BFTG Norwich,

[sandman]

The ref did the sub gesture and pointed to the 4th official. Then SC gestured to McCleary to delay things/go down so they had time to do the paperwork to take him off along with Guthrie for Cox (the planned sub). If we managed to get that all sorted before the ref resumed play then he should be in big trouble - allowing us to make a sub then preventing us from doing it once we'd gone down to 10 men, giving the oppo an unfair advantage. Never heard of him before so fingers crossed he'll be back in non-league next week - and staying there.

He's the same ref who lost his cards when sending Pearce off at Cardiff.

[Jerry St Clair]

Football fans are so one-eyed at times.

The blatant, unsporting behaviour by Clarke and McCleary is ok, but a genuine mistake by a referee is unforgivable? Reading brought it upon themselves by manufacturing a stoppage and then failed to defend once the play restarted. Frankly they deserved what they got.

[sandman]

Football fans are so one-eyed at times.

The blatant, unsporting behaviour by Clarke and McCleary is ok, but a genuine mistake by a referee is unforgivable? Reading brought it upon themselves by manufacturing a stoppage and then failed to defend once the play restarted. Frankly they deserved what they got.

Play shouldn't have been restarted though. Too much rides on decisions for them to get away with genuine mistakes I'm afraid.

[windermere_royal]

Football fans are so one-eyed at times.

The blatant, unsporting behaviour by Clarke and McCleary is ok, but a genuine mistake by a referee is unforgivable? Reading brought it upon themselves by manufacturing a stoppage and then failed to defend once the play restarted. Frankly they deserved what they got.

You total knob, manufacturing a stoppage?, the bloody guy was injured how can that be unsporting???

[genome]

Two points off 10th. Bloody hell.

[Ian Royal]

Football fans are so one-eyed at times.

The blatant, unsporting behaviour by Clarke and McCleary is ok, but a genuine mistake by a referee is unforgivable? Reading brought it upon themselves by manufacturing a stoppage and then failed to defend once the play restarted. Frankly they deserved what they got.

The game was already stopped and the only reason our first sub didn't happen is because the ref signalled treatment for McCleary. There is no manufactured stoppage. If we have an injured player to sub off the ref should accommodate that if the game isn't in play. Doubly do when he's signalled a sub for us already.

You can't then vindictively or incompetently change your mind and let play restart when one team is down to 10 and waiting on two subs to be made, just because you think someone may be playing silly beggars. There's no advantage for us to have gained.

[TBM]

Pretty poor that it's taken this long for us to do the double over a team, this season.

[Jerry St Clair]

Football fans are so one-eyed at times.

The blatant, unsporting behaviour by Clarke and McCleary is ok, but a genuine mistake by a referee is unforgivable? Reading brought it upon themselves by manufacturing a stoppage and then failed to defend once the play restarted. Frankly they deserved what they got.

You total knob, manufacturing a stoppage?, the bloody guy was injured how can that be unsporting???

Because he was walking off the pitch, but was then told to hit the deck by the bench to, presumably, lengthen the delay to our advantage. The length of the delay led to the ref cocking up; I think he just forgot about the subs. Unsporting behaviour by us contributed to the ref's mistake.

[sandman]

Football fans are so one-eyed at times.

The blatant, unsporting behaviour by Clarke and McCleary is ok, but a genuine mistake by a referee is unforgivable? Reading brought it upon themselves by manufacturing a stoppage and then failed to defend once the play restarted. Frankly they deserved what they got.

You total knob, manufacturing a stoppage?, the bloody guy was injured how can that be unsporting???

Because he was walking off the pitch, but was then told to hit the deck by the bench to, presumably, lengthen the delay to our advantage. The length of the delay led to the ref cocking up; I think he just forgot about the subs. Unsporting behaviour by us contributed to the ref's mistake.

He limped off the pitch. Poor refereeing bought into more focus by your white knighting of him.

[catfork]

Football fans are so one-eyed at times.

The blatant, unsporting behaviour by Clarke and McCleary is ok, but a genuine mistake by a referee is unforgivable? Reading brought it upon themselves by manufacturing a stoppage and then failed to defend once the play restarted. Frankly they deserved what they got.

You total knob, manufacturing a stoppage?, the bloody guy was injured how can that be unsporting???

Because he was walking off the pitch, but was then told to hit the deck by the bench to, presumably, lengthen the delay to our advantage. The length of the delay led to the ref cocking up; I think he just forgot about the subs. Unsporting behaviour by us contributed to the ref's mistake.

That's just not an acceptable answer I'm afraid. The referee "just forgot about the subs" ?????

Sorry, that's not good enough.

[John Madejski's Wallet]

Apart from the penalty, HRK was absolute toilet in the first half. Much improved second half though.

