BFTG Sheffield Weds (H)

[marlowuk]

This was much better - particularly in the first half. Wednesday looked very useful and we hardly got the ball into their half during the first 5 minutes. But we played ourselves into the game and showed some nice quick passing football from which Cox should have scored early on. 2 - 0 probably flattered us at Half Time but they were well-worked goals and nicely taken by Pog and Chalobah who was obviously delighted!! Great work for the second by McCleary who could have gone down under a hefty challenge but stayed on his feet to carry the ball deep into the opposition half before delivering the cross.

Credit - again - to Feds who made 2 great saves and made everything else look easy. MOTM was between Feds, Hector, Pog and McCleary. I agree that McCleary did looked spent before the final whistle and probably should have been substituted earlier. Pearce was immense and hardly put a foot wrong. He is a transformed player since SC arrived and gave him the captain's armband. Kelly was also solid and was provider for the first goal. Williams continues to get closer to his great form of last season. Obita had a mixed game. He gives away too many free kicks in dangerous positions but is always a good attacking threat. I didn't see much improvement in Robson-Kanu today and his penalty attempt was dreadful. He scored - luckily in my opinion - with a similar penalty against Norwich earlier in the season. Rolling the ball gently along the ground into the centre of the goal only works if the goalie dives one way or the other!! Today Ruddy stood his ground!

The second half was more wild and desperate as Wednesday pressed to score and our clearances became more agricultural! When we did break, though, we always looked as if we might score as we kept our composure in attack. Special mention to Blackman who, coming on for McCleary, jinked past just about the whole Wednesday defence in a mazy run. Sadly it came to nothing!!

But - 3 points, a clean sheet and a couple of goals against dangerous opponents is good news! Maybe now we have turned that elusive corner!?

[marlowuk]

I think HRK takes pens because he has a reasonable record scoring them, even if they are very iffy. I can't think of anyone in the side I'd be confident of scoring them as an alternative.

Pog has taken a few and I can't remember him missing any?

[bcubed]

Fat ref appalling for both sides.

I thought the referee had an excellent game for a change , as for Robson-Kanu woeful

Really? I thought he was gash. Missed loads of pushes plus a Wednesday defender climbing on Pog's back followed by Pog trying to get his own back with a challenge that would've deserved a red card if he'd made contact.

Woeful, fat, off the pace, so many decisions wrong, so many non calls.

[Schmeichel the dog]

Straight forward win, should have been by at least three of four. Didn't understand the offside goal decision. Wednesday didn't offer a lot and it was slightly embarrassing that we started the day nine places below them.
Feds was solid and had little to do aside from his now customary two great saves (8). Back four all steady (7). Chalabah (7) showed some nice touches, especially a great reverse pass in the first half and took his goal very well (7). His laid back style was in marked contrast to the excellent Williams (MOTM - 9) who ran his socks off showed passion, drive and also leadership, in his attempts to 'encourage' McCleary (6) whose game tailed off markedly in the second half to a point when he seemed to have slightly lost it and couldn't have been subbed soon enough. Did he take a knock? HKR (6) played well at times but did appear to bottle a few challenges and must never again be allowed to take a penalty, EVER. He just about got away with it against Norwich, but not this time. Cox (6) was his usual busy self but should have scored his two first half chances instead of hitting one straight at the keeper and blasting the other high over the bar. Finally, Pog (8) also did really well. One of his best performances in a Reading shirt and ran Williams close for MOTM. He was relatively mobile, managed to stay on his feet, held the ball up really well and even won a few headers. If only he could play like that every week.
Perhaps this is the start of our usual post Christmas charge up the table............?

[RoyalBlue]

I was watching their no 9 in the warm up and he barely got above walking pace and looked like a lumbering carthorse. So I was unsurprised when that was exactly how he played.

RB: I think HRK takes pens because he has a reasonable record scoring them, even if they are very iffy. I can't think of anyone in the side I'd be confident of scoring them as an alternative.

Pog, Cox and Blackman for starters!

[RoyalBlue]

I didn't see much improvement in Robson-Kanu today and his penalty attempt was dreadful. He scored - luckily in my opinion - with a similar penalty against Norwich earlier in the season. Rolling the ball gently along the ground into the centre of the goal only works if the goalie dives one way or the other!! Today Ruddy stood his ground!

Which really shouldn't have made much difference given he wasn't playing in goal!

