Back from the game - Brighton (A)

[Para Handy]

Nope, I meant lovely

I confess I'm looking forward to your report.

[Big Ern]

Well, we're in the car but I always wanted to done of these. BRAP BRAP INNIT!!!!!

Chav

[Ian Royal]

Top save from their keeper from Hunt. Good save from Fed for the penalty, wasn't a well taken pen though. Several other top draw saves too. Pearce terribly unlucky not to score when he hit the bar, so were they when they did similar (Vincente?). Lucky deflection for Harte's free kick wrong footing the keeper, they all count though.

That's back from the SSN highlights by the way.

[Para Handy]

Well, we're in the car but I always wanted to done of these. BRAP BRAP INNIT!!!!!

Chav

You'd just so love to be there.. you fat twat.

[M-U-R-T-Y]

This is actually nothing to do with RFC, but it's hilarious to think Leeds harboured play off ambitions before the weekend... they are now 14th

[Para Handy]

This is actually nothing to do with RFC, but it's hilarious to think Leeds harboured play off ambitions before the weekend... they are now 14th

Oh, come on boys. Where are you now? It matters to some of us. Those of us with a cereberal bent. I mean me. I want to know where you boys are so I can track you on my "coulndn't givea oxf*rd"

[mx]

This is actually nothing to do with RFC, but it's hilarious to think Leeds harboured play off ambitions before the weekend... they are now 14th

+ 1feckin million. whatever that twit may think.

dirty leeds

[URZZ]

Still waiting for our 30 second snippet on SSN... Want to see Fed's save more than the goal

[robbieroyal]

Really nice programmes!!

[winchester_royal]

Right, just got back. As has already been said, we were lucky. Brighton were more than decent, and with half our team out injured it was no surprise to see us on the back foot for most of the game. Saying that, we were pretty solid. They got through a couple of times but apart from that we managed to keep them at an arm's length. Penalty was a ridiculous decision (probably influenced by him missing one in the first half) but Fed's made a great save to send us into delirium. Pearce should have buried his header, and Hunt had a couple of openings which he didn't take advantage of...all in all I'd say it was a well deserved, gritty 3 points.

Ratings

Fed - 10 - 'nuff said
Cummings - 8
Pearce - 8 - Gave penalty away but was brilliant otherwise
Gorkss - 9
Harte - 9
Kebe - 5 - Didn't get involved till the last half hour, shame as he looked pretty sharp when he woke up
Mullins - 6 - Meh. Didn't do anything wrong, but didn't have the pace to cope with Brighton's midfield
Cywka - 7 - I thought he looked really bright when he got on the ball. That wasn't very often though, and I'm not convinced we're the right team for him
Jobi - 8 - Proper captain's effort
Hunt - 7 - Should have shot when clean through, worked hard with little product
Roberts - 8.5 - Love this guy

Gunnar - 10000000000
Church - 5

Fans - 6 - Not a patch on the West Ham game. But then again, with how the travel arrangements are around the Amex, most of the fans turned up sober so hard to really get it going

Stadium - 6 - Best pre-match pint I've had at a ground, but otherwise I wasn't that taken to it. Too many gaps without seating.

[PieEater]

Just got in. That was probably our second or third best win of the season (after West Ham and Middlesboro). We had a makeshift side out and never really got going. Took our chance, and defended like a team that believed we could win. MOTM was Feds for his fantastic penalty save and a couple of others including a cracking shot in the first half.

The new boys were pretty anonymous, but what can you expect when Mullins and Jobi have never played together. Roberts was fantastic, Kebe poor, Hunt worked like he always does. Even Church did some good stuff when he came on to keep the ball and win a free kick.

Not overly impressed with the ground, padded seats, shallow rake, short of loos and service was slow, but I think it will get better when they fill in the corners.

I think that win will see us promoted. The hammers must be fuming, and I can see then dropping another couple of points on Saturday against a pretty decent Brighton team.

Oh, and the ref was a shit homer. The penalty looked really soft,more a case of CMS backing in.

[royalsroyalsroyals92]

That was probably the most nervous second half of football I've endured for most of the season!
Feds was top quality today, but lots of Brightons shots were quite poor, other than one belter i remember that feds had to tip over.
Kebe was really off form, especially in the reading third where he failed to clear on a number of occasions.
Cywka looked quite lost throughout and i can't see us offering him a new contract - although thats harsh i feel as he hasn't had a massive chance.
Gorks and Pearce are brilliant, but Gorks was lucky with CMS in the first half, as it probably should have been a Brighton penalty, and it was quite a poor and possibly unnecessary challenge.
Mullins - Gave them a free kick early on from a poor challenge, maybe not quite up to speed. Seems a reasonable stand in for leigertwood, but lacks a bit of strength and a lot of pace.
McAnuff did very well - lots of running, some good tackles and looked far more comfortable when he came out on the left second half.
Roberts had great hold up play, although he needs to just get on with it when the decisions don't go his way instead of clapping the referee or complaining. He's a top pro, but sometimes just needs to learn to leave his opinion out of situations and realise that the refs make the decisions and not him. Having said all of that though, he did do fantastically well, especially early in the second half where he took it round a few defenders, only to blast over.
Hartey did okay, and from what I've heard from people sitting higher up in the stand with me, had to cope with their right winger diving around a lot, but fair play to him for being solid, and not getting too frustrated.
Enjoyable game overall, but it could of easily been a draw. Stunned at how BBC statistics said we had 52% possession throughout.
Win on friday, and we'll almost be able to touch the prem!

