Back From The Game - Norwich

[Tony Le Mesmer]

I felt like just going home at one point today.

Not when we went 3 1 down, but when i saw so many people standing up and cheering when Howard was subbed.

Pathetic, all of you. Why are you so anti Reading? Dont kid yourself, thats what it was. And there were STILL people giving Long shit when he gave yet another 100% committed performance.

I just dont get it. If you want to see shit midfielders, i'll lend you my Royals Gems Videos from 87-89.

as for the Ref, i dont recall ever seeing a Ref so biased towards us. He really was that 1 sided.

[pea]

Howard certainly had a poor game today. But he's been good otherwise and creates a lot of our goals for us, so you'd surely have to be pushing a personal agenda to call for him to be dropped.

I generally like Howard but with Jobi in his place we controlled the game much better and didn't give the ball away sloppily at all once he went off. When you've got someone on Tabbs quality on the bench its enough to drop Howard.

[Kitson12]

Howard certainly had a poor game today. But he's been good otherwise and creates a lot of our goals for us, so you'd surely have to be pushing a personal agenda to call for him to be dropped.

I just think we should try Tabb and Karacan, see if it works, if it doesn't so be it, but it's worth a go.

[Jackson Corner]

Interesting listening to Lambert saying the sending off changed the game. I bet if you offered him before the game 3-1 up at half time and one of your forwards sent off for he 2nd half he would have taken it. We put 3 past Barnsley with ten QPR beat us and drew with Pompey with ten as did Hull at Leeds. We battered them second half and I don't think the sending off made all that much difference. As for anyone blaming Feds for the goals they must know oxf*rd all about football.
The wall was set up fine it's not his fault the players in it didn't stand there ground.

[Tony Le Mesmer]

Interesting listening to Lambert saying the sending off changed the game. I bet if you offered him before the game 3-1 up at half time and one of your forwards sent off for he 2nd half he would have taken it. We put 3 past Barnsley with ten QPR beat us and drew with Pompey with ten as did Hull at Leeds. We battered them second half and I don't think the sending off made all that much difference. As for anyone blaming Feds for the goals they must know oxf*rd all about football.
The wall was set up fine it's not his fault the players in it didn't stand there ground.

I wouldnt say goals 2 & 3 were keeper 'mistakes', but they were still both preventable Most Championship standard keepers would have stopped both, despite the defensive errors.

I dont think our defence have any confidence in him at all

[RoyalX]

I typed a massive summary of tonight's game, only to lose it all as it had timed me out

Can't be arsed to type it out again, but essentially:

- Back five was dire first half, but we pummelled their goal second half. Came away with the strange feeling that we should have won, despite thinking we were lucky to still be in it at half time.
- I liked 4-4-2 and I liked Long, Church and Hunt all playing at the same time.
- Referee was poor, but in our favour. Zurab, Howard and Karacan could all have been booked; Karacan got away twice with two late tackles. Thought they could have had a penalty. Holt's challenge was so late I didn't even see it. WRT timewasting, why was Ruddy not booked when he first started doing it? This would have sped him up for the rest of the game. 4 minutes added on time was a joke.
- The cheering of Howard's substitution was pathetic. I'm guessing he's the new scapegoat?
- Federici WAS awful tonight. I don't care who else was at fault before the chance was created, he is still the last line of defence. He went down too easily for the 2nd (as he did against Swansea), he was too flat-footed for the 3rd and his confidence was clearly shot as he didn't command his area at all tonight. I miss Marcus.
- Agree with Elmer Park that McAnuff looked alot more effective playing in the middle.

Ratings:

Federici - 4
Griffin - 7
Mills - 5
Zurab - 3
Harte - 4
McAnuff - 7
Karacan - 6
Howard - 5
Hunt - 7
Long - 8
Church - 7

Antonio - 5

[Snowball]

I felt like just going home at one point today.

Not when we went 3 1 down, but when i saw so many people standing up and cheering when Howard was subbed.

Pathetic, all of you. Why are you so anti Reading? Dont kid yourself, thats what it was. And there were STILL people giving Long shit when he gave yet another 100% committed performance.

I just dont get it. If you want to see shit midfielders, i'll lend you my Royals Gems Videos from 87-89.

as for the Ref, i dont recall ever seeing a Ref so biased towards us. He really was that 1 sided.

Well said, Tony.

Cowards the lot of them.

[79Royal]

Reading FC. Too good for the bottom half of the Championship, probably not quite good enough for the top half. Oh for a little bit of money spent wisely.

As for Howard, he's had a poor couple of games at least, tonight he was woeful. He lost the ball cheaply in midfield which led to their second, walked out of the wall for their third (I thought the ball went through the wall, rather than over it) and deserved to be subbed. I hope he finds some form soon, becasue at the moment he's being carried somewhat.

