Back From The Game - Ipswich Town

[Kitson12]

Mills needs to be sorted out, he's a liability. 2 reds already this season, stattos could probably predict how many reds he will get this season at this rate.

Umm, 1 red I think you'll find.

[Royal Lady]

RwC - you were there??!

RWC was spotted by me before the game in the jazz

I didn't realise you knew him. Glad he's managed to make a game anyhow.

[Barry the bird boggler]

Dreadful game that only livened up when we scored to be honest. Both teams totally cancelled each other out and Mills made sure he cancelled out any unfair advantage gained by Ipswich losing a player.

By the way is getting 3 players sent off in successive game a record for Reading? Does anyone know if any club has managed to get more successive red cards in a season.

And I presume it'll be a 2 game ban for Mills now.....

[Crowthorne Royal]

Fellow Royals, some fantastic posts on this subject in the last 12 hours or so. Great debate but in the main a lot of positivity.

My thoughts for what they are worth are:

Tremendous Championship game. I have seen far worse games where have been more goals scored.

2 good teams, overall I thought Ipswich were marginally better than us. Thye had a little bit more craft, they still nearly equalised at the end simply by using their big guys to put the ball in dangerous areas and as much as we all don't like it and it is VERY Roy Keane-esque they know how to stop influential players doing their stuff.

I know we could pick holes in the display....Mills being naiive, Shane's first touch still being a bit suspect, Jimmy's return to 'Coco' (although in fairness to him I don't think he was fit and I'll forgive him anything at the moment as he has been sensational for us of late) and Antonio's somewhat schoolboy like display. Er, I think I just have picked holes now....Sorry!

I thought we were a tremendous 'TEAM' last night and it was this edge we gave us the fortunate win.

I liked Woodcote's report I thought it summed the game up well and I have to agree that we are still just 1 maybe 2 signings short of being Top 6 / Top 2 material.

We do still need a striker. All our guys are OK but none of them would be capable of being a huge influence on us getting up again like Kitson, Doyle, Lita etc. With our wingers being in such fine form (I love the current look of HRK) a good striker would love playing for us. If we could afford him I would go and get Jason Roberts from Blackburn on loan. He is in the autumn of his career and what has he really achieved? He seems to always be on the fringes of a Prem team. He would be magnificent in our league and has alot of attributes our other strikers don't....Big / Powerful - Decent pace - Guile - Good with his head etc, etc.

Feeling very good about our team led by what can only be described as an RFC legend...Big Brian McD. Long may he continue.

One final observation......what the hell are we going to do about corners? 28 corners in the last 2 games and (other than the obviousl last night which was in no way down to the quality of the corner which was described as scuffed) we don't look close to getting on the end of any of them. I had to LOL at Harte being in The TOTW as his delivery had been poor against Bransley before his free kick. Again last night it wasn't great.

Don't know what the answer is but it needs work on the training ground I think. Come on McD you seem to be brilliant at everything else so why not scoring from corners!!!

[mzungu_royal]

Mills needs to be sorted out, he's a liability. 2 reds already this season, stattos could probably predict how many reds he will get this season at this rate.

Umm, 1 red I think you'll find.

Apologies, it is only 1. But that temper of his is really getting annoying. Either BMcD sorts him out or he learns the hard way by working his way back into it. Perhaps a fine should also be placed.

[Kitson12]

@Barry the bird boggler
Why? He's only been sent off ONCE this season!

[Kitson12]

Mills needs to be sorted out, he's a liability. 2 reds already this season, stattos could probably predict how many reds he will get this season at this rate.

Umm, 1 red I think you'll find.

Apologies, it is only 1. But that temper of his is really getting annoying. Either BMcD sorts him out or he learns the hard way by working his way back into it. Perhaps a fine should also be placed.

Completely agree with that.

[Svlad Cjelli]

.....

One final observation......what the hell are we going to do about corners? 28 corners in the last 2 games and (other than the obviousl last night which was in no way down to the quality of the corner which was described as scuffed) we don't look close to getting on the end of any of them. I had to LOL at Harte being in The TOTW as his delivery had been poor against Bransley before his free kick. Again last night it wasn't great.

