BFTG - Huddersfield

[marlowuk]

As others have said - dreadful for the first 25 minutes and Town should have been 3 or 4 up if it hadn't been for Al Habsi, especially his smothering of their attacker when one-on-one with him. We just didn't look interested. Huddersfield were bright, especially in attack, and looked dangerous every time they came forward. But - for once - we seemed to get the breaks. Loose balls landed at the feet of Reading players and Huddersfield efforts hit the bar or post (at least 3 times I think).

Cooper's mistake led to their first goal down our right flank but where on earth was Gunter? Smith was given far too much time and space in the penalty area for their second. The turning point was the sending off and the resultant goal from the free kick but Vydra was definitely fouled and was prevented from having a goal-scoring opportunity so there can be no arguments over the sending off. But I did feel, at the time, that we needed to score from that free kick. If not, then there would still be a two goal cushion for Huddersfield and we know how badly Reading perform against 10 men and a massed defence! But Piazon did score beautifully even though he did little else of note in the game.

Thereafter we played better but I wonder what the result would have been had Town 'parked the bus'? But they continued to attack and looked dangerous for a while and that ambition from the 10 men did give us chances at the other end which we did take despite heroics from Murphy in their goal. Great to see a hat-trick from Vydra and hopefully that will fill him with confidence and we can look forward to more goals from him in the second half of the season. Brian brought him off a few minutes before the end of the match so he could take his standing ovation. That was good man-management and we saw him do the same for Kebe a few years ago. The (manly) embrace between striker and manager showed what it meant to both men.

In the end we deserved to win although the score flattered us. I just thank God it wasn't a draw. It was too cold for another 30 minutes!!

[Pepe the Horseman]

Beers are on Pepe btw, he had money on a Vydra hattrick at 100/1

[Armadillo Roadkill]

It could easily have not been a red card (from where I was sat, the referee might well have considered at least two Huddersfield players could have got to Vydra before he was one-on-one with their (excellent) keeper). But it was also a pretty stupid place to commit a foul, so they can't feel too aggrieved. Amazing support - hats off.

Reading were, from there on, pretty effective against ten men, and the goals went in through sheer persistence as much as anything else.

And also, whilst I'm still not getting carried away, a bit disgusted by McDermott bringing on Sa at the end. Nice gesture to give Vydra his chance of an ovation, but putting Sa on for a few seconds looks, to me at least, calculated to humiliate him. And there's no need for that.

[leon]

It could easily have not been a red card (from where I was sat, the referee might well have considered at least two Huddersfield players could have got to Vydra before he was one-on-one with their (excellent) keeper). But it was also a pretty stupid place to commit a foul, so they can't feel too aggrieved. Amazing support - hats off.

Reading were, from there on, pretty effective against ten men, and the goals went in through sheer persistence as much as anything else.

And also, whilst I'm still not getting carried away, a bit disgusted by McDermott bringing on Sa at the end. Nice gesture to give Vydra his chance of an ovation, but putting Sa on for a few seconds looks, to me at least, calculated to humiliate him. And there's no need for that.

I'm disgusted by your final paragraph

[Esteban]

25 minutes of diabolical defending and chasing shadows, 2-0 down and Huddersfield with a cigar on. Then the sending off (looked harsh from where I was sat), a peach of a free-kick by Piazon followed by a very patient performance to win the game. 5-2 definitely flattered us.

Al-Habsi deserves a lot of credit (still think he'll throw one in every time he has the ball though). I didn't think that Norwood quite hit his usual high standards, but was still very good. We'll do well to hold on to him in the summer. Pleased for Fernández, it was nice to see someone get excited about scoring for us.

Vydra was superb I thought, not just for his goals, but for the effort he puts in. Chases back, defends, not afraid to tackle, gets in the box, creates and got the goals he deserved last night. Quality player.

Huddersfield must be gutted after that, there's no way we'd have got back into it without the sending off.

Good value for money. Looking forward to the Walsall game now.

[Winston Smith]

Just watched the highlights - LOL @ that being a red card.

[Extended-Phenotype]

It could easily have not been a red card (from where I was sat, the referee might well have considered at least two Huddersfield players could have got to Vydra before he was one-on-one with their (excellent) keeper). But it was also a pretty stupid place to commit a foul, so they can't feel too aggrieved. Amazing support - hats off.

Reading were, from there on, pretty effective against ten men, and the goals went in through sheer persistence as much as anything else.

And also, whilst I'm still not getting carried away, a bit disgusted by McDermott bringing on Sa at the end. Nice gesture to give Vydra his chance of an ovation, but putting Sa on for a few seconds looks, to me at least, calculated to humiliate him. And there's no need for that.

Pretty sure that wasn't the reason but it does kinda spoil the theory that Sa couldn't be picked Saturday because he's off to Greece.

