Pre Season Friendly thread

[handbags_harris]

Hardly writing him off am I, I merely gave friends an opinion on one 45 minute performance where he offered absolutely nothing. He didn't win a header, he didn't link play well at all, didn't make intelligent runs, and at one point just completely gave up after he lost the ball. I repeat what I said to floyd and others this morning - he seemed a confused and inexperienced forward, not sure what he was supposed to be doing. In truth he was completely carried by Gozi Ugwu last night for the whole 45 minutes. Ugwu played well, dropped deep to recieve the ball and build attacks yet Williams was nowhere to be seen when he turned. In that scenario I would expect a fellow attacker to be on the shoulder of the defender yet when Williams did this it was never at the right time and his runs were non-existant. When Williams dropped deep the ball either went nowhere near him, over his head (he didn't win a single header, clearly been taking lessons from the Martin Butler school of heading), or his first touch let him down. His performance, for someone who has played competitive football at a decent standard, was not very good at all, and in truth he was IMHO thoroughly shown up by a 16 year old Spaniard/Algerian/Frenchman/whatever nationality he was (who I hope we give a chance for a year or two - movement and ability very good I felt.

[BirminghamRoyal]

Haven't seen this posted anywhere yet.

Both the Northampton Town and Swindon games will be pay on the day at the clubs.
The prices are as follows:
Swindon
Adults: £10
Under 16's: £5
60+: £5

Northampton Town
Adults: £10
Under 21 & Seniors: £8
Under 18's: £3
Under 7's: Free (in advance only, contact Northampton Direct)

[PEARCEY]

Text upd8 from Handbags Harris:

Swindon Supermarine 0-1 Reading. Brett Williams pen. The only way he was going to score. He's been utter turd so far.

Good to see your levels of literacy improving Floydster with the description of our new hot-shot striker as "utter turd".

He was quoting

Er yeah. What's your point.

[Snowball]

Have to say he didn't look much at Eastleigh, but just one 45 minute spell...

What interests me more is that BMc has already had him on the bench for a Championship game
and surely he wouldn't have done that if he was (then, in training) showing no real promise?

[tomrfcurz]

This Cain bloke then... heard he was probably the best player on the pitch. I know nothing there that necessarily shows he's 1st team quality but did anyone actually go? What was he like with first touches, accuracy of passes and the stuff basically he may be able to carry in to a RFC first team soon enough maybe.

[floyd__streete]

and surely he wouldn't have done that if he was (then, in training) showing no real promise?

Conversely, BMc hasn't seen fit to take him to Slovenia either.....yet he has taken Nicholas Bignall .

I watch a lot of football at the level Williams played at with Eastleigh. I enjoy it, but I'd say that 99.99% of the players I see wouldn't cut it at Championship level. The gap is too big these day, the hope of finding the next Kerry Dixon out there is remote. I'd wager that Williams is in that 99.99% and I do hope that Hammond and his cronies on the board aren't expecting Williams to be Long's replacement

[handbags_harris]

This Cain bloke then... heard he was probably the best player on the pitch. I know nothing there that necessarily shows he's 1st team quality but did anyone actually go? What was he like with first touches, accuracy of passes and the stuff basically he may be able to carry in to a RFC first team soon enough maybe.

I did, and to be honest I wasn't as impressed with him as I was with Fauzi Bourenane, a 16/17yo Algerian/French/Spanish (not sure really, heard all of those nationalities). That's not to say he was poor, but he wasn't a standout for me. Personally I was taken in by MacDonald, Gage, Ugwu, Bourenane and Walcott.

[winchester_royal]

I like Gage. Reminds me of Ledge. Strong, good tackler, and plays the simple ball.

[Wimb]

Some post match thoughts from Dravograd on The Tilehurst End now

http://thetilehurstend.co.uk/2011/07/16 ... ch-report/

[retro royal]

From the Poole website

Poole 2 Reading 2

A much more subdued atmosphere both on and off the pitch than Thursday's game against Bournemouth.

Reading started brightly with some neat one touch football at a quick pace - the signs looked ominous for Poole. However they never really threatened the goal and as the game moved on Poole started to match them.

The break came to Poole when Joyce was brought down. Cann took an excellent penalty to put Poole ahead on 27 minutes. A few minutes later and Joyce hit the bar.

Change of teams at half time but not much change to the game at first with a closely fought encounter. On 51 minutes Smithy was brought down for another penalty. Up stepped Micky to send the keeper the wrong way.

