Perfect away performance.

Two great counter attacking goals in the first half, and should've had a third which didn't look offside to me.

Second half saw a brilliant save from Rafael from long range and some solid defending by Moore and Morrison. We gave Preston the ball, and did what we needed to do.

Adam and Swift superb, as were the back five.

Big up Gunter and Blackett who have come in recently and are arguably putting in their best performances for us.

Good subs at the right time.

Only moan is that they didn't take card in the ground, the fcuking savages.

That’s interesting as I find it difficult to spend cash these days, but when you consider things, these guys were actually still wearing clogs 50 years ago it makes sense.
The inhabitants of this part of the world will always be years behind us.

Love you xx

It was offside . i froze framed it on quest tonight. quite close but defo off.

Unrelated, but I notice Blackett and Ejaria are wearing short sleeve shirts and gloves. As J Low said, I just don’t get that

Fantastic away win though. Get something at Fulham and it makes the two games against Forest massive if we want to sneak into the top 6

That first goal is very impressive too. Good pass from Adam, good movement and pass from Blackett and cool finish from Swift. Beyond belief how much we’ve missed Swift

Pretty impressive record of only losing 4 away games too this season. And none by more than one goal. Up and up we go hopefully

Is Swift's goal (a team goal) today, the best goal of our season?

It has a lot going for it.

Win ball in defence
Break
Adam dribbling "at speed" at least half the pitch-length
Neat lay-off (to Ejaria?)
Adam drops back to receive return
Great run by Blackett
Superb through ball from Adam
Great cut-back by Blackett
The absolute coolest of finishes by Swift


If that was in the Pram the pundits would be creaming themselves.

It’s quite simple and logical. The extremities of the body are affected more by the cold. Watch cross country or road runners in the winter and you will see numerous athletes running in sleeveless singlets but wearing gloves.

Rafael also wears short sleeved tops (obvs gloves too)

Some players just prefer them I guess

Love you xx

It’s quite simple and logical. The extremities of the body are affected more by the cold. Watch cross country or road runners in the winter and you will see numerous athletes running in sleeveless singlets but wearing gloves.

Sonko used to do it as well.

Brilliant display, really showed "Johnno" from New Zealand "how football should really be played".

Rafael - Three great saves. Although i haven't been on the forum to check so don't know if they've been approved as great by Ian Royal yet. 7

Gunter- Decent performance, still a bit slow to overlap at times and one moment where he looped the ball up in the air in our own box. Other than that defended well. 7

Morrison - Back to his best after a slight dip. Brilliant tackle to prevent what looked like a certain PNE Goal. Won everything that was thrown at him. 8

Moore - Proper Captain's performance. Challenges, blocks won his headers and brought the ball out from the back well. 9 MotM

Blackett - Some dodgy defensive switch off moments, passing straight to PNE in a couple of dangerous positions but two excellent assists, especially for the second goal with the way he started the move. 7

Judilson Gomes - Broke up the play well. Went on a couple of runs forward as well, although seemed to be a bit confused what to do at the end of them. 7

Adam - The Scottish Pirlo produced a great pass for the first goal after a run many, including Preston, probably didn't think he had in him and produced quite a few other decent passes as well. 7

Swift - Took his goal brilliantly. One great pass out to the left hand side that sent almost the entire Preston team the wrong way. Back to that form he had in his first season before he got injured playing for England under 21's. 8

Meite - Won his headers well. Worked hard as usual and was as a nuisance to their defence. 7

Ejaria - Involved in the build up to the first goal. Excellent shot for the disallowed goal. A quiet game for him but a couple of nice moments as always. Could have done better on one occasion when it looked like we could break away for another goal. 7

Joao - Took his goal well. One complaint I had was we couldn't relieve pressure because he didn't win a header pretty much all afternoon. For a big guy he needs to make himself more of a presence in the air. 7

Subs:

McCleary - Couple of decent runs. Did his work well defensively. 6

Rinomhota - Defended well. Miss those driving runs though. 6

Obita - Sound defending to help us close out the game. 7

Did Obita go left mid or did he go left back with Blackett going LCB?

