Back from the game-saints

[chilipepper91]

I missed the first 20mins driving back from my game today but it was an enjoyable game for the other 70. Reading looked fit, hungry and energetic all night and caused Southampton problems but unfortunately Reading just lack a little bit of quality for all their effort. Le Fondre is a super little player and him and Church work well and I thought they both had very decent games up front. Leigertwood rightly has been praised his passing was good, he won the ball back countless times and deserved his goal. Only Davis stopped him scoring the goal of the season.

Reading are a bit naieve defensively at times and for some of the good blocks made by Gorkks and co, the goal was utterly avoidable, two players go for and get nowhere near the same ball, Mills is stood around doing nothing and his man for the 3rd goal in a week cuts in and slams home. Funnily it was the sending off whcih woke Southampton up because until then there was only one winner.

Watch the replays and you will realise it wasn't Mills' fault at all ( although I thought it was at the time). It wasn't his man. It was Robson-Kanu who was marking him and chose that moment to have a kip!

And HRK was going to be subbed off after his dire right-footed curler which went about 15 yards wide... then we scored and McD decided to sit Kebe back down... until HRK was involved in their goal...

[If you still hate Futcher]

Trouble is they've already made up their minds so don't expect the facts to actually mean anything.

Anyone else think Pearce done a good job on Lambert??

Yes absolutely - I think he's been superb for the last couple of games and is getting better and better with Gorkss alongside him.

[RoyalBlue]

Saints fans need a bigger chant book... .

I've got one for them:

'Town full of seamen, we've got a town full of seamen'

[Ferris]

Everything's pretty much been covered already. Gorkks was my MOM, fantastic block from him when Saints looked certain to score. Another good game from Churchy. Chased everything down, showed some class touches and set up both Alfie and Jobi for good opportunities. Looks a different player to last year. Still doesn't look like scoring mind, but hopefully Alfie's goals will compensate for that.

[fester_royal]

I noticed one thing. Joesph Mills seems to insist on having the J. on the back on his shirt next to Mills. Is he trying to tell us that he is nothing like M. Mills?!? Who has obviously left, but unnecessarily find the need to add a "J." next to his surname when there is no other Mills.

Christ.

Or the fact that we still have another mills in the squad who was registered first... Christ

[Handsome Man]

It was a good game which we had won after 77 minutes. They got a man sent off, we thought we'd won it, lost concentration and within an instant it was 1-1.

Leigertwood and Karacan were back to their best. Federici looks great at the moment. If MacAnuff or Kebe could wake up a bit, we would be a match for anybody in this league.

[Huntley & Palmer]

Mills is costing us points atm. I'm sure he will improve but how often do you keep starting someone who makes so many mistakes? He lost posession so easily tonight & the corners were bloody awful in the main. Take the set pieces off him for starters. Personally I would get Harte back in.

The only people that cost us the points yesterday were Gorkks and Pearce. Two defenders going for the same ball at a throw in is inexcusable, especially when you leave a huge hole behind that allowed their striker to stroll towards the goal unmarked from the flick on. For me this is THE weakest area on the pitch, two players that are slow and are not in communication with each other. We will continue conceeding goals like this as we have done all season in this area unless it is addressed.

[fester_royal]

We need a new LB. Sorry but Mills was useless.

What the hell are you on!?

I have to agree with this, I think he was plainly to blame for their equaliser (not spotting nor going with the obvious run from De Ridder) and his distribution was poor. That said I think it would be better not to have Kanu in front of him as he is also too inexperienced....

That said he is not the finished article and with another year or so of experience could be pretty good.

Unfortunately, thanks to our "budget", we have to bear with the learners

Watch the replay and I'll think you'll find mills was marking his man and it was infact hrk stood behind mills and gorkks stood in no mans land that let de rudder run through but who am I to challenge some peoples obvious bias against this years scape goat

[Royal Rother]

Every week we fail to get 3 points it's somebody's fault, and this scapegoating always goes in phases.

Within the last year it's been Long, Harte, Cummings, Church, Federici and now it's Mills' turn. Thankfully McDermott looks somewhere other than HNA for balanced assessment of a player's contribution / potential.

As for the daft shirt debate, "J Mills" on the back of the shirt differentiates him from just plain "Mills" (of last season) and thus encourages a few extra merchandise sales. Surely that's the crux of it.

[Woodcote Royal]

The main culprit for their goal is Gorkss who gets sucked into the ball, which is then rolled into the space he's just vacated.