Don't know what the answer is but it needs work on the training ground I think. Come on McD you seem to be brilliant at everything else so why not scoring from corners!!!

Really? I thought the corner was deliberately played to Jem who was free on the edge of the box.

[Tony Le Mesmer]

Cant see that anyones mentioned the move that won us the match.

When we won the corner, HRK was limping around with an injury trying to carry on. The bench were screaming at him to go down for ages and he finally did just as Harte was about to take the corner. He went off, Church comes on, Bingo.

[mzungu_royal]

Someone needs to screw Mills' head back on before it becomes a liability. He almost cost us this game, had it not been for Pearce and Harte at the back, it'd been 1-1, 0-1.

[Scarface]

At the moment Mills is a walking red card and he either sorts himself out, or he should be stripped of the captaincy. Not only is he going to pick up suspensions, but his constant fouling puts us under pressure. What he did last night was utter stupidity, there is no excuse.

Having said that he's a vital player for us, but McDermott needs to stamp out his indiscipline.

[Hoop Blah]

By general consensus, Ipswich were the best side we have faced this season. By general consensus, they will be in the mix at the end of the season and whilst, IMHO, neither side deserved to lose, we were the ones who went home with all three 3pts.

I worry for who those failed to enjoy a tactical battle between 2 good sides..............................the Championship close to it's best, in my view.

I thought it was an intruiging game, and enjoyed it for what it was. That doesn't mean there was a lot of good entertaining and high quality football on view.

Like others, I said Pearce would have to play well for us to win and, in fact, I would not have picked him, but he had one of his best ever games for RFC. That's why we should all be beside ourselves with joy at having Brian McDermott as our manager.

Who the hell who would you have played instead then?

I've supported Pearce at times, but I still accept he is a limited player. In the right side, asked to do the right job, he can get by in this division but he's not going to set the world alight.

Add to the mix his astute signings such as Harte (inevitably slagged when signed by those who had never seen him kick a ball ) and other products from our academy such as MoM Jem Karacan (yes, at long last, Sidwell has been replaced!!!) whom he has given the time and space to flourish, and assertions that mere survival is all we can hope for are looking more ridiculous by the day.

Sidwells been replaced? It was one good game, a one that was an attritional battle and not a game where technique was going to be required.

According to some we didn't need to replace Sidwell in the first place, Gunnarsson already did that before he left right?

From what I saw last night, we are one or two signings away from making QPR look over their shoulder. Bring it on.

Not sure I'd go quite that far, but I do agree we're not a million miles away from been a good team in this division. That says as much for the division as it does our squad of players though.

It's frustrating that we're so close yet, in my view, so far from being right up there!

[mzungu_royal]

At the moment Mills is a walking red card and he either sorts himself out, or he should be stripped of the captaincy. Not only is he going to pick up suspensions, but he's constant fouling puts us under pressure. What he did last night was utter stupidity, there is no excuse.

Having said that he's a vital player for us, but McDermott needs to stamp out his indiscipline.

Totally agreed and I think that his discipline was shown with his finger up at the crowd last season and he has got a really short temper. I could se him mouth off at the ref so many times last night. I fear that one of these days, the ref will straight red him for one of his goes. having said that, it's a blessing in disguise, we get Khiz back and he'll be a calming influence on Pearce as well, should be good for the whole back line against PNE.

[bigmike]

Hard fought match between 2 decent sides .

I went expecting Jason Scotland tearing Pearce appart however Pearce seemed to cope very well with him. Hes certainly not a patch on the player that I remember playing for St Johnstone.

Jamie Peters was sent to do a Job on Kebe which he did really well. ( By far Ipswichs best player on the night )

Feds made a couple of important saves never had much to do but what he had to do he did really well.

Karachan was determined in midfield he just needs to work on his passing as he seems to give the ball away far too easily ..

Long did well in the thankless lone role up front. I would still like to see Hunt and Long starting together to see if they can get a partnership going.

Mcanuff seemed to be missing for most of the match a couple of good passages of play but not really causing any trouble for Ipswich.

