Back from the game - Pompey

[Allyh84]

Hunt must be one of the thickest players around-the ref had just spoken to him and their Pearce so what does Hunt do?
In his next challenge he blatantly led with his elbow and could have been sent off.

Pff, ah well, oxf*rd it, he was just trying to get the ref to see what a foul actually looks like.

Shock horror footballer makes a rash challenge when his side are getting dominated with the ref loving every second.

[brendywendy]

why would you waste a bench place with a specialist defender/striker when you can cover all teh bases by using the very decent utility players you have for just that purpose. they become even more important now we are down to 5 subs on the bench.

imo.

and it seemed to work just fine throughout 05/06, by the way.

Gunnarsson was the only real utility player we had in 05/06 though wasn't he? He played 90% of his games in his true position, centre mid, and we had proper specialist cover for the rest of the side (we took a real gamble on Ingimarsson and Sonko which thankfully paid off, that doesn't mean it's likely to work again).

not talking about whether he came on or not, just talking about that being the beauty of a utility player on the bench.

also there was the defensive utility player who could play across the back 4, who left when we went up, and who ive embarrassingly forgoten the name of.

[WoodleyRoyal]

chris makin?

[brendywendy]

i cant bvelieve i forgot the name of a genuine RFC legend and member of the 05/06 record breakers.

i feel sick.

[WoodleyRoyal]

must do better very bright lad just needs to apply himself more

[Hoop Blah]

Our defensive cover that year was, Makin (a specialist fullback), Brown (a specialist centre half but woefully short of the required quality), Dobson (a bit of a utility player) and then Gunnarsson as back up to them and quite often the defensive option on the bench.

I think the point being made wasn't that having Gunarsson on the bench as defensive cover was so bad, just that having him, Tabb and Howard all on the same bench as 3 of the 4 outfield players was very restricting.

[Only one Trevor Morley]

First match I have been to this season. Funny game really, open, some bouts of good play by both sides but also some dreadful depending. You look at Portsmouth team sheet and whilst they have no strength in depth they have a very decent first x1 - so no great disgrace to lose.

For me the plus points were Kebe, Federici and I think Khumalo looks pretty assured on the ball - certainly better than Mills. He will take time to fit into how we defned but give him a few matches and he'll be excellent. we actually passed it around pretty well at times as well.

The negatives were that we missed Shane Long yesterday - Hunt and Manset arent hold up merchants and therefore the game was played at 90mph hour as everything came through our wingers (well Kebe actually!). We need a keogh type player to hold the ball up a bit otherwise its a lot of excitement with little reward.

Mcanuff was poor. He is gradually having less and less good games - he failed to be his man once to get a cross in and I cant help thinking that as a winger he has lost a yeard of pace. For those crying our for overlapping full backs I wonder whether he could drop back to right back to replace the pedestrain Griffin and we get someone with more pace and trickery in to compliment Kebe - or give Cummings a go as a winger...

Finally our subs bench looked imbalanced - three central midfielders and a winger/forward- would like to see Obita on there.

It was ok, we lost, but by no means a terrible performance but we look a bit predictable. at present we look like a side who'll do fairly well but we're not going to take anyone apart as other teams are already doing this season. I'd like to see a couple of new faces just to liven things up and give us a less one dimensional look.

[brendywendy]

yes, i know. and im disagreeing.
i think that having a DM, an AM, a DM that can play perfectly well at FB or CB, and a winger who can play as a striker is a very good use of our resources.
the important thing is that all options are covered by the 5 players.

and that is why utility players are good

[mr_number]

B.Wright-Phillips just put 2 more away...

Remind me again why we didn't sign this guy?

Failed the medical as I recall.

I thought he'd been banging them in recently, but SSN said it was his first goals for ten games.

On Sunday I was sure we were nailed on for automatic, but now I'm 100% sure we're going to get relegated. You've got to be definite in your predictions, otherwise they're pointless. No one wants to hear that we're probably where we were at the start of the season, with an outside chance for the playoffs. That'd be silly. I'd say we'll be lucky not to finish bottom now. This view may change after the next game.

[Forbury Lion]

So still only 17 goals. Can you seriously see him scoring 15+ goals in season. We need a new striker.

To be fair, it's hard for a striker to score when he's on the bench.

A goals per minute comparison might be more useful.

[Big Foot]

Interesting to note that last night was the first time since Brizzle away last year that we've lost an away game to a non-Premiership side.

[M-U-R-T-Y]

So still only 17 goals. Can you seriously see him scoring 15+ goals in season. We need a new striker.

To be fair, it's hard for a striker to score when he's on the bench.

A goals per minute comparison might be more useful.

Do you hear that sound? That's the sound of Snowball's underpants ripping off from the full force of his ejaculation.

He'll be here in a minute, he just needs to clean up.

[M-U-R-T-Y]

Interesting to note that last night was the first time since Brizzle away last year that we've lost an away game to a non-Premiership side.

Also only our 3rd loss in 23 league games.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Pretty below-par display. Lacked the cutting edge up front and the crossing was poor from both Kebe and McAnuff. No one was prepared to have a shot as they looked as if though they wanted to pass it into the net.

Griffin and Harte were both poor and need to be dropped as soon as Williams and Cummings return. Federici had a good game

Good atmosphere in the away end.

[Snowball]

CHURCH

Not saying he WILL step up, but we do have a precedent.




Long had just 6 league goals in 2009-10 (+3 cup). Church had 10 league goals plus 2 cup goals

How did Long do in 2010-11?

21 League Goals
02 Cup Goals
02 Play-off Goals
03 International Goals

25 RFC Goals

[bcubed]

Pretty below-par display. Lacked the cutting edge up front and the crossing was poor from both Kebe and McAnuff. No one was prepared to have a shot as they looked as if though they wanted to pass it into the net.

Griffin and Harte were both poor and need to be dropped as soon as Williams and Cummings return. Federici had a good game

Good atmosphere in the away end.

Crossing from mcanuff was predictably poor or non existent, but don't agree about Kebe. His overall game was about the only thing to get Reading fans excited and his crossing was pretty good I thought. Put it this way he doesn't get much better than this

[bcubed]

^ I am in the above picture. Boy have I put on weight in recent years

I am in this too, with back to camera
Where are you?

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Pretty below-par display. Lacked the cutting edge up front and the crossing was poor from both Kebe and McAnuff. No one was prepared to have a shot as they looked as if though they wanted to pass it into the net.

Griffin and Harte were both poor and need to be dropped as soon as Williams and Cummings return. Federici had a good game

Good atmosphere in the away end.

Crossing from mcanuff was predictably poor or non existent, but don't agree about Kebe. His overall game was about the only thing to get Reading fans excited and his crossing was pretty good I thought. Put it this way he doesn't get much better than this

Kebe just ran into players.

[bcubed]

Pretty below-par display. Lacked the cutting edge up front and the crossing was poor from both Kebe and McAnuff. No one was prepared to have a shot as they looked as if though they wanted to pass it into the net.

Griffin and Harte were both poor and need to be dropped as soon as Williams and Cummings return. Federici had a good game

Good atmosphere in the away end.

Crossing from mcanuff was predictably poor or non existent, but don't agree about Kebe. His overall game was about the only thing to get Reading fans excited and his crossing was pretty good I thought. Put it this way he doesn't get much better than this

Kebe just ran into players.

check the highlights

[brendywendy]

yet again the kebe blindness strikes.
highlights clearly show he was again our most consistently dangerous player, with numerous crosses,and attempts