pace and what was the idea of coming inside? - totally ineffective there

Up until they scored I thought we looked pretty safe defensively, a huge contrast from previous games. We also made enough chances to win but poor finishing cost us - can we please get rid of Murray?

[wingnut]

Pretty disappointing really. Our midfield duo completely bossed by Watford's no. 7 even with them down to 10 with Williams particularly lightweight. Still nowhere near enough pace, movement or width to us.
Better, though from Gunter and most of the defence but Obita has gone massively backwards this season.
Any why was Federici time wasting in the first half?

[RG7Fan]

Pretty disappointing really. Our midfield duo completely bossed by Watford's no. 7 even with them down to 10 with Williams particularly lightweight. Still nowhere near enough pace, movement or width to us.
Better, though from Gunter and most of the defence but Obita has gone massively backwards this season.
Any why was Federici time wasting in the first half?

Feds needs to learn to get the ball out much much quicker - everyone around me have been shouting that for the past 18 months. He did it at an early season game (I forget which) and Cox (?) went on to score. My football tactics knowledge can be put on a stamp but even I can see that we need to improve in this area, so surely the 11 professionals on pitch can as well?

[Royal_jimmy]

i dont get why you all feel we played well, i thought we were poor again. we were far more solid than v brum but we barely created anything v a pretty average Watford side. The truth is these players arent good enough. Hector is too naive, Obita is a solid lb but cant beat his man and Norwood is lightweight. People see why i was underwhelmed when we signed him. I just hope Clarke can bring players in january.

[Y21]

Can't ask for more than that
Exactly the response we were after. Better manager, getting the best out of better players, etc. Losing 1-0, at home against a team with ten men, you literally cant ask for much more. Urzzzz

You Sir, are a bit of a pillock.

Bit harsh to pick on just Pepe. This thread has an awful lot of pillocks.

[Ian Royal]

Let me get this str8 then.....45 mins against 10 men and we forced precisely zero saves out of their 'keeper

Tbf we did miss an open goal - who else but Nick Blackman, take a bow, with the possible exception of Shaun Cummings probably the sh*ttest player ever to represent Reading at this level.

Reprehensible penalty-box dive from Gunter.

A lot of talk earlier this season along the lines of 'wait until we get McLeary and Williams back'; not only were both pretty crap today they also combined to give away possession for the weekly p*ss-weak goal against. Fantastic.

We forced a dozen corners or more today, all of them floated harmlessly into the penalty box by Norwood and dealt with with ease. No variation or imagination whatsoever.

Finally: I sat in the North East corner today, our ground has all the atmosphere of a dentist's waiting room.

Congratulations on continuing to manage to turn some hints of decent points into a retarded parody of yourself.

[Ian Royal]

i dont get why you all feel we played well, i thought we were poor again. we were far more solid than v brum but we barely created anything v a pretty average Watford side. The truth is these players arent good enough. Hector is too naive, Obita is a solid lb but cant beat his man and Norwood is lightweight. People see why i was underwhelmed when we signed him. I just hope Clarke can bring players in january.

I'm agog at how you can say we barely created anything, when Murray had enough chances to win two games on his own and we could have comfortably scored another 3 goals on top of that if anyone had finished competently.

[bobby1413]

I've read the first 2 pages of this thread and my god, people really are bloody negative and deluded. Ok ok, we didn't beat 10 man Watford. I appreciate that and I am disappointed by it. We had chances and failed to take them.

However, that was the first game for weeks and weeks that I've actually enjoyed and got in to. We had forward driving runs, we had Gunter performing well on the wing, we passed the ball with purpose, and had a high intensity game.

There are negatives of course, like our inability to capitalise on free kicks and corners. But seriously, compare this to the performances against Birmingham, Bolton, Charlton. Games were it was depressing viewing, of nothing happening on the pitch to get excited about.

This was Steve Clarke's first game, 3 days into the job. It's a decent start in my opinion, and things don't happen overnight. I have faith that we can improve, and I trust Steve Clarke to progress the team from where they are now. Already we have seen a more motivated, better performing team.

TBlackman has the audacity to attempt an over head bicycle kick to which he sent flying over the bar, this just apitomised the whole day for me

As far as I saw, he attempted this as the ball was crossed behind him. If he didn't try to kick it like that, he would have just watched it fly past.

Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse -we fail to capitalize against ten men.
...
Fans: Tried to lift the team-but the reality of where we are at -has now hit home.

As above - "the reality of where we are"? You make it sound like we're bottom of the table, dead set on relegation and misery. You also talk like we are in a god awful position. We've just got a new manager, just come through the ownership saga, and have lots of opportunity to improve and progress.

From the outside looking in I can't see anything other than a relegation fight, and I am not sure we will survive.

Not a chance

Still, can’t beat 10 men at home and you have to consider the real possibility of August starting with a berth in League 1.

As above

Considering they brought so many fans with them the Watford lot really didn't make much noise. It's not often an away tea gets out-shouted at the Mad Stad.

Are you deluded or just deaf? They were good I thought, were they the loudest we've had this season? Decent support, decent number and really lively.

Yes, and obviously a more open game suits us, but that doesn't change the fact that (as per) we had no idea how to break down a deep defence.

I saw plenty to suggest Clarke will be an excellent manager for us, and no blame lies with him for today IMO, but there is plenty to work on. Which is good as it means potential is there.

Genuinely looking forward to going down to Brighton now - first time I've been able to say that about a Reading game for a long time.

Agree with all of this and it's a reasoned post. Not a great game, but brilliant start and showing some signs that we can make something work with this team.

[bobby1413]

i dont get why you all feel we played well, i thought we were poor again. we were far more solid than v brum but we barely created anything v a pretty average Watford side. The truth is these players arent good enough. Hector is too naive, Obita is a solid lb but cant beat his man and Norwood is lightweight. People see why i was underwhelmed when we signed him. I just hope Clarke can bring players in january.

I'm agog at how you can say we barely created anything, when Murray had enough chances to win two games on his own and we could have comfortably scored another 3 goals on top of that if anyone had finished competently.

Agree with you Ian and your first post on the thread. I remember lots of good runs forward, dangerous balls in to the box, opportunity-after-opportunity but no end product.

[icelandboy]

Before I start, after so little time I didn't expect to see big changes from Clarke, but with that in mind:

Same old s**t we saw under Adkins, just now with energy and excitement which makes it better to watch, but still fukking useless.

Nice to see everyone busting a gut out there instead of constantly stopping with and without the ball.

Couldn't hit a barn door today.

Watford fans have the worst fukking songs ever the pcunts.

In all: still oxf*rd.

All in all you still seem like a negative oxf*rd yourself! How about concentrate on the game and the small improvements made rather than trying to look good in front of your little group of teenagers you hang with

[SCIAG]

Tbf we did miss an open goal - who else but Nick Blackman, take a bow, with the possible exception of Shaun Cummings probably the sh*ttest player ever to represent Reading at this level.

I'm not 100% on some of the dates they left the club but this team is worse:
----------------------???------------------------
--Mullins---Khumalo--M. Williams-----
Daley----Dobson----Akpan------Brooker
-------Tyson----Owusu---Morgan---------

Left out some players who stayed past their best (principally Gorkss, Lita and Ingimarsson) and I don't think we've had a bad goalkeeper at this level. Seems harsh to stick Young or Andersen in by default.

Worst second-tier Reading player goes to Michael Dobson imo, but there's a strong case for any of that back three.

Owusu and Tyson both worse than Blackman? Seriously? And what about Carl Asaba?

No room for Paul Holsgrove or Michael Meaker?? Surely Hoslgrove was worse than Akpan?

Toss up between Steve Swales and Marcus Williams, (assuming you mean Marcus not Skittles (Martin)).

For keeper, how about Nick(y) Hammond? No, got to be Simon Sheppard. Sal Bibbo rescues himself with his subsequent coaching skills, Bobby Mihaylov with his comedy value and Nick Colgan with his subsequent career.

Yeah, I was pretty young in the 90s and rarely capable of identifying which division we were in or even who the players were, so I didn't attempt to (it's basically a "worst team since 2004"). Agree about Sheppard, Holsgrove, and Meaker, and you could probably just field the Bullivant team (minus Caskey, Parky, Primus and Archie, maybe Lambert).

Asaba gets points for scoring the goal that got us promoted to the Premier League for the first time, otherwise slot him in for Owusu.

