MATCHWATCH : Northampton Town (h)

[Snowflake Royal]

Wasn`t intentional and the lino and ref agreed. comes under the category of seen them given though.

Speaking of the ref, she was very good again tonight.

Agreed. The game is so much better when it’s not stopped for every slightly questionable piece of physical contact. She was consistent with it and the game flowed as a result.

Most other refs in L1 would have made it into another terrible watch.

Kudos to her.

My gut feeling was she had a good game. But, I think we were lucky she didn't give a penalty when she probably should have. She missed another handball at the other end though outside the box.

Should really have carded their mouthy forward.

But she did let the game run.

[leon]

Generally a better performance - certainly more tempo and intent. We absolutely needed the points.

Williams and O'Connor looked strong at CB. We need them starting every week.

Ehibhatiomhan took his goal well from a good cross from Lane, but still doesn't entirely convince in the role. It was way too open in the first half however it looked like we had better fitness in the second as Northampton offered very little and we didn't look in danger.

Need another performance and another win Saturday.

[West F]

Who would have thought it. Natural width, early balls in the box and chances. I could see what we were trying to do for the first time in months,

[JR]

Yiadom was the difference today - as soon as he came on he was on it and won a challenge that started the move for the goal.

Time for him to start and dominate that strip of land down the right side.

Also agree with positive comments on the ref. There were a couple of moments on both sides where you could tell she looked and decided, no I’m not having that. Love that.

[Bristol Paul]

Yiadom was the difference today - as soon as he came on he was on it and won a challenge that started the move for the goal.

Time for him to start and dominate that strip of land down the right side.

Also agree with positive comments on the ref. There were a couple of moments on both sides where you could tell she looked and decided, no I’m not having that. Love that.

Yiadom was tremendous, footbacks have been lacking all season, he showed how it’s meant to be done

[Royals and Racers]

Attendance 9228

[Hound]

Ref was good

Agreed on Yiadom, a game changer. He has always been a quality player it just whether he can stay fit. Would make a big difference if he can play the rest of the season

[Orion1871]

Sorry to go all Royal Jimmy but if a male ref put in that performance you'd all be saying how terrible it was.

You're all just tiptoeing around it because you don't want to be accused of sexism whereas I believe in equality and she was just as shit as all the male refs.

For a start she missed at least four handball incidents. Letting the game flow is fine, but not when you are ignoring obvious fouls. I'm not exactly convinced that should have been only 3 minutes of injury time at the end of the second half either. The only compliment I will give her is she didn't fall for that stupid corner quadrant thing Club1871 try and pull every game.

[Fezza]

Thought we played well in patches.

Kelvin E did the best I’ve seen from him at holding the ball up, still a way to go as a striker.

Elliott was a bit meh, bullied off the ball too easily.

Slightly concerned at the gap that formed in the second half between the left wing and left back, Savage seemed to be more central and their attacks all seemed to come from there.

Thought the keeper was good, as were the centre backs, who’ll only get better playing more. Kelvin A and Yids both good at RB.

MoM looked better as well once on, strong hold up play.

Daniel K was a bit of a liability.

[windermereROYAL]

Sorry to go all Royal Jimmy but if a male ref put in that performance you'd all be saying how terrible it was.

You're all just tiptoeing around it because you don't want to be accused of sexism whereas I believe in equality and she was just as shit as all the male refs.

For a start she missed at least four handball incidents. Letting the game flow is fine, but not when you are ignoring obvious fouls. I'm not exactly convinced that should have been only 3 minutes of injury time at the end of the second half either. The only compliment I will give her is she didn't fall for that stupid corner quadrant thing Club1871 try and pull every game.

Sod all to do with the fact she was a female, she did the Shrewsbury game last season and last night, good on both occasions, strange that you can see handballs sat in the stands when she`s just yards away from the incident.
You`re on your own there fella.

[Hound]

Sorry to go all Royal Jimmy but if a male ref put in that performance you'd all be saying how terrible it was.

You're all just tiptoeing around it because you don't want to be accused of sexism whereas I believe in equality and she was just as shit as all the male refs.

For a start she missed at least four handball incidents. Letting the game flow is fine, but not when you are ignoring obvious fouls. I'm not exactly convinced that should have been only 3 minutes of injury time at the end of the second half either. The only compliment I will give her is she didn't fall for that stupid corner quadrant thing Club1871 try and pull every game.

Sod all to do with the fact she was a female, she did the Shrewsbury game last season and last night, good on both occasions, strange that you can see handballs sat in the stands when she`s just yards away from the incident.
You`re on your own there fella.

Yeah irrelevant if it was a male or female ref, the game was refereed well. Ok couple of handballs that could have been given but other than that pretty flawless I’d say

Game flowed well, was kept in control throughout

[Orion1871]

You don't get three separate "you don't know what you're doing" chants if you had a good game.

[Linden Jones' Tash]

Glad we got the win...

Wish we'd managed more than a single goal and needs to be built on...

Thought the Ref was fine, certainly better than the average L1 refs seen recently....

