News and Views
Royals Denied Victory Despite Robson-Kanu Brace
06 March 2016
By Alex Bower
"We were trying to win the game late on but we take the point, we go up the table one more place, we're unbeaten again and that's about the gist of it."
- Reading Manager Brian McDermott
"We are suffering in this competition by making mistakes. We need to be more solid and Reading pushed us hard during the last 15 minutes."
- Fulham Manager Slavisa Jokanovic
After the 4-2 away defeat against Fulham earlier in the season, Reading had something to prove on Saturday. Having let a lead slip at Craven Cottage, however, it was a repeat performance for the Royals as a clumsy penalty cost them the win. After taking the lead through Moussa Dembele, Fulham were soon behind thanks to a Hal Robson-Kanu brace. A second-half Ross McCormack penalty, however, was enough to earn Fulham a point.
Brian McDermott made a single enforced change going into the game, with Paul McShane out through injury and Anton Ferdinand coming in to the starting eleven. As a result, the Reading manager opted with five in midfield and Yann Kermorgant up front as the target man.
It was Fulham who started the brighter of the two sides and it took only a matter of minutes for them to take the lead. Moussa Dembele was a thorn in Reading's side for the duration, and it was him that was on hand to stroke the ball in following a corner. McCormack's corner picked out Michael Madl at the far post who headed it into Dembele's path. It was defensively poor from Reading and they were made to pay for their errors early on.
Reading were somewhat lucky not to be 2-0 down when a long range Tom Cairney shot was parried into the path of an awaiting Fulham player. Kermorgant was on hand, however, to win the ball fairly according to referee Simon Hooper. With twenty minutes of the game gone, the home side were to even the score thanks to some poor defending from Fulham.
After initially winning the ball, Robson-Kanu played a nice one two with Kermorgant. The Welshman was first to the return and an ill advised push from defender Fernando Amorebieta earned the home side a penalty. It was the midfielder who took the penalty himself and he casually stroked the ball into Andy Lonergan's net with ease.
Reading were to take the lead just before the break, thanks to some neat play from the impressive Ola John. After winning the ball back out on the left, Michael Hector found John on the edge of the box. Allowed to run into the area, John's inch perfect chipped cross found Robson-Kanu in the centre whose diving header handed Reading the 2-1 lead.
The Welshman was impressive for the home side in the first half, but an achilles injury meant that he needed to be replaced by Garath McCleary at half time. This was arguably a turning point for the Royals as the Welshman was definitely one of their strongest players in the opening period.
Despite the enforced change, Reading had the first opportunity to increase their lead and put the game beyond doubt. Oliver Norwood found Kermorgant in space and after some nice touches his effort across goal narrowly went wide of the post. While the home side started the half well, it was the away side who were to get the next goal.
After witnessing the defensive error at the other end of the pitch in the first half, centre-back Jake Cooper was to commit his own to hand Fulham a lifeline. It was clumsy from the Reading defender as he unnecessarily felled Ryan Fredericks in the area. Up stepped McCormack, who drilled the ball into Al-Habsi's net to level the score.
With the majority of the half left still to play, Reading had ample opportunity to take the lead again but squandered all opportunities. Deniss Rakels was once again brought into the fray, in place of Stephen Quinn, and McDermott switched to two up front. The issue was that the Reading players were simply not moving the ball fast enough when Fulham were there for the taking, subsequently letting them off the hook.
John found himself at the centre of all Reading's attacking play, whether that was out on the left wing or more centrally. Picking the ball up in the middle, the midfielder's effort from outside the box forced a save from the Fulham goalkeeper and Kermorgant could not make the most of the rebound. John then found himself out on the left wing and after some nicely executed tricks picked out Cooper in the centre unmarked. Despite having a clear height advantage and being central to the goal, the defender could only head wide.
After being found by Norwood in the area, Rakels had a shout for a penalty after feeling a push from Madl but was deemed to have gone to ground too easily. While this decision was borderline, going to ground was a theme of Rakels day with the striker spending far too much time on the floor. While he has impressed in recent games with his speed and his late goal against Charlton, this is an aspect of his game that he will have to eradicate.
If Reading were to make the breakthrough once more it was clear that it was going to come through John if anywhere. The winger was spending an increasing amount of time on the ball and had the beating of his man on the left wing. After rolling the ball past Kacaniklic, John's effort from a tight angle was on target but could only find the goalkeeper.
