MATCHWATCH : Watford (h) sponsored by a difficulty to enthuse

[Royality creeps In]

I have been watching us for donkeys years (1971 first ever game vs Barrow or Workington or something as a small kid)

I absolutely loved the atmosphere , the excitement, the smells, the disappointments, 50 away fans, the rubbish football at times. Ollie Kearns tripping over the ball and fluking a goal. I actually enjoyed the laughs, banter, the passion and the effort. The point being it was more or less enjoyable win lose or draw.

I am now totally about the whole thing.

At least we used to have a home record in the old days. These days its just a "How many will we lose by at home today"


Sadly I am totally perplexed and disillusioned about the whole club at the moment.

I went last night and it was dreadful. ( Thats being complimentary)

I shall be back Saturday as usual. However its like going to work, a very much less enjoyable afternoon than it used to be.
If it wasn't for meeting up with a few fellow old gits and a few beers I probably wouldn't bother.

Sorry thats about all I could succumb to in my match thread.
Onwards and downwards
See you Saturday folks

[Snowflake Royal]

Evans was dire here. Let’s not pretend for one minute he would have improved us currently at all

That's ridiculously harsh. He barely played last season and did fine the one before. He'd at least cover more ground than Meyler and be better defensively than Kelly and Swift.


Just seen the goals. Typical Swift playing himself into trouble, losing it and then trotting back. Don't know what the hell Moore was doing watching their goalscorer run totally free and doing nothing to get goalside. He played Swift into trouble to lose it too.

Shambolic.

The first was for sure poor but blaming Swift? If you slow down the highlights it's easier to see the pass he received was awful. He tried to get a touch to it to bring it around his man but their number 20 did a superb job closing down.

After that 3 Watford players close in on the ball and not a single Reading player other than Swift is even trying to recover it or add pressure. Kelly is stood watching and even more to blame is Bacuna who tries to split himself between the 2 others (by standing 5 yards back and not moving until the pass is made) allowing a fast attacking movement to overrun our defenders who were well out of position.

Swift has been disappointing but he's becoming a magnet for abuse even when receiving an awful pass. Not his fault this time.

Pretty sure it's clear I'm predominantly saying Moore at fault. But no one made Swift try to turn inside his man in a way that would never work even if there weren't two other Watford players who'd beat him to the ball in the direction he tried to go. He could have just played it back or tried to turn outside (always safer).

You must be blind if you think Swift did anything to try to recover. Don't recall Kelly ot Bacuna but someone tried to go with the break out. It sure the oxf*rd wasn't Swift.

[NewCorkSeth]

That's ridiculously harsh. He barely played last season and did fine the one before. He'd at least cover more ground than Meyler and be better defensively than Kelly and Swift.


Just seen the goals. Typical Swift playing himself into trouble, losing it and then trotting back. Don't know what the hell Moore was doing watching their goalscorer run totally free and doing nothing to get goalside. He played Swift into trouble to lose it too.

Shambolic.

The first was for sure poor but blaming Swift? If you slow down the highlights it's easier to see the pass he received was awful. He tried to get a touch to it to bring it around his man but their number 20 did a superb job closing down.

After that 3 Watford players close in on the ball and not a single Reading player other than Swift is even trying to recover it or add pressure. Kelly is stood watching and even more to blame is Bacuna who tries to split himself between the 2 others (by standing 5 yards back and not moving until the pass is made) allowing a fast attacking movement to overrun our defenders who were well out of position.

Swift has been disappointing but he's becoming a magnet for abuse even when receiving an awful pass. Not his fault this time.

Pretty sure it's clear I'm predominantly saying Moore at fault. But no one made Swift try to turn inside his man in a way that would never work even if there weren't two other Watford players who'd beat him to the ball in the direction he tried to go. He could have just played it back or tried to turn outside (always safer).

I wasn't clear. The pass from Moore was not to his feet. It was fast and to his left. He had to move to try reach it and tried to make the best of a bad situation. The ball was played so poorly that he couldn't pass it back or go left as he had to move left to try control it. To his right was a Watford player and coming at him from the front was their number 20.

I accept now you don't blame him for the goal but he in no way "played himself into trouble"
He took one of the few touches he was capable of doing given the pass/position of his teammates and was isolated in trying to win it back by clever screening from Watford players and zero movement by his teammates.

[Snowflake Royal]

The first was for sure poor but blaming Swift? If you slow down the highlights it's easier to see the pass he received was awful. He tried to get a touch to it to bring it around his man but their number 20 did a superb job closing down.

After that 3 Watford players close in on the ball and not a single Reading player other than Swift is even trying to recover it or add pressure. Kelly is stood watching and even more to blame is Bacuna who tries to split himself between the 2 others (by standing 5 yards back and not moving until the pass is made) allowing a fast attacking movement to overrun our defenders who were well out of position.

Swift has been disappointing but he's becoming a magnet for abuse even when receiving an awful pass. Not his fault this time.

Pretty sure it's clear I'm predominantly saying Moore at fault. But no one made Swift try to turn inside his man in a way that would never work even if there weren't two other Watford players who'd beat him to the ball in the direction he tried to go. He could have just played it back or tried to turn outside (always safer).

I wasn't clear. The pass from Moore was not to his feet. It was fast and to his left. He had to move to try reach it and tried to make the best of a bad situation. The ball was played so poorly that he couldn't pass it back or go left as he had to move left to try control it. To his right was a Watford player and coming at him from the front was their number 20.