After a stoppage for an injury to Brooks Poole were still napping and a good cross was well finished by Reading's no 15 on 69 minutes.

Both sides had another good chance with both hitting the woodwork.

Poole looked like holding on but after 5 minutes of extra time (where did that come from?) Reading scored from almost the last kick of the game. Although hard on Poole a draw was probably a fair result.


Read more: http://samspud.proboards.com/index.cgi? ... z1SHxClWAK

[Pseud O'Nym]

Some post match thoughts from Dravograd on The Tilehurst End now

http://thetilehurstend.co.uk/2011/07/16 ... ch-report/

but a brace from Church

I think you'll find Church only scored one. Manset got two.

[Wimb]

Some post match thoughts from Dravograd on The Tilehurst End now

http://thetilehurstend.co.uk/2011/07/16 ... ch-report/

but a brace from Church

I think you'll find Church only scored one. Manset got two.

Indeed! Has been corrected

[Ian Royal]

When I saw the scoreline I wouldn't have guessed that we'd missed a bucket load of decent chances in the first half, and had three goals ruled out for offside.

We could have had 20.

Edit: We looked ok, nothing more. It was quite obvious we were far superior technically, mentally and physically and didn't need to get out of first gear.

[Hoop Blah]

Some post match thoughts from Dravograd on The Tilehurst End now

http://thetilehurstend.co.uk/2011/07/16 ... ch-report/

Reminded me of an old teletext match report, didn't say a lot I didn't know from the teamsheet and scorer.

Quite interesting to note that Obita played on the right though.

[andrew1957]

Just back from the Woking game tonight.

Bit disappointing really as our young lads were heavily beaten 5-1. It looked a bit like men against boys really - as Woking were older, stronger and more organised.

However, there were some hopes for the future. To me the best player for us was Nick Arnold at right back. Good defensively and also went forward well.

Ethan Gage did ok in centre mid. Played the simple ball and could be a good player.

I thought Dean Saintangelo (who was in goal second half) did well and had no chance with the two he let in.

The big number 9 trialist up front (no idea what his name is) looked a bit clumsy and I was not impressed, but did take his goal well. We looked better going forward when Gozie Ugwu came on with 30 minutes to go. He looks promising and was unlucky with a great back heel chance. David Murphy joined him up front for the last 10 minutes and he also looks a prospect to me - not that you can really judge in 10 minutes, but he was very unlucky not to score.

Apart from that we huffed and puffed and there were no real stand out performances. The centre half’s may go on to be ok, but they were run ragged by a physically larger Woking attack and you cannot really say they had a great game when we let 5 in.

So overall I would say that few if any of this group have a chance of breaking into the first team this season, but there might well be some promising talent
that will blossom in the years ahead.

[andrew1957]

Just seen the report on the OS.

Looks like Cummins agrees about Arnold's performance but I thought D'Ath was average to be honest - so very surprised he was highlighted. I wanted to be impressed because there have been many good things said about him. Hopefully he will get better.

http://www.readingfc.co.uk/page/NewsDet ... 21,00.html

[Four Of Clubs]

... end of the article above mentions the (hastily arranged?) friendly @ Oxford City on Sat 23rd 15:00h

... nice big NL Stadium-type ground just off the NE bit of the Ring Rd up past the JR Hospitals @ Marston - for those who've not had the pleasure.
- loads of parking, good-ish bar fair amount of cover too if its likely to rain - and the food's not bad either.

I think we've stepped in to cover for some midlands outfit called Barwell, who were due to visit this Sat but owing to a few late league restructurings have ended up in the same division as Oxford C 11/12 season - so they've called it off.

[Hoop Blah]

Apparently Hunt, who some on here say isn't a bit fragile and injury prone, is still out injured so not in the squad for today's game. Likewise Church is out injured along with Griffin and both of the Williams'.

[No Hoops]

Kebe rested for tonights game and has not travelled.

Prob on his way to Loftus Rd

[andrew1957]

Kebe rested for tonights game and has not travelled.

Prob on his way to Loftus Rd

Sounds a bit ominous.

Mind you Brian said that if Long went no one else would go. If Kebe goes it might just mean that Long stays. if one has to go to fill the 2015-16 financial black hole, then I think I would prefer to keep Long.

In reality I expect we need to sell both to fill the black holes of 2016-17 and 2017-18 as well.