[bcubed]

i dont get why you all feel we played well, i thought we were poor again. we were far more solid than v brum but we barely created anything v a pretty average Watford side. The truth is these players arent good enough. Hector is too naive, Obita is a solid lb but cant beat his man and Norwood is lightweight. People see why i was underwhelmed when we signed him. I just hope Clarke can bring players in january.

I'm agog at how you can say we barely created anything, when Murray had enough chances to win two games on his own and we could have comfortably scored another 3 goals on top of that if anyone had finished competently.

Agreed
And Murray did well to miss his first chance - it was dropping perfectly for a header and he went for the shot!

[72 bus]

Asaba gets points for scoring the goal that got us promoted to the Premier League for the first time

[Ian Royal]

Asaba gets points for scoring the goal that got us promoted to the Premier League for the first time

Asaba's actual repreive is doing no worse thatn Lovell or Nogan the season before he joined and tearing Sunderland a new one.

Meaker gets a repreive for comedy cheeks and assisting Adie's Wolves O.G.

[SCIAG]

Asaba gets points for scoring the goal that got us promoted to the Premier League for the first time

Isn't this a well known fact? Doyle's goal was irrelevant because we'd have gone up regardless. Asaba scored the winner for Millwall against Watford to guarantee us promotion.

[Man Friday]

Losing 1-0, at home against a team with ten men, you literally cant ask for much more. Urzzzz

errrr, surely we can?????????????

[sandman]

Tbf we did miss an open goal - who else but Nick Blackman, take a bow, with the possible exception of Shaun Cummings probably the sh*ttest player ever to represent Reading at this level.

I'm not 100% on some of the dates they left the club but this team is worse:
----------------------???------------------------
--Mullins---Khumalo--M. Williams-----
Daley----Dobson----Akpan------Brooker
-------Tyson----Owusu---Morgan---------

Left out some players who stayed past their best (principally Gorkss, Lita and Ingimarsson) and I don't think we've had a bad goalkeeper at this level. Seems harsh to stick Young or Andersen in by default.

Worst second-tier Reading player goes to Michael Dobson imo, but there's a strong case for any of that back three.

Shouldn't be anywhere near a worst team list.

[Zana Badawi]

Not a chance.

If you have a new manager and the opposition have a man sent off in the first half, then failing to score AND failing to get a clean sheet are exactly the kind of things that clubs that go down do. Especially a week after shipping 6 to a below average outfit like Birmingham. Im not really expecting us to go down because I think we might improve; but we are absolutely, 100%, showing relegation form at the moment.

(There is also a very distinct possibility that in three weeks time, we could be relying rather too heavily on Cox alone scoring the goals for us)

[melonhead]

Decent game, decent atmosphere, decent performance.

Unlucky to lose, but signs of solidity and a much more reading like approach

Feds. 7 slow.some good saves
Pearce 7 solid
Gunter 6 better
Obita 6 whats Happened to him?
Hector 8 beast
Williams 5 hid a bit imo
Norwood 6 bypassed
Blackman 6 ok
Macleary 6 did alot well, but rarely beat his man
Cox 6 ok
Murray. 7 Won every flick on, held up brilliantly, couldn't finish

Norwood bypassed! He was the go to man for every defender for the full 90, sprayed almost perfect passes and was the conduit for just about everything we managed to achieve. You may have issues with him, but don't invent criticism. Your mark of 6 is about right but the comment is well astray.

Erm....sorry but I thought this was the place for my opinions and scores on the match...

Lol at having Issues with him. He's probably my favourite player.

My comment wasn't à Reflection on him. Everything he did was decent, but whether u like it or not the vast majority of Balls went over him to Murray, or straight to the wing. Hence 'bypassed'

[melonhead]

Thought we played very well until the goal, after which we played utterly woefully

Succinct and accurate!

Thus wasn't much to do with Watfords tactics, more to do with heads dropping and a feeling of here we go again that seemed to pervade our players. McCleary seemed to lose interest and pace and what was the idea of coming inside? - totally ineffective there

Up until they scored I thought we looked pretty safe defensively, a huge contrast from previous games. We also made enough chances to win but poor finishing cost us - can we please get rid of Murray?

Without Murray We wouldn't Have even had a foothold In the game