Well, sat at Preston Station.

That started promising, went bad, went really bad and then fizzled out, probably for the best.

Team seemed much more eager to put the ball forwards quickly than the last away games, which did not suit Ballard.

Soft penalty, rightly given.
Soft header for second.
Very soft third, don't stop!
Early (soft) fourth put game beyond us.

Another spanking at Blackpool, really starting to dislike that place.

We capitulated after the penalty which was needless to give, we didn't mark anyone for the other 3 goals. Rhodes took his 3rd goal well and showed us how to finish.

Our unstoppable away form continues.

Well done to those who travelled.

It was depressing enough

Selles out

I think everyone's still in Blackpool and with the stuff there and fans drowning their sorrows after another hammering I'm not surprised.

Seriously though we've endured so much pain on the road, if it wasn't for the fact we have a new set of players then scenes like when Selles and the players came over at FT would be a lot more toxic than it was yesterday. If this was Leeds or Millwall there'd be proper uproar.

We have to improve and quickly. Even if we change it and put 10 men behind the ball and try to keep clean sheets, a few 0-0s would be an improvement on current form. Boring yes but the longer this goes on more questions will be asked of Selles' future. He needs time but he won't get it if he can't show that he can adapt.

Travelling back down today and upon reflection this is going to be the way it is with this young team. We virtually have an U23 team playing in a tough league one.

We’re lacking a bit of decent experience in midfield in my opinion. Someone like Hourihane, but ideally a couple of years younger. I don’t see any natural leaders like a Parky or Sidwell. We desperately need someone who can help out the youngsters and I am afraid Hutch isn’t the answer. He has the odd good game, but he’s a liability a lot of the time. I would give Craig a chance, although again he’s very young.

Hopefully, we can get enough points to survive and I think this group of players will improve during the course of the season, but it’s going to be a rollercoaster.

This, but let's also remember we have now played

3rd BEAT Stevenage, their only league defeat in 9 games
4th Port Vale (our early team and lost by one goal)
6th Lost 2-1 to a very late goal
7th BEAT Bolton, only two league defeats, tipped for promotion
8th Lost 0-1 first game to Peterborough
10th Lost 1-0 to a late goal
14th A hammering, goals-wise*

and Cheltenham...

* Away to a decent side who have a good record
against us. We dominated possession for about
twenty minutes but looked toothless.

Big difference was they had 6 shots on target and 4 went in.
We had four shots on target, none went in, and OG is still our top scorer.

We have teams 12-13 15-16-17-18-19-20-21-22-23 to play

and 1-2-5-9

It's ONE result. Norwich (currently 6th in the Championship)
shipped SIX yesterday, to a mid-table side.

Stam's team shipped 7 at Norwich and still finished third.

Not underplaying the defeat, but it wasn't an unexpected one
and our second most senior player blundered to start the rot
and (according to reports) our captain had a shocker.

And try as I might I can't ignore our cup results WDW 15-2
and two of those games against Championship clubs.

There is not a lot wrong (except the away hoodo). Keep the faith

+1
we were well in control before they hit us on the break and for some inexplicable reason Hutch dived in when he didn't need to. The second header was well taken but no marking and Button invisible.

We just don't seem to get any luck but I thought Blackpool's tactics won it for them, they were 352 but really 3142 and got everyone back behind the ball when we attacked - so we never had a final ball.

They attacked the left were Mola was pretty useless and lumped it to their new striker who beat Abbey every time.

Trains were a bit of a mess, they seem to cancel every one we wanted to get and we had 30min waits at Blackpool and Preston.

Trouble is, our experienced "leaders" aren't up to the task. Yiadom has been one of our serial losers over the Pauno and PInce eras. Hutchinson was poor. I think Dean needs to play to be an experienced head in there, and then Wing is a bit older too.

I was wondering about Biden. He looked the business
up to his concussion. When he came back he had a terrible
first half, then seemed OK second half.

Not watched the last two games, so dunno, but maybe he is
not quite right, bring in Dean (or McIntyre) alongside Abbey for 2-3 games?

[EDIT]

On the other hand Bidon might be old and has other responsibilities.


BINDON!

I was wondering about Biden. He looked the business
up to his concussion. When he came back he had a terrible
first half, then seemed OK second half.

Not watched the last two games, so dunno, but maybe he is
not quite right, bring in Dean (or McIntyre) alongside Abbey for 2-3 games?

[EDIT]

On the other hand Bidon might be old and has other responsibilities.


BINDON!

They were targeted yesterday along with Mola. Blackpool have a decent manager who's always been pretty spot on with tactics against us...add that to an experienced old pro up front.

Agree - bring back Dean (certainly away) and LB needs changing too, I'd go Tmac for now

Mola was shockingly bad at LB --- he lost his man just before the penalty which forced Hutchinson's hand to dive in ... was at fault again for the third. I'd play McIntyre at LB as he's more composed than either of Carson or Mola ...

