BFTG - Peter's Borough

[bakerlou]

Cagey first half, whisper it but we actually had a tactic which was to attack their left full back who was the worst player on the pitch by some distance. We had them at arm's length when they attacked, what was notable was the talking and encouragement between Southwood and the defence, an obvious improvement.

Kind of felt that if they nicked one we might struggle, especially when they came out with a much better tempo in the 2nd half, but they wilted after Swift's goal (a foul well won by Halilovic, the only thing I saw him do right all match). Cracking second goal from TDB after good play from Puskas (who was decent throughout as he clearly wasn't being used as a target man), and then a predictable panic after they got theirs. Amazing last goal, TDB was looking to shoot whenver possible.

A much improved performance, and yes they were poor but in reality no worse than Bristol City who we made look like Bayern Munich.

Pluses - TBD, Southwood looked like a modest upgrade on Raf, Puskas was a menace all evening and looked a lot better than he has done so far this season.
Minuses - imagining what we'll be like when Swift leaves in January

[windermereROYAL]

Hello Westwood52, how`s it going?

[Millsy]

It'll sