Well I didn’t see that coming at all.

Not going to do ratings apart from Moore who gets a minus 3 and can fcuk off. Never want to see him playing again, he couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery and is a complete, predictable liability. No words can describe his ineptitude, if he had any dignity he’d give Clarke his wages.

As far as the performance, for the most part it was standard Reading. Lumbered, disorganised, passive and never really looked like scoring. Thankfully Birmingham were atrocious and one of the bluntest teams we’ve come up against, I know they had a shot glance the post but they weren’t really threatening at all. By and large it was a fairly even game between two mediocre sides void of much quality.

Clarke really did make a difference, revelling in the chance to show more of himself he was actually involved in more of the play than we’ve seen before. Decent link up. Bit of quality with a great cross from swift and fantastic movement and header from Clarke. You could tell it’s been a while without a goal, don’t remember a celebration like that from the fans for a while! Big relief. The second was exactly the type of goal I want to see more of, get into the box, get shots off, show some oxf*rd intent. Absolute limbs and well deserved for those that travelled, completely out-sung a poor home support all game. Good following from us.

Other notes, I prefer Yids further forward where his headless chicken-esque running can do us less damage.

Great away game not to sure on the details buy Clarke was a revelation....I like puscas and I don't think he gets the service he deserves but Clarke in the second half was far better than puscas in the first ...

Clarke has scored twice as many league goals as Puscas this season

Tell me you’re bad at maths, without telling me you’re bad at maths.

In my opinion, totally unfair to lay into Moore like that.

I know it's fashionable to knock Moore and the moment he made that unfortunate backpass I knew the knives would be out for him.

Rest of the game he was solid and it was his brilliant header off the line at the end that ensured the win.

On form or not, he plays his heart out for the club, really cares, plays through injury.

Noone moaned when our boy Holmes made an awful backpass in the game he got injured. Or when he wasn't marking for the goal on Tuesday.

It's the way we play, that's going to happen.

Good post.

Tell me you’re bad at maths, without telling me you’re bad at maths.

I got confused by this too. Had to check, I'm sure he's scored nothing. But transfermarkt I think has him as a goalscorer against Posh for some reason. Maybe that's what's confusing SDR.

Tell me you’re bad at maths, without telling me you’re bad at maths.

I got confused by this too. Had to check, I'm sure he's scored nothing. But transfermarkt I think has him as a goalscorer against Posh for some reason. Maybe that's what's confusing SDR.

Talking about Puscas, wasn’t a big fan of “we’re on the pitch, if Puscas scores”… but then again we started “better believe he scores goals”, ironically, for Blackman and then he did actually start scoring!

But yeah, back to this, he definitely hasn’t scored this season so we will go with what you said and give him the benefit of the doubt

As for me being harsh about Moore - possibly, it’s frustrating when you travel and you have to see that kind of shit though. I’ve never questioned his commitment. It’s a good point you make about his errors being highlighted whilst other’s may go under the radar a bit, but he is the captain, our highest paid player and supposedly our best defender. He should be held to a higher standard and yet is probably our worst performing defender at the moment.

Not unfortunate, another complete **** up, when under no pressure.

Genuinely really worried about Puscas, been defending him since the start but he’s clearly not justified the price tag we paid for him and I wouldn’t mind selling him in January for a loss.

Other than that it’s an important win. Drinkwater, McIntyre and Halilovic are possibly coming back over the next two weeks, touch wood our injury list should gradually improve over the next few weeks. Means that of the important players expected to play this season, were still waiting for Rino, Hoilett, Azeez and Joao. Morrison and Bristow to a lesser extent too.

Tell me you’re bad at maths, without telling me you’re bad at maths.

I got confused by this too. Had to check, I'm sure he's scored nothing. But transfermarkt I think has him as a goalscorer against Posh for some reason. Maybe that's what's confusing SDR.

That’s it you’re right I looked at transfermarkt BBC says he got an assist not a goal to that makes it even worse for Puscas

Oh it’s so good winning away.

Got off to an awful start with that Moore back pass (only mistake he made all game, albeit a costly one). Everyone then thinking here we go after four defeats on the bounce...

However,

We played well, we knocked it about and created chances. Now whether this was because we are better footballing side than Brum or they just gave us too much time on the ball I don’t know. I was so encouraged by our first half display despite us being a goal down, I backed us at 10/1 at half time.

Second half, more of the same. Knocked it about well, showed urgency and created chances. Yiadom had his best game in a fair while I thought and we deserved the win.

Jamari will take the headlines and rightly so. Away end made a lot of noise too. So to summarise, a great away day.

+1 Totally agree. I find disgraceful how some people always need an escapegoat. It's also strange how it's so much more often a black player - Aluko, then Moore. I don't hear anyone being as horrible about Puscas ... even though he's been an abject failure for ages now.

Fcuk off.

Fair post

Are you drunk? Do you regularly read this board?? Sounds to me like you're projecting.

Pretty poor showing saved by a couple of moments of quality / fortune.

