BFTS - Brighton (A)

[BR0B0T]

the black country next week (which really should be its own country). So grim

m8 it's 2017 you have to treat them as if they are equal.

[Ian Herring]

Been watching Reading since 1985.

Not the only football I've been watching over the years as those who know me will be aware.

But...football at most clubs similar to those of the size of RFC follow cyclical patterns of success and decline.

For the die-hard active fan who invests a lot of money, time and emotion in games such as yesterday's, disappointment is never far away - but neither is the possibility of elation. Knee-jerkism is the tax that may have sometimes to be paid on such investment.

RFC has risen and fallen just like salmon come in and out of the brine in to fresh water to spawn.

Sometimes there is the ecstasy of procreation, the spilling of seed, the laying of spawn.

New, gawping fry find their way to the rhythm and then they also repeat the tidal pattern of hope, adventure, recession and extinction. (We are not about to be extinguished, we are not a fish.)

Watching Stam's putative efforts, I feel we are in that prehensile state of becoming able to achieve.

The only image that comes to mind for me at the moment is of Steve Coppell's first two seasons as Reading manager, where oft were voiced similar criticisms to today by those who support by the notion of 'micro' versus 'macro' (And I broach no criticism of either kind of fan here).

I'm not saying that history is about to repeat itself and that we will suddenly bloom into a football orchid of transparent beauty and success - but the omens around Stam's supervision of events so far appear to be to me more positive than negative in any potential form of portent.

For those of us who 'pay the tax' match by match, then games like yesterday cause considerable frustration.

And for those of us (older people) whom tend to regard our 'investment portfolios' from slightly further afar, perhaps we see things through a slightly different perspective.

Yes, maybe we are on the axis at the moment of some impending success. Or? Perhaps a little more of an anonymous ordinary existence. Who actually knows?

But from my point of experience and empirical status as 'an old Reading bastard', I would prefer us not to go up just this year.

I would like to see Stam's plan to develop just a little longer.

A twitch here, and a turn there? Some fine tuning.

Then it may be that we may not be too far away from a season comparative to Steve Coppell's third.

And therefore something far more sustainable in the Hair Band League just one promotion season above us.

(And not many of saw that coming, to be fair.)

Just saying.

Yours, etc., Herring.

[Sutekh]

At the end of the day we are in development. We have come a hell of a long way since the utter crap under Adkins, Clarke and McDermott.

Stam is doing wonderful things this season and we are certainly exceeding what the expectations were at the start of the season.

We look a good bet to get to the play offs (I think 3rd/4th should be what the team aim at) and though we probably won't win them Reading will have turned a corner and have what looks to be an outstanding managerial team of talent together with its "rising star" and therefore the ability to attract the technically better players we need in the summer to make this style of play that little bit more effective.

The next key stage is to get the ownership finally sorted out and stabilised.

[leon]

Apart from our sustainable current league position?

0 points from 6 expected
0 points recieved

Chill down

Sorry that's utter bollocks.

0 points from teams we're competing with is expected?

Fcuk off. That's loser talk.

It's been an appalling few days. Stam needs to earn his money. This team needs some bollocks. It doesn't have any.

Someone's got some issues they need to work through. Jeez

This coming from the man who could disagree with himself in an empty room.

[The Informant]

Pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass

[Gunny Fishcake]

RFC has risen and fallen just like salmon come in and out of the brine in to fresh water to spawn.

Sometimes there is the ecstasy of procreation, the spilling of seed, the laying of spawn.

New, gawping fry find their way to the rhythm and then they also repeat the tidal pattern of hope, adventure, recession and extinction. (We are not about to be extinguished, we are not a fish.)

You clearly like fish

[genome]

Apart from our sustainable current league position?

0 points from 6 expected
0 points recieved

Chill down

Yeah, funny how the same blokes who predicted us to lose both games are the first to have a meltdown when we lose both games

I don't quite understand how you can't differentiate between people being pissed off because we lost against the best team in the league, and people being pissed off because that performance wasn't worthy of getting off the bus.

It has nothing to do with the fact that we lost, nor who it was against. People are justifiably outraged with what they saw today because at no point was anything demonstrated even in the slightest resembling of a team currently occupying one of the playoff positions. Dishearteningly we were never at the races and played far worse than our abilities. No one is talking about how this result could affect our season, you tried to be all clever and say that I didn't think we're even a championship team and we will do well to finish in the playoffs...

Ffs m8 try and ignore your blinded weird little self-important trip for a bit and look at the context. I specifically said IF WE PLAY LIKE THAT, because opposition aside IF we replicated that performance in our remainding games then imo we will struggle to pick up any points. Now I'm not saying that we are going to or that's going to happen it was purely to attempt highlight to highlight how incompetent that performance was. Never mind about Brighton, most of the league would have beaten us today.

Look at the Huddersfield game BFTG, we lost, was I pissed off? Absolutely not because what I saw encouraging result aside, today was not. We will now probably play shit against wolves and get a result, and then play amazingly against Newcastle but lose.

A bit rich of you to talk to me about context.