Yes Hal should've tracked DeRidder (sic) but if Gorkss had held position he would've just picked up the ball and cleared the danger. Cummings just overcommitted himself and should've force DeRidder toward the goal line instead across, but you also have to credit their player for quick feet and a great finish.

I can't understand why people are calling for Harte to be brought back in. Don't get me wrong, I think Ian Harte is a great footballer, probably has the best touch in the squad and last season was our best defender, but IMHO this is one season too far for him. He's never had great pace but for most of last season his defensive abilities and positional awareness would make up for that. But this season that doesn't seem to be the case and if he'd been on for 90 minutes Soton would've had a field day down their right flank. I'm not saying that Mills is a world beater but at the moment he's the alround best option we've got so stop knocking him and actually support the bloke who's only been at the club for a couple of months so is still settling in.

This post is wasted in a forum full to over flowing with wrist slitting contributions from resident "know nothings"

Just as Shorey, Coppell, Sidwell and Forster never did anything wrong and Andy Hughes never got anything right, the otherwise highly impressive Gorkss cannot be seen to have made an error for the goal that cost us a much deserved 3 points............................and, lets be fair, the goal had nothing to with excellent play from the current league leaders

So, step forward 21 year old new kid on the block Joseph "Scapegoat" Mills who would have been at fault had he spent the evening picking his nose on a park bench in Orpington.

Any team that is out played by us must be sh*t and that includes Southampton.

[sandman]

Get a new gimmick Woody you're just phoning this one in now.

[Chaney]

The main culprit for their goal is Gorkss who gets sucked into the ball, which is then rolled into the space he's just vacated.

Yes Hal should've tracked DeRidder (sic) but if Gorkss had held position he would've just picked up the ball and cleared the danger. Cummings just overcommitted himself and should've force DeRidder toward the goal line instead across, but you also have to credit their player for quick feet and a great finish.

I can't understand why people are calling for Harte to be brought back in. Don't get me wrong, I think Ian Harte is a great footballer, probably has the best touch in the squad and last season was our best defender, but IMHO this is one season too far for him. He's never had great pace but for most of last season his defensive abilities and positional awareness would make up for that. But this season that doesn't seem to be the case and if he'd been on for 90 minutes Soton would've had a field day down their right flank. I'm not saying that Mills is a world beater but at the moment he's the alround best option we've got so stop knocking him and actually support the bloke who's only been at the club for a couple of months so is still settling in.

This post is wasted in a forum full to over flowing with wrist slitting contributions from resident "know nothings"

Just as Shorey, Coppell, Sidwell and Forster never did anything wrong and Andy Hughes never got anything right, the otherwise highly impressive Gorkss cannot be seen to have made an error for the goal that cost us a much deserved 3 points............................and, lets be fair, the goal had nothing to with excellent play from the current league leaders

So, step forward 21 year old new kid on the block Joseph "Scapegoat" Mills who would have been at fault had he spent the evening picking his nose on a park bench in Orpington.

Any team that is out played by us must be sh*t and that includes Southampton.

top post, just echoing what most fair minded nobbers are thinking..whenever we outplay another team they are always below par, wonder why that is???

[Tony Le Mesmer]

The main culprit for their goal is Gorkss who gets sucked into the ball, which is then rolled into the space he's just vacated.

Yes Hal should've tracked DeRidder (sic) but if Gorkss had held position he would've just picked up the ball and cleared the danger. Cummings just overcommitted himself and should've force DeRidder toward the goal line instead across, but you also have to credit their player for quick feet and a great finish.

I can't understand why people are calling for Harte to be brought back in. Don't get me wrong, I think Ian Harte is a great footballer, probably has the best touch in the squad and last season was our best defender, but IMHO this is one season too far for him. He's never had great pace but for most of last season his defensive abilities and positional awareness would make up for that. But this season that doesn't seem to be the case.

Thats very true, but for me that was solely down to have a shit CB pairing next to him. They left him massively exposed, which Mills and Kish did not. That for me was the main reason for his poor start to this season. Its obviouslt a slight gamble in playing a luxury type player like Harte, but we gambled with him for the whole of last season, and look at the result? He hasn't played next to Gorkks yet, which is slightly different to playing next to that clueless exuse from Spurs.

We need to take those kind of gambles if we are to make the top 6, no point playing it safe. Pretty unlikely we will go down and we have to make aggressive team selections to make the jump from mid table to a top 6 team. Thats what B Mc does generally and is why i think Harte will be back in the team before too long.

[floyd__streete]

Sometimes you find a bit of perspective; having sl8ted Harte for his weary-looking defensive contributions this season, it took 5 mins of his introduction as a sub to remind me that at least he uses the ball well, is a threat from set pieces etc. J Mills can't claim any such positives tbvh.

