Reserves V Fulham

[M4 Junction 11]

just said on 107FM it's 0-0

[oldelmparky]

just said on 107FM it's 0-0

Thanks.

Come on URRZZZZ

[Behindu]

1-0 Simon Cox pen after about an hour

[oldelmparky]

Great.
That must be his 4th for the Reserves.

Thanks Behindu.

[higher]

1-1 finished.Theirs was an own goal Bygrave.

[oldelmparky]

Shame.

Still 'twas an understrength team, so not so bad.
Wet Sham next.

[Behindu]

Decent result against a strong Fulham side that included Zat Knight, Collins John, Frank Quedrue and maybe one or two other firstteamers.

Makes a chnage to see a team other than us treating this properly - shame the likes of Chelsea abuse the competition...

[Kitson12]

Is Patrick Cox Simon Coxs' brother?

WSRL

jw

[M4 Junction 11]

Shame.

Still 'twas an understrength team, so not so bad.
Wet Sham next.

With 5 games to play I can only see Reading, Chelsea or Spurs finishing top, and we don't face any of the other top teams but still get to play the bottom team twice.
Tue 27th Mar - West Ham (A) - at Bishop's Stortford
Tue 3rd Apr - Aston Villa (A) - at Villa Park
Wed 11th Apr - Charlton (H)
Tue 17th Apr - West Ham (H)
Mon 30th Apr - Arsenal (A) - at Barnet FC

Top half of the table
1 Reading P11 GD+22 25pts
2 Chelsea P11 GD+14 24pts
3 Tottenham P11 19pts
4 Watford P11 17pts
5 Villa P10 12pts

[PlasticRoyale]

Halford was muscled of the ball by their midget number 7 several times . Reading's record signing didn't look much cop tonight. Difficult to judge from a reserve game as he didn't look very interested

[leon]

Halford was muscled of the ball by their midget number 7 several times . Reading's record signing didn't look much cop tonight. Difficult to judge from a reserve game as he didn't look very interested

Ooh backlash has started

[shaka's shorts]

Just back from the game and here is a quick match report.

Decent game - much better second half as the game opened up and Reading looked stronger as the game went on.

Fulham had Volz, Quedrue, Knight, Pembridge, Montella, John, Jensen - so very strong team. Quedrue and Jensen impressed, Montella looked off the pace / disinterested.

Here is my comments on the Royals:

1. A Fed - made one excellent diving save, had little chance with scrappy own goal we conceded - decent game
2&3. Spence & Kelly - worked hard, got forward well, have pace, but not prem quality.
4. Halford (CM) - disappointing for me - very one footed for a central player and poor first touch let him down too often, however had a few class touches - long passes / turns etc, but did not look like a prem CM yet
5. Bikey - looked strong and classy, as you'd expect - good distribution
6. Bygrave - I like him, tall, classy and good on the ball - yet another good CB coming through
7. Henry - promising display, didn't beat Quedrue too ofetn dribbling but his crossing as always was pure quality - off to Forst on loan tomorrow apparently, so only played 60 mins before being replaced by Karacan who looked absolute class. he looks good every time I see him, great distributor and hard worker
8. Oster - best player on pitch by a mile, top class, great distribution, worked hard, inventive
9. Church - I really want to like him as he has all the attributes, good attitude, tall, good skills, but lacks that poachers instinct for a striker. Will make a pro footballer, but not in prem. However, he isn young and could make it yet
10. Cox - very promising, looks to have toughened up since loan at Brentford. Skillful, hard workimg, string and took pen calmly, always dangerous around box and close to scoring a few times
11. Bozanic - promising as it was the first time I have seen him, good left foot but often too slow to get his shot in or make the pass, so gave away posession often. One for the future

So considering the strength of Fulham, pretty satisfactory. As you'd expect the best players stood out - Oster, Bikey, Cox, Henry, A Fed with promising contributions from Bygrave, Church & Karacan.