Fulham were able to see the game out and despite being willed on by the home crowd, Reading could not find a third goal to win all three points. As a result this would be a case of two points dropped for the Royals and the play-offs remain out of sight.
In terms of performances, Robson-Kanu, John and Hector were the most impressive once again. Hector in particular was strong in midfield and won a number of crunching 50/50 tackles while John was a consistent threat on the left wing. The Royals will be hoping that Robson-Kanu will be back in time for the FA Cup game against Crystal Palace but will surely miss out on the mid-week fixture against Huddersfield.
After being substituted in two of the last three games and missing out on the captain's armband this time around in McShane's absence, Norwood was one that had a poor game. While Hector has stepped up in the central midfield position, Norwood is struggling in recent times and could potentially do with being rested. Al-Habsi, after being voted as the player of the month for February, also had a comparatively poor game with far too many shots being parried back into dangerous positions.
One player that is a concern is McCleary. Since being out through injury, the midfielder has never been quite the same and his threatening runs at defenders have been missing in recent times. While Chris Gunter likes to get forward himself, and it is a requirement of modern full backs, you know that something is wrong when it is Gunter and not McCleary sprinting down the wing into attacking positions.
A brief comment must also be made on McDermott's tactical decisions. In recent games the manager has liked to play with five in midfield with a single striker. It worked against West Brom and for a certain period against Charlton but the sole striker is more often than not an isolated figure. Reading allowed Charlton to get back into the game before bringing on Rakels to partner Kermorgant and it happened again with Fulham.
While a draw was a disappointing result, it is time to look forward with a number of games on the horizon. Huddersfield is up next on Tuesday evening and then the Royals face Crystal Palace on Friday. A number of changes are expected against Huddersfield with Friday in mind but going into the games on the back of an unbeaten run is a great position to be in for Reading.
Discussion On This Story:
John Madejski's Wallet
Fulham there for the taking but we have no attacking urgency. Too many sideways passes and we just slowed it down.
McCleary just utterly pointless as a footballer now, shadow of his former self. He just seems to plod around the pitch, play where he fancies, never makes a run. We'd have cruised that second half if HRK was still on the right.
MoM Hector or John.......Just how hard was Hector in some of those 50:50 challenges!
Royality creeps In
Started poorly, but their goal kick started us
Hector was very good
Rakels was awful. Stay on your ffkin feet. (Not a penalty by the way when he threw himself to the floor!)
Al Habsi iffy. A striker in a better team would have snapped up his spilled catches.
HRK OK until went off. Injured?
IMHO Norwood needs replacing by Williams. Cannot understand how Quinn went off instead of Norwood
Fulham pretty awful yet they still managed to get 4 points from us this season
Other observations
Their 45? was dreadful and there for the taking.
Their no 7 should have been sent off after 10 minutes
Overall a game we would have probably lost before Brian took the reigns.
HO Hum! Onwards and upwards
Snowball
Didn't see their first. Didn't think their pen was a pen. Leaning is normal and
anyway the 7 (God he was quick!) started falling outside the box (I thought)
Our pen was clear cut. The defender was dumb.
Hector was imperious in midfield. Ferdinand VG. Please sign Ola John. That's another assist
for him, (ad an absolutely delightful goal, from the brilliant Hector pass, Ola's excellence,
the superb dink cross and the diving header by HRK.
We looked nervous, edgy at the start but we did at least try better passes,
just little came off. The ball kept being played on Kermie's head and he kept
pointing to his chest. I think he is going to be very solid for us, and the starting
11 today (or with McShane in for either CB) would be comfortably top 8
next season and almost certainly higher.
(I realise the team will break up, but I mean that we look to me like we will/would get
better and better with a settled side (this one). Much as Williams is exciting, I think we
are much harder to beat without him
Harpers So Solid Crew
Guess what it didn't happen, because football isn't like that.
And as expected players they should know this.
2-0 up at Wembley, then what Ady
tmesis
I don't think either penalty was soft. They were both obvious penalties with the ref having no choice.
Both were somewhat stupid, on the other hand, particularly the one we got. Why on earth would a defender do something like that?
Had we nicked the win I definitely think we'd have deserved it. That fact, however, that we didn't make the most of many openings in the 2nd half, suggests we can't have too many complaints about the draw.
We did look much better with two up front though. If you play with five in midfield, and aren't bossing the midfield, then it's a waste.
The lack of understanding between the players is a worry though. Most seem completely incapable of anticipating what the others will do. When we break, too often players run into the same positions or don't take a position that makes them able to receive a pass.