I'm glad we've tried something new the last couple of games, but I'm left with little clue what shape the midfield is supposed to be as players seem to float at random.

Still think, despite not being particularly good, Puscas gets a raw deal on little to no service and scapegoated by the staff. Saying that, I doubt he'd have got either goal Clarke scored so fair play.

Southwood - 7 decent game, no chance on the goal
Holmes - 6 solid
Rahman - 7 gets forward well and a decent defender
Dann - 6 solid, odd moments 9f class and a couple of near hiccups
Moore - 3 started in the worst possible way with an unforgivable error for a player of his seniority and experience. Improved, but still his normal mix of overrunning the ball, wrestling forwards, poor positioning and last chance saloon blocks etc.
Laurent - 6 better than recently
TDB - 5 mostly anonymous
Ejaria - 4 the usual but with less of the good as has frequently been the case recently. Wastes possession endlessly.
Swift - 8 always a cut above, but not at his previous immaculate quality
Puscas - 5 as usual put the work in but didn’t have enough to make it count and got little service.

Clarke - 8 looked a little off the game to start, but he did his job and scored two very good goals.

Camara -n/a think it was him that came on but didn’t notice him with the goals and surprise win.

Another word on Clarke.

Yesterday was his first 3 shots for the senior team.

All on target, 2 goals.

That's exceptional.

Fully agree. Moore gives his all and IMO genuinely cares. The management team have also praised his attitude and his bravery, including being determined to play through and get back from injuries which would see others out for much longer. He also had the guts to face up to the cameras after his mistake yesterday.

Are you drunk? Do you regularly read this board?? Sounds to me like you're projecting.

Yep when it comes to scapegoats (and Reading fans always seem to want to have at least one) Puscas has very much been scapegoat of the season, particularly since Rafael lost his place.

It's almost like players who don't perform well generally aren't liked, isn’t it fellas. Weird.

People also don’t know the definition of scapegoat.

Moore is not being blamed for the fault of others. No one made him do that pass back under no pressure.

Even Puscas isn’t a scape goat, if anything I think he gets away with more than he should because of the failing’s of the team.

And to the twat bringing race into it, you’re part of the problem trying to make everything about race you pcunt. Pretty sure Mutch and Meyler were white and so were lots of awful players to come through here. Aluko wasn’t shit because he was black, he was shit because he was shit and anyone suggesting otherwise needs their head examining.

Ejaria 4 and Puscas 5 !!!! you obviously were not at the game

Good post.

Also agreed, I admittedly didn’t watch the second half but Moore was fine in the second, good enough (or bad enough) not to be singled out….

yeah some of the Moore stuff is a bit distasteful. Yep he is paid far more than he is worth, we all know that, but does then seem a bit unpleasant to absolutely jump on every mistake he makes. Yes a rubbish back pass and he hasn't been great this season by any stretch but I stop reading posts when they just come over vitriolic as these often do. Likewise always happy to read Ian's posts but those stupid 'Ejaria runs down the wing, tries to take 3 people on loses it' type posts are just shit. Esp when the rest of the team have been equally underperforming

Anyway, surprised more hasn't been made of Yiadom's contribution to the second goal - that was an immense run. Superb stuff.

Great 3 points, urgently needed and now hopefully can move on after the intl break with a fitter bigger squad and start climbing the table

Literally just mentioned to Jnr about Yids. He did well to win the ball and then go on a long run and just about manage to pass to Swift. Some effort to win the ball, run half the pitch and still make the pass.
We can never fault Yids commitment.

Re Moore. Again I see someone who is fully committed and I think he does care about the club. Dreadful error but fortunately it didn’t matter in the end.

I massive OMG (I think that's what young people say)
If you have a minute, check out Bowyer's post match interview on YouTube....it's hilarious.
Droopy lipped "my players performed bravely and we are tired"....FFS
If any manager of ours came out with shit like that I'd want him gone.....pathetic.

Moore isn’t as impressive as he used to be and represents poor value for his wages but like others I’ve got no doubt that he is trying his best. Think he should be a fair way down the pecking order now.

I always thought Aluko was licked before he began because of that stupid fee. If he’d been a free signing then he would have been a useful but unimpressive option from the bench. He wasn’t out of his depth and did good things occasionally, but he wasn’t good enough to be a regular starter - Meite consistently outperformed him.

If Ejaria wouldn't waste virtually every break he's in and give the ball away more than any other player (check the stats), I wouldn't be calling it out so often.

Literally just mentioned to Jnr about Yids. He did well to win the ball and then go on a long run and just about manage to pass to Swift. Some effort to win the ball, run half the pitch and still make the pass.
We can never fault Yids commitment.

Re Moore. Again I see someone who is fully committed and I think he does care about the club. Dreadful error but fortunately it didn’t matter in the end.
Yeah fair fcuks for him to come out and be interviewed after the game and admit that he’d dropped a massive bollock plenty of other players would’ve hidden.