Armstrong played well in Midfield and also very well when he had to go back to full back.

Cummings ... What has happened there??? Hes getting better and better. ( Man of the match for me)

Harte had a bit of a quite match Solid display however he really needs to work on his delivery from corners.

Mills was muscled off the ball far too easily for the Jason Scotland chance and I think deserved to be sent off. Rather stupid of him to do what he did but hey he did stop them getting through for what could have been a really good break for Ipswich.

HRK played quite well but never really set the world alight

Simon church seemed to have one touch when he came on but that was the important touch so we can forgive him for that

Antonio never had long enough to do much .

All in all a good result but the performance was lacking .

[Silver Fox]

Mills made sure he cancelled out any unfair advantage gained by Ipswich losing a player.

The Ipswich red hasn't been mentioned much, understandably when there's stick to give one of our own players, but why was that an unfair advantage?

[BR2]

Dreadful game that only livened up when we scored to be honest. Both teams totally cancelled each other out and Mills made sure he cancelled out any unfair advantage gained by Ipswich losing a player.

By the way is getting 3 players sent off in successive game a record for Reading? Does anyone know if any club has managed to get more successive red cards in a season.

And I presume it'll be a 2 game ban for Mills now.....

I took a mate along last night who hadn't seen us play since Villa away in The Premiership.
On the way up I had told him that Kebe is a changed man and Pearce has not lived up to earlier expectations.
Say no more.
He thought the actual football from both sides was rubbish-was it 2 shots by each team over the 95 minutes?
We continue to play hoof ball and although Jem was fantastic in other aspects of the game he is a terrible passer.
I thought HRK after a couple of good runs early on faded badly and here we have another winger who unfortunately is chicken.
Antonio looked like a non-league player.
Fed made his customary couple of important stops.
Cummings is an athletic player and looks to be toughening up a bit.
Pearce had a very steady game.
Mills-twat
Harte-skinned a few times and not much of a tackler
Jem-great energy and application but I wish he would not panic so much with his passing
Armstrong-not a midfielder,great to see him back and hopefully he regains the left-back spot
Kebe-injured
McAnuff-so much better as a winger
Long-attitude can never be faulted but I wish he didn't hold his face every time he gets tackled.
HRK-glimpses of ability

A typical Championship game with very little quality but a lot of effort which looked very much like a 0-0 and very pleased that we were the ones to get the one spawny goal-there will be other times when it won't go our way.
An excellent return from two games that (kebe apart on Saturday)had very little quality but I suppose that is what Championship football is all about.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Decent performance. Thought our defence was outstanding, especially in the last few minutes with Harte and Pearce playing centre-back.

Karacan man of the match.

Mentions to Cummings, Armstrong and Harte for very good performances.

Decent atmosphere.

[RoyalBlue]

At the moment Mills is a walking red card and he either sorts himself out, or he should be stripped of the captaincy. Not only is he going to pick up suspensions, but his constant fouling puts us under pressure. What he did last night was utter stupidity, there is no excuse.

Having said that he's a vital player for us, but McDermott needs to stamp out his indiscipline.

Fully agree. He is continuing to display a lack of maturity, common sense and plain straight forward intelligence, which puts a massive question mark against his suitability as a captain. In previous games he has been extremely lucky not to pick up a second yellow, partly due to some further rash challenges but more due to the fact that he seems to think that being captain gives him the right to continually mouth off at the ref in a clearly less than respectful way, even when the ref is 100% right!!

As captain he is meant to be talking others out of trouble, not doing his best to talk himself into deeper trouble.

Passion is no excuse for plain recklessness and stupidity!

[royal-biscuit-man]

Good game. Annoying kids nearish the back of Y24, where is there parents honestly?

[Hoop Blah]

Antonio never had long enough to do much .

He had plenty of opportunities and saw a reasonable amount of the ball considering the way the match had gone.

Pretty much every time he cocked it up. I'm sure there is more too him, but on all his showings for the first team, so far, he's looked short of the quality required (and that's in comparison to the other youngsters coming through, not just those like Kebe and McAnuff who should still be lightyears ahead of him).