It looked like he went left back but McCleary swapped out to right mid with Ejaria going central so I think he was supposed to be a left mid.

That’s interesting as I find it difficult to spend cash these days, but when you consider things, these guys were actually still wearing clogs 50 years ago it makes sense.
The inhabitants of this part of the world will always be years behind us.

Do you mind? I'm, an inhabitant of this part of the world. In fact I live even further north. Don't be jealous just because you rarely get to see the beautiful Lake District. We might not be the M4 corridor but we do have electricity and running water believe it or not.

As for the game, it was great to see such a solid defensive performance. You could say it was the perfect away match plan executed with the utmost of precision. Let them have plenty of the ball in areas they can't hurt us. Stay solid and keep our shape. Everyone knows their job and where possible, hit them on the break. In the first half, every time we attacked it looked like we would score.

I felt the whole team did an amazing job and deserve an 8 out of 10 with additional mentions to Moore, Rafael and Swift. That blind pass by swift when he sent the whole PNE team the wrong way was just unbelievable. To swivel 180 degrees, not look and pass a ball 40 yards to the feet of a team mate...

It’s quite simple and logical. The extremities of the body are affected more by the cold. Watch cross country or road runners in the winter and you will see numerous athletes running in sleeveless singlets but wearing gloves.

Correct. Hats, gloves, and thick socks will keep you warm no matter what else you're wearing.

Big question of the day: Does Rafael have his shirts altered by the same lady who did Emi Martinez's shirts (the one he went into the crowd to give flowers to on the final day of last season), or do Macron produce shorted sleeved goalkeeping jerseys?

This is vital information.

It’s quite simple and logical. The extremities of the body are affected more by the cold. Watch cross country or road runners in the winter and you will see numerous athletes running in sleeveless singlets but wearing gloves.

Correct. Hats, gloves, and thick socks will keep you warm no matter what else you're wearing.

Players wearing gloves is one of those bizarre things that people get upset about

I hate having cold hands playing sport personally. Why be uncomfortable when it can be easily remedied. Wear wtf you like as long as you play well

Correct. Hats, gloves, and thick socks will keep you warm no matter what else you're wearing.

Players wearing gloves is one of those bizarre things that people get upset about

I hate having cold hands playing sport personally. Why be uncomfortable when it can be easily remedied. Wear wtf you like as long as you play well
Dint get the criticism either. It's not like they are wearing a scarf. They don't use their hands so they're bound to get cold. The long sleeve argument doesnt make sense to me either. Long sleeves dont make your fingers warm.

Correct. Hats, gloves, and thick socks will keep you warm no matter what else you're wearing.

Players wearing gloves is one of those bizarre things that people get upset about

I hate having cold hands playing sport personally. Why be uncomfortable when it can be easily remedied. Wear wtf you like as long as you play well
Agreed, although when I play my hands are only cold in the first 10 minutes, so it seems a bit odd that they need it... but whatever.

Disagree totally.

Next they’ll be wearing dungarees and a bobble hat. Got to stop the rot now.

Think the kit manufacturers have missed a trick not producing the onesie football kit thus far. Would like to see us embrace it next season.

I'm totally down for dungarees.

From my own experience long sleeves don’t make the slightest bit of difference to how cold I feel. My hands just get colder and colder even if it actually isn’t that cold and it puts me off

I’m sure everyone had different experiences of it, but I’d be a short sleeve/glove man and do when I run races in the cold

Just listening to Bowen’s interview

He’s genuinely the first manager for a while I enjoy listening to. Rather than just bland cliches he does give a bit of insight into what the plans were etc

The stuff about just keeping positions and ‘enjoying defending’ are quite interesting imo

Players wearing gloves is one of those bizarre things that people get upset about

I hate having cold hands playing sport personally. Why be uncomfortable when it can be easily remedied. Wear wtf you like as long as you play well
Agreed, although when I play my hands are only cold in the first 10 minutes, so it seems a bit odd that they need it... but whatever.