McCleary (6) whose game tailed off markedly in the second half to a point when he seemed to have slightly lost it and couldn't have been subbed soon enough. Did he take a knock?

Yes he did, bad challenge into the achilles which the dreadful officials failed to spot.

[floyd__streete]

Brilliant result for Reading and much needed given the results elsewhere. Almost as rewarding to hear that Pogrebnyak scored again; take note those of you on this forum who slate the bloke. Don't write him off, he is by an absolute country mile the best striker we have at this club.

[madstadblues]

'Rewarding to hear' do you mean to say you churn out this vitriolic negativity and you don't actually go ?

[Berry]

Brilliant result for Reading and much needed given the results elsewhere. Almost as rewarding to hear that Pogrebnyak scored again; take note those of you on this forum who slate the bloke. Don't write him off, he is by an absolute country mile the best striker we have at this club.

Agree, the bloke worked his breasts off today...Interesting watching Ferdinand and Guthrie in their Hospitality Box today, when Chalobah scored Guthrie was busy texting...Maybe a new sleeve tattoo is ready or a wash and rinse from his hairdresser?

[Avon Royal]

Hal Robson-Kanu was absolute dump today. That pathetic penalty just summed up his ineptitude.

How he keeps getting in the team is a mystery.

[3points]

Thought we were pretty good today with Wednesday one of the worst teams to visit the Md Stad this season. How on earth are they 9th? Williams had a good game, but he'd be immense if he played the ball early. Seems to always take one touch too many. Back four looked solid, and I think Kelly has always made us look better defensively. I like Hector. He makes some mistakes but his pace usually gets him out of them. And his run - he should have carried on for goal and taken a shot. HRK had one of his better games, but remains frustrating as his good stuff gets offset against his weak / poor stuff. Was surprised Pog didn't take the penalty, especially as he won it.

Didn't understand taking Cox off. We lost our attacking threat at that point as Pog then got isolated and McLeary went into reverse at that point as well. That should have been at least a four goal win.

Highlight of the day was watching their no 9 in the second half. What an utterly useless lump of lard. Their website says he is 6'6 but he looked bigger than that.

[RoyalBlue]

Thought we were pretty good today with Wednesday one of the worst teams to visit the Md Stad this season. How on earth are they 9th? Williams had a good game, but he'd be immense if he played the ball early. Seems to always take one touch too many. Back four looked solid, and I think Kelly has always made us look better defensively. I like Hector. He makes some mistakes but his pace usually gets him out of them. And his run - he should have carried on for goal and taken a shot. HRK had one of his better games, but remains frustrating as his good stuff gets offset against his weak / poor stuff. Was surprised Pog didn't take the penalty, especially as he won it.

Didn't understand taking Cox off. We lost our attacking threat at that point as Pog then got isolated and McLeary went into reverse at that point as well. That should have been at least a four goal win.

Highlight of the day was watching their no 9 in the second half. What an utterly useless lump of lard. Their website says he is 6'6 but he looked bigger than that.

Their number 9 did exactly what they wanted him to. They lumped it up to him and he knocked it on to one of their players. Cox would probably enjoy playing off him! Loved the time when the no 9 had to chase our defenders down & was given the run around. He turned in disgust to his team mates as though that was outside of his job description and fitness levels!

[RoyallyFcuked]

Brilliant result for Reading and much needed given the results elsewhere. Almost as rewarding to hear that Pogrebnyak scored again; take note those of you on this forum who slate the bloke. Don't write him off, he is by an absolute country mile the best striker we have at this club.

I agree we shouldnt write him off just yet, he could yet come good and redeem himself. But he's got a long way to go. He hasn't even proven he is the best striker we currently have. There is not much competition here especially now. Cox has done fairly well but other than that we only have (kind of) HRK and Blackman. Time for Pog to step up to the task and start justifying his contract.

Seem to recall it you even saying that he is the best striker we've ever had. Definitely wouldnt go that far, even if you're basing it on natural talent rather than how well a striker has done individually and what they've achieved here, which I think you are.

I wasn't there today so I can't say how much he has improved, he has had some injury and confidence problems yes, I'm still not convinced though. Even if he has good game and doesnt score thats not always enough, strikers are mainly judged on goals and he hasn't scored enough, misses too many chances. But believe me I'd like nothing more than for him to start banging them in for us and prove the doubters (myself included), wrong. Anyway, that's another reason I'll look forward to seeing us at Derby and possibly Wolves away in the next couple of weeks.

