back from the game- cardiff

[Billy The Fish]

bugger

This.

Particularly disappointed to lose this. The difference was neither of these:

a fluke goal
a referee scared to give a pen

It was a complete lack of ability with dead ball situations.
18 corners. 18! And how many of these led to a goal scoring opportunity? I think it was less than one. Add to that a free kick in a dangerous position that McAnuff put straight into the wall at knee height.

Contrast Cardiff's two free kicks taken by Whittingham. Flashed in towards the near post with Miller and others running onto them. They scored with one and nearly scored with the other.

How I miss Harte's quality of delivery that brought more goals last season than the whole team has managed so far this season. However I never want to see Harte at left back again after the debacle of the play-off final last year. Can we find a place for him somewhere else? Midfield in a 4-5-1 with either LeFondre or Hunt up front?

Or else bring Antonio back (would be nice to have a long throw in the team, as Cardiff did), ship Kebe out in January, and spend some money on a proper midfielder who can strike a ball (I've also lost count of the number of times I've seen Karacan through on goal with just the goalie to beat and.... oh).

I'm not usually this negative by the way.

[RoyalBlue]

don't know what to make of it.
performance wasn't poor but we just don't have the quality in delivery to feed any of our strikers.
dying for some creativity in midfield, Jem shows passion but has a poor final ball, and i don't even know what we can say about ledge at the moment. Really off the ball. Would be interested to see one of them being dropped for maybe Ian Harte. Could perform a Robbie Savage-esque role like at Derby, providing good passes and good balls, operating quite defensively as well.
Shame it seemed as if the ref did spoil the game a lot today.
Got to do better

So many of us can see that so why can't the bald one or is it that Madejski won't finance tackling that issue?

kebe created today, mcanuff didnt out wide, but worked some stuff well through the middle

they both had good seasons last year, so you can see why we didnt want to spend in that area, especially with HRK coming through who WAS looking to have come on alot
taylor is showing signs at exeter too, so signing a long term creative midfielder now would set him back a long while, and mean a total shift in system

i wouldnt tear the team apart though, after what was a good, and unlucky performance today
but ive no doubt if this continues, we'll invest in january, in the middle/out wide, and/or up front

They rarely created where it mattered. Just how many real chances were Alf and Hunt set up with?

As for investment, don't bank on it. Even if there is, I suspect it will be nowhere near enough and will be spent on 'works in progress' and 'hopefuls'.

[melonhead]

wasnt great

im just saying the corners were better today- though planty still over hit

strikers just struggled to get on the end of them

nhunt had a few chances iirc


and as for investment-unless we start making a load more money from somewhere- get used to it
or dip into your own pockets

[DOYLERSAROYALER]

...good striker in Div 1 ....scored today and amongst top scorers in division...worth looking at .....Bradley's the name ...oh we have already looked at him of course ...and decided that Simon Church was a better option because he had a possible problem with knee that could possibly backfire on club....a year down the road and injury free scoring for fun now ...happy days ...

[loyalroyal4life]

Not a bad performance today but doesnt count for much as we got nil point!

As already pointed out creativity is lacking however i do feel out of current strikers, the pair today is probably the best to start.

[melonhead]

agreed

nhunt looked much better than church has

and ALF just had an average day at the office

[melonhead]

...good striker in Div 1 ....scored today and amongst top scorers in division...worth looking at .....Bradley's the name ...oh we have already looked at him of course ...and decided that Simon Church was a better option because he had a possible problem with knee that could possibly backfire on club....a year down the road and injury free scoring for fun now ...happy days ...

yeah we could have taken a punt on a striker from lower division who scores plenty, but had a knee so dodgy our doctors and insurers thoght was too much of a risk
get over it

[Pandoras Box]

According to this we must be the world's unluckiest team - every bloody week -'we were unlucky', 'the ref' - blah,blah,blah.
Actually every week it's the same aimless hoof it up field play -it's like deja vu. It obviously isn't right or we wouldn't always be trying to equalise or being unable to score in the first half or constantly drawing or losing. If it ain't working something has to change. Stop being deluded - these other teams ARE better than us - luck shouldn't be needed. If you rely on it you can't be any good in the first place.

