Back from the game - Preston

[SouthDownsRoyal]

LOL @ MOTM Kebe

Why?

The quality of his play was quite simply woeful. His crossing was dreadful. He worked hard i will give him that, but to say he was MOTM when Karacan and Leigertwood stood out like a sore thumb is somewhat suprising.

Focher, ever been called a berk? Thought so.

[Tinrib]

A good 3 points , although the 4-5-1, with howard in the hole does us no favours. We look sluggish and innefective, and Howard's no Sig.

The subs had an immediate impact and we look a whole lot better playing 442, - Manset really looks a good prospect, he's very good at holding the ball up, has a couple of nice tricks on the turn and draws players into him. Not sure what the score is surrounding his conditioning, but would like to see him start with Long.

That saying and to repeat previous posters, Leigertwood looks classy in a Reading shirt, and is a true midfield general.

Special mention goes to Zurab, Jobi, & Alex M who is looking to be a fine young keeper.

Finally, a big up to Brian, who has assembled a nice balanced squad , and as a team are very difficult to beat. A legend in the making, perhaps.

[southstand67]

Finally, a big up to Brian, who has assembled a nice balanced squad , who as a team are very difficult to beat. A legend in the making, perhaps.[/quote]


And I don't think his head would be turned if another club came knocking.

[FiNeRaIn]

Just seen Brown on Sky Sports saying the ref cost his team tonight!

CHRIST ON A BIKE WTF has he got to moan about? I thought the ref was dreadful and easily their twelfth man!
Brown wants to get that Tango Tan out of his eyes
IDIOT!!!

Agree that he has nothing to complain about. It looked blatant hand ball on the line so we should have had a pen and their players constantly got away with cynical fouls. Not sure the ref was biased but just indecisive and not very good.

Utter, utter bias clown. Hope they go down.

[URZZ]

First thing's first, the game won't last long in the memory. It wasn't the greatest, however, it had its moments.

Those saying that is the worst performance they've seen Kebe put in, you're talking out of your absolute asshole. I thought Jimmy was one of the best players on the pitch tonight.

As far as MOTM goes, Kebe did stand out, but for me, not quite enough to be MOTM. I honestly believe the subs were the difference tonight. Mikele is a class football player, it's as simple as that. I will repeat what everyone knows, we need to sign him. He regained possession at least 3 times within moments of being on the pitch and his presence seemed to have taken the pressure off completely, and that proved to be the difference in us pushing for the goal as well as Long getting a one on one (don't know how he missed, but he can't score every week, it's not FIFA . Leigertwood alone makes that midfield so solid it's unreal.

I felt sorry for PNE, they looked alright and I can understand if they felt they deserved a draw. We've had worse teams at the Mad Stad this year, Bristol City for starters. First 15 minutes I thought we were going to be watching hoofball for 90 minutes, but the game settled and they looked half decent despite having 0 shots on target. (Albeit the goal, but that came off the post and off McCarthy.)

My ticket was Y24 tonight, but I got to the game late and just took my seat in Y26, (corner flagish). Atmosphere was actually amazing for once, and I felt that the stand of Y26 singing made a difference on the atmosphere overall. As for the handball claims, even I could see from that angle that they were blatant, well the first one at least... ah well.

Finally, Brian McDermott deserves praise, great substitutions... simple.

The Wembley dream is still on.

[FiNeRaIn]

MoM was Karacan, simple clever passing all night and mopped up well. Clear MoM followed by Harte. Kebe was a 6/10 not close to MOM nowhere near as bad as some are making out.

[URZZ]

Number 13 were fantastic tonight and really drove the team on.

Agree. Don't know how people can slag off Y25/26 sometimes.

I'll tell you how (and I sit there) - a lot of them (mostly the ones at the back) are negative, fickle and f*cking ignorant (and some just stupid).

What really f*cked me off tonight was that when we went 2-1 up, instead of chanting something positive they started singing (and throughout the f*cking game, over and over and over...) 'That's why you're going down, that's why...' Seriously, who gives a f*cking f*ck?! Why not chant something positive about OUR team, why not say well done to HRK for coming on and scoring with his second touch. Oh no. That's far too positive for the cretinous negative lot that don't realise this is the best period in our history and who always want f*cking more. We could take a leaf out of the book of quite a few other teams to be honest.

Anyway, as for the game. The double sub absolutely changed the game. Well done Bri for having the balls to do this. Well done. 4-4-2 is a much better system for our type of play.

Really solid performace with special mention to Long was created the goal and never gave up going, Legs, and The Beast Manset. Only negatives were Griff, who wasn't match fit, and Ivar, who was yet again our worst player (although much better than against Pompey, but that's not saying much).

We won't be the last one's to sing it to them mate. Have a oxf*rd day off, and a laugh.

Thought Y26 was very good tonight.

[The Real Sandhurst Royal]

A great 3 points against a dirty Preston side who had no intent on trying to play football.

PNE kicked us for 90 minutes and for Phil Brown at his post match interview on Sky to complain about the first goal (two fouls not given leading up to it) shows he has RTG's on. Get back to playing football Brown that's what the public want to see and then you might be succesful. From what I saw too much Alladyce mangement techniques or should I call it dirty play have rubbed off on you!!

