back in the car from the Brighton (H) game

[Cureton's Volley]

Tbh anyone who was at Yeovil chanting Alf's name after the penalty decision (about 90% of you lot) can't really be critical of Pog.

That's the fine line of such theatrics. You get a pen one week and a booking the next.
I'm not a fan of such nonsense. Players should attempt to stay on their feet at all times.

Great point. 2 games, 2 dives. If anything Alf's was worse. Pog deserved a fk until he went all Louis Spence.

[blueroyals]

McCarthy - 8 - won us a point today
Gunter - 7 - got forward well but generally poor crosses
Pearce - 5
Morrison - 6
Kelly - 5
Karacan 6
Guthrie - 8 - never has a bad game
Williams - 6
Drenthe - 5
ALF - 5
Pog - 0

Bridge 7
HRK 5
Blackman - 5

[The Real Sandhurst Royal]

Thank you Alex McCarthy.

[Lower West]

and at wages acceptable to Reading, which are often lower than other clubs are prepared to offer!

UEFA Fair Play rules are beginning to impact Championship and League 1 teams. The gulf to the premiership is ever widening.

[Avon Royal]

Just seen the Pog incident.

He was having his arm pulled but went down theatrically. Was a harsh decision and probably owed a lot to what happened yesterday.

[RoyalBlue]

Just seen the Pog incident.

He was having his arm pulled but went down theatrically. Was a harsh decision and probably owed a lot to what happened yesterday.

Sorry, I didn't bother to watch any football from yesterday (getting fed up with English football tbh) - what happened?

[Royalwaster]

Just seen the Pog incident.

He was having his arm pulled but went down theatrically. Was a harsh decision and probably owed a lot to what happened yesterday.

Sorry, I didn't bother to watch any football from yesterday (getting fed up with English football tbh) - what happened?

The Ashley Young dive?

[Avon Royal]

Yes.

When Brighton's Upson was interviewed on 5 live after the game he referred to the Ashley Young incident and said he believed it had influenced the Ref.

[melonhead]

Alf wasn't exactly playing on the wing.
He started as the left sided attacking player in a 4-2-3-1.
However, I am a little puzzled as to why he didn't start in the centre of the three where he could feed of the front one.

Where ever he was he was utterly wasted and looked lost. Didnt get near their box. Why bother when we had lrft sided attacking plAyers on the bench

[Uke]

Sissoko will save us all

[DaveBanana]

Tbh anyone who was at Yeovil chanting Alf's name after the penalty decision (about 90% of you lot) can't really be critical of Pog.

That's the fine line of such theatrics. You get a pen one week and a booking the next.
I'm not a fan of such nonsense. Players should attempt to stay on their feet at all times.

Great point. 2 games, 2 dives. If anything Alf's was worse. Pog deserved a fk until he went all Louis Spence.

Spot on - if Alf had been sent off under the same circumstances everyone would be up in arms about it. I thought his initial booking was more of a dive so he shouldn't have even been on a yellow, and also think he had every right to claim for a free kick for the sending off - daft to go down how he did, but both incidents could have been either uncarded or even reversed on another day. I was really positive seeing today's lineup, and then massively underwhelmed with the reality of it, and think we really miss Jobi.

[jellytot]

We look about as sharp as a plastic knife going forward. Did the Brighton
keeper make a meaningful save? No. We look midtable mediocrity.

Got to get in a loan or two. Pog is poor and Blackman is not up to it. Think we
still have a lot of rebuilding to do. we may as well blood more of the academy kids.

[Gunny Fishcake]

Ref man of the match as his atrocious performance turned a boring load of crap into something a bit more more interesting.

It's going to be a long hard season

[Royalclapper]

The ref was a stickler for upholding the rules, however, if he refereed every game for about 3 months I bet there would be at least a 50% reduction in players taking a tumble.

Wtf was Pog thinking about, if you need to do that against Championship duffers then he's just taking the p*ss, you can more understand LuaLua doing it because he's shit. LOL @ how Brighton went into a state of shock/panic when Ulloa got sent off before they regrouped, they were as resigned to a 0-0 draw as us when their only player capable of scoring trudged off. Gotta love the Championship, you get promoted by being a bit less shite than everyone else.

[marlowuk]

A mediocre game made worse by the Ref's lack of common-sense. He came close to losing control of the game during the later part of the first half. I assumed the booing at the end was for him!

Well we wanted POG to show some passion and get stuck in ... !!! I thought he was showing more intent and working harder until his dismissal. Very harsh. When the ref reached for his card for the first offence I thought he was booking the Brighton player for diving.

Karacan MOTM for me. He was everywhere (and not in a headless-chicken way) and came closest to scoring for us I think. McCarthy also played well and kept us in it particularly with a near post save which looked certain to go in. Special mention also for Bridge who came on at HT. He was a great attacking threat for the whole of the half showing some neat skills and going past men like a winger.