Good game, good performance but as Dirk Gently said during the week - Reading are more effective when chasing the game - at 1-0 we stopped playing, didn't know what to do with our lead. Naive, and as you saw with their goal we have plenty of defensive frailties. Manset is an enigma isn't he; could be a useful weapon against tiring defences, but he just simply wants to run with the ball and appears to have little by way of positional sense and awareness.

Anyway, I enjoyed the game and that is the main thing. Southampton didn't play well - their own manager said so - but you can see why they are doing well; big, strong team with some very decent players.

[surrounded by saints]

i cant help thinking that joe mills is getting a fair bit of stick by people unhappy with the attitude of his brother. ok , he makes a few mistakes, but then so have quite a few of the team over the last couple of months.most of those players have improved, so i cant see why he shouldnt. by the way, has anyone else noticed that williams is getting regular 7 ratings at sheffield utd. maybe its a lot to do with confidence. just my opinion folks!!

[andrew1957]

I am becoming more and more astounded by the hounding that Mills is getting. I thought he was ok again (not brilliant but definitely ok). As for set plays the sad truth is that the reason he is taking corners is that he is the best corner taker in the team. McAnuff's corners were far worse last night. I suspect some nobbers are so ignorant that they did not even realise that McAnuff was taking corners one side and Mills the other! And in truth Mills corners are better than Harte's as well. Harte's free kicks outside the box are often great, but his corners are normally awful.

As for the goal TV replays show clearly that if anyone was to blame it was Gorkks (not Mills) but probably fairer to blame a collective loss of concentration.

The positives - apart from Mills (who as I said did ok) were Le Fondre and Church up front. Legs and Karacan did well in midfield. Gorkss and Pearce are starting to look solid at the back. Cummings was probably worse than Mills on the night. Fed kept alert and could do nothing about the goal. I thought Jobi probably had his best game of the season and tracked back brilliantly at times. HRK was average tonight. I thought he was our stand out player at the start of the season, but he has not been great the last two games. Kebe was very average when he came on. Manset offers a plan B and nearly got a penalty but the ref correctly turned it down. I thought the ref was one of the best we have had this season and got all the main decisons right IMO.

All in all a very good display and one where we should again have taken our chances early on. The team is a work in progress but I now - perhaps against my earlier expectations - see us finishing in the top 8 or 10 - with an outside chance of play offs if we can have another good run at some point.

Brian Mc really is a superb manager and seems to rise to every challenge – in particular losing his best players at the end of every season.

[Stranded]

Just to draw a line under the pointless J.Mills debate.

Reading squad list available readily on the OS.

16. Joseph Mills
36. Jack Mills

Jack was given his squad number whilst Joesph was not at the club and was registered as Mills. You can't have two players with the same name on the back of the shirt hence J.Mills.

[melonhead]

We need a new LB. Sorry but Mills was useless.

What the hell are you on!?

He's on logic, you clearly weren't watching the game. He was utter, utter useless and about 90% of the texters into BBRCB also confirmed this. You're trolling, there is no way you think he played well and you are being an RTG for the sake of it. I know you know more about football than you are displaying.

but its clear that 90% of BBRB texters havent a clue- ref- all their stupid comments about half our players most of the time, slagging mcdermot, JM, anyone else their random anger fals upon.
total bunch of gurning mongers,just like half our fans in general

[Ian Royal]

Still, with Ian Royal being the fount of all knowledge, knowing that Joe has J Mills on his shirt to differentiate himself from the youth team player, Jack

A clearly sarcastic post at Spacey's expense, but see Stranded's comment above.

and confidently stating at the start of the season that Hunt would get 15 goals this season,

If he is a starter across the whole season, which he isn't going to be. And seeing as Le Fondre certainly will score 15 this season if he gets 35+ games a bit academic now Hunt clearly isn't our primary goalscorer.

we should all be able to lie back and enjoy the warm glow that Ian's spot on contributions make to our footballing watching lives.

You really ought to get that chip about me making you look silly fairly regularly off your shoulder. You aren't helping yourself.

[melonhead]

Mills isn't a scapegoat for me, karacan needs to do way more than he is in the middle. He is a centre midfielder yet he wants to take less touches than a centre back and his passing is frankly horrid. He gets away with murder compared to everyone else and is easily the new can do no wrong love child.

lol. above point proved.

karacan has been awesome the last couple of games. absolutely everywhere. breaks up their play, pressed high up the pitch, always available, and releasing the ball early to ensure good quick ball to the wide players and forward.