We have some good players, but there's not much of a team.
Royal Ginger
The crossing was good, and John picked up where he left off. Kermorgant must have won 90%+ of his headers and they're getting closer to his colleagues. Very impressed.
As mentioned above i agree that Al-Habsi was lucky rather than good, Hector was sublime and Rakkels diving was very poor.
Anton Ferdinand's legs are gone. For all the rest of his game, which still has a lot to it, his inflexibility and complete lack of pace are a liability.
Cairney (number 10) is a nasty little cnut of a player.
Jack Celliers
HRK, Hector and John were very good. Quinn was shocking and Ferdinand wasn't up to speed.
leon
That's how it played out today until we gave them a way back.
Even then they offered nothing after that and we should have wrapped it up. Ola John shooting near post when giving it to the Cannibal would have got us the points.
We've given those shitty smug cnuts 4 points this season. I really hope they go down.
marlowuk
So, an even first half saw us go into the break a goal up. Fulham were not great but did not look like relegation fodder. Fredericks on their right wing was very quick although Obita, who had a good game, kept him fairly quiet even though he couldn't match him for pace. But, after about 10 minutes of the second half, Fredericks was free on the right against Cooper and the academy graduate was well beaten for pace and clumsily brought him down conceding the penalty and the team's lead.
We had plenty of opportunities to score thereafter but Fulham seemed to be content to defend the draw. McCleary had been brought on for the injured HRK and he was OK only. Rakels was brought on for Quinn (I'd have brought on Williams for Norwood who had another poor game) but his (Rakels) diving was embarrassing!
We made too many basic mistakes with simple passes going astray. We lacked energy and urgency. Our defence - particularly Gunter and Ferdinand - is too slow to move the ball forwards and there is too little movement up front to to give them and the midfield passing options. Energy is what Williams gives us and I think we are a better unit with him on the pitch. Ola John was involved so often in this game and I would put him as MOTM just ahead of Hector. HRK looks to be 50-50 for Friday and Vydra also doubtful and that is a worry. Presumably Brian will rest several others in the Tuesday match to maximise the chance of another visit to Wembley. Here's hoping!!!
paultheroyal
Agree with all this.
Decent run of the mill match really. Plenty to be more optimistic about. Coopers lack of pace does worry and that's what has led to us conceding a number of goals recently. Like to see Ferdinand and Mcshane on Friday.
I expect multiple changes on Tuesday and can see the likes of Bond, Taylor, Fernandez, Williams, Evans, Rakels all starting.
CountryRoyal
It is and it isn't. A few weeks/months ago and this is what everyone would have wanted anyway. This squad has class there has, some of us have argued, never been any doubt about that. The problem is that they couldn't and still can't consistently perform to their level and there are definite mental fragilities about them. It would be a shame to lose Vydra, John, Hector and on current showing HRK but not so long ago people were crying out to "send them back" or get rid. McDermott has come in and wether or not you think he's the right man for the job he needs a summer window to get his own players (lol) in and shape his team, get the right characters in and hopefully with our bit of financial backing some with ability too.
Don't get the love for HRK though, he's playing well and that's fantastic, but he's playing for a contract and with the euros coming up he's building up his stock. He's pants for every other year of his contract so we'd do well to not renew (if we had a chance/wanted to anyway).
I also think there's a fairly strong chance Hector could well be here next season. Think he'll piss off to Chelsea for pre season and they'll be like "nahhhh".
Dr_Hfuhruhurr
Hector made it look easy, and Ola John gave one of the more exciting performances we've seen for quite a while.
At the other end of the scale AAH is going to need some more Brian encouragement - he looks like a high maintenance player.
But the last 15 minutes was a mess. Leon is right, Fulham are spineless - and we could have easily rolled them over at the end. But McLeary doesn't know what to do in this formation, and Rakkels gave a performance that reminded me of Paul Brayson - lots of running around. and never looked dangerous. There are an awful lot of defences in this division that will deal with him easily if he doesn't raise his game. Is Piazon injured? Maybe we should take consolation that the game didn't really matter, but less consolation that if we take the loanees away, this squad is starting to look a bit weak.
Snowball136
I think Arsenal would nick him then, but as DM not CB
But, yeah, there's a small chance we could borrow him for another year. They are unlikely to say they made a mistake, though, so I suspect if he isn't good enough to make the Chelsea squad, he'll go out on loan to a different championship team
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