Back from the Game - Forest (H)

[RoyalBlue]

it seems he's using some of the club's money to fund his other ailing businesses.

I really have no desire to keep this pointless circular debate going, particularly on a thread where one would hope to find discussion of yesterday's game, but I just can't let that one go.

SJM is a businessman who has invested a great deal of money in RFC and, if RFC is generating a profit, then he has every right to use that return on his investment as he sees fit. That profit is not "the club's money" and it is disingenuous to describe it as such.

Chairmen who invest in football clubs in order to take out for returns for themselves, rather than ensure the best possible chance of success for that club, are likely to face an awful lot of stick from the supporters if that club fails to perform. They are also very disingenuous if they make out that they were investing for the good of the community/club, rather than to take a return at a later date!

As I said earlier, it's understandable if Madejski decides to use income from the stadium/club to help bale out his other businesses but he should cease spouting about PL ambition and expecting plaudits from the supporters if he does so.

PS. It was RL and PS'N who hi-jacked this thread first! My initial comment on the thread was re Williams' performance.

[Wycombe Royal]

Hasn't it been shown on numerous occasions that Madejski has not taken a single penny out of the club? Or are people accusing him of false accounting?

[LoyalRoyal22]

I actually think a draw was a fair result. Forest are a really strong side, and we were being outclassed untill our scrappy goal.

My ratings..

Fed- 9 first half- 1 second half
bryn- 7- not bad for a change
williams- 6- yet to be convinced
mills- 8- back to his class self
pearce- 8- played well, people should get of his back, he only looks rubbish when next to bryn
Jobi- 6- really quiet, forest did a good job
kebe-6- see jobi
Karacan- 7- better i thought
Howard- 8- MOTM, was brilliant
Glyfi- 7- nice touches like usual, unlucky with the shot
long- 7- won headers and held it up well at times, still needs to get in more goalscoring positions though

[Ian Royal]

Khiz played a cameo? What are you on?

Here for half a season and played 12 games, I'll admit that's a handful more than I recalled so perhaps cameo overstates it a little. Although you'll note I did say it was an important one.

[John Madejski's Wallet]

Need to see Antonio starting IMO.

No chance. Needs to be brought on slowly

Currently he has the footballing mind of a headless chicken, and the first touch of a rapist

Hopefully he'll get better as the season goes on though, the talent may be there

[Mike Hunt]

Well no, it doesn't really need to be pointed out. Out of my entire post I had other things better discussing than previous keeping errors, but it was worth mentioning that even keepers as good as Arnie make mistakes similar to Fed's yesterday.

Since when does a backpass result in a penalty?

I was thinking this also...

Just saw the replay, was very unfortunate for Federici. Should have taken that cock Earnshaw out though...

[brendywendy]

I actually think a draw was a fair result. Forest are a really strong side, and we were being outclassed untill our scrappy goal.

My ratings..

Fed- 9 first half- 1 second half
bryn- 7- not bad for a change
williams- 6- yet to be convinced
mills- 8- back to his class self
pearce- 8- played well, people should get of his back, he only looks rubbish when next to bryn
Jobi- 6- really quiet, forest did a good job
kebe-6- see jobi
Karacan- 7- better i thought
Howard- 8- MOTM, was brilliant
Glyfi- 7- nice touches like usual, unlucky with the shot
long- 7- won headers and held it up well at times, still needs to get in more goalscoring positions though

sorry, what?!

[Dave the rave]

I'd have taken 1-1 before the game so to come away with only a point after the mistake was a bit gutting.

The team as a whole played ok and Karacan was our best player for me - keeping his head and finding some good passes when the rest were happy to knock it long.

McAnuff needs to find his drive as does Sigurdsson. We also need to find a way of releasing Kebe more often*.

I think there's more to come so I'm optimistic we'll be mid table. If we can stay reletively injury free and our top players can gel together we may even see a push for play offs.

*We won't achieve this if we limit ourselves to 4-5-1 at home. Especially with Long on his own.
McDermot was probably worried about the pace of Blackstock and Earnshaw which shows the confidence (or lack of) he has in our defence.