I've already acknowledged the result and performance was poor. I even commented on the match thread about our mistakes. My point is, I don't think the team deserves the proper seething anger and frankly embarrassing meltdown that some posters were offering on here after such a fantastic season so far. If we had lost 3-0 to Rotherham away, then yeah, fair enough. It's not even the worst result this season.

Do you really think a side lower down in the league would have been so clinical and punished us with quality up front? I don't think so. I think you're either being disingenuous or oblivious to the fact that we have been so effective against the struggling sides in the division because they haven't known how to counter our system. The better sides have, and our record against the top 6 speaks volumes. It's up to Stam to figure that out. It might not be this year, though.

I'm not really sure why you keep calling me self-important, that's got nothing to do with it, and has everything to do with staying positive after a poor game and looking at the bigger picture. It helps with the blood pressure, that's for sure.

[The Informant]

Useless. Probably wouldn't have won anyway but we gave ourselves no chance with an atrocious performance, on par with QPR, maybe worse.

Everyone should take a long hard look at themselves after that. Bottled it and lost it before they even kicked off probably.

How the oxf*rd did we go from our performance at Huddersfield to this shower of shit?

Al-Habsi - 4

Gunter - 2
McShane - 3
Moore - 4
Blacket - 2

Mutch - 2
Williams - 4
Evans - 5

McCleary - 3
Kermorgant - 5
Beerens - 4

Swift - 3
Kelly - 3
Grabban - 3

Stam - 0.

Brighton played well, we didn't, we got dispatched.

Embarrassing stuff.

Not our performance, your post

Get over your self and your self righteous bullshit. Anyone that says that was anything less than an awful performance is deluded. Tbh my ratings are probably generous.

He's a happy clapper mate. Your ratings wer generous.

[RoyalBlue]

I can't believe the amount of negativity on here.. I'm sure it was far from being an enjoyable away trip, particularly with the Brighton fans rubbing our noses in it. However, if they can bring themselves to do it, I suggest those who went watch the game through again. And if they can't do that, at least watch Stam's post match interview where he was absolutely spot on in his assessment of the game and implied criticism of the players.

Truth is, we gifted Brighton their goals through our mistakes. They created precious little for themselves. Indeed, when it came to chances, we probably created the better of those for ourselves, rather than through their mistakes. The match stats also show that things were a lot closer than the scoreline might suggest.

We have a fantastic manager who has performed miracles. We are probably only a season away from being a really good team, playing fantastic football and of a nature that will give us a fighting chance of staying up when we do get promoted. Our biggest concern at this moment in time should be that we might lose Stam to a bigger club before he finishes the job.

In the meantime, I continue to really enjoy watching our team and the work in progress.

[Pandoras Box]

And from North Stand Chat...there we have it.

'Excellent set of marks and comments, can't argue with any of them. Would also add a solid 10 for Chris - did a fantastic tactical job on Reading today I thought. Let them play their possession game, then when they press forward, nick it off 'em through constant pressure and hit them rapidly on the break while they are still upfield. When al-Habsi has the ball, cut off the supply to the full backs, because his kicking is truly awful.

Really enjoyed that today. Good performance from the home crowd too.'

Now every one else can follow suit.

[The Informant]

I'm sorry but have I missed where I've thrown my toys out? I've just said it how it is on the write up. I haven't said season over.

Please. You've thrown a massive sulk and so have a few other posters. You even claimed that you're surprised we are in the Championship and that we'll do well to stay in the play offs.

If balanced criticism makes me self-righteous, then I'm a sanctimonious bastard.

Did you go genome?

[sandman]

[Victor Meldrew]

As usual we get the normal split on BFTG threads-some saying how they saw the game, others trying to present the bigger picture.
I am one of those who prefer to say and read about what happened on the day.
On this particular day we showed not just the mental weakness but also the lack of physical strength throughout the team.
We had numbers back when they broke-nobody tackled-we just backed off and backed off, letting them get closer and closer and inevitably they scored.This time it wasn't the coward of a number 2 who is automatically selected every week and contributes so little at both ends of the pitch-no, this time it was the centre-backs holding back.
Do they think they are playing in Div 2 where if you back off and let players have a clear shot at goal, but at that level may miss?
At this level at the upper end of the Championship and more so in the Premier League these strikers will score.

As for the midfield, not only do we have non-tacklers but also they lack vision and creativity when they come up against the better teams.
It also seems as though if McCleary doesn't play well, the team doesn't play well , which is quite a responsibility for one player.

As well as McCleary our keeper has played well in most games doing what keepers are meant to do-he is a shot-stopper (and a very good one at that) but he isn't a Hoddle, a Beckenbauer or a Pirlo and far, far too much is expected of him to play as a sweeper and in goal and yesterday he may well have had more touches than most of the other players.

A bad day for us against a team that has the best two centre-backs in the division , some experienced nous in midfield (that we don't have) and strikers that finish well.

We are some way off all of that and yesterday it showed but, looking briefly at the bigger picture, we have exceeded expectations somehow this season, probably due to confusing many of the lesser sides and a bit of optimism has come back-there is always next season..................

[Stranded]

And from North Stand Chat...there we have it.