Lua Lua caused us problems with his pace but otherwise Brighton looked ordinary and so did we. The worrying thing is that we have not scored in open play, now, for 5 games (including our friendly v Oman)!!! Even in the closing seconds of the game today when we were pressing hard, everyone seemed scared to shoot! What on earth can we do about that???

[Westwood52]

This was the third time I have seen Reading "live" this season; but as I could not go watched it on telly-totally different perspective as while against Ipswich and Watford we showed some promise , I thought today we were dire. Brighton should have won and McCarthy pulled off four good saves. The lack of structure and any sort of game plan suggests a first six placing at the end of the season looks unlikely-given that Adkins is now well into the job I wonder where any improvement is going to come from.

For what its worth(given that I am feeling pretty depressed about us):

McCarthy 8: Not quite up to his Liverpool performance(one very weak punch out)-but close.
Gunter 6: Once again worked hard-but little quality and every so often caught out defensively.
Kelly 6 : Just not a left back.
Morro 6 : Didn't look fit and too often out of his depth.
Pierce 6: I was just waiting for him to make the costly mistake and he nearly did-did well to get his shot on target in 2nd half however.
Karacan 7: Did OK.
Guthrie 7: Showed a lot of control and kept the ball well-but needed to be more accurate.
Alfie 5: Never in the game
Pog 4: Plain stupid-for both yellow cards.
Williams 5:What is his best position ? He has done well coming off the bench -but looked very limited today.
Drenthe 4: Is he nothing but a big time Charlie and just not interested in playing for the team ?

Bridge 8: There was at least a bit of subtlety to his game.
Kanu 5: Promised much but simply did not deliver.
Blackman 5: One nice touch but I have never seen anything from him to suggest that he is no more than a Div One player.

Ref: Missed the pull on Pog for 2nd yellow and the fact that Pog never touched Lua for the 1st-however Pog was stupid enough to give the Ref chances to book him.

Adkins: Still not sure about him-apart from the upturn in Guthrie there is no sign yet of him developing any quality in our play and the signings of Drenthe and Williams look to be mistakes-I hope I am wrong.

[Cureton's Volley]

Not sure who made today's trip to the Theatre of Dreams more of note - the ref or the díck head stewards?

[blueroyals]

Amazing that we kept a clean sheet but everyone seems to be rating the defence at around a 5/6

Pearce and Morrison were solid and actually looked comfortable on the ball for a change. We keep a clean sheet yet the attacking players have higher ratings than the defence despite not scoring? Have a word...

[SCIAG]

and at wages acceptable to Reading, which are often lower than other clubs are prepared to offer!

UEFA Fair Play rules are beginning to impact Championship and League 1 teams. The gulf to the premiership is ever widening.

It's absolutely nothing to do with UEFA.

We actually have higher wage bills than most Championship clubs. We spend less on fees but our wage structure is very competitive. It isn't insane like Leicester's or QPR's but we spend a lot on wages for a Championship club.

Anyway:

McCarthy 8: I've seen him have better games
Gunter 7- I've seen him have worse games. Got forward well
Kelly 6- quiet, but then he is a full back and had half a match in which the opposition were targeting Gunter
Pearce 6.5- a few defensive errors on the half way line, one of which resulted in a deserved booking, but looked very good on the ball
Morrison 7- one major error, but it fortuitously led to their red card so...
Guthrie 7- great movement and one absolutely phenomenal pass, but misjudged some crucial passes
Karacan 6.5- quiet in the first half, improved in the second. Good tackling and went close with a few shots.
Williams 5- didn't get involved much. Played out of position at times.
Drenthe 6.5- some poor touches, but also one phenomenal cross field overhead pass that split the defence. Looked like our main creative outlet and probably should have stayed on.
Le Fondre 5- isolated in either position, dribbling let him down when Drenthe played him through
Pog 6- good hold up play, passing and running. Harshly sent off (though the first yellow was typical of him- if he hadn't done that then the ref's later mistake wouldn't have resulted in a red).

Subs:
Bridge 7- looked very good on the ball and had an excellent first touch, but his final ball was largely poor, excepting one brilliant through ball for Gunter.
HRK 6.5- some good dribbling, would probably have liked him to start ahead of ALF.
Blackman- not much time

[MmmMonsterMunch]

Well that was woeful. Highlight of the day was having a dump at half time.

On a positive note I thought Guthrie stood out yet again - always wanting the ball & trying to making something happen. Already nailed on for POTS I think.

Really not looking forward to Wed night now - Leeds will beat us for sure.

Hoping we turn the corner but we seem to be getting worse at the moment!