[Meeko]

Agree with the points on here about the full backs supporting, I posted this elsewhere. Williams may not be as good as Betrand was at pushing forward but to me he needs to be told to try and get up there and involved, he seems to stop just over the half way line and let Jobi do the rest. Griffin hasnt pushed up to support Kebe as much as he did last season which I find strange. This to me is why we looked as good as we did last season pushing forward, and why this season its not working. How many times have we seen Jobi and Kebe running into the boxes through on goal this year, just a couple of times so far this season, where as last year there was countless times we hit the opposotion with pace (and kept the ball on the floor) and the wingers were able to link with the front man or run through at goal. To me we just arnt passing it around on the floor, too much hitting for long to chase in the channels, or for him to try and control and he just isnt a hold up striker even slightly.

Teams were scared of us at the back end of the season because we attacked with pace, lots of players bombing on and it was too much for teams. This side has it in them to do this, we just dont seem to be aiming to play with this same style for some reason!

[JoebyRFC]

also just going to put it out there, my mate who is a Sotton supporter who watches all of there games. Says if we ever needed any physical presence when playing 4-4-2 (if we ever do!) then Antonio fits the bill. He's big strong and gets himself about well.

[jumpers for goalposts]

Don't really understand why people are slagging off Federici on Radio Berkshire etc.

Federici is clearly our best keeper and kept us in the game.

Reading fans in not knowing anything about football shocker. My advice- take no notice

[Scarface]

Don't really understand why people are slagging off Federici on Radio Berkshire etc.

Federici is clearly our best keeper and kept us in the game.

Reading fans in not knowing anything about football shocker. My advice- take no notice

That's a classic!! I'd love to have a goal keeper that pulls of a few saves, but tthen hrows one howler every game!!!

[sheshnu]

That's a classic!! I'd love to have a goal keeper that pulls of a few saves, but tthen hrows one howler every game!!!

Don't know who you're referring to here, haven't seen any Reading keeper making a 'howler' in every game.

[Top Flight]

The dissapointments of the season so far are Long and Williams.

We know what Federici is capable of, so I'm not dissapointed. But I don't know how many more crazy mistakes I can tolerate from the Fed. He needs to buck things up and stay composed.

[Royalee]

These 'fantastic saves' he makes are all made to look far more difficult than they actually are as his footwork's about as good as his decision-making, so he's always nowhere near where he needs to be in the goal. Look at the header in the Southampton friendly which landed in the middle of the goal but he got nowhere near, or QPR's free kick at the Loft last season which was also central, yet Federici got nowhere near. He's a waste of space.

[FiNeRaIn]

His footwork was pretty solid when he ran out to claim the cross the box pass which earnshaw would have had a tap-in with in the first half. Thought he did great bursting off his line to take that.

[Stranded]

His footwork was pretty solid when he ran out to claim the cross the box pass which earnshaw would have had a tap-in with in the first half. Thought he did great bursting off his line to take that.

Agreed - he did plenty right on Sat. He made one mistake due to being too eager to get us on the attack - often he's slated for not being eager enough.

He was unlucky that the ball landed right at Earnshaw's feet - anywhere else and we'd have won that game in no small part to him. But hey, that's the life of a goalkeeper, you cock up it costs a goal, you deal with the fallout and move on.

[savage 4 england]

I thought Howard was really good at winning the second ball. However, his passing, crossing and decision making was terrible.

[pea]

Thought his crossing was really good...

As for the full backs, couldn't agree more. Too many times McAnuffs counter attacks lost momentum when he wasn't supported by Williams and had to turn around and pass it backwards to the half way line or take on his defender and win a throw which was then thrown back to the halfway line anyway. Our best spell came in the second half when Bryn was always pushing up into their half and forcing their defence deep.

[LoyalRoyal22]

I actually think a draw was a fair result. Forest are a really strong side, and we were being outclassed untill our scrappy goal.

My ratings..

Fed- 9 first half- 1 second half
bryn- 7- not bad for a change
williams- 6- yet to be convinced
mills- 8- back to his class self
pearce- 8- played well, people should get of his back, he only looks rubbish when next to bryn
Jobi- 6- really quiet, forest did a good job
kebe-6- see jobi
Karacan- 7- better i thought
Howard- 8- MOTM, was brilliant
Glyfi- 7- nice touches like usual, unlucky with the shot
long- 7- won headers and held it up well at times, still needs to get in more goalscoring positions though

sorry, what?!

I said Bryn was better than usual, as he been awful so far this season.