I accept now you don't blame him for the goal but he in no way "played himself into trouble"
He took one of the few touches he was capable of doing given the pass/position of his teammates and was isolated in trying to win it back by clever screening from Watford players and zero movement by his teammates.

[NewCorkSeth]

Pretty sure it's clear I'm predominantly saying Moore at fault. But no one made Swift try to turn inside his man in a way that would never work even if there weren't two other Watford players who'd beat him to the ball in the direction he tried to go. He could have just played it back or tried to turn outside (always safer).

I wasn't clear. The pass from Moore was not to his feet. It was fast and to his left. He had to move to try reach it and tried to make the best of a bad situation. The ball was played so poorly that he couldn't pass it back or go left as he had to move left to try control it. To his right was a Watford player and coming at him from the front was their number 20.

I accept now you don't blame him for the goal but he in no way "played himself into trouble"
He took one of the few touches he was capable of doing given the pass/position of his teammates and was isolated in trying to win it back by clever screening from Watford players and zero movement by his teammates.

http://imgur.com/gallery/C220yqE

[Snowflake Royal]

I wasn't clear. The pass from Moore was not to his feet. It was fast and to his left. He had to move to try reach it and tried to make the best of a bad situation. The ball was played so poorly that he couldn't pass it back or go left as he had to move left to try control it. To his right was a Watford player and coming at him from the front was their number 20.

I accept now you don't blame him for the goal but he in no way "played himself into trouble"
He took one of the few touches he was capable of doing given the pass/position of his teammates and was isolated in trying to win it back by clever screening from Watford players and zero movement by his teammates.

http://imgur.com/gallery/C220yqE

Yeah, a still image doesn't really tell much of a tale. Swift choose to let the ball come to him and try to play it around his player, rather than going to it or trying to play it away from his player or shield it. Kelly was caught between marking two different players but went towards the ball, Bacuna came in to cover the man who won the ball, but that left someone breaking through past him. Neither of them are to blame, they just reacted to a situation going south thanks to a poor pass handled badly. And then, the key fault. Moore failed to track a player whilst O'Shea sensible covered the middle of the box to try to cut out a cross.

Swift is a lazy liability who constantly flatters to deceive and virtually never delivers.

[3points]

One of the biggest problems with Swift is his total lack of pace. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a slower professional footballer. So when he does make a mistake (which is quite often) he just doesn’t have the turn off pace to get back and remedy the situation

[Zip]

One of the biggest problems with Swift is his total lack of pace. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a slower professional footballer. So when he does make a mistake (which is quite often) he just doesn’t have the turn off pace to get back and remedy the situation

He is one of the weakest players in a physical sense I have ever seen. Playing him alongside the tiny Liam Kelly and we have the physical presence of a jelly baby in the middle of the pitch.
Just maybe Clement now appreciates this and we won’t see the pair playing together in the same side again.

[Hound]

Swift looks like he has beefed up considerably over the summer to me

Agree on him and Kelly in the middle. A tactic which has long since proven to be a desperately poor one

[John Smith]

One of the biggest problems with Swift is his total lack of pace. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a slower professional footballer. So when he does make a mistake (which is quite often) he just doesn’t have the turn off pace to get back and remedy the situation

He is one of the weakest players in a physical sense I have ever seen. Playing him alongside the tiny Liam Kelly and we have the physical presence of a jelly baby in the middle of the pitch.
Just maybe Clement now appreciates this and we won’t see the pair playing together in the same side again.

He was probably just using a meaningless League Cup game to experiment. He's got hardly anything to work with as it is

[Old Man Andrews]

One of the biggest problems with Swift is his total lack of pace. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a slower professional footballer. So when he does make a mistake (which is quite often) he just doesn’t have the turn off pace to get back and remedy the situation

He is one of the weakest players in a physical sense I have ever seen. Playing him alongside the tiny Liam Kelly and we have the physical presence of a jelly baby in the middle of the pitch.
Just maybe Clement now appreciates this and we won’t see the pair playing together in the same side again.

He was probably just using a meaningless League Cup game to experiment. He's got hardly anything to work with as it is

Both of them have got to go, they are a busted flush.

[John Smith]

Both of them have got to go, they are a busted flush.

I think the whole squad has go to go. Could have done with cashing on Moore too.

[Old Man Andrews]

Both of them have got to go, they are a busted flush.

I think the whole squad has go to go. Could have done with cashing on Moore too.

I think they will all go when/if we go down at the end of the season. It will be a complete reboot that we may never recover from.

[John Smith]

Both of them have got to go, they are a busted flush.

I think the whole squad has go to go. Could have done with cashing on Moore too.

I think they will all go when/if we go down at the end of the season. It will be a complete reboot that we may never recover from.

Yes, but then we go to Fleetwood Town away on a Tuesday night and have beers so it's swings and roundabouts in many ways. If you sing loud enough you might even get your coach paid for too!

[Snowflake Royal]

Swift looks like he has beefed up considerably over the summer to me

Agree on him and Kelly in the middle. A tactic which has long since proven to be a desperately poor one

Even in a three they don't work because neither is strond defensively and neither can carry the ball forward effectively meaning the other player with them has to be a box to box ball carrier who screens the defence well... It's hard for one player to do two different jobs in different parts of the pitch at the same time.

Maybe if the rest of the team was on form and we had a proper Sidwell next to them in a three they might work.

We've got to stop signing defensive midfielders with the pace and acceleration of a snail.