Back From the Game - Pompey

[winchester_royal]

Well, IMO, that was a rather encouraging 90 minutes of football. We looked much better in midfield with Howard pulling the strings, Karacan didn't do an awful lot, we'll be better off once Tabb gets back. Pompey got a lucky goal early on, and from then on were quite happy to sit back and lump it up to poor old Dave Nugent, who didn't get much change out of Bryn and the excellent ( ) Pearce. We played the better football, were without doubt the better team, but we still look short of being the clinical team of 6 months ago. Kebe and McAnuff both found plenty of joy down the flanks, but too often the final ball was a little bit off, resulting in very few clear cut chances. But the equaliser was fully deserved, despite the best efforts of Ashdown. (c*nt)

Oh, and I'd forgotten how good N.Hunt is, awesome cameo from him.

[M Brook]

We certainly improved as the game wore on and could even have nicked it at the death. BUT the need for a proper CB is overwhelming and the poor performances from Pearce and Gunnarsson had a knock on effect throughout the team. Put simply, Bryn, for all his wonderful service to the club, is a liability and increasingly out of his depth. In fact, it is cruel to see him embarrassed time after time. At one point he completely missed the ball altogether and almost ended up on his backside. He should never play for Reading at CB back again.

[paultheroyal]

Get Kishi, and it will all look rosey.

[Kitson12]

BUT the need for a proper CB is overwhelming and the poor performances from Pearce and Gunnarsson had a knock on effect throughout the team.

I'm sorry. Pearce was very very good today in my opinion, Nugent got nothing out of him, Bryn made one mistake, and was otherwise very good. Williams however was the worst player for us today, nothing came off, beaten for pace many times, I am yet to be convinced.
N.Hunt changed the game, great leap, put the wind up Sonko (who was good, and great appreciation of the support at the end) when he came on, must start against Forest, despite how much I rate Church.
Feds didn't have to do much, no chance with the goal, and made some routine saves.
We have to keep Siggy, despite his OG, he didn't let it get him down, so unlucky with his cracking free-kick, and his corner resulted in us eventually scoring.
And a mention for Karacan, I thought he fought well in the midfield, good passing, tackling and generally looked very busy.

Very encouraging.

[Carlos]

should have won today. pompey were very poor and took the lead with a lucky goal. disagree with the guy who said mcanuff saw plenty of joy. thought he was very poor other than at right back in the last ten minutes. disinterested whole match and poor miss from yet another kebe cross. Kebe is our main hope other than sig's set pieces. kebe had their left back in his pocket every single time. and i think he scored although not sure as it was abit crazy.

federici - 6 - didnt have much to do
griffin - 7 - looked reasonably assured and very committed
williams - 7 abit dodge at the back but promising coming forward
pearce - 8 - very surprised with his performance after scunthorpe. never let nugent get in behind him and looked much more assured.
gunnar - 6 - clearly not a centre half but so comitted i will forgive him for his awful mis kick to let in nugent.
karacan - 7 - thought he was very good today. never letting their midfield settle on the ball.
kebe - 9 - constant threat but sadly only ever church in the box to get it too.
howard - 7 - looked decent
mcanuff - 5 - looked disinterested and dont think he got past his man once all game
sig - 7 - brilliant free kick which hit the post. drifted in and out abit.
church - 6 - no chance against sonko. tried his best.

very promising second half. hunt changed the game and when he gets back to his best we will have a good team.

[TedBundy89]

pearce - 8 - very surprised with his performance after scunthorpe

According to the press Pearce was the pick of our defenders against Scunthorpe. Matt Mills was far worse last Saturday as he was at fault for both goals.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Fantastic day out at Portsmouth. Great atmosphere in the away end. Decent result as we deserved at least a point and more.

Federici - 6 - Didn't actually have much to do.

Griffin - 6 - Struggled for most parts of the first half and was brought off in the second.
Pearce - 7 - Did really well today. Won headers, got stuck in and dealt well with Nugent
Gunnarsson - 7 - Makeshift centre-back who played well today.
Williams - 6 - Glimpses of potential but caught out too many times.

Kebe - 7 - Blew hot and cold throughout the match. Did all the work and couldn't find the killer pass or shot. Poor crossing, but did get a goal.
Howard - 8 - My Man of the Match. Fantastic performance today. Got stuck in at the back and then got forward too. Good range of passing.
Karacan - 6 - Glimpses of potential as well, but struggled to out muscle the Pompey midfield.
Siggy - 7 - Made some fantastic touches, but wasn't at his best. Great free-kick that hit the post in the 2nd half.
McAnuff - 7 - Blew hot and cold as well. Filled in at right back after Griffin came off and did well.