[robbieroyal]

Just got in. That was probably our second or third best win of the season (after West Ham and Middlesboro). We had a makeshift side out and never really got going. Took our chance, and defended like a team that believed we could win. MOTM was Feds for his fantastic penalty save and a couple of others including a cracking shot in the first half.

The new boys were pretty anonymous, but what can you expect when Mullins and Jobi have never played together. Roberts was fantastic, Kebe poor, Hunt worked like he always does. Even Church did some good stuff when he came on to keep the ball and win a free kick.

Not overly impressed with the ground, padded seats, shallow rake, short of loos and service was slow, but I think it will get better when they fill in the corners.

I think that win will see us promoted. The hammers must be fuming, and I can see then dropping another couple of points on Saturday against a pretty decent Brighton team.

Oh, and the ref was a shit homer. The penalty looked really soft,more a case of CMS backing in.

Pretty much agree with all this^

[waitingforyears]

Roberts had great hold up play, although he needs to just get on with it when the decisions don't go his way instead of clapping the referee or complaining. He's a top pro, but sometimes just needs to learn to leave his opinion out of situations and realise that the refs make the decisions and not him.

When I have seen him play it doesn't usually looks like he gets his head down or loses focus because of this. In my opinion its just the old pro 'working the refs' so that he gets the decision to go our way next time.

[Maguire]

Right, just got back. As has already been said, we were lucky. Brighton were more than decent, and with half our team out injured it was no surprise to see us on the back foot for most of the game. Saying that, we were pretty solid. They got through a couple of times but apart from that we managed to keep them at an arm's length. Penalty was a ridiculous decision (probably influenced by him missing one in the first half) but Fed's made a great save to send us into delirium. Pearce should have buried his header, and Hunt had a couple of openings which he didn't take advantage of...all in all I'd say it was a well deserved, gritty 3 points.

Ratings

Fed - 10 - 'nuff said
Cummings - 8
Pearce - 8 - Gave penalty away but was brilliant otherwise
Gorkss - 9
Harte - 9
Kebe - 5 - Didn't get involved till the last half hour, shame as he looked pretty sharp when he woke up
Mullins - 6 - Meh. Didn't do anything wrong, but didn't have the pace to cope with Brighton's midfield
Cywka - 7 - I thought he looked really bright when he got on the ball. That wasn't very often though, and I'm not convinced we're the right team for him
Jobi - 8 - Proper captain's effort
Hunt - 7 - Should have shot when clean through, worked hard with little product
Roberts - 8.5 - Love this guy

Gunnar - 10000000000
Church - 5

Fans - 6 - Not a patch on the West Ham game. But then again, with how the travel arrangements are around the Amex, most of the fans turned up sober so hard to really get it going

Stadium - 6 - Best pre-match pint I've had at a ground, but otherwise I wasn't that taken to it. Too many gaps without seating.

FWIW I think your first 11 ratings are about spot on. Church didn't sd0o anything wrong so a 6. Cwyka was ok but probably a 6 too. Difficult for him starting up off Roberts then getting shifted to the wing.

Stadium - without wishing to sound pretentious I thought it looked excellent from outside. Smooth curves and a very interesting design. Inside the rake was too shallow and a couple of the stands looked rubbbish but it'll improve.

[URZZ]

Just saw the highlights, Vicente hitting the bar was scary!!! You'd put your money on Pearce heading in when he hit the bar too.

Great performance from Feds, 2 minutes of highlights gave that away

[Maguire]

Vicente was class, very accomplished.

[arthurfondrelli]

Federici - 10 - kept us in the game
Cummings - 7 - steady, dealt well with Lua Lua
Pearce - 7 - should have scored
Gorkss - 6 - seemed to go awol at times
Harte - 7 - set pieces caused problems
Kebe - 5 - classic Kebe blowing cold
Mullins - 6 - seemed off the pace
Cykwa - 6 - see above
McAnuff - 7 - captains performance
Roberts - 7 - handful
Hunt - 7 - handful, good header well saved

[Elliott]

Vicente was class, very accomplished.

Been saying it for weeks! See my posts in UR&G

[Royal Prince]

Just got back.

Brighton dominated but had no end product. We defended well but looked like we were carrying a few passengers at times (I guess that was likely with such a make-shift midfield). Dirty deflection for our goal but who cares? Agreed their penalty looked soft, think the ref gave it as there was a shout two seconds before which he waved away so to have another so soon after probably swayed his mind.

New ground is lush, fits in perfectly with the landscape around and the west stand wouldn't look out of place in a Champions League tie! Liked how they projected images of Reading players in the concourse to make us feel more at home, also liked how they select a special guest ale for the visiting team although not sure how London Pride fits us in any way?

All in all a tense game, one which on the balance of play we didn't deserve to win, but there is a reason why we are second in the league. Tenacious, disciplined and hardworking, bring on Southampton!