MATCHWATCH : Millwall (a)

[biff]

Bindon hates the Swindon.

[CountryRoyal]

Can I just say, Nelson Abbey <3

Also I’ve been pronouncing Boyce-Clarke’s name wrong. It’s Con-eye-uh not Con-ya.

[genome]

Can I just say, Nelson Abbey <3

Also I’ve been pronouncing Boyce-Clarke’s name wrong. It’s Con-eye-uh not Con-ya.

No, it's Boyce-Clarke mate

[CountryRoyal]

Can I just say, Nelson Abbey <3

Also I’ve been pronouncing Boyce-Clarke’s name wrong. It’s Con-eye-uh not Con-ya.

No, it's Boyce-Clarke mate

Tosser

[Clyde1998]

Well that came out of nowhere . Still in a bit of disbelief about what actually happened last night.

Have to say when I saw the teams I was a bit concerned it would be men against boys, but as it turns out it was boys against men.

Having missed the Peterborough game, it was my first opportunity to see how we'll be playing under Selles and we certainly didn't disappoint. There was clear intensity and fight that we didn't see very much last season; every player put in a great shift and no-one looked out of place.

The first goal came from a great piece of close control from Vickers and a quality finish from Ehib. Took us a second or so to realise the ball had gone into the net from the other end of the ground.

In defence, we looked as assured as we've looked for years. Bindon really looks like he could be a quality signing on that showing: comfortable on the ball, didn't panic under pressure, willing to put a foot in and read the game well. Abbey and Carson had good games, with both handling most of what came their way well. Mbengue was doing well at right-back before he had to go off, while Rushesha fitted into right-back well.

I didn't notice much of Knibbs or Wing before both came off at half-time, although given we sat fairly deep for much of the half it's perhaps not surprising.

Goal two was scrappy, but we made the most of some poor defending and Ehib was able to bundle over the line following a Vickers shot. The third came from a great turn by Ehib to win a free-kick, with Savage powering it into the top corner with the Millwall keeper only being able to get a hand to it. The fourth: a good ball by NGW to play in Tuma, who drove into the penalty area and squared it to Camara who got ahead of the defender.

CBC looked improved, especially with his distribution, although did find himself in no man's land a couple of times. Dean looked okay once he came on, dealt with what he needed to well.

The biggest concerns are the potential injuries to Mbengue, Knibbs and Carson. Although hopefully all their removals were purely precautionary and all three will be fit enough for Saturday.

This has increased my confidence ahead of Port Vale. After wondering where we'll get goals from, we've gone and scored four. Hopefully this is the spark that provides confidence in the squad and will allow us to have a positive season.

[RG30]

Late to the thread but thought we were superb last night and after the small sample size of 180 minutes competitive football under Selles, I am quietly optimistic now we’ll be better than many of us anticipated. We appear to have a coach who is has done the hard yards around the world and has a clear playing identity and style they wish to implement.

Plenty of positives to take away but thought Abbey and Bindon were in particular exceptional. Big Kelvin had Cooper on his arse all game and once again worked really hard for the team. Boyce-Clarke made a couple of nice saves and based on yesterday I think I’d have had him starting over Bouzanis this Saturday.

[tidus_mi2]

Late to the thread but thought we were superb last night and after the small sample size of 180 minutes competitive football under Selles, I am quietly optimistic now we’ll be better than many of us anticipated. We appear to have a coach who is has done the hard yards around the world and has a clear playing identity and style they wish to implement.

Plenty of positives to take away but thought Abbey and Bindon were in particular exceptional. Big Kelvin had Cooper on his arse all game and once again worked really hard for the team. Boyce-Clarke made a couple of nice saves and based on yesterday I think I’d have had him starting over Bouzanis this Saturday.

We'll find out if Button is here for a bit of experience or if he's the intended first choice I suppose.

[RoyalBlue]

From the little I've seen of Hunt's U21s they also play with a big press - this was an extremely good result but it does show the benefits of the first team playing in a very similar style to the youth team; you're not asking them to play against much harder opposition and totally change styles, just the former. While Selles may still not last the season it shows the benefits of Bowen - having a DoF who recruits players and managers for a particular type of play is just a vast improvement on the past 5 years of bringing in a new manager with an incompatible style which just stunts youth team players from being able to take chances, and leaves us with a few players who just wouldn't be good under the new manager.

Outside of Carroll we have a squad all perfect for playing a high press, and Carroll's still a very good L1 striker, is decent at pressing and is quite a problem for defenders when the ball is crossed in.

Agree. IMO there is still a significant and important role for Andy Carroll to play in this squad. It gives Selles a Plan B as well. Furthermore, whilst some of the brute centre halves in this league may get away with bullying our youngsters, they won't be able to adopt the same tactics with AC!

[Stranded]

Late to the thread but thought we were superb last night and after the small sample size of 180 minutes competitive football under Selles, I am quietly optimistic now we’ll be better than many of us anticipated. We appear to have a coach who is has done the hard yards around the world and has a clear playing identity and style they wish to implement.

Plenty of positives to take away but thought Abbey and Bindon were in particular exceptional. Big Kelvin had Cooper on his arse all game and once again worked really hard for the team. Boyce-Clarke made a couple of nice saves and based on yesterday I think I’d have had him starting over Bouzanis this Saturday.

We'll find out if Button is here for a bit of experience or if he's the intended first choice I suppose.

There was a story around a few weeks back that we were after an experienced keeper who could be happy on the bench as we wanting to give one of the younger keepers a run as #1. Button could fit that mould, wasn't playing at WBA and apparently his family stayed around London, so even if he doesn't play, he can be home with his family again.

