Back from the game - Palace

[John Madejski's Wallet]

Can't argue with the result really.
Some good defensive performances.

Al Habsi Godlike, John too greedy, Norwood dogsh*t and watseful. And what was with Hectar constantly letting the ball run and turning into trouble? Not seen him really do that before

Palace can't bitch about the Benteke pen after that

And f*ck me they were fast!

[glass half full]

I have never liked 'Jasper Carrot' as a referee but he excelled himself this evening with the sending off of Jake.

[John Madejski's Wallet]

And never thought I'd say this, but taking off Cox that early was the wrong decision imo

[stl_royal]

Not much to say. Better side won, albeit in heartbreak fashion. Norwood was woeful. Al Habsi was great. Vydra looked good for his part, shame he (presumably) wasn't fit enough for the whole 90.

[Extended-Phenotype]

Fcuk off ''can't argue''

Palace were out of ideas and on the backfoot until the ref gleefully leapt at his chance to gift them a penalty that would never have been given vice versa.

Bullshit result. They had nothing and needed a poor decision to make their mark.

We were looking like the better team and could have nicked it had the ref not shit himself that the premier league club could be knocked out by nobody Reading.

Woeful stuff.

[genome]

I'll just copy what I said in the other thread:
Aside from contriving to give the ball away in dangerous areas, I thought we played well. Palace were clearly better than us and 2-0 seemed about right.

Al-Habsi was ruddy marvellous and I am gutted for him the most. I've not seen the penalty on replay but my first impression IRL was very soft. Not very savvy from Cooper but he'll learn from it.

Atmosphere cracking particular in the first half. Disappointed in the Palace fans who were shit until they scored.

All in all, naturally gutted, but not too pissed off. Roll on next season.

I'll also add some quick ratings:

Al-Habsi 10
Gunter 7
Cooper 5
McShane 6
Obita 6
Hector 6
Norwood 4
Quinn 7
John 6
HRK 6
Cox 6

Subs:
Vydra 6
Williams 6
Rakels n/a

[glass half full]

Lawrenson -10

[Steve_Upper_West]

And never thought I'd say this, but taking off Cox that early was the wrong decision imo

Not going 4 4 2 was also probably a mistake - Hennessy looked shaky but we never really tested him...

[Cureton's Volley]

Not a lot to say about that - It went to script.

Brave performance, but lacked quality & composure at the key moments.

The sheer volume of attacks, shots & set pieces told in the end. Blaming the ref is a poor rationalisation attempt from the heartbroken.

Lawrenson is simply a sack of worn out clichés.

[Esteban]

We wasted every decent opportunity we had. Didn't deserve to win it, but didn't deserve to lose to a bullshit penalty.

Al-Habsi was brilliant, everyone else fell short where it mattered.

[glass half full]

Most people would say, heartbroken or not, that Mr. Read did not cover himself in glory and bottled a few decisions in favour of Palace.

[sloughroyal123]

Norwood can't hit a decent dead ball to save his life at the moment.


Why can't the atmosphere always be that good?

[sandman]

Don't mind losing to the better team, because they were, but to lose it on a refereeing decision rather than that better team creating a deserved goal is bitterly disappointing. That's not "rationalising from the heartbroken" it, to quote the new Newcastle manager, is a FACT.

[RG7Fan]

Most people would say, heartbroken or not, that Mr. Read did not cover himself in glory and bottled a few decisions in favour of Palace.

Agreed - neither Hector nor Cooper should have been on yellows.

Crowd were fantastic, team were good but made some woeful basic errors at times. Thought the result could have gone either way - at 65 mins I thought whoever scored first would win it.

Reading : 7/8
Palace : 7/8
Crowd : 93
Ref : 4
Fire canisters : 6
Toilet queue : 5
Outside burger van : 7

Overall experience : 8/9

[IceIceGylfi]

Fcuk off ''can't argue''

Palace were out of ideas and on the backfoot until the ref gleefully leapt at his chance to gift them a penalty that would never have been given vice versa.

Bullshit result. They had nothing and needed a poor decision to make their mark.

We were looking like the better team and could have nicked it had the ref not shit himself that the premier league club could be knocked out by nobody Reading.

Woeful stuff.

This.

Mike Dean (the ref) is a nob. He didn't let the game flow and if that was at the other end he wouldn't have given it; he was just tempted by the fans reaction, hence the slight delay in awarding the penalty. Also Hennessy fouled McShane when he outleaped him; Paul just stood his ground; did nothing wrong whatsoever. I couldn't believe he saw that as a foul on the keeper. I still think we were out played and our full-backs were pretty dodgy, but it wasn't helped by Mike Dean. (I sound a bit like Garth Crooks here.) (If you wonder what I mean; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrxaeuKJKdo )

[John Madejski's Wallet]

Al Habsi - 10
Gunter - 8
McShane - 8
Cooper - 8
Obita - 6 (but got zero help from John)
Hector - 5
Norwood - 4
Quinn - 7
John - 7 (good attacks but didn't help Obita and anonymous for spells)
HRK - 7
Cox - 7 (hardly got the ball but good lone striker play when he did

Vydra - 6
Williams - 6 (not on long enough)

And just to say again.....f*ck they were fast. Reading have struggled with pace for years. When Palace ran out of ideas reverted to West Brom and started pumping balls over, I said to my mate we were gonna deal with those all day and I fancied us to nick it

Shame

[Winston Smith]

I quite enjoyed that!

Could have snatched it against a better team, Alan Habsi on gr8 form, just lost out though. Nice atmosphere, noisy away fans, even a smoke bomb to boot (very mid 90's Serie A)

Palace left back looked like a supporter had won a competition to be in their team.

[ROWY]

What was going on with the police on the concourse under the east stand, bit over the top ?

[sandman]

I quite enjoyed that!

Could have snatched it against a better team, Alan Habsi on gr8 form, just lost out though. Nice atmosphere, noisy away fans, even a smoke bomb to boot (very mid 90's Serie A)

Palace left back looked like a supporter had won a competition to be in their team.

That's what happens when your fans are pretending to be mid 90's Italian Ultras.

[Pepe the Horseman]

What did Gunter do to warrant that booking? Looked like he was just standing there while Zaha pushed him.