[Y21]

Was it just their strip, or were Wednesdays players some of the heaviest to visit the Madejski? Obviously their no.9 was a proper old school unit, but a few of the others looked as though they had been enjoying the pies.

[Pepe the Horseman]

Thought we were pretty good today with Wednesday one of the worst teams to visit the Md Stad this season. How on earth are they 9th? Williams had a good game, but he'd be immense if he played the ball early. Seems to always take one touch too many. Back four looked solid, and I think Kelly has always made us look better defensively. I like Hector. He makes some mistakes but his pace usually gets him out of them. And his run - he should have carried on for goal and taken a shot. HRK had one of his better games, but remains frustrating as his good stuff gets offset against his weak / poor stuff. Was surprised Pog didn't take the penalty, especially as he won it.

Didn't understand taking Cox off. We lost our attacking threat at that point as Pog then got isolated and McLeary went into reverse at that point as well. That should have been at least a four goal win.

Highlight of the day was watching their no 9 in the second half. What an utterly useless lump of lard. Their website says he is 6'6 but he looked bigger than that.

Cox came off so we could tighten up the midfield and see out the game.

[Niko]

Brilliant result for Reading and much needed given the results elsewhere. Almost as rewarding to hear that Pogrebnyak scored again; take note those of you on this forum who slate the bloke. Don't write him off, he is by an absolute country mile the best striker we have at this club.

Fair enough he does get a lot of flack, I'm sure a lot of people just want to see another out and out striker that can play in the same role join the club. Doesn't hurt to have options, especially when at the moment we don't really have a plan B or C.

[3points]

Cox came off so we could tighten up the midfield and see out the game.

Apart from the fact it didn't really work imo as we lost all out attacking impetus and just invited them onto us. I would have taken him off, but not at that time. Would probably have given him at least another 10 minutes as we didn't look like we were in any kind of trouble or needing to shut up shop at that point

[Ian Royal]

I was watching their no 9 in the warm up and he barely got above walking pace and looked like a lumbering carthorse. So I was unsurprised when that was exactly how he played.

RB: I think HRK takes pens because he has a reasonable record scoring them, even if they are very iffy. I can't think of anyone in the side I'd be confident of scoring them as an alternative.

Pog, Cox and Blackman for starters!

Blackman would run up, pivot and try to backheel it in, only to kick his own shin instead as the keeper goes the wrong way. Don't see Cox as a pen man. Pog maybe I spose.

[Ian Royal]

Brilliant result for Reading and much needed given the results elsewhere. Almost as rewarding to hear that Pogrebnyak scored again; take note those of you on this forum who slate the bloke. Don't write him off, he is by an absolute country mile the best striker we have at this club.

I agree we shouldnt write him off just yet, he could yet come good and redeem himself. But he's got a long way to go. He hasn't even proven he is the best striker we currently have. There is not much competition here especially now. Cox has done fairly well but other than that we only have (kind of) HRK and Blackman. Time for Pog to step up to the task and start justifying his contract.

Seem to recall it you even saying that he is the best striker we've ever had. Definitely wouldnt go that far, even if you're basing it on natural talent rather than how well a striker has done individually and what they've achieved here, which I think you are.

I wasn't there today so I can't say how much he has improved, he has had some injury and confidence problems yes, I'm still not convinced though. Even if he has good game and doesnt score thats not always enough, strikers are mainly judged on goals and he hasn't scored enough, misses too many chances. But believe me I'd like nothing more than for him to start banging them in for us and prove the doubters (myself included), wrong. Anyway, that's another reason I'll look forward to seeing us at Derby and possibly Wolves away in the next couple of weeks.

Pog's strengths lie in dropping into the hole between defence and midfield, receiving the ball to feet evading challenges and laying it off. Unfortunately he's not quick enough to then burst into the box. He's not good enough at being in the right place to receive crosses / through balls and shoot.

He's the sort of player that someone like Doyle, Long, or maybe Fozzie would love running past and off. Unfortunately we want him to lead the line and receive balls to his head and chest. He's not awful, he just doesn't really fit what we want / need and his wages are criminal.

[Pepe the Horseman]

HRK's pathetic pen. https://vine.co/v/Otwj7drHdO9