[melonhead]

welcome newbie type


i dont agree its all aimless hoofball
its been noticable that we are trying to change the way we play, probably in th ehope its to ALFies strengths
was some lovely passing today,and for the last few games. imo

cant change the fact we were unlucky, or that the ref gave us nowt,
but you are right, that fact doesnt change the fact we lost, and we should have put them away before they had the chance to put us 2 goals down

[SHORT AND CURLY]

I thought we were just unlucky today.
Cardiff were no great shape, scored a fluky goal, were under the cosh for most of the game and had the decisions go their way from the officials.

I can assure you we will play a lot worse and win.

Lets move on.

[The Real Sandhurst Royal]

We huffed and we puffed for 90 minutes and got what we deserved as we cannot finish.

Le Fondre needs service he got none.

[muddyfeet]

im only dancing ironically!

north east corner- two blocks over from the drummer, middle of row EE
behind the man mountain that is wizard.......

where dyou sit?

It was you, were you next to a little person?

I'm in y20, row g

[melonhead]

im only dancing ironically!

north east corner- two blocks over from the drummer, middle of row EE
behind the man mountain that is wizard.......

where dyou sit?

It was you, were you next to a little person?

I'm in y20, row g

good eyesight!

yeah, little man belongs to scots jon next to him

[mad79]

A game we dominated but for nothing. Seems that this line up is macs first choice. The worst possible start with two fantastic saves by fed's only to be let down by Kebe giving the ball away far to easy for there goal. Good hit he would only score that 1 out of 10 times. Thought they defended very well chucking themselves in front of everything towards goal' hence the 8 shots on target stat at half time yet there keeper made no saves. Second half was the same all puff but no end product. Not helped by Jobi refusing to stay wide. He is a winger, so stay there it narrows us up all the time. There second goal was a soft freekick but poor defending for the cross. Overall we still lack that cutting edge or that final ball. Subs are the usual suspects. Manset just lumbers around and kanu is pointless. why not give antonio a chance? Another bad referee perfomance

[muddyfeet]

good eyesight!

yeah, little man belongs to scots jon next to him

You were prob in the eyeline of one of Mills' overhit corners

[Northern Git]

Same old, same old again. Getting tedious now, quick rush at start of game, dont score, start lumpimg it into 'channels', late 'impact subs ' away fans celebrate.

[bloody Volvo driver]

A game we dominated but for nothing. Seems that this line up is macs first choice. The worst possible start with two fantastic saves by fed's only to be let down by Kebe giving the ball away far to easy for there goal. Good hit he would only score that 1 out of 10 times. Thought they defended very well chucking themselves in front of everything towards goal' hence the 8 shots on target stat at half time yet there keeper mad no saves. Second half was the same all puff but no end product. Not helped by Jobi refusing to stay wide. He is a winger, so stay there it narrows us up all the time. There second goal was a soft freekick but poor defending for the cross. Overall we still lack that cutting edge or that final ball. Subs are the usual suspects. Manset just lumbers around and kanu is pointless. why not give antonio a chance? Another bad referee perfomance

Spot on post, except the "good hit" for their first goal. 100% trying to clear the ball and it just sailed into the net. Wasn't shooting in a million years.

[9165]

My first game of the season, so here goes:-

Our centre back pairing looks pretty solid
No positivity in midfield
Strikers not Championship standard
Kebe can`t be bothered most of the time
McAnuff more effective in midfield as opposed to the wing (that might be an answer to point 2)
Their no 7 Whittingham ran the game.

Good today: Mills, Karacan, Gorkks, Pearce
Poor: Cummins, Leigertwood, Hunt
The rest average at best

[RG30]

Not to disapointed. We've played far worse in the majority of games this season but at least had a decent amount of possession and had enough chances which we didn't finish.

[Winnershroyal]

Not to disapointed. We've played far worse in the majority of games this season but at least had a decent amount of possession and had enough chances which we didn't finish.

^^ this.

Scummy Cardiff fans made it enjoyable too.