BFTG - Clinging on to 6th place

[SPARTA]

Well, at least we had a good half-hour before we predictably started to lose the plot and ultimately look disinterested in winning the game. The first 30 mins we were superb, and you couldn't fault the fans either! We missed Williams when he went off. I was stunned to hear Dim Tellor questioning his substitution.. how he fails to realise Williams is playing with and managing an injury is beyond me. Pog was anonymous barring two early shots. It pains me to see that man starting games, and one up front just does not work for us! Hector was superb playing out of position, and McCleary and Obita also excellent again tonight. The less said about McAnuff (again) the better. And Leigertwood... Hopefully the last time we see him in a Reading shirt - thanks for the memories, but I hope they remain just that!

McCarthy - 7

Gunter - 7
Bridge - 4
Pearce - 7
Morrison - 6

McAnuff - 4
McCleary - 7
Obita - 7
Hector - 8
Williams - 8

Pogrebnyak - 4

Top support tonight. Good banter with Leicester. Wish them well!

McCleary's injury another concern. We might as well give up if we lose him. I don't much fancy Blackman or HRK starting in his place.

[Mr.Swainey]

McCleary and Obita also excellent again tonight.

I thought McCleary was distinctively average in all honesty. He was neglectful of his defensive duties, and didn't exactly impress too much going forward.

[tee peg]

Well, at least we had a good half-hour before we predictably started to lose the plot and ultimately look disinterested in winning the game. The first 30 mins we were superb, and you couldn't fault the fans either! We missed Williams when he went off. I was stunned to hear Dim Tellor questioning his substitution.. how he fails to realise Williams is playing with and managing an injury is beyond me. Pog was anonymous barring two early shots. It pains me to see that man starting games, and one up front just does not work for us! Hector was superb playing out of position, and McCleary and Obita also excellent again tonight. The less said about McAnuff (again) the better. And Leigertwood... Hopefully the last time we see him in a Reading shirt - thanks for the memories, but I hope they remain just that!

McCarthy - 7

Gunter - 7
Bridge - 4
Pearce - 7
Morrison - 6

McAnuff - 4
McCleary - 7
Obita - 7
Hector - 8
Williams - 8

Pogrebnyak - 4

Top support tonight. Good banter with Leicester. Wish them well!

McCleary's injury another concern. We might as well give up if we lose him. I don't much fancy Blackman or HRK starting in his place.

good post.Says it all.

[MmmMonsterMunch]

Much much better. Some decent passing at times.

Gunter MOTM - like a man possessed tonight.,,although I am slightly torn between him & Hector who was brilliant. Showed so much composure. Sign him up Nigel.

Still think we won't do it but if we get 4 lots of effort & a bit of pride like they showed tonight between now & May 3rd I won't complain too much.

McAnuff poor again. Think his days are numbered here.

[SCIAG]

Weird one. I feel like we played well, but when I break it down into individuals it's hard to say that any of them really did well.

MOTM for me was Obita. Pearce also had a good game, and McCarthy did well except for the goal.

Williams and McAnuff both made some good contributions, but gave the ball away softly a few times. I think McAnuff was better than he appeared to be (what's the opposite of "flattered to deceive"?), a few times when he gave the ball away he was cut up by a hospital ball or had no options.

Bridge was poor defensively, as was Morrison. Both looked comfortable on the ball, but made some poor decisions.

Gunter overlapped well as always, but no real cutting edge. McCleary is clearly back on form, which helped.

Legs was unlucky. No complaints about the second caution, and the first would have been acceptable on another day, but Hooper had gone to extraordinary lengths to keep De Laet on the pitch and in general had kept his cards in his pocket. Other than that, he played well. HRK on the other hand... in fairness, Adkins keeps playing him in a position he's clearly not suited to, but his contribution today was... running into a defender?

It's becoming routine to say Pogrebnyak was isolated. Regardless, aside from a bright start, he didn't have a good game. I am not Le Fondre's biggest fan, but I think his mobility would have suited our setup today.

Finally, Hector. His touch was good, and in the first half his defensive work was like having an extra centre back. In more advanced positions, he was lacking something. Maybe he has a future in the "Makelele role", but I think I'd like to see him partner Pearce once Guthrie is available.

[Unbelievable Jeff]

Well, at least we had a good half-hour before we predictably started to lose the plot and ultimately look disinterested in winning the game. The first 30 mins we were superb, and you couldn't fault the fans either! We missed Williams when he went off. I was stunned to hear Dim Tellor questioning his substitution.. how he fails to realise Williams is playing with and managing an injury is beyond me. Pog was anonymous barring two early shots. It pains me to see that man starting games, and one up front just does not work for us! Hector was superb playing out of position, and McCleary and Obita also excellent again tonight. The less said about McAnuff (again) the better. And Leigertwood... Hopefully the last time we see him in a Reading shirt - thanks for the memories, but I hope they remain just that!

McCarthy - 7

Gunter - 7
Bridge - 4
Pearce - 7
Morrison - 6

McAnuff - 4
McCleary - 7
Obita - 7
Hector - 8
Williams - 8

Pogrebnyak - 4

Top support tonight. Good banter with Leicester. Wish them well!

McCleary's injury another concern. We might as well give up if we lose him. I don't much fancy Blackman or HRK starting in his place.

Agree on majority.

Wouldn't say Mccleary was excellent, constantly drifts in and out of games and certainly wouldn't "give up" if we lost him.

