MATCHWATCH : Wycombe Wanderers (h)

[Whore Jackie]

Jeez, so much is being made of the Knibbs / A N Other player penalty routine. Plenty of other clubs do it too. Salah's up to 44 for Liverpool, he's always going to take one, but he never grabs the ball initially. It's not about trying to confuse the goalkeeper. It's about keeping the penalty taker away from all the shenanigans that always happens once the ref awards the penalty. Wareham did the job perfectly fine on Saturday.

[Greatwesternline]

Jeez, so much is being made of the Knibbs / A N Other player penalty routine. Plenty of other clubs do it too. Salah's up to 44 for Liverpool, he's always going to take one, but he never grabs the ball initially. It's not about trying to confuse the goalkeeper. It's about keeping the penalty taker away from all the shenanigans that always happens once the ref awards the penalty. Wareham did the job perfectly fine on Saturday.

You're only one pedantic ref away from awarding a in-direct free kick to the opposition for time wasting.

I've not seen any other team do what Reading do, where the player has essentially set himself up to take it, and then switches.

It's an interesting tactic development, but i think the extreme they are pushing it to could be asking for trouble eventually.

[East Grinstead Royal]

The referee can brief both managers before kick-off if he won’t tolerate the penalty routine. I do think it’s run it’s course now, though.

[stealthpapes]

Jeez, so much is being made of the Knibbs / A N Other player penalty routine. Plenty of other clubs do it too. Salah's up to 44 for Liverpool, he's always going to take one, but he never grabs the ball initially. It's not about trying to confuse the goalkeeper. It's about keeping the penalty taker away from all the shenanigans that always happens once the ref awards the penalty. Wareham did the job perfectly fine on Saturday.

You're only one pedantic ref away from awarding a in-direct free kick to the opposition for time wasting.

I've not seen any other team do what Reading do, where the player has essentially set himself up to take it, and then switches.

It's an interesting tactic development, but i think the extreme they are pushing it to could be asking for trouble eventually.

It felt clear to me that the ref on Sat was exasperated with it - went over to Knibbs and had a slightly agitated word

[Whore Jackie]

TBF Knibbs did take longer than previously. And Wareham did keep looking back round at him, very reminiscent of Stickland and Pereira in the Wrexham game. But I would be absolutely flabbergasted if a ref cancelled a penalty and awarded the opposition a free kick. So many other teams do it now.

[katweslowski]

Jeez, so much is being made of the Knibbs / A N Other player penalty routine. Plenty of other clubs do it too. Salah's up to 44 for Liverpool, he's always going to take one, but he never grabs the ball initially. It's not about trying to confuse the goalkeeper. It's about keeping the penalty taker away from all the shenanigans that always happens once the ref awards the penalty. Wareham did the job perfectly fine on Saturday.

You're only one pedantic ref away from awarding a in-direct free kick to the opposition for time wasting.

I've not seen any other team do what Reading do, where the player has essentially set himself up to take it, and then switches.

It's an interesting tactic development, but i think the extreme they are pushing it to could be asking for trouble eventually.

Just a small note but I've seen another club do it earlier this week. Can't for the life of me remember which one though.

[Silver Fox]

This tactic is nothing to do with making the keeper think someone other than Knibbs is taking it, it's entirely to take the taker out of the bullshit keepers get up to these days. As a result I was surprised we stuck with it on Saturday when the Wycombe keeper had no interest in trying to psych Wareham out. Now, maybe he'd have tried to get in Knibbs's face if he'd set up straight away but who knows.

Also, given the standard of refereeing in League 1 the man in the middle is probably as confused as anyone, who knows whether this would lead to them punishing us or just shrugging their shoulders and letting it slide

[Mr Angry]

As a first home game attended in many Years,

Putting aside feasibility or reality, did it make you feel like coming back again and again - in terms of matchday atmosphere and experience? Guessing yes and I ask that because it did feel like a game from the older days - mainly in the second half

I won't get a season ticket; I have too much going on to devote that much time to it, but yeah, I will definitely look to come more frequently.

I know it sounds daft, but for the first time in many, many Years, I think that this squad of players feels like a team the fans can genuinely get behind and support, rather than - and I don't want to be rude here - a bunch of journeymen mercenaries for whom playing for Reading means no more than if they were to play for Oxford or Swindon.

Obviously, the off-pitch clown show has created this situation, firstly under Selles and now under Noel and especially because all of the transfer embargoes meant that we had to use Academy lads much sooner, and more often, than we would otherwise have done, but to me that increases the positivity I feel towards the squad rather than lessens it.

I felt that last season when I went to the Bristol Rovers away game; they just seemed to have something special.