The 4-5-1 system we play does not leave enough space in the middle of the park for me. The change to 4-4-2with Leg's coming on changed the game, we got the result we deserved in the end with Karacan superb in the last 30 minutes.

[DOYLERSAROYALER]

A great 3 points against a dirty Preston side who had no intent on trying to play football.

PNE kicked us for 90 minutes and for Phil Brown at his post match interview on Sky to complain about the first goal (two fouls not given leading up to it) shows he has RTG's on. Get back to playing football Brown that's what the public want to see and then you might be succesful. From what I saw too much Alladyce mangement techniques or should I call it dirty play have rubbed off on you!!

The 4-5-1 system we play does not leave enough space in the middle of the park for me. The change to 4-4-2with Leg's coming on changed the game, we got the result we deserved in the end with Karacan superb in the last 30 minutes.

Agreed - Prestons team looked more like a pack of 2nd row rugby players -some real mismatches in midfield with Tabb marking a guy twice his size ....they used their physical size to bully Reading wothout trying to play football - when Liegerwood and Manset came on, they added more "beef" ......good game to win, overcoming the Phil "Allardyce" Brown tactics, and proving that football wins at the end of the day

[General B]

[Mr Optimist]

On SSN this morning it showed Phil Orange up for the tit he is with his post match comments...we didn't get a decision all night...ref taken in by the atmosphere with them being in the play off places... when the ref looks at it again he'll see he missed a blatent foul on the full back on the run up to their first and another on the other full back when the cross came in.....boo hoo

What a joker. I think you can safely put the Beach Boys cd away for another season Phil.

[Mr Optimist]

I don't know why I just wasted time writing that when General B can put it so much more eloquently than me.

[DOYLERSAROYALER]

just hoping tangoman gets the sack when relagation is confirmed ....prb is ....he's not as good as he thinks he is......he's an a-hole like his previous sidekick Sam !

[Harpers So Solid Crew]

Sam Brown?

[The Real Sandhurst Royal]

Is Sam the one on the left!!!

[DOYLERSAROYALER]

Sam Brown?

Thats Brown in a few years time if he doesnt stay off the sunbed ! ....if that was his Sam sidekick of old, he may not have been such a cant now

[Royalwaster]

My only criticism of McD last night was that he didn't make the subs earlier if Leigertwood was available - it was painfully obvious for most of the 1st half that we were losing the physical battle (with the referee letting them get away with lots of niggling fouls and pushes all game until the end when he suddenly discovered his yellow card). I was worried that he'd left it too late, but luckily HRK came up trumps. On that note what's this constant slagging off of HRK - just because he looks old for his age, is he fair game? He's from our academy and gradually finding his feet and has scored more goals than McA and Kebe in the last 5 league games (2 as opposed to only 1 coming on as a sub only). I personally think he's a good player - very powerful and fast, although his decision making lets him down sometimes, but that will come with experience.

[Svlad Cjelli]

Not going to say much about this game because it was pretty drab except for the last 20 minutes.

One point to make is that I was in line behind Harte's shot that hit the bar and I have never, ever, in all my years of watching football, seen a ball swerve in the air as much as that one did, He actually bent it right around the defender. If a Brazilian had done that everyone would be raving about it for years.

Just a great save stopped it from being goal of the century.

[Croydon Royal]

Drab first 65 minutes, exciting last 25 - coincidentally, the part that Leigertwood and Manset were involved in. I don't think the 4-5-1 works for us because if you have 2 holding midfielders at least one of them needs to want the ball to bring it out from the defence. Neither Tabb nor Karacan looks for the ball to feet when one of our centre-backs has it, and that just gets us in to a mess. Griffin and Ivar in particular were criticised last night for hoofing it long too often, but the fact is the central midfield weren't dropping deep to look for the short ball. And obviously when you hit it long, it's rarely going to work with 1 up front! When Zurab got in trouble in the first half when trying to dribble the ball out of defence it was partly because he had no options for short passes ahead of him.

As soon as Leigertwood came on he gave us a completely different dynamic, and Manset's presence meant that even when the ball was pumped long we managed to retain it much better. Think I'm in the minority who thought that Karacan was non-existent for the first 60 minutes or so. But to be fair to him, as soon as he got his old midfield partner back he was one of the best players on the pitch. Overall the MotM for me was either Harte (who has looked decent going forward and has made me eat my words over the past few weeks) or Zurab (who is just simply a class defender).

Preston were definitely not the worst team to come to the Madejski this season and I had a bit of sympathy for them until I just read Phil Brown's comments. The ref was terrible all round, and we should have had a penalty for the handball on the line. Perhaps it's Brown's attempt to deflect the fact that his team failed to have a shot on target the entire match. Credit to their fans though, who were excellent considering they faced a long trip on a Tuesday night to see their team in the relegation zone play at a place where they generally struggle. I thought our fans were good too. Bring on Forest.

[Silver Fox]

/wipes a tear

Happy enough with last night, particularly Leigertwood making me eat my words after his first touch went out for a throw. Only really problem with the evening was the referee who chose to ignore two PNE players going right through ours (Howard and McAnuff i think?) and of course the goal line clearance which I couldn't see but i tend to think when every player is that certain along with the west side of the North stand there's something in it. Disappointed for Kish not getting the goal he prolly deserved

Looking forward to clinching promotion against derby now