[Hound]

10m highlights on tbe main site well worth a watch

The constant hunting down whenever millwall on the ball, even in the last min at 4-0 up, is a real pleasure to see. Three of the goals came from robbing back possession and quickly breaking. Excellent stuff

[Clyde1998]

10m highlights on tbe main site well worth a watch

The constant hunting down whenever millwall on the ball, even in the last min at 4-0 up, is a real pleasure to see. Three of the goals came from robbing back possession and quickly breaking. Excellent stuff

I think that was the biggest attacking improvement over the past few seasons: we looked to get the ball forward quickly once we got the ball and caught Millwall out because of it, as opposed to slowing the game down and allowing the opposition to get back in to their defensive shape.

[Loafer]

Can I just say, Nelson Abbey <3

Also I’ve been pronouncing Boyce-Clarke’s name wrong. It’s Con-eye-uh not Con-ya.

No, it's Boyce-Clarke mate

[Pepe the Horseman]

Can I just say, Nelson Abbey <3

Also I’ve been pronouncing Boyce-Clarke’s name wrong. It’s Con-eye-uh not Con-ya.

No, it's Boyce-Clarke mate

Tosser

Lol as I was reading it I was thinking how tf can you pronounce Boyce-Clarke wrong?

[Sutekh]

No, it's Boyce-Clarke mate

Tosser

No it's definitely Boyce-Clarke

[Vision]

Well Camara, Kelvin, Craig, Abbey and Azeez were all involved in the Championship last season. Nowhere near enough of course.

This. Ince really was working far to closely to that old Alan Hansen "mantra" last season.

Sadly it wasn’t just Ince. Most disappointing non selection of the year for me was when Hunt dropped Camara totally after a poor 45

Camara who was whoscored motm, scored, big part in the second goal, and assisted Vickers missed chance which he should have scored last night

Give them a run, give them confidence and they’ll be fine

At this stage of last season Camara slipped a great through ball for Kelvin E to score. Not sure he saw any game time in the league after that and Kelvin saw very little. It's absolutely on Ince.

It's asking a hell of a lot to then expect both players to suddenly become relegation saviours 9 months later with so little game time under their belt. Hunt's non selection clearly didn't hold Camara back anywhere near as much as Ince completely ignoring him the whole season did. Tbf I'm not sure anyone quite knew what his best position is yet, hopefully Selles does.

As a separate thing on the playing style, I do also recall the Blackburn game at home when we all thought we'd hit on a style of play that we could all get on board only to see it never repeated again. I don't think that is the case with Selles but as I said earlier , there may be some games where we have to adapt to a different way very quickly.

[Hound]

Obviously ince was v poor at the player management of the young players - but the message sent by Hunt was extremely poor. Play without fear, we’ll trust the youngsters etc and then doing the opposite. At least ince was pretty honest he didn’t rate the kids, and I came to expect nothing better

As you say, was prob far less harmful overall but for me, more disappointing

Hopefully Selles will trust them more

[Orion1871]

Well Camara, Kelvin, Craig, Abbey and Azeez were all involved in the Championship last season. Nowhere near enough of course.

This. Ince really was working far to closely to that old Alan Hansen "mantra" last season.

Sadly it wasn’t just Ince. Most disappointing non selection of the year for me was when Hunt dropped Camara totally after a poor 45

Camara who was whoscored motm, scored, big part in the second goal, and assisted Vickers missed chance which he should have scored last night

Give them a run, give them confidence and they’ll be fine

How dare you cast aspersions on King Vickers.

[Franchise FC]

It's been years since we've seen a Reading team play with this much energy, I saw it on Saturday, albeit as someone else mentioned we didn't execute it that well because of a lack of pre-season for the incomers but could see what we were trying to do. I can see why Selles likes this style of play as he has a fitness coach background, we'll see some stronger fitter players this season hopefully.

I'll be disappointed but not surprised if 5-6 of them are relegated to the bench for Saturday. Can't expect them to sustain that Saturday/Tuesday.

If we end up midtable this season but play with the energy and excitement with a young side with plenty of growth to come then I'll take that. We'll hammer some teams but we'll see some poor results. No idea what contracts some of the youngsters like Abbey, CBC, Craig, Kelvin E and Vickers are on but we should get them tied down to a longer deal now we're no longer under an embargo!

Oh and we finally won a midweek away game at a team not beginning with B

That stat applies to league games only though, the first test of it arrives when visiting Northampton in October.

Ooh, ooh, Northampton
Can’t walk to it, but it’s close enough

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Obviously ince was v poor at the player management of the young players - but the message sent by Hunt was extremely poor. Play without fear, we’ll trust the youngsters etc and then doing the opposite. At least ince was pretty honest he didn’t rate the kids, and I came to expect nothing better

As you say, was prob far less harmful overall but for me, more disappointing

Hopefully Selles will trust them more

The drop down a level will probably do a lot of them the world of good to be fair. I suspect more will be suited to this level at the moment.

[WestYorksRoyal]

Obviously ince was v poor at the player management of the young players - but the message sent by Hunt was extremely poor. Play without fear, we’ll trust the youngsters etc and then doing the opposite. At least ince was pretty honest he didn’t rate the kids, and I came to expect nothing better

As you say, was prob far less harmful overall but for me, more disappointing

Hopefully Selles will trust them more

The drop down a level will probably do a lot of them the world of good to be fair. I suspect more will be suited to this level at the moment.

Consider context too. Hunt had impossible circumstances - everybody down on confidence, players used to Ince anti football, massive do or die survival matches. Selles has had over a month to work with these guys and get his ideas across, and let them show what they can do in what was essentially a free hit.

Hunt had an impossible hand so don't blame him. That these guys could perform how they did on Tuesday is a big testament to his work.