100% agree on McAuff and Ledge though, Anyone who says McAnuff is a good player, leader or whatever is just wrong. He never shows any leadership skills on the pitch apart from the occasional clap and pointing at other players to tell them to do the job that he should be doing. As a player, well I don't think anything needs to be said apart from shocking.

[Unbelievable Jeff]

I'm slowly losing the motivation and passion to keep following the team and although I will always love the club is it worth the time, effort and money to watch this group at the moment?

I know it seems a rather strange time to say this after a very creditable result against Leicester but again it was not the performance that we have been wanting to see all season. We just seem to have too many poor players prime examples being, McAnuff, HRK, Gorkks and IMO Gunter (some would disagree).

I'm not actually bothered whether we lose 5-0 or win 5-0, whether we are 24th or 1st in the league as long as the team is giving it their all and I just don't see that currently. We are simply clueless, we have no game plan. Most of the time we just lump the ball to Pog and Le Fondre who then lose it and it goes back to our defence and we lump it long again etc. We even struggle to string a sequence of short passes together.

in the past few years I have enjoyed going to Reading, home or away but this season I just haven't.

Cue an unbelievable last 4 games of the season and promotion to the premier league


My thoughts which I posted this on the match thread

[Pandoras Box]

No poncing about the bush. Wayne Bridge tonight was absolute fvckin' shite. End of.

[tee peg]

No poncing about the bush. Wayne Bridge tonight was absolute fvckin' shite. End of.

not that good IMO

[MmmMonsterMunch]

That tackle Gunter made in the 1st half was immense. He is definitely my POTS. Gutsy performance from him tonight.

[WoodleyRoyal]

Tbf to bridge he had peace playing at LCB and we all know that when he plays there, he gets dragged to the right creating to much space between him and LB. Don't get me wrong though bridge looked his age tonight but he could have done with not having having so much ground to cover

[SCIAG]

It really does amaze me how short some people's memories are.

McAnuff had a poor game by his standards, yes. He has given us five years of consistently good performances, including major roles in many goals in the last few weeks. He is not a bad player.

If Obita has a couple of sub-par matches before the end of the season you'll all be crying for him to be shipped off to Liverpool.

[tee peg]

It really does amaze me how short some people's memories are.

McAnuff had a poor game by his standards, yes. He has given us five years of consistently good performances, including major roles in many goals in the last few weeks. He is not a bad player.

If Obita has a couple of sub-par matches before the end of the season you'll all be crying for him to be shipped off to Liverpool.

Its an age thing.

[genome]

Hector - 8
Pogrebnyak - 4

[Unbelievable Jeff]

Much much better. Some decent passing at times.

Gunter MOTM - like a man possessed tonight.,,although I am slightly torn between him & Hector who was brilliant. Showed so much composure. Sign him up Nigel.

Still think we won't do it but if we get 4 lots of effort & a bit of pride like they showed tonight between now & May 3rd I won't complain too much.

McAnuff poor again. Think his days are numbered here.

Personally, I didn't see any pride or effort tonight that was different from any other game, which is usually nil. Slowing down the play with 10 minutes left, barely getting a shot on goal in the last quarter. I didn't see anything that showed the fight in the boys tonight.

If we could some our season up in one way, it would be one of our throw ins. Everyone just stands there expecting their marker to move away from them so the throw goes long and we lose it, no desire, no passion, no quality

[RoyalTank]

Anyone who says McAnuff is a good player, leader or whatever is just wrong.

I really do not understand the constant abuse for Jobi - do you fail to see the defensive side that he brings to the team?

[MmmMonsterMunch]

It really does amaze me how short some people's memories are.

McAnuff had a poor game by his standards, yes. He has given us five years of consistently good performances, including major roles in many goals in the last few weeks. He is not a bad player.

If Obita has a couple of sub-par matches before the end of the season you'll all be crying for him to be shipped off to Liverpool.

Ah come on that ain't fair. I am a huge Jobi fan but his heart's not in it any more. He is massively lacking in confidence & it's affecting him badly. He slowed the play up so much tonight. He was in some really good positions in the box tonight but his decision making in the box has been woeful.

I like him & he has served the club tremendously well but I think it is time we part ways.

[tee peg]

Tonight was a mixture of playing for the badge and playing for the wage packet. Same all season.
We do not have a team.

[DaveBanana]

Mixed bag really - the first half hour we were great, and it felt like that was the stride we could/should have had for most of the season if it weren't for niggles/motivation/takeover/bizarre turns in form, or at least, the way I'd have foreseen us playing. Leicester were unlucky with the offside decision as he was on, especially as we then scored against the run of play at that stage. Equally, despite flailing like there's no tomorrow, Pog SHOULD have had a peno for the handball - but then they scored against the run of play, so you could say that balanced out. A fair few other pretty poor decisions, but for the most part they were just mistakes rather than any sense of bias, I don't think either side can claim they were robbed by the ref. Second half Leicester improved, and where we'd previously seemed to always have a man where the loose balls were going, suddenly we had no-one. Legs briefly looked like he was back to breathe life into it, before having an absolute shocker. Held on well - Unsure I how I feel about Playoffs though, so inconsistent. And in reflection of the Jobi comments, I think he was as reliable as ever until around the 70th, then it fell apart and he was undeniably poor, but not nearly to the extent of it being more than an older playing tiring and losing confidence after a high-paced game which seemed to be going away from his side.

[tee peg]

Anyone who says McAnuff is a good player, leader or whatever is just wrong.

I really do not understand the constant abuse for Jobi - do you fail to see the defensive side that he brings to the team?

Nope.