[Hoop Blah]

Interesting listening to Lambert saying the sending off changed the game. I bet if you offered him before the game 3-1 up at half time and one of your forwards sent off for he 2nd half he would have taken it. We put 3 past Barnsley with ten QPR beat us and drew with Pompey with ten as did Hull at Leeds. We battered them second half and I don't think the sending off made all that much difference. As for anyone blaming Feds for the goals they must know oxf*rd all about football.
The wall was set up fine it's not his fault the players in it didn't stand there ground.

So who exactly didn't stand their ground?

[Handsome Man]

Fed 6 - not much chance for the first two but the third seemed a bit soft

Griffin 8 - attacked and defended well in his best performance of the season I've seen
Hart 3 - the goal doesn't make up for the defending or the lame attacking
Mills 4 - awful distribution first half
Kish - 4 - plumbed the depths in the first half

Karacan 9 - man of the match
Howard 6 - OK
MacAnuff 7 - responded well to playing in the centre
Hunt 7 - disappointed he missed the chances that we were promised he would score

Church 5 - part of a very weak left hand side when we were chasing the win
Long 8 - almost a perfect performance but too many misses

Antonio 7 - nearly very good

Ref - shocking, that seemed a bad tackle by Karacan near the end
Crowd - excellent joke by the primary school children behind us
Fans - it is very disconcerting to see an ugly person trying to lick their nose, to see two makes me worry about Reading

[79Royal]

- The cheering of Howard's substitution was pathetic. I'm guessing he's the new scapegoat?

Howard's performance in the past two games has been poor. He gave the ball away far too cheaply and in bad areas of the pitch. It was no coincidence that we got better when he came off. I'd rather not hear fans cheering a substitution, but I can understand it on this occasion. Howard was very frustrating.

And by the way, if you give Zurab a 3 Mills deserves a 2, if only for his mistake for the goal. Mills caused as many problems in the first half as he prevented. Just wasn't decisive enough and got caught in possesion far too often.

[pea]

Only just realised what Karacan tackle you were all talking about. It was probably over enthusiastic but he went in one footed, studs down and got the ball. Thought it was a good tackle myself and didn't see Norwich kick up much fuss (may not have been paying much attention at that point though, so might be wrong)

[RoyalX]

- The cheering of Howard's substitution was pathetic. I'm guessing he's the new scapegoat?

Howard's performance in the past two games has been poor. He gave the ball away far too cheaply and in bad areas of the pitch. It was no coincidence that we got better when he came off. I'd rather not hear fans cheering a substitution, but I can understand it on this occasion. Howard was very frustrating.

And by the way, if you give Zurab a 3 Mills deserves a 2, if only for his mistake for the goal. Mills caused as many problems in the first half as he prevented. Just wasn't decisive enough and got caught in possesion far too often.

Howard was poor tonight, but not to the point that it warranted his substitution being cheered. In fairness, I didn't see the last game so perhaps I am not in a position to comment.

Mills' backpass was poor, but he was in that position because he had had to cover for Zurab. Throughout tonight Zurab was beaten to the ball, the wrong side of the attacker or just plain out of position. The breakdown in communication between Harte and Zurab was shocking from two experienced professionals - they looked like strangers tonight. Part of this is Mills' fault; he is the captain and he should be marshalling the defence, but for me tonight Mills > Harte > Zurab.

Only just realised what Karacan tackle you were all talking about. It was probably over enthusiastic but he went in one footed, studs down and got the ball. Thought it was a good tackle myself and didn't see Norwich kick up much fuss (may not have been paying much attention at that point though, so might be wrong)

I was talking about two different tackles tbf!

[floyd__streete]

Watching this current Reading side might well be the death of me. Defensively we are an abomination; all season I have frozen in terror whenever the opposition cross the half way line, we look likely to concede at any given time. 2nd half today we played with width and when we got the ball into the channels we terrorised (10 man) Norwich but our woeful finishing gives me palpatations.

I watched this afternoon's game from the comfort of Bar1871. Well worth the £10 top-up on my season ticket for a pint from a glass sat at a table watching Soccer Saturday. Although we almost were not afforded the latter luxury thanks to some alpha-female head of a family of four who wanted to know whether "the rugby would be on?" . To be fair, they were thoroughly bloody nice middle-class people who apparently take their young kids up into the Upper West because of the swearing in the East Stand. There was swearing in the North west corner during the first half however after an absolute holocaust of a defensive performance; Bristol Rovers '99 is the only 45 minutes I can seriously think of to rival that first half shambles. Reading were atrocious, Matt Mills if I could spend a month stood on your door-step v-signing you that wouldn't even express half of my contempt for your performance both today and this season generally. We conceded our usual goal from Ian Harte's left-hand side thanks in part to Howard who couldn't be bothered to track his man. Howard was jeered when he was substituted and frankly what is the point in wasting a player of his ability in a side like ours where patient passing is secondary to work-rate and long ball.

