Back from the game - Mill Wall

[PistolPete]

Back to Putney in record time

Great game for a nil nil. Would have been gutted to lose but we can probably just about lay a claim to deserving the draw.

Federici and Mills saved us that precious point - but had Long's far post header or Karacans long range bullet not been saved at the very last moment we could have walked away with three.

Lisbie was woefull and Henry was lively if not occasionally a bit greedy

Jimmy Kebe is a revelation - loved the moment when he was getting Ole's for beating players as easy as Arsenal get them for passes. Throughout the second half he was marked by two or three players but we do need to get players forward quicker, and see an overlap from a right back to start offering decoys, otherwise he will find himself running down option-less blind alleys despite his brilliance.

8-9 - Kebe, Mills, Federici
7-8 - Pearce, Harte, Howard, Long, Karacan
5-6 - Cummings, Church, Macanuff, The ref

Our fans were pretty good, just couldn't manage to join the left side with the right side to combine the noise

Millwall chavs to the left were the lol of the night...

Ps - I went to the game really wanting Cummings to impress, but he looks desperately lightweight defensively and when going forward, petrified.

[paultheroyal]

On train coming back.

Strangest nil nil ever. Could and should of been four nil down at half time. Lisbie missed the easiest header ever.

Held our own second half and came alive from 75 mins onwards. Their keeper made two fantastic saves from Long and Karacan.

Mills excellent.
Federici excellent.
Kebe starting to show the form of last year.
Mcanuff not got going for me and switched to right back for last 10.

Easy ground to get too, felt safe as houses, good turnout from Reading fans.

[paultheroyal]

On train coming back.

Strangest nil nil ever. Could and should of been four nil down at half time. Lisbie missed the easiest header ever.

Held our own second half and came alive from 75 mins onwards. Their keeper made two fantastic saves from Long and Karacan.

Mills excellent.
Federici excellent.
Kebe starting to show the form of last year.
Mcanuff not got going for me and switched to right back for last 10.

Easy ground to get too, felt safe as houses, good turnout from Reading fans.

[Horsham Royal]

On train coming back...

Hope you're not going to give us a location report every minute ...

[readingbedding]

Not losing at home since Nov last year and winning the last 8 games (?), this was a tough place to earn a point and we did deserve it.
I think we caught them on the hop by playing 4-4-2, but both teams came to win and it was not a dour 0-0.
Counter-attacks aplenty and both teams could've won it.

Rained for most of the first half, so I'll forgive the Sunday League first touches from the players - Morrison looked a real handful, but Fed kept him at bay and the defence just about did enough to keep a clean sheet.

Kebe was the most exciting player on the pitch and having 3 Millwall players surrounding him, trying to guess his next move by the end of the match is all you need to know.
Karacan lost composure at key moments, but could've won it.
Long again was a pain in the backside for their defence, again lack of composure at times, but a cheeky run to back post for a header could've sneaked it, very good save by Millwall keeper.
Big, ugly, committed side are Millwall (with some flair and lots of pace) I was impressed by them and us, and I won't see too many 0-0 draws as entertaining as that.

In regards to the 'Henry takes it up the arse' chants from us lot, I can only assume that quite a lot of the Reading FC Gay population attended.
How else would they know?

[tlcs]

Agree with most things said.....except

Pearce is totally devoid of pace and played abismally

Can anybody remember the last time Church had a good game ????/

and finally Kebe was totally un-playable this evening....mid table finish at best

[schubert06]

What was Kebe talking to the linesman about before he got the card? i saw him pick something up. had somebody thrown something at him?

[readingbedding]

And why did he get his card in the first place?
Trying to get the energy drink that was off the pitch?

Best chant was to Millwall to us.

'You'd know you'd run'

[Carlos]

That was the best 0-0 i have ever been to. nailbiting stuff in the second half. one minute millwall look like there going to score only for the impeccable mills to clear heroically and then kebe is yet again tormenting the defence and karacan unleashes a shot thats tipped onto the post. Federici's first save from morrison was world class. kept us in the game.