'Excellent set of marks and comments, can't argue with any of them. Would also add a solid 10 for Chris - did a fantastic tactical job on Reading today I thought. Let them play their possession game, then when they press forward, nick it off 'em through constant pressure and hit them rapidly on the break while they are still upfield. When al-Habsi has the ball, cut off the supply to the full backs, because his kicking is truly awful.

Really enjoyed that today. Good performance from the home crowd too.'

Now every one else can follow suit.

Brighton didn't do anything that other teams have already tried against us this season. The big difference being they did it very well, because they are a strong confident team. We are where we are because the majority of the division aren't effective enough at stopping us play.

See no reason to believe that will change over the majority of the last dozen games.

[Royal_jimmy]

Now I've calmed down I still feel really irritated by that display.

Drop Blackett, McCleary and Mutch and play Obita, Kelly and Popa vs Wolves. McCleary has been poor for every game since the Cardiff one except v Brentford. Blackett is just dire and how he got in Man Utds team is a mystery.

In the summer I'd like to see a new right back to replace Gunter and a new goalie to replace Al-Habsi who can play the ball out a lot faster and accurately.

The January signings have disappointed me thus far

[West Stand Man]

As usual we get the normal split on BFTG threads-some saying how they saw the game, others trying to present the bigger picture.
I am one of those who prefer to say and read about what happened on the day.
On this particular day we showed not just the mental weakness but also the lack of physical strength throughout the team.
We had numbers back when they broke-nobody tackled-we just backed off and backed off, letting them get closer and closer and inevitably they scored.This time it wasn't the coward of a number 2 who is automatically selected every week and contributes so little at both ends of the pitch-no, this time it was the centre-backs holding back.
Do they think they are playing in Div 2 where if you back off and let players have a clear shot at goal, but at that level may miss?
At this level at the upper end of the Championship and more so in the Premier League these strikers will score.

As for the midfield, not only do we have non-tacklers but also they lack vision and creativity when they come up against the better teams.
It also seems as though if McCleary doesn't play well, the team doesn't play well , which is quite a responsibility for one player.

As well as McCleary our keeper has played well in most games doing what keepers are meant to do-he is a shot-stopper (and a very good one at that) but he isn't a Hoddle, a Beckenbauer or a Pirlo and far, far too much is expected of him to play as a sweeper and in goal and yesterday he may well have had more touches than most of the other players.

A bad day for us against a team that has the best two centre-backs in the division , some experienced nous in midfield (that we don't have) and strikers that finish well.

We are some way off all of that and yesterday it showed but, looking briefly at the bigger picture, we have exceeded expectations somehow this season, probably due to confusing many of the lesser sides and a bit of optimism has come back-there is always next season..................

So, that is a factual account and not your opinion on how the game went? Not by my reading it isn't.

[Lower West]

Truth is, we gifted Brighton their goals through our mistakes.

Can be said for many goals we've conceded this season. One begins to question whether the formation (4-3-3) is working with the players currently in the squad. Far too often we have 5 players jogging/walking back after losing possession. Leaving the opposition acres of space to play in. While it's admirable that Yann chases back. It's not his role in the team. Too many players simply go missing.

[Royal Rother]

A few observations....

I've seen 4 or 5 games from my armchair this season and I haven't enjoyed a single one.

It's been dire.

More fun watching Non-league football yesterday and Sunday league this morning.

That said, the fact we are where we are is a decent achievement so the TV games have obviously not been representative of the season as a whole.

I think we will drop out of the play offs.

AAH Was terrible in every respect yesterday.

I didn't think Blackett was too bad.

At the start of the season various members of the Dutch management team talked about how the loan system didn't work, it destabilised the team last year and we wouldn't do the same again - and how this "project" was going to be all about the development from within, promoting the youngsters.

Bullshit.

[tidus_mi2]

A few observations....

I've seen 4 or 5 games from my armchair this season and I haven't enjoyed a single one.

It's been dire.

More fun watching Non-league football yesterday and Sunday league this morning.

That said, the fact we are where we are is a decent achievement so the TV games have obviously not been representative of the season as a whole.

I think we will drop out of the play offs.

AAH Was terrible in every respect yesterday.

I didn't think Blackett was too bad.

At the start of the season various members of the Dutch management team talked about how the loan system didn't work, it destabilised the team last year and we wouldn't do the same again - and how this "project" was going to be all about the development from within, promoting the youngsters.

Bullshit.

I think we're nailed on for play-offs personally, if we were going to drop out, even temporarily I feel it would have been from teams capitalising on our recent tough run of fixtures which so far they haven't done. I'll worry if we don't beat Wolves on Saturday in a game we should really win.

[windermereROYAL]

Just an amusing incident from yesterdays game. Bruno`s slow motion fall is nailed on to feature on soccer AM next week.

As for the game itself. terrible depressing stuff. I appreciate exactly what JS is trying to do. but the hard fact is any manager worth his salt now know how to play against us.
They don`t need to press high. just set up on the halfway line and let us pass it around in our own half.
We just haven`t progressed as I hoped we would. we seem to have stagnated and not moved on in the slightest. the passing stats in the first half was 385-115.