Back from the Arsenal game/TV

[John Madejski's Wallet]

They scored in Injury time of half time, injury time of full time & twice in injury time of ET

.......just how the f*ck can any team have such repeated lapses in concentration ???

[floyd__streete]

Such a mixture of emotions after that game, however this is going to have knocked our players confidence for six!

Luckily some of them won't be playing on Sunday; cya Gunter, cya Morrison.....

[SPARTA]

Same old story. Play well in the first half, Brian gives team talk, we come out a completely different side and throw it away. 5 times now? Nothing learnt. McDermott is well out of his depth and we are phucked unless, sadly, and I really do mean that, we change the manager and hope to God we get someone decent in who can work a near miracle.

I was at the bottom of the steps at 4-3 and then they scored a 4th. I said then, just as I did at 4-2, we will lose this and thank God I carried on home. At least we beat the traffic!

[floyd__streete]

They scored in Injury time of half time, injury time of full time & twice in injury time of ET

.......just how the f*ck can any team have such repeated lapses in concentration ???

Sh*t players, m8.

[SPARTA]

Such a mixture of emotions after that game, however this is going to have knocked our players confidence for six!

Luckily some of them won't be playing on Sunday; cya Gunter, cya Morrison.....

Morrison was decent. Lots of questions about Gorkss though. How Pearce isn't in that side I don't know. Contract situation has a big part in it I'm sure.

[ManchesterRoyals]

Such a mixture of emotions after that game, however this is going to have knocked our players confidence for six!

Luckily some of them won't be playing on Sunday; cya Gunter, cya Morrison.....

Morrison was decent. Lots of questions about Gorkss though. How Pearce isn't in that side I don't know. Contract situation has a big part in it I'm sure.

But ffs play pearce, gorkks is utter shitte

[LUX]

Fcks sake, it's the Mickey Mouse Cup.

Who cares? As long as we beat Arsenal in the league.

Which is a shoo-in.

[genome]

I can't think of anything to say.

This pretty much sums it up.

[Stuboo]

Unbelievable!

The ref certainly helped Arsenal by not sending Koscielny off, not giving us a penalty and playing two minutes of extra extra time.

But what a game!

[holsgrove breaks a leg]

Arrgghhhh seeing Brian on the car crash interview its very difficult to see how we can lift ourselves against QPR in what is a huge huge game. Fantastic,amazing that we went ahead, we played well and exposed Arsenal own shaky defense which has been much maligned. The goal before half time was indeed a catalyst, however i don't care if its Man Utd or Chesterfield that you are 4 up against, its simply unprofessional to end the game like that. Neutrals or pundits might look at the game in isolation and praise Reading, but the fact we have failed spectacularily to hold the lead yet again (the 3-3 v fulham could be seen now as the turning point surely) serves only to ponder on how we are set up as a team. You only have to look at 'pluck'y Reading in our relegation season 0f 07/08 to realise that 6-4,7-4,4-2 defeats will ultimately kick you right where it hurts.

The question is can you see us stopping leaking goals, we have endeavour yes but the midfield is all over the place in terms of tactics,who to select and lack of depth whilst the defence has shipped in a ton more without a clean sheet in sight. Im all for exciting games, but the time has come for application and professionalism to grind out a 1-0 victory or we will become a laughing stock. I really like Brian and he gets the best out of the team, but surely we have to get back to basics and defend leads or the heart will be ripped out of the team. Whether Anton can stand such performances is also another thing to ponder, i would not want to be Mcdermott at all right now....

[RobRoyal]

Perspective folks. We have just seen one of the most dramatic football games of all time in HISTORY and RFC played a big part in that.

Yes, by being incredibly shit.

From now on any team blowing a massive lead will be said to have "done a Reading".

^^ I think this.

[blueroyals]

From the look on Antons face I'd say mcd will be gone by December. We cant defend for shit and the team are falling apart behind the scenes. Federici is shit, why play him? Where is Guthrie if he is fit and we have only 2 fit CM? Why has Pearce not played for ages?

Don't get me started on the tactics.

I am still behind him, but he needs to learn fast or he will be gone.

[Simon's Church]

We've got 8 defenders in the squad and only Shorey is up to standard, we're totally fukked.

[readingfc13]

Arrgghhhh seeing Brian on the car crash interview its very difficult to see how we can lift ourselves against QPR in what is a huge huge game. Fantastic,amazing that we went ahead, we played well and exposed Arsenal own shaky defense which has been much maligned. The goal before half time was indeed a catalyst, however i don't care if its Man Utd or Chesterfield that you are 4 up against, its simply unprofessional to end the game like that. Neutrals or pundits might look at the game in isolation and praise Reading, but the fact we have failed spectacularily to hold the lead yet again (the 3-3 v fulham could be seen now as the turning point surely) serves only to ponder on how we are set up as a team. You only have to look at 'pluck'y Reading in our relegation season 0f 07/08 to realise that 6-4,7-4,4-2 defeats will ultimately kick you right where it hurts.

The question is can you see us stopping leaking goals, we have endeavour yes but the midfield is all over the place in terms of tactics,who to select and lack of depth whilst the defence has shipped in a ton more without a clean sheet in sight. Im all for exciting games, but the time has come for application and professionalism to grind out a 1-0 victory or we will become a laughing stock. I really like Brian and he gets the best out of the team, but surely we have to get back to basics and defend leads or the heart will be ripped out of the team. Whether Anton can stand such performances is also another thing to ponder, i would not want to be Mcdermott at all right now....

+1

[John Madejski's Wallet]

We've got 8 defenders in the squad and only Shorey is up to standard, we're totally fukked.

^^^ When he came I really thought he'd add nothing to the team.

He's an average journeyman player, who no club has wanted to keep since he left us.... and he's head and shoulders above the rest of our defence

[pea]

At least this will put to bed the ludicrous suggestion that Gunter should be starting

[RoyallyFcuked]

So jumbled I didn't mention dear Mr Friend.

I'm all for referees that are lenient and that keep the game flowing. But as I posted in the match thread, Koscielny stayed on the pitch because there were seconds left. Friend was being the good guy and letting him off as Reading made their way into the quarter-finals. And then he gave them 80 seconds or so to score. As shambolic as the second half and extra time were, the game should never have gone beyond 90 minutes.

Aye, but if he'd been standing in the right place, or taken any notice of the croud/Arsenal players/sheepish right-back he should've sent Gunter off for that hand-ball too.

Didn't see the handball but noticed a few on here spotted it. Where this is different to the Koscielny incident is that he did see that one and, imho, made a deliberately lenient decision based on the state and time of the game.

I agree, our handball didnt matter anyway because they still scored. But Koscielny should have been sent off, like you say the ref thought theres no point sending him off because its about to end, then they go and score thanks to 2 minutes of extra stoppage time he gave them...

Fair to say everything that could of gone wrong, very much went wrong.

[Norfolk Royal]

Twitter alive with 'What do Reading expect if they've got Matt Lucas as a manager?' type jokes.

[parky]

We've got 8 defenders in the squad and only Shorey is up to standard, we're totally fukked.

This. Although I think Pearce and Cummings show promise.

[floyd__streete]

I really like Brian and he gets the best out of the team

Christ, imagine how bad we'd be if he didn't

The most disappointing thing for me is the lost opportunity. That freaky run of 15 wins from 17 took us up and we all hoped with the rumoured investment we might have a chance of staying up and becoming a midtable Premier League side for years to come. Then we signed a load of average Championship players, a misfit from Newcastle and a Russian here for the wage and the wheels come off almost straight away and all that hard work will be put to waste with our inevitable relegation.