Church - 6 - Struggled up front on his own.

Subs

Noel Hunt - 8 - Changed the game. Did better than Church did on his own and when Raisak came on, they linked up well. Got a great reception from the Reading fans when he came on.
Antonio - 7 - Did really well and got past the full backs on a regular basis. The final ball did let him down however.
Raisak - 6 - Not too much time on the pitch.

Reading fans were top class today. The atmosphere at the end was fantastic.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Also Sonko got a great reception today. Cue the 'Sonko is Superman' song after he blasted the ball out of the ground.

He also came over to applaud our fans at the end.

[floyd__streete]

My fifth visit to watch RFC at Fratton Park and finally I have seen us achieve a positive result at that hole. As usual though, we didn't get the rub of green, with their goal being thanks to a large deflection and then Gylfi hitting the inside of the post in the second half with a nicely flighted freekick. How nice it was then to deservedly equalise at the end after a scramble, particularly as the Pompey army of gurning chavs to our right gave us the w@nker sign en masse thinking it had been disallowed.....the clueless referee hadn't made the decision clear to Ashdown who was preparing to take a free kick, sorry to disappoint you lads

Good performances all round and much more purposeful football than the kick-and-rush rubbish we had seen last Saturday and on Wednesday, although I'd suggest that Church is more a link man than an out-and-out striker and so the welcome return of Noel Hunt really saw us tighten the screw on a Portsmouth team who visibly tired after an hour. Got to credit Reading's fitness and will to fight until the end, this has been typical of the McDermott regime thus far - think of last minute cup goals and important injury time league winners against Plymouth and Leicester - and is particularly praiseworthy in the light of 2 hours of a very hard tie at Plainmoor just days before. Bryn got through another hard-working 90 minutes where he made a number of bad mistakes playing out of position but his will to win is unquestionable. Pearce and Karacan had much improved games, Kebe tormented Pompey throughout and in fact the only player who hasn't improved on his performances throughout a tough week is Marcus Williams who let a throw-in bounce over his head to concede a needless corner for that Pompey opener.

Much better from Reading today, but the fact remains that while we continue to play people like Bryn out of position the squad still looks threadbare and unlikely to trouble the top end of the division too much.

[rfcjoe]

How far did Jobi Mcanuff have his socks pulled up, floyde? and did Brian Howard have his shirt tucked in?

[Victor Meldrew]

Agree with Floyd-great to come away with a point from Fratton Park.
Pompey could easily have been 3 up by half-time and what a miss by Nugent.

I can't however agree with some of the ratings especially Howard who only turned up for the last 15 minutes and gave away a stupid free-kick near the end that could have cost us so my rating for him would have been about a 5.
Against the lone Pompey striker Nugent I thought both Bryn and Pearce struggled but got away with it on a number of occasions.
Also on the downside Church would get a 3 or 4-the boy needs to learn how to jump.

On the plus side I thought Kebe was our most serious threat all game and to a lesser extent McAnuff but there were seldom any options in the middle.
Hunt did much better than Church (which isn't saying much)but not as well as some earlier posters have implied.

Apart from the ongoing centre-back worry I feel that we just don't play enough through midfield as pass and move-there was still a lot of long-ball and the ball seemed to spend masses of time going into touch-something I gather that Radio Berks picked up on during the Torquay game.

Now just a bit of Championship manager-I would sell Fed and Antonio (we have plenty of keepers and wingers)and buy the centre-back that all of us know is needed and if there is enough money look to bring in a Koumas/Ledley type of midfielder and a Rasiak with legs.
If we don't do anything I think we are looking at a lower-middle finish as we struggle to make good chances and score goals and always look likely to concede.

One point was most welcome to keep us off the bottom but if we do the "we'll go with what we have got" approach points will become harder and harder to get IMHO.

BTW the "Pay up Pompey" chant is already old hat but the one about us paying tax was more inventive.