Is that because they're so cold they're numb after 10 minutes?

Showed my daughter a pic of Reading's first kit yesterday (see tweet below - I'm useless at technology so I dont' know how to put a picture in the post) - and she was very taken with the hooped hats some of them were wearing. Maybe we could be trendsetters with the wooly hats, gloves and short-sleeve shirt combo?

I am loving the "enjoying defending" attitude we have right now. Suits Morrison and Moore so much. 2 battling CBs pouring every bit of grit and determination they can muster to keep a clean sheet. If I was a Birmingham fan I would be wondering who at the club thought Morrison was only worth a 1 year deal.

The thing is, with Swift and Adam, we can turn defence to attack so much faster than a lot of teams. Bowen has nailed our problem (tbf a lot of us on here saw it too) of winning second balls. That has transformed our ability to win games. Defending like our lives are on the line but failing to win the clearances in midfield was leaving us open to errors. Pele, Rinomhota and (surprisingly) Adam have added mich needed grit to help us establish ourselves on the pitch.

I am loving the "enjoying defending" attitude we have right now. Suits Morrison and Moore so much. 2 battling CBs pouring every bit of grit and determination they can muster to keep a clean sheet. If I was a Birmingham fan I would be wondering who at the club thought Morrison was only worth a 1 year deal.

The thing is, with Swift and Adam, we can turn defence to attack so much faster than a lot of teams. Bowen has nailed our problem (tbf a lot of us on here saw it too) of winning second balls. That has transformed our ability to win games. Defending like our lives are on the line but failing to win the clearances in midfield was leaving us open to errors. Pele, Rinomhota and (surprisingly) Adam have added mich needed grit to help us establish ourselves on the pitch.
We were also very poor in transition phases. While it was pretty obvious on the offence side of the game, what killed us in many games was the transition from attack to defence. Yes, we got caught with wing backs or full backs too high up the pitch, but it starts from all the attackers busting their balls to get a ball back.

I also don’t think it is a coincidence that we’ve been better defensively with Ovie playing in the left of midfield either. He has a phenomenal work rate, tracks back well and provides excellent cover for the full back (currently Blackett). You could see this last season too. His reading of the game is very good and understands what he neeeds t do and where he needs to be defensively on the pitch. I think Obita will be a useful player as led midfield if Ovie is injured or moved into a more central position.

I am loving the "enjoying defending" attitude we have right now. Suits Morrison and Moore so much. 2 battling CBs pouring every bit of grit and determination they can muster to keep a clean sheet. If I was a Birmingham fan I would be wondering who at the club thought Morrison was only worth a 1 year deal.

The thing is, with Swift and Adam, we can turn defence to attack so much faster than a lot of teams. Bowen has nailed our problem (tbf a lot of us on here saw it too) of winning second balls. That has transformed our ability to win games. Defending like our lives are on the line but failing to win the clearances in midfield was leaving us open to errors. Pele, Rinomhota and (surprisingly) Adam have added mich needed grit to help us establish ourselves on the pitch.
We were also very poor in transition phases. While it was pretty obvious on the offence side of the game, what killed us in many games was the transition from attack to defence. Yes, we got caught with wing backs or full backs too high up the pitch, but it starts from all the attackers busting their balls to get a ball back.

I also don’t think it is a coincidence that we’ve been better defensively with Ovie playing in the left of midfield either. He has a phenomenal work rate, tracks back well and provides excellent cover for the full back (currently Blackett). You could see this last season too. His reading of the game is very good and understands what he neeeds t do and where he needs to be defensively on the pitch. I think Obita will be a useful player as led midfield if Ovie is injured or moved into a more central position.
Reckon using Obita or Richards as a left mid when we next play Hull would be sensible. Got to stop Bowen.

Mentioned it elsewhere but wouldn’t be surprised to see Yiadom/Obita or Richards playing wide midfield at times this season in front of Blackett/Gunter

Wouldn’t be totally against it depending on the opposition and state of the game