fed - 9 - brilliant saves in the first half and looked assured all game
cummings - 6 - clearly not particularly talented and does not close down quick enough but a decent game.
harte - 6 - looked shaky on the ball and not particularly composed but only second game here so cant expect too much.
mills - 10 - best performance ive seen from him. constantly getting us out of jail from pearce's errors. saved at least three one on ones with brilliant challenges second half.
Pearce - 5 - easily outmuscled all game, made one awful missed clearance which led to a chance for them and looked very slow.
Mcanuff - 6 - looked disinterested and never really took on his man.
Karacan - 6 - thought their midfielder bossed him all game but could have scored two. so unlucky when he hit the post. i think everyone thought it was nestling in the bottom corner.
Howard - 5 - very poor set pieces and shooting. one brilliant pass to kebe.
Kebe - 10 - absolutely unplayable. constantly beating their man and deserved a goal.
Long - 8 - won almost all his headers and held the ball up well. should have scored but good save.
church - 4 - abysmal

Overall brilliant game, ok atmosphere, awful weather and three players looking very very good.

[rfcjoe]

just got back.

mills and kebe were my motm's.


spotted loads of hobnob mongs at the match

[Millsy]

church - 4 - abysmal

Shame.

What role was he playing?

[Bucks Dave]

I thought this was a point won. Four times Millwall should have scored but either a great save by Feds or awful finishing saved us. The home crowd impressed me and in the second half created a wall of sound instead of getting frustrated as I think we would have done. Good idea in their programme - a 1981 Reading Millwall programme was included as well as a description of all the players at that time. I guess they do this each home game.

We can get the ball into the last third of the pitch, Jobi and Kebe were marauding all night but that final pass is woeful once the ball is in the middle. Time after time an overhit ball passed players by or was hit on the wrong side of them. Credit to the Millwall defenders though, they hustled non stop, although even three defenders were not enough for Jimmy. And Mills was stopping their passes everywhere.

All in all I was impressed by Millwall, their league position is clearly not a matter of luck.

[rfcjoe]

you know that role where you go missing for the time you're on the field?


not quite sure where this praise for karacan has come from. had a mare today, as did howard.

[winchester_royal]

Decent performance, could easily have won or lost the game, draw a fair result.

Kebe MOTM by a considerable distance.

[SHORT AND CURLY]

This actually was a very entertaining 0-0
I thought we played well in parts, however our defence is slower than a slow thing.
I see the poster above me put Mills down as a ten I thought that at times he was excellent, at others he was dreadful, getting beaten for pace and turned all over the place.
He certainly saved us a couple of times, there is no doubt about that.
Kebe was awesome giving them so many problems with his pace and trickery. From what I saw of his booking he appeared to pick something up off the pitch by the linesman, he had words with him and was walking away whilst the lino was frantically flagging to attract the ref. Kebe then gets booked!!
Feds made a couple of brilliant saves in the first half as did their keeper in the second.
Long played quite well. I think it was him who was cynically dragged back by a defender in the first 10 minutes or so (Said defender was booked)

Negatives Church.
Could not do anything right, kept losing the ball, failing to win headers, sadly he looked out of his depth.
0-0 was probably the right scoreline. Millwall look good when attacking but shit scared defending against Kebe.

Decent night out with good turn out of Royals.

[Thomas L'Heureux]

Kebe was absolutely fantastic without actually creating much, if that's possible. For all his endeavour nothing really came about as a result of his mazy runs.

Still, their defenders were doubling-up on him and he still made them look silly.

[floyd__streete]

Useful point against a very decent side. Ever so slightly fortunate point though; they had two one-on-ones first half, good to see that Lisbie is still a poor player on the evidence of that headed miss and there was at least one very presentable chance at the far post early in the second half for Millwall. That said, only one goalkeeper really had work to do; Forde pulled off a top drawer save at point blank from Long and then pulled off an outstanding save from a deflected Karacan effort.

4 good points this week thus far and yet only one goal from open play. Church contributed nothing this evening in all honesty and for Long's hard graft he rarely ends up getting any decent shots away. I think we have a paucity of quality in that department.

[SHORT AND CURLY]

http://www.millwall.vitalfootball.co.uk ... 18&posts=6

They don't like Kebe much!

[readingbedding]

Because he was the best player on the pitch and they couldn't handle him well at all.

[prostak]

Is that the forum Rod Liddle got in trouble over? Some choice comments on there...

i dont know i still think nig nogs have been far worst to this country and city. The amount of murders rapes and muggings these oxf*rd have disproportionately committed is un real. Ive never been affected by any Muslim crime i can think off but i can think of loads off crimes coons have committed to me and my family.

http://www.millwall.vitalfootball.co.uk ... z0zZBVR9FU