[West Stand Man]

I am loving all the absolute definites about whether or not we would or could have gotten back into that game. No one knows how it might have panned out either way (which is one of the many beauties of the game). Many teams have come back from seeming to be dead and, of course, many have just capitulated and gone on to ignominious defeat.

Let's not forget that Piazon scored the free kick and that Huddersfield being down to 10 men didn't affect that. How often has one goal kick started a come back? Quite often I suspect. Just look at Arsenal, had we gone in to half time 4-0 up who knows how that game might have gone. We didn't though, they got a late goal and went into the half time break on a high that they could build on. If we'd gone in on that high the whole half time would have been very different and then .........

Anyway, the fact remains, we came back from a totally disastrous start against a team that just seems to have something on us at the moment. In the league match here they looked like a much better team than their league position suggests yet they don't seem able to reproduce that form elsewhere on any regular basis.

On to the next game then and another session in the huge outdoor freezer.

[wingnut]

As everyone else has said, dreadful first 20-25 minutes. Huddersfield played like we used to, pressing us all over the pitch, giving us no time or space on the ball at all leading to sloppy passes and very heavy first touches. Looked like men vs boys at times with seemingly every Huddesfield player dwarfing our counterpart.
Sending off looked very harsh even without replays, Vydra didn't have the ball under control and there looked to be 2 other covering defenders. Was a yellow all day long for me. The fact that we scored directly from the resulting free kick was as big a factor in turning the game round as the red card, IMHO.
I really hope Vydra and the team can push on from this.

[West Stand Man]

Just watched the highlights - LOL @ that being a red card.

Please expand. Are you saying that it wasn't a foul? If so then clearly no red card. If it was then it was a foul that clearly prevented a goal scoring opportunity as Vydra was through on goal, right down the middle. That sounds like a red card offence; the law seems quite straightforward?

[ZacNaloen]

LOL @ people saying that wasn't a blatant Red.

Vydra was 1 on 1 with the keeper and the "covering players" were parallel not ahead.

[wingnut]

It wasn't "right down the middle", he was over to the left, he didn't have the ball properly under control and there were two other defenders.
Plus it was Vydra.

[West Stand Man]

It wasn't "right down the middle", he was over to the left, he didn't have the ball properly under control and there were two other defenders.
Plus it was Vydra.

Really? So what was the free kick right on the D? That looks pretty central to me?

[wingnut]

Of course free kicks are always taken from exactly where the offence happened.

[Winston Smith]

LOL @ people saying that wasn't a blatant Red.

Vydra was 1 on 1 with the keeper and the "covering players" were parallel not ahead.

being parallel or not isn't a specific criteria that decides whether it was DAOG-SO. That is what pundits starting saying when the ruling was brought in and got hammered for it as they were getting it wrong.

Criteria for deciding when to penalise for denying an
obvious goal-scoring opportunity:

The direction of the play.
The location of the foul.
The proximity of the player to the ball.
The probability of controlling the ball.
The location and number of opponents.
The opportunity for the attempt on goal

[West Stand Man]

LOL @ people saying that wasn't a blatant Red.

Vydra was 1 on 1 with the keeper and the "covering players" were parallel not ahead.

being parallel or not isn't a specific criteria that decides whether it was DACGSO. That is what pundits starting saying when the ruling was brought in and got hammered for it as they were getting it wrong.

Criteria for deciding when to penalise for denying an
obvious goal-scoring opportunity:

The direction of the play.
The location of the foul.
The proximity of the player to the ball.
The probability of controlling the ball.
The location and number of opponents.
The opportunity for the attempt on goal

Red card then.

[Winston Smith]

[ZacNaloen]

It's the most obvious Red Card I've seen since Saturday.

[Jano]

From where we were sat we thought it was generous in the extreme, haven't seen the replay so could only comment on it in real time. Looked to me like Huddersfield had 2 players covering. I thought we were absolute dogsh*te defensively for the whole game, midfield offered the defence no protection whatsoever and we were torn apart every time they came forward, even after the sending off. Cooper in particular looked all over the place, I don't know if defensive training has changed since I was a kid but I don't know how many times I was told not to let the ball bounce and they seemed to be doing it all night long, and getting caught every single time.

Man of the match for me was Al-Habsi, Huddersfield should have been 4-0 up before the sending off and would of been had it not been for him. Yes we did well in killing the game off after the sending off, but I dread to think how many we would have lost by had it not been given.

[tidus_mi2]

I don't get how it can be perceived as not a foul and red card, Vydra was running towards goal with no defenders ahead of him, that is an easy example of Denial of Goal Scoring Opportunity. Even the Huddersfield fans can see it was a red card after seeing the highlight of the incident.