Reading this thread I was clearly at a different game, as I thought HRK was absolute donkey-bollox all game. Awful touch, often marked space, never beat anyone and went down easy when ever in a physical tussle. I just don't understand the point of him. Rest of the team all had good games.

Norwood MoM for me. Some great vision and some excellent attacking passes. Good to see Williams driving with the ball a few times too and some crunching tackles

[Mike Hunt]

Pretty poor that it's taken this long for us to do the double over a team, this season.

[Sanguine]

Seems I'm a bit of a good omen this season, 4 wins from 4 games attended now.

Terrific performance yesterday and a notable difference in style even from the 3-0 win over Rotherham, which was my last match.

We just looked solid. The midfield were where they needed to be. The full-backs overlapped at the right times. Cox and Murray interchanged in 'the hole' and worked as a pair. Hector and Pearce moved around the pitch as a couple. We challenged and harassed the Norwich players (Cox and Williams in particular), and settled into two banks of four when we had to. Great to see and assuming that's Clarke's influence in tightening us up then fair play to him.

Suddenly quite an exciting time at RFC - because I'm not sure anyone really knows just how good this set of players could be. We played very well yesterday and made Norwich look very ordinary - despite that Norwich side being little different to the side that came down from the Premier League, and with the addition of Jerome up front. We've looked at our squad for a while and thought 'well on paper they look alright' - now on the evidence of this game at least we can challenge at this level.

[eleventh earl of mar]

Pretty poor that it's taken this long for us to do the double over a team, this season.

Is this serious?

[Wycombe Royal]

Pretty poor that it's taken this long for us to do the double over a team, this season.

Is this serious?

Well what do you think?

[Hoop Blah]

A much improved team performance and it looks pretty clear to see how Clarke is influencing the team.

Some very good individual performances from Murray, Cox, Norwood and Williams, who just edged Norwood as my man of the match for his drive and willingness to take a gamble on the ball instead of just play safe.

Back four looked a lot more solid, helped by Norwood and Williams performance in front of them, but I still worry about Hector. He and Pearce should be a decent combination, with relatively complementary styles, but Hector still looks a bit lost positionally and physically at times. They coped pretty well with two good forwards though so it's probably nitpicking a bit.

Only downsides to the performance for me is that it could be Murray's last game and we still don't have much out wide if we're going to be relying on Robson-Kanu. Blackman could be the number 9 to lead the line if Murray isn't going to extend his stay and, after his lazy cameo yesterday, that still scares me.

[RoyalBlue]

Football fans are so one-eyed at times.

The blatant, unsporting behaviour by Clarke and McCleary is ok, but a genuine mistake by a referee is unforgivable? Reading brought it upon themselves by manufacturing a stoppage and then failed to defend once the play restarted. Frankly they deserved what they got.

Oh come off it. This was no little mistake by the ref. It was massive and fundamental, and both he and his 4th official were at fault. Either that or the ref decided to play by his own rules, which is even worse. Either way he should be called to account for it.

[Sanguine]

Football fans are so one-eyed at times.

The blatant, unsporting behaviour by Clarke and McCleary is ok, but a genuine mistake by a referee is unforgivable? Reading brought it upon themselves by manufacturing a stoppage and then failed to defend once the play restarted. Frankly they deserved what they got.

Oh come off it. This was no little mistake by the ref. It was massive and fundamental, and both he and his 4th official were at fault. Either that or the ref decided to play by his own rules, which is even worse. Either way he should be called to account for it.

He should be called to account for a mistake, and based on what appears to be standard process, officiate in a lower league for a week.

But he shouldn't be taken to account for their goal, which was just lazy defending and a good finish.

[ZacNaloen]

It's more an example of what happens when you aren't set up to defend properly because you are expecting a subsitution to happen.


Or as previously, because Adkins is the manager.

[Armadillo Roadkill]

Football fans are so one-eyed at times.

The blatant, unsporting behaviour by Clarke and McCleary is ok, but a genuine mistake by a referee is unforgivable? Reading brought it upon themselves by manufacturing a stoppage and then failed to defend once the play restarted. Frankly they deserved what they got.

Oh come off it. This was no little mistake by the ref. It was massive and fundamental, and both he and his 4th official were at fault. Either that or the ref decided to play by his own rules, which is even worse. Either way he should be called to account for it.

I have some sympathy with the view we were caught cheating - McCleary clear did sit down to slow things down so we could get our second (and unplanned) substitute ready. If a visiting team did that to us we would pillory them. Probably rightly. Still think the spirit, if not the letter, of the law means the ref should have clearly indicated he was going to allow play to re start with the throw in and not continue the stoppage for the substitutions.