Well, back in Manchester. First half was the quietest I have ever heard from us away. Second half was a bit noisier but only because of the deserved moans at our players. Lost count of how many times we moved the ball sideways; even more than our usual drill. Can't be arsed to do any player scores as all the starting 11 were equally drab and disinterested. Gunter's "injury" was embarrassing. Thank God for Ola's excellent finish. Roll on next season.

On the train home. Quietest game for a very long time. Very little passion on or off pitch. Plenty of industry from Quinn, Williams and Norwood but not much invention or guile. Piazon a passenger. Gunter the pantomime villain. Back four getting passing practice. Forwards frustrated by lack of through balls. Bolton limited but still holding their own. In summary: abject.
Then... what a finish! Almost made up for the previous 89 minutes. Almost...
Still, beers in Piccadilly Tap and Preston 'Spoons were top notch.

Quietest away game I've been to, but understandable considering all the factors. Boring, dull and out of nowhere a banger from Ola John. Running down the stairs, almost getting trampled. Up there with the best 25 seconds of the season. Bad side note: we have needed 90th minute winners against the bottom two teams.

Did Bolton turn up on the pitch today? Woeful home support.

After barely 8 minutes LWJ thought that 30 minutes had passed. Turgid stuff from the KO.

Quinn moving to a more central role later in the game was pivotal to the result. As we started to pass the ball far better and open up Bolton's poor defence.

If John wants a contract for next season then has to stop sulking when things don't go his way and focus on the game. Has the talent but one questions his mental strength.

Looking forward to next season. Midfield is the weakest area. Norwood so obviously lacks pace. Williams has a poor touch and lacks awareness.

McD please keep Gunter and Obita behind for extra training practice in the art of crossing. Lots of good positions today. Few good crosses though.

You were there and I wasn't, but that summary doesn't seem to gel with the twitter updates/text updates I was watching, so I'm curious.

Those updates seemed to be a long sequence of crosses/assists, where the bit missing was the forwards ability to put the ball in the net. 22 shots, 6 on goal, 1 goal. That seems like everybody else was doing their job.

As for Gunter's 'injury', again I wasn't there, but I've never seen him go down needlessly, he prides himself on not getting injured.

All a bit odd.

Also don't get the lack of passion observation. What does it mean? Passion aplenty IMHO, but lack of quality.

You were there and I wasn't, but that summary doesn't seem to gel with the twitter updates/text updates I was watching, so I'm curious.

Those updates seemed to be a long sequence of crosses/assists, where the bit missing was the forwards ability to put the ball in the net. 22 shots, 6 on goal, 1 goal. That seems like everybody else was doing their job.

As for Gunter's 'injury', again I wasn't there, but I've never seen him go down needlessly, he prides himself on not getting injured.

All a bit odd.

Watching the highlights on sky it certainly didn't look like we struggled to create chances. Just struggled to put the ball in the net! Vydra looked to have a mare.

If it's a similar starting 11 on Tuesday night. Then you can form your own view.

You were there and I wasn't, but that summary doesn't seem to gel with the twitter updates/text updates I was watching, so I'm curious.

Those updates seemed to be a long sequence of crosses/assists, where the bit missing was the forwards ability to put the ball in the net. 22 shots, 6 on goal, 1 goal. That seems like everybody else was doing their job.

As for Gunter's 'injury', again I wasn't there, but I've never seen him go down needlessly, he prides himself on not getting injured.

All a bit odd.

Watching the highlights on sky it certainly didn't look like we struggled to create chances. Just struggled to put the ball in the net! Vydra looked to have a mare.

It's a common theme for shit teams who go a man down to just defend in numbers squeezing the space. You've either got to be good enough to break through that sort of defence (we aren't usually), get lucky, or try to draw them out.

There's nothing wrong with playing sideways around the halfway line if it's to a purpose in pulling the opposition around and trying to find space to attack. A lot of our fans are too clueless to think of anything other than going straight for the goal and shooting from 45 yards out though. Unfortunately, we don't educate them very well, because when we do pass it around in an attempt to draw them out, it's usually slow, ponderous and lacking in coherent strategy.

We weren't passing the ball around well at all yesterday.

We weren't passing the ball around well at all yesterday.
Try reading the rest.

Good performance and on another day could of been four or five.

More like the Reading of old at.

Be good to follow that up with a win on Tuesday night and make forest look nervously over their shoulders.

Bolton were pretty shit, but we were shit. It's all well and good having the best of the stats, but when Vydra, Cox, Gunter are playing that atrociously there's no fukking point. What a shit penalty as well. Great shot from Ola for the winner, que mini #BounceWatch. Yan and Quinn were putting in good shwoings, but our players need to get the ball past the first fukking man and on the rare occasion they do that, not send it all the way over! Get it in the box!