[Snowflake Royal]

As a first home game attended in many Years, quite a lot of nostalgia; from seeing Tim Dellor (and saying good morning to) outside the stadium, to having a chat with the same steward in the Upper West who was always there when I was an STH, to a very decent bacon bap in the Hotel for £5, I thought it was great to be back.

As for the game itself, really scrappy; Reading put themselves about a bit and rattled Wycombe, but we lacked any real cutting edge up front. Frankly, we were fortunate to be level at half time - their striker put through by a poor header back to Perreira had time to take it down and compose himself rather than go for the lob......whilst Wycombe were lucky not to be down to 10 men following the clear retaliation from their #7 (to an admittedly poor challenge by Mbengue). The ref lost control in the latter part of the first half, and needed half time as much as anyone.

The midfield was a real battlefield that neither side won, and as the game went on it was clear that a mistake would divide the teams, which duly came after a trip that was a clear a penalty you will get. Not too sure about all the shenanighans around the taking of the penalty to be honest; all the faffing about wasted 2 minutes which got lumped on at the end of the game, but well taken penalty nevertheless.

Not many Reading players had 8/10 matches, though the class of Bindon is self evident; on the debit side, Garcia looks desperately in need of a rest.

In the end 3 big points and Wycombe nothing to write home about; well organised with a big lump of a central defender, but also lacking a really good forward line. Will need to invest heavily to survive in the Championship.

[Mr Angry]

As a first home game attended in many Years, quite a lot of nostalgia; from seeing Tim Dellor (and saying good morning to) outside the stadium, to having a chat with the same steward in the Upper West who was always there when I was an STH, to a very decent bacon bap in the Hotel for £5, I thought it was great to be back.

As for the game itself, really scrappy; Reading put themselves about a bit and rattled Wycombe, but we lacked any real cutting edge up front. Frankly, we were fortunate to be level at half time - their striker put through by a poor header back to Perreira had time to take it down and compose himself rather than go for the lob......whilst Wycombe were lucky not to be down to 10 men following the clear retaliation from their #7 (to an admittedly poor challenge by Mbengue). The ref lost control in the latter part of the first half, and needed half time as much as anyone.

The midfield was a real battlefield that neither side won, and as the game went on it was clear that a mistake would divide the teams, which duly came after a trip that was a clear a penalty you will get. Not too sure about all the shenanighans around the taking of the penalty to be honest; all the faffing about wasted 2 minutes which got lumped on at the end of the game, but well taken penalty nevertheless.

Not many Reading players had 8/10 matches, though the class of Bindon is self evident; on the debit side, Garcia looks desperately in need of a rest.

In the end 3 big points and Wycombe nothing to write home about; well organised with a big lump of a central defender, but also lacking a really good forward line. Will need to invest heavily to survive in the Championship.

That was Mbengue! Wow - I assumed it was Knibbs because he got a yellow card.........

[Snowflake Royal]

As a first home game attended in many Years, quite a lot of nostalgia; from seeing Tim Dellor (and saying good morning to) outside the stadium, to having a chat with the same steward in the Upper West who was always there when I was an STH, to a very decent bacon bap in the Hotel for £5, I thought it was great to be back.

As for the game itself, really scrappy; Reading put themselves about a bit and rattled Wycombe, but we lacked any real cutting edge up front. Frankly, we were fortunate to be level at half time - their striker put through by a poor header back to Perreira had time to take it down and compose himself rather than go for the lob......whilst Wycombe were lucky not to be down to 10 men following the clear retaliation from their #7 (to an admittedly poor challenge by Mbengue). The ref lost control in the latter part of the first half, and needed half time as much as anyone.

The midfield was a real battlefield that neither side won, and as the game went on it was clear that a mistake would divide the teams, which duly came after a trip that was a clear a penalty you will get. Not too sure about all the shenanighans around the taking of the penalty to be honest; all the faffing about wasted 2 minutes which got lumped on at the end of the game, but well taken penalty nevertheless.

Not many Reading players had 8/10 matches, though the class of Bindon is self evident; on the debit side, Garcia looks desperately in need of a rest.

In the end 3 big points and Wycombe nothing to write home about; well organised with a big lump of a central defender, but also lacking a really good forward line. Will need to invest heavily to survive in the Championship.

That was Mbengue! Wow - I assumed it was Knibbs because he got a yellow card.........

May be thinking of different incidents, but...

Mbengue slid in recklessly on Simons, in the middle of the pitch, Simon then leapt up and grabbed Mbengue by the throat, cue mass pile in.

Mbengue booked for challenge Simons for reaction.

Knibbs got a yellow for a late challenge on someone up our RW, catching their foot high in the air, coming at them from behind, after the ball was gone.