[PlasticRoyale]

Halford was muscled of the ball by their midget number 7 several times . Reading's record signing didn't look much cop tonight. Difficult to judge from a reserve game as he didn't look very interested

Ooh backlash has started

Yeah, i know! He's played 2.5 mins of competitive football and i'm laying into him (based on a couple of reserve games)

I would be delighted if he ended up being a great player for Reading. Just reporting what i saw. Poor touches, a few dives against youth players, lost the ball cheaply etc. Prolly playing well within his ability though

[premiership_bound]

I agree, don't think this would go down as one a Halfords best games, but difficult to tell in a reserve game. He seemed to miss alot of headers, reminded me of Peter Crouch heading the ball. However looked good in the last reserve game so maybe just a bad day at the office.

Agree Oster and Bikey best players on the pitch.

Pain in the backside having so many reserves on international duty.

[URZZZZZZZZ]

Bygrave + Halford = oxf*rd

[Diddyroyal]

Just back from the game and here is a quick match report.

Decent game - much better second half as the game opened up and Reading looked stronger as the game went on.

Fulham had Volz, Quedrue, Knight, Pembridge, Montella, John, Jensen - so very strong team. Quedrue and Jensen impressed, Montella looked off the pace / disinterested.

Here is my comments on the Royals:

1. A Fed - made one excellent diving save, had little chance with scrappy own goal we conceded - decent game
2&3. Spence & Kelly - worked hard, got forward well, have pace, but not prem quality.
4. Halford (CM) - disappointing for me - very one footed for a central player and poor first touch let him down too often, however had a few class touches - long passes / turns etc, but did not look like a prem CM yet
5. Bikey - looked strong and classy, as you'd expect - good distribution
6. Bygrave - I like him, tall, classy and good on the ball - yet another good CB coming through
7. Henry - promising display, didn't beat Quedrue too ofetn dribbling but his crossing as always was pure quality - off to Forst on loan tomorrow apparently, so only played 60 mins before being replaced by Karacan who looked absolute class. he looks good every time I see him, great distributor and hard worker
8. Oster - best player on pitch by a mile, top class, great distribution, worked hard, inventive
9. Church - I really want to like him as he has all the attributes, good attitude, tall, good skills, but lacks that poachers instinct for a striker. Will make a pro footballer, but not in prem. However, he isn young and could make it yet
10. Cox - very promising, looks to have toughened up since loan at Brentford. Skillful, hard workimg, string and took pen calmly, always dangerous around box and close to scoring a few times
11. Bozanic - promising as it was the first time I have seen him, good left foot but often too slow to get his shot in or make the pass, so gave away posession often. One for the future

So considering the strength of Fulham, pretty satisfactory. As you'd expect the best players stood out - Oster, Bikey, Cox, Henry, A Fed with promising contributions from Bygrave, Church & Karacan.

agree with most of that except the part about it being a decent game, it was dump! too much giving the ball away from both sides

and it was flipping cold!

[Diddyroyal]

The ressies are at home tonight against Fulham, 7pm KO

What was the score - anyone?

That's an edit I believe and originally said 'ressies are at home tomorrow'.

Whoosh me if you like, I don't care.

I was going to go tonight but I have thrown my back out and can hardly move! Was due back to work tomorrow after 2 weeks off, but I won't be going anywhere.

[Stranded]

Halford isn't a central player, he is a right back - there was a recent interview with him whereby he states that Coppell has asked him to play in CM for the reserves so that he is more involved with the game to help keep his match fitness up in case needed.

I believe there were other reasons but as far as Halford was concerned it wasn't being done as a long term positional change.

[Banjax]

im a bit dissapointed at Halfords review, i really thought he had a bit of spunk in him, hes quite a big lad and you would expect him to muscle quite well

whats colchester like? are they a physical team?

I thought he showed good willing on saturday he was doing more running whilst warming up then most of the boys did on the pitch!

I reckon he'l come good


UUurrzzz

[Stranded]

First bad game for the reserves by all accounts - hardly anything to get worried about.