[Pat Butchers Ring]

Dont see how anyone can knock Pearce today, the guy did nothing wrong. Having said that Portsmouth were very light weight upfront and perhaps was not a true test of how good Pearce/Gunnarsson are. Kebe was a constant threat but worringly Mcanuff had one of his quieter games. We need to be a threat from both wings if we are going to play a 4-5-1 system especially with Church as a lone striker is pretty light weight. Hunt looked hungry which is particularily encouraging, its will be a 2 way fight between him and Long as to who is the main striker

Overall encouraging but a game we should win if we are going to challenge. Based on the permances so far I think top 10 is achieveable but I think top 6 might be more of a challenge.

[Elliott]

ALOL at Sonko munting a clearance into the side of a team mates head, absolutely flooring him, and then the ball rebounding out for a corner! Funniest moment of the match by a long way!

[Jeffers217]

Well, IMO, that was a rather encouraging 90 minutes of football. We looked much better in midfield with Howard pulling the strings, Karacan didn't do an awful lot, we'll be better off once Tabb gets back. Pompey got a lucky goal early on, and from then on were quite happy to sit back and lump it up to poor old Dave Nugent, who didn't get much change out of Bryn and the excellent ( ) Pearce. We played the better football, were without doubt the better team, but we still look short of being the clinical team of 6 months ago. Kebe and McAnuff both found plenty of joy down the flanks, but too often the final ball was a little bit off, resulting in very few clear cut chances. But the equaliser was fully deserved, despite the best efforts of Ashdown. (c*nt)

Oh, and I'd forgotten how good N.Hunt is, awesome cameo from him.

Are you alrighgt mate?! Howard pulling the strings?! Karacan was the only player closing them down in the first half- the lad was class, albeit he faded a bit in the 2nd half, but the team would have been a lot worse off without him!

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Well, IMO, that was a rather encouraging 90 minutes of football. We looked much better in midfield with Howard pulling the strings, Karacan didn't do an awful lot, we'll be better off once Tabb gets back. Pompey got a lucky goal early on, and from then on were quite happy to sit back and lump it up to poor old Dave Nugent, who didn't get much change out of Bryn and the excellent ( ) Pearce. We played the better football, were without doubt the better team, but we still look short of being the clinical team of 6 months ago. Kebe and McAnuff both found plenty of joy down the flanks, but too often the final ball was a little bit off, resulting in very few clear cut chances. But the equaliser was fully deserved, despite the best efforts of Ashdown. (c*nt)

Oh, and I'd forgotten how good N.Hunt is, awesome cameo from him.

Are you alrighgt mate?! Howard pulling the strings?! Karacan was the only player closing them down in the first half- the lad was class, albeit he faded a bit in the 2nd half, but the team would have been a lot worse off without him!

Howard was pulling the strings.

[readingfc13]

Agreed, I thought Howard had a very good game.

[Jeffers217]

Well, IMO, that was a rather encouraging 90 minutes of football. We looked much better in midfield with Howard pulling the strings, Karacan didn't do an awful lot, we'll be better off once Tabb gets back. Pompey got a lucky goal early on, and from then on were quite happy to sit back and lump it up to poor old Dave Nugent, who didn't get much change out of Bryn and the excellent ( ) Pearce. We played the better football, were without doubt the better team, but we still look short of being the clinical team of 6 months ago. Kebe and McAnuff both found plenty of joy down the flanks, but too often the final ball was a little bit off, resulting in very few clear cut chances. But the equaliser was fully deserved, despite the best efforts of Ashdown. (c*nt)

Oh, and I'd forgotten how good N.Hunt is, awesome cameo from him.

Are you alrighgt mate?! Howard pulling the strings?! Karacan was the only player closing them down in the first half- the lad was class, albeit he faded a bit in the 2nd half, but the team would have been a lot worse off without him!

Howard was pulling the strings.

In the last 20 minutes maybe. Karacan is not paid to pull the strings, he's paid to get in the opposition's face and get the ball, I can tell you for certain that for 60 minutes today he successfully did that whilst Howard did sweet FA. However I don't doubt that the best midfield partnership is Howard and Tabb. But Karacan has the most talent out of those 3 players and is vastly underrated

[LoyalRoyalFan]

I'll think you'll find that Howard got stuck in as well. I didn't think Karacan had a good game today.

[NWL Royal]

Howard played well.

[mikey0406]

Was impressed by the performance today... midfield seemed to get a better grip of the game in the second half and we seemed to operate much better when he had more of a target man upfront. really impressed with Howards efforts in getting stuck into pompey. things will be rosey if we just pick up a loanee or two before the window shuts

PS will be so surprised if Glyfi is still in a Reading shirt come september...his attacking prowess is second to none in this league from midfield.