I don't really care about the sending off, I frankly couldn't give a monkeys as we had an iffy-decision go against us on Wednesday. Thanks to Harte's quite appaling first touch, Holt was late and clumsy and at 3-1 up and cruising he didn't need to make the 'tackle', so tough-titty Norwich. This gave Reading a thoroughly undeserved life-line and presumably a half-time rocket from McD because second half we pinned them back, moved the ball across the park pretty well and should have won handsomely in the end. Could Antonio be another Kebe? Thrillingly raw, he led Norwich a merry dance and his introduction lifted the crowd no end. Good point in the end, but this Reading side is an enigma; depressingly abject one moment, fast and furious the next.

[Millsy]

1) Woeful defence.

2) Was it Harte who was totally rinsed for pace for their first goal?

3) Never a red card.

4) We were VERY lucky.

5) Long is quite possibly the worst striker ever to have played for Reading on the strength of this season, yet a decent player otherwise and his penalties are fantastic.

6) What a breath of fresh air it is to have a real striker taking up the striker position - Hunt, 2 goals in 2. Twice as many real goals as a certain other striker has scored ALL SEASON. Still if we are to have a viable 4-4-2 or decent option.... WE NEED a STRIKER AS A MATTER OF URGENCY.

7) Madejski is ruining this club and must change his approach or leave ASAP. I hope repeating the truth doesn't wind up the Rectum Crew too much.

[working class hero]

I thought people cheering off Howard was pathetic.

Get behind him, not boo him.

Howard is the new Hughes.

Howard Hughes? Given his occasional invisibility he may be a recluse!

[royalsteve]

I'm biting, but I'm not sure how you can blame Fed for his wall falling apart, Khiz giving Martin the entire goal to shoot at and Mills playing a brilliant through ball for Holt.

and a freekick that i thought he should done better too

not a great night.....1st half we were awful...worst ive seen us since being demolished by Crystal Palace last season.......sloppy marking for 1st, 2nd was a joke and started when muppet howard gave the ball away in midfield and then a stupid backpass from mills wtf and why?!! should have launched into row z......3rd feds should have got, made a good save to stop 4th but looked way offside anyway

great comeback again and could have nicked it but we cant keep doing this!!

odd tactics from norwich though...doncaster did the same -sit on the 3-1 lead and like doncaster they paid

agreed with the subs....howard was having a bad game

totally one sided 2nd half and fair play to the lads but we deserved to win

their red card wasnt a red...silly foul yellow at most.....then again they would have lost a player for the pen im sure of that

was strange said to my mate @ 3-1 who was getting peed off with our dire football....dont worry theyll get a player sent off in a mo as they kept clattering our players
and boo hiss the delay tactics in the 2nd from norwich...hope they go down to league 1

[royalsteve]

I typed a massive summary of tonight's game, only to lose it all as it had timed me out

Can't be arsed to type it out again, but essentially:

- Back five was dire first half, but we pummelled their goal second half. Came away with the strange feeling that we should have won, despite thinking we were lucky to still be in it at half time.
- I liked 4-4-2 and I liked Long, Church and Hunt all playing at the same time.
- Referee was poor, but in our favour. Zurab, Howard and Karacan could all have been booked; Karacan got away twice with two late tackles. Thought they could have had a penalty. Holt's challenge was so late I didn't even see it. WRT timewasting, why was Ruddy not booked when he first started doing it? This would have sped him up for the rest of the game. 4 minutes added on time was a joke.
- The cheering of Howard's substitution was pathetic. I'm guessing he's the new scapegoat?
- Federici WAS awful tonight. I don't care who else was at fault before the chance was created, he is still the last line of defence. He went down too easily for the 2nd (as he did against Swansea), he was too flat-footed for the 3rd and his confidence was clearly shot as he didn't command his area at all tonight. I miss Marcus.
- Agree with Elmer Park that McAnuff looked alot more effective playing in the middle.

Ratings:

Federici - 4
Griffin - 7
Mills - 5
Zurab - 3
Harte - 4
McAnuff - 7
Karacan - 6
Howard - 5
Hunt - 7
Long - 8
Church - 7

Antonio - 5

totally agree re: odd feeling we should have won.....we could have been 4-1 down at HT, though it would have been unjust as despite playing better Norwich obly had 3 shots on goal to our 5 in the 1st

[royalsteve]

Thanks ref, a complete homer.........

not really - he didnt send their player off @ for the pen and he didnt sort the joke time wasting and their players puts alot of dodgy tackles in well before the sending off

[royalsteve]

Thanks ref, a complete homer.........

Spot on.
How Jem didn't even get booked for his foul( which was worse than Holt's) I,Murty ,Lambert and Worthington really don't know.
The penalty was one of the few things the ref got right and anybody who saw the West Brom game at Blackpool the other night (he sent off 2 WBA players)will not have been surprised at the way he favoured the home side tonight.

jem's foul wasnt worse, just as bad...both mistimed...both yellows though