Oh and what a bollocks penalty.

And they had 10 men.

Got really bored about 15 minutes in so didn't really analyse the game.

Matej Vydra is an embarassment. Had fun celebrating the winner and then going home.

Will95 I read your review on Twitter and can't believe you and I watched the same game.

If we had scored 1 or 2 of the chances we created you wouldn't be saying how bad it was.

The fact we created these chances is a good thing. Amos made some good saves, we hit the post twice, we had two cleared off the line and missed a penalty.

How bad was it, really?

I know Bolton had 10 men, but they didn't trouble us when they had 11 and we had still created 2 or 3 chances before the sending off anyway.

Gunter and Obita need to work on their crossing, Vydra needs to work on his confidence, John needs to work on being more consistent and finally Williams and Norwood quite simply need to work together.

We barely mustered a URZ at the beginning of the game. Fans should be there to raise the team and make them want to put a performance in. Ours seem incapable.

Our fans (and Bolton's) set the tone from the off with 5 of us being able to get McDermott's attention half a pitch away ffs.

Some sense at last.

By all accounts this would of been the worst 4/5 nil victory in living memory!

You win away. END

You were there and I wasn't, but that summary doesn't seem to gel with the twitter updates/text updates I was watching, so I'm curious.

Those updates seemed to be a long sequence of crosses/assists, where the bit missing was the forwards ability to put the ball in the net. 22 shots, 6 on goal, 1 goal. That seems like everybody else was doing their job.

As for Gunter's 'injury', again I wasn't there, but I've never seen him go down needlessly, he prides himself on not getting injured.

All a bit odd.

even listening through dellors moaning it sounded like we were playing really well, dominating Bolton, and creating chances ( even before the sending off) we had vydra and kermorgant going wide/over when they should have scored, missed a pen, hit the bar and the post, had one bundled off the line.
so yeah, I get that frustration and annoyance can cloud the picture a little and mean that you don't really enjoy the good play because you KNOW theyre going to fluff the chance at the end of it before it even happens, but those things definitely happened^^^.

amen. its the only truly meaningful stat available.

Unless you watched the game you wouldn't appreciate how bad Bolton were . Reading had 75% possession against a team who couldn't string more than 3 passes together. Not that we could either for the majority of the game in an area where we could inflict damage. That's the cause of discontent.

Unless you watched the game you wouldn't appreciate how bad Bolton were . Reading had 75% possession against a team who couldn't string more than 3 passes together. Not that we could either for the majority of the game in an area where we could inflict damage. That's the cause of discontent.

Hence my comment!

Some sense at last.

By all accounts this would of been the worst 4/5 nil victory in living memory!

I'll be honest, it was overly negative for how the game actually was, our midfield and Yan all did well, they held the ball up well, moved with it well and made some good short passes, but when 4 out of every 5 crosses are absolute shit and our strike force are absolute bollocks it doesn't mean much.

I think it's more based off of watching 40 odd games this season so far and seeing a side who have so much potential be failing so miserably, including struggling past the shittest team in the league when they have 10 men, that has caused my feelings of discontent. I don't feel like looking for positives when players like Vydra, who I know CAN be good are so oxf*rd shit.

Also, shame I don't know what you look like, could have had my first non-Bobby/BF hobnob spotted since you were obviously in the group behind me LWJ

Some sense at last.

By all accounts this would of been the worst 4/5 nil victory in living memory!

I'll be honest, it was overly negative for how the game actually was, our midfield and Yan all did well, they held the ball up well, moved with it well and made some good short passes, but when 4 out of every 5 crosses are absolute shit and our strike force are absolute bollocks it doesn't mean much.

I think it's more based off of watching 40 odd games this season so far and seeing a side who have so much potential be failing so miserably, including struggling past the shittest team in the league when they have 10 men, that has caused my feelings of discontent. I don't feel like looking for positives when players like Vydra, who I know CAN be good are so oxf*rd shit.

Also, shame I don't know what you look like, could have had my first non-Bobby/BF hobnob spotted since you were obviously in the group behind me LWJ
I was further along stood singing on my own

I feel for the team. We lose, it's a disaster. We draw, it's disappointing. We win, oh well we were shit anyway.

Hehe well put.

The scary thing is it's sort of true though. With our squad and expectations losing is a disaster, a draw is disappointing and a win against a 10 man relegation team thanks to a last minute wonder solo effort doesn't cover up shitness.

Having said that I didn't watch the game I just saw the highlights. The highlights looked like we slaughtered them and we unlucky not to be 5-0 up.

that's how the whole game came across on the radio too.
which is why it was so odd to hear the negative over reaction throughout the commentary and after the game

Sadly, I don't think it was odd at all given the rabid sense of entitlement Dellor and his fanboys seems to have.