That was possibly the most frustrating game I’ve been to this season. First half we were miles better than Rotherham. We deserved to be ahead. Swift was at his imperious best and Baldock took his goal really well.

2nd half......just......it was coming....I really can’t be bothered to pull it apart. The bottom line is, we threw two points away through our own ineptitude once again. We are in serious trouble.

The first half can be summed up by the oft repeated phrase by the commentators "his touch let him down there". We counter attacked very, very well and then the ball got out to Sims and... back on defense.

The second half was a classic Clement. Suffering for 15 minutes while crying out for a substitution and alienating our attackers by allowing the team shape to be abandoned.

Yiadom was good, Jaakkola was good, Swift was good and the rest were varying degrees of 'ok'. Nobody stood out as bad actually (maybe Sims who despite the assist lost the ball half the time and hit the post) and I think the guys were actually let down by Marshall. I think he should have seen the need for a change in response to the domination Rotherham were showing and he really should have seen Sims and McCleary became totally ineffective.

I'm honestly still too furious to finish this right now. Might edit it later.

Just seen the highlights. Another very poor goal conceded.

That Baldock chance...

People went?

Obviously.

Myself and 432 others !!!

Just seen a stat, if games finished at HT we would be 7th.

Ha, don’t

Certainly sums up our season that

I thought that Rotherham were poor - and that a Reading team with more confidence would have won the game without too much issue. But it was obvious to me from the start of the second half that we were going to concede; i'm not even that disappointed.

It was an ok trip though - couple of good pubs, I liked the stadium and it's located pretty close to the station. Stupid cold though . . .

Myself and 432 others !!!
I can make that another 429, as I went with 2 of my kids.....

Desperately need some wingers, McCleary is past it, Sims can't control the ball (although his ball for the goal was exquisite to be fair), Barrow has a poor attitude and is a bit predictable and Aluko isn't really a winger. Bod, Meite and Baldock are good striking options, midfield has improved recently with Rinomhota and we've also got Ezatolahi to come back. We will get out of this hole, we're a couple of players away from actually becoming a half decent team, they've just got to show it on a more consistent basis!

oxf*rd the wingers. Play Baldock, Bodvarson and Meite.

oxf*rd the wingers. Play Baldock, Bodvarson and Meite.

Inclined to agree but firstly whilst I'm no fan of Swift, he does seem to play better with natural wingers, take the Leeds, Stoke and Wigan game where he was atrocious and we played with "forwards" rather than wingers, whereas today he was much better. Also, you need decent attacking fullbacks for this, Gunter isn't good enough offensively, Blackett and Yiadom are average but not enough

Unreal wasn't it.....not a player near him......to miss the target by that much. Has to be miss of the season. In a Reading shirt.

Bacuna, Mannone and Barrow were on the Sheffield to Reading train tonight that i was on and there was some "pi$$ed up " fans who gave them some unnecessary stick when they arrived on the platform(in my opinion). Dave Edwards was also at the station but might have caught another train.

Bit surprised at some of the negativity TBH. First away game of the season; and yes the goal was soft, yes we needed reinforcements and yes Rotherham weren't the best first half, but compared to pretty much all I've seen this season, I really quite enjoyed the game. Wouldn't give anyone low marks, thought McIntyre had a more than decent debut, looks pretty comfortable on the ball, Sims had his best performance for us and Swift turned up and put on a show. Was the best player on the pitch by a mile, which makes his frequently abject performances so frustrating. Blackett, McCleary, Bacauna and Rhinamota were all good too. Couple with a nice central stadium, a town that looked better than I feared, despite the rain and recession, plus some not bad pubs, it was a pretty decent day.

Myself and 432 others !!!
I can make that another 429, as I went with 2 of my kids.....

You are all oxf*rd HEROS! I wouldn't watch this pile of shit if they we're playing in my back garden! (Er, which isn't the size nor condition of a LCh pitch before you get the wrong impression! In fact it's a weed bed but you get my drift!)

Yeah we were pretty good all told. McCleary well past his best though. If we'dve had Barrow on the field after 70 minutes we'dve won. Sims or McCleary coudlve made way.

Did Swift play in an advanced role, i.e. a no 10 ?

Ehhhh. Kinda. He sat deeper in the second half when our shape seemed to be more of a 4-3-2-1.

First half for sure but then again we attacked better in the first half so it's hard to know if it was a tactical change or he just couldn t get higher up the pitch.

Swift was outstanding today!

I wasn't confident we could hold out though with one of the kids at the back ( who by the way will become an outstanding centre back for us). A lot needs to change in January but with Clement gone and the sporting director gone and the prospect of a foreign coach taking over who doesn't know any of our players. This January window will likely be wasted. The situation looks very worrying right now. With a few changes, the right changes, we are not far away from being a very good side. But the guy who knew what we needed is now gone. A new guy from Portugal will come in and have to spend 6 months learning about this group by which time it will be too late. We are heading to League One sadly. And it is all our own fault. We deserve it quite frankly.

I thought Sims was decent today as well. With pace like Sims and Barrow we should be winning a lot of games on the road but we don't know how to go about our business. We have to focus on building a good solid defensive base. Defending from the front all the way back.

We should have won today but were probably just unlikely. Baldock should have buried his chance with the goal open. The keeper stopped a Swift effort with an outstretched leg. Sims hit the post. Our chances were very good ones today and we didn't capitalise. Most of Rotherhams attempts were hopeful shots from range hoping for a deflection on a slippery wet day, a slide under he keeper or slip off the glove. Last ten minutes they just went long into our box, flooded forward with bodies and hoped for that loose ball or to out jump one of our defenders.

We need to get the fundamentals of football right and not make so many basic errors like when Blackett cleared across the face of goal in the first half. You just don't do things like that. Parky probably is the right fit for us at the moment. At least he knows what we need and he knows the division. We can't get someone in that doesn't know our team. We will go down like that.

Well done to Swift. I've been critical of him recently but credit where credit is due, apart from one chance that he should have done better with, he did well yesterday.

He was far from alone in missing chances though. Both McCleary and especially Baldock should have finished the game off before half time. However, as so often with this team we let the opposition off the hook and they came back in the second half.

We were under pressure from their set pieces, with players unable to clear the ball properly on a number of occasions. One time in particular where we cleared to the edge of the box and one of their players hit a shot that luckily went straight at Jaakkola.

When you are playing a team that are bombarding you with set pieces it is crucial that you don't give anything away needlessly. Which brings us to the absolutely brainless, Christopher Gunter. Under no pressure he put the ball out for a corner and we conceded. He'd actually played quite well up until that point but one moment of stupidity ruined it.

Special mention for Mcintyre who apart from one wobble in the second half looked assured on his debut. Don't believe many of our academy prospects that have come through are actually Reading fans. He is and his debut clearly meant a lot to him

Jaakkola 6

Yiadom 7
Blackett 7
Mcintyre 7
Gunter 5

McCleary 5
Rinomhota 6
Bacuna 6
Swift 8 motm
Sims 6

Baldock 6

Subs:
Bodvarsson - 5
Loader - Not on long enough, N/A

One thing about our fans yesterday.......despite it being the obvious season to sing it, I thought ‘5 Parkinsons’ was a bit risky yesterday........All it takes is some journo to say we were calling for Parky......

It was a lot better than some of the songs I had to endure. One about kicking someone's head in, some childish chants about someone's haircut making them look like a girl, another one about voting Tory (surely the worst)

It was a lot better than some of the songs I had to endure. One about kicking someone's head in, some childish chants about someone's haircut making them look like a girl, another one about voting Tory (surely the worst)
Fair enough......I just feel a disclaimer about wanting/not wanting Parky as manager would have made things clearer

Ehhhh. Kinda. He sat deeper in the second half when our shape seemed to be more of a 4-3-2-1.

First half for sure but then again we attacked better in the first half so it's hard to know if it was a tactical change or he just couldn t get higher up the pitch.

Sounds as if he was playing in a more suited role. Needs a run of games to build match fitness and sharpness. After a stop start season. Applies to some other of the players as well.

Looked to me like Swift had been given freedom
to try stuff. He was SO much better.

Remember when Stam micro-managed every ounce of flair out of the players?

Swift (and Kelly and Barrow) regressed under Clement, imo.

Swift (and Kelly and Barrow) regressed under Clement, imo.

They did, but I can't say I KNOW it was Clement's fault