On a side note, this popped up on BBC Sounds yesterday....

Its a 10 minute monologue from Couhig about the season so far and how he feels its going...

Interesting to hear what he says, and what he implies...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0m9x ... are-mobile

[Orion1871]

Anyway, much better performance from the players than from the hapless ref. Seemed to coincide with considerably less hoofing.

Dominated pretty much the whole game. Jacob had his best game in a Reading shirt. Abrefa continues to impress and Yiadom was great when he came on, maybe losing the captaincy and more competition at RB has fired him up a bit. O'Connor and Williams look a good partnership although lacking in pace.

Wing still not quite himself, but Savage was very much back to his old self. Couple of good moments from Elliott in the first half although he cooled off after the break.

Good work from Lane for the goal and he looked a lot better. Best game Kelvin has had as a central striker, and he took his goal well. Shame to see Ritchie go off especially as Kyerewaa is not an adequate replacement. He doesn't have a decent cross or finish and he lost the ball so many times in the last 10 minutes of the game. Does he have anything about him other than pace?

[Hound]

Glad we got the win...

Wish we'd managed more than a single goal and needs to be built on...

Thought the Ref was fine, certainly better than the average L1 refs seen recently....

On a side note, this popped up on BBC Sounds yesterday....

Its a 10 minute monologue from Couhig about the season so far and how he feels its going...

Interesting to hear what he says, and what he implies...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0m9x ... are-mobile

Could you summarise?

[JedMaxwell]

I think it was overall quite promising last night.

O'Connor was superb, and looks like he can play a bit as well. Williams was clearly struggling from about minute 50 onwards but battled on impressively. I'd be happy for that to be our CB partnership moving forwards.

Wing getting further forward helped with our combinations around the box, and we got some decent crosses in from both sides. Great instinctive header from Kelvin E for the goal, although I thought he struggled with the physicality of their centre-halves for much of the game and didn't really look up for the fight. MO'M looked good when he came on and was unlucky not to score.

Stevens made a good save when called upon and when there was a bit of pressure towards the end he dealt with everything well. I thought his distribution was good too.

All of the subs looked up for it, especially Yids who has so much to offer. Kyerewaa is frustrating - there is a player in there but his decision making and end product need a lot of work.

The bit I really liked was that we continued to play it on the deck and kept the pressure up after we scored, and on another day we'd have had a couple more.

The ref was OK in my mind. She missed a couple of howlers, like all refs do at this level, but she managed the flow of the game well and never looked like she couldn't control the players.

[Hound]

Interesting to see 3 of the 4 loans on the bench and the one who played easily replaceable by other options.

I liked the front line probably for the first time this season. Kelvin has his faults of course but I don’t think we can leave him out. With Kyeweera prob playing himself out the side and Ritchie injured, I guess Marriott will come back in and Kelv wide. But I actually would like Lane/MoM/Kelvin

We seemed to have a proper tactic of getting crosses in last night - you lose that option with Marriott up top really

[traff]

Highlight of the evening for me was Kyerewaa's impersonation of a fidget spinner in the 6 yard box.

[Armadillo Roadkill]

Glad we got the win...

Wish we'd managed more than a single goal and needs to be built on...

Thought the Ref was fine, certainly better than the average L1 refs seen recently....

On a side note, this popped up on BBC Sounds yesterday....

Its a 10 minute monologue from Couhig about the season so far and how he feels its going...

Interesting to hear what he says, and what he implies...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0m9x ... are-mobile

Could you summarise?

He blames himself for not being ruthless enough. Says that is not about being ruthless with each other inside the club. Towards the end he speaks very well abut the duty of care to treat people, players managers and staff, with dignity and to always remember they are people with families. Acknowledges it's a results based business, but has good arguments to mitigate the on-pitch problems.

Overall, if I could have written a ten minute speech for our owner to make that would reassure me it was this. He comes across so well.

I think Hunt is safe for now, but Rob says Hunt understands the way football works, which I think we all know means that eventually if you're not showing an improvement you lose your job.

[Hound]

Glad we got the win...

Wish we'd managed more than a single goal and needs to be built on...

Thought the Ref was fine, certainly better than the average L1 refs seen recently....

On a side note, this popped up on BBC Sounds yesterday....

Its a 10 minute monologue from Couhig about the season so far and how he feels its going...

Interesting to hear what he says, and what he implies...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0m9x ... are-mobile

Could you summarise?

He blames himself for not being ruthless enough. Says that is not about being ruthless with each other inside the club. Towards the end he speaks very well abut the duty of care to treat people, players managers and staff, with dignity and to always remember they are people with families. Acknowledges it's a results based business, but has good arguments to mitigate the on-pitch problems.

Overall, if I could have written a ten minute speech for our owner to make that would reassure me it was this. He comes across so well.

I think Hunt is safe for now, but Rob says Hunt understands the way football works, which I think we all know means that eventually if you're not showing an improvement you lose your job.

Great thanks. Will try to have a listen later