Mola clearly has pedigree coming through the Chelsea academy, playing for England U21s and being signed by Stuttgart. But Blackburn fans had nothing good to say about him, and so far he's done little to prove them wrong. I'm hoping that he's still getting up to speed and will improve in the next month, but I can't help that think he was a bit of a panic signing who we wouldn't have gone for without the Dai imposed restrictions.

I agree out of position McIntyre could be the best option there for now.

Trouble is, our experienced "leaders" aren't up to the task. Yiadom has been one of our serial losers over the Pauno and PInce eras. Hutchinson was poor. I think Dean needs to play to be an experienced head in there, and then Wing is a bit older too.
Dean has played. Hasn't been great. And was a serial loser at Birmingham.

I'd go Guiness-Walker. He's not the best defensively, but he's better than Mola and he can get forward well. He does at least try to stop crosses.

McIntyre in at CB alongside Abbey. Yiadom can stay RB for now. (If NGW is injured then McIntyre @LB phasing Carson in slowly & Holmes with Abbey)

Wing and Savage in midfield. If that doesn't work, Rushesha or Craig an bring some hustle and bustle to the game.

Away from home I'm dropping Ballard and putting in an extra midfielder.

Agreed the formation needs to change away from home. 4-2-2-2 offers the full backs no protection, and if teams beat our press Savage and Hutchinson get overrun. It was 5-3-2 second half yesterday - perhaps that is worthwhile from the start next time.

Though in our 2 worst away games (yesterday and Vale) we started well, and if you score early the game is different. 5-3-2 or 4-5-1 hands initiative to the opposition from the start.

I think 5 at the back is too negative and still leaves the flanks exposed. The two upront are wasted because we don't get it to them.

So 4-5-1 away. Happy to stay with 4-4-2 at home (I reject the existance of 4-2-2-2, its stupid and not a thing.)

I think 5 at the back is too negative and still leaves the flanks exposed. The two upront are wasted because we don't get it to them.

So 4-5-1 away. Happy to stay with 4-4-2 at home (I reject the existance of 4-2-2-2, its stupid and not a thing.)

We definitely need more in midfield away from home so a 4-5-1 would be ideal. I have always thought that you should try and win your home games by attacking teams and putting them under pressure, but on the road you need to be resolute and hard to beat. I’d love to see us get an ugly draw or a 1-0 away win.

Selles needs to learn too and understand that the teams in this league aren’t going to allow you to rock up and play pretty football around them. We have to go into each away game with the mindset of doing whatever it takes not to lose.

When it works I love the fast short-passing interplay

But I think we have the perfect squad to play football on the break.

Plenty of speed and skill

I remember old arguments here around Shane Long
where folks argued that "most goals" or a high percentage
were in the last quarter.

I've just noticed an oddity about reading's goals F-A

This is league and cup ATM

Reading have scored just three early goals (both cup)
an OG (1) Special-K (1) and McIntyre (3) at Exeter.

After that just two more goals between 31-40
ANOTHER OG (32) at Exeter, and the OG (33) v Cheltenham.

So in 11 games we have scored just 5 goals in the
first 45 minutes of games, ad three were OG's!

==================

We then have a serious weighting towards later goals

Extra Time

45+1 Special-K
45+3 Knibbs

46-55

51 Special-K


56-65

57 Special-K
57 Mukairu
60 Mukairu

66-75

67 Savage
67 Ballard

76-85

77 Savage
78 OG
79 Elliott
85 Harris

86-90

86 Vickers
87 Special-K
88 Camara
90 Vickers

90+

96 Ballard

You may think "so?" but the histogram for goals CONCEDED
is a totally different pattern.

Our opponents don't show ANY second-half late-goal tendency
Their goals are almost perfectly spread out as 1 or two per time slot.

0 Goals 1-10
2 Goals 11-20
1 Goals 21-30
2 Goals 31-40
1 Goals 41-45
1 Goals 45+
============
1 Goals 46-55
1 Goals 56-65
1 Goals 66-75
1 Goals 76-85
0 Goals 85-90
1 Goals 90+

Not at all sure what this indicates.

Does it mean we run sides ragged with our press
but when it goes wrong we often concede
(7 goals conceded first half, only 4 second half)

The differences are huge. For example we have scored
5 in the last 5 minutes of normal time. Opponents nil

In the ten minutes 75-85 we are scoring 4-1

20 Bolton
20 Blackpool

27 Blackpool

31 Blackpool
34 Exeter

43 Boro

45+3 Ipswich

====================

51 Blackpool

59 Ipswich

72 Port Vale

83 Cambridge

93 Exeter

I'd go Guiness-Walker. He's not the best defensively, but he's better than Mola and he can get forward well. He does at least try to stop crosses.

McIntyre in at CB alongside Abbey. Yiadom can stay RB for now. (If NGW is injured then McIntyre @LB phasing Carson in slowly & Holmes with Abbey)

Wing and Savage in midfield. If that doesn't work, Rushesha or Craig an bring some hustle and bustle to the game.

Away from home I'm dropping Ballard and putting in an extra midfielder.

Implication from the post match with Tim was that NGW has been injured rather than not in plans. Tim asked and Monica said NGW should be back in a week or so.

I'd go Guiness-Walker. He's not the best defensively, but he's better than Mola and he can get forward well. He does at least try to stop crosses.

McIntyre in at CB alongside Abbey. Yiadom can stay RB for now. (If NGW is injured then McIntyre @LB phasing Carson in slowly & Holmes with Abbey)

Wing and Savage in midfield. If that doesn't work, Rushesha or Craig an bring some hustle and bustle to the game.

Away from home I'm dropping Ballard and putting in an extra midfielder.

Implication from the post match with Tim was that NGW has been injured rather than not in plans. Tim asked and Monica said NGW should be back in a week or so.

Did Dellor also ask Selles about his current all-time favourite player Tom Holmes and criticise him for not playing him or was it the usual case of him endlessly harping about it on air and then not having the balls to say the same to the manager face to face?

Poor across the board really yesterday. I hope this is just a case of Mola not being quite up to speed yet but he needs to do quickly. I'd almost rather have Carson in for the league games and Mola in for the EFL Trophy games at the minute.

Hutch was poor yesterday as well, midfield is certainly an area that we need to sort out, hopefully Wing can slot in there and make a big difference for us.

Seen a couple of criticisms of the formation. To play 4-4-2, or a variation of it, especially away from home, you need a forward who can drop in and do something 5-10 yards deeper to give us a bit more shape and to stop midfield players picking up the ball in deeper areas and keep them moving.

Ady Williams saying on Twitter we should start TMac and Holmes next week, the guy is clueless, BBC Berks needs a complete overhaul.

It could well be that he sees them both as Reading boys and old fashioned defenders like himself. They really haven't shown anything to suggest they should be starting.

One bad result and we should make huge changes to the team seems to be a line that gets repeated a lot on BBC Berks. The reality is we've got a largely young and inexperienced team - these players will improve and learn from playing regularly and require serious match experience in order to reduce the chance of making mistakes.

We've also had players like Wing, Smith and Camara missing for most/all of this season - all three would benefit the side when they're back being available regularly.

Additionally, we've got a run of games now where we could very realistically get nine points: Burton, Northampton, Leyton Orient. Then, assuming the Oxford game gets moved for internationals, Charlton and Fleetwood, where another four points is very possible. We could be very comfortably in a mid-table position by the end of that run. I think most people would be happy with a mid-table finish this season.

It's a complete over-reaction to a poor performance and result.

One bad result and we should make huge changes to the team seems to be a line that gets repeated a lot on BBC Berks. The reality is we've got a largely young and inexperienced team - these players will improve and learn from playing regularly and require serious match experience in order to reduce the chance of making mistakes.

We've also had players like Wing, Smith and Camara missing for most/all of this season - all three would benefit the side when they're back being available regularly.

Additionally, we've got a run of games now where we could very realistically get nine points: Burton, Northampton, Leyton Orient. Then, assuming the Oxford game gets moved for internationals, Charlton and Fleetwood, where another four points is very possible. We could be very comfortably in a mid-table position by the end of that run. I think most people would be happy with a mid-table finish this season.

It's a complete over-reaction to a poor performance and result.

err ok

One bad result and we should make huge changes to the team seems to be a line that gets repeated a lot on BBC Berks. The reality is we've got a largely young and inexperienced team - these players will improve and learn from playing regularly and require serious match experience in order to reduce the chance of making mistakes.

We've also had players like Wing, Smith and Camara missing for most/all of this season - all three would benefit the side when they're back being available regularly.

Additionally, we've got a run of games now where we could very realistically get nine points: Burton, Northampton, Leyton Orient. Then, assuming the Oxford game gets moved for internationals, Charlton and Fleetwood, where another four points is very possible. We could be very comfortably in a mid-table position by the end of that run. I think most people would be happy with a mid-table finish this season.

It's a complete over-reaction to a poor performance and result.
Well Selles did it after Vale

Implication from the post match with Tim was that NGW has been injured rather than not in plans. Tim asked and Monica said NGW should be back in a week or so.

Did Dellor also ask Selles about his current all-time favourite player Tom Holmes and criticise him for not playing him or was it the usual case of him endlessly harping about it on air and then not having the balls to say the same to the manager face to face?

Tim did ask if Holmes was likely to be involved next week and Selles said that Holmes has been involved with the u21s and that he thinks the current team needs to "find its way", so take that as a "no" then.

Ady took a call after the game from someone who said Holmes was an OK defender but just not as good as all that and Ady said he agreed with 95% of what was said(!) but then said - in his opinion - that Holmes would go to a Championship club - completely missing the point that he was at a Championship club last season and looked poor much of the time (though to be fair the "negative nancy" of a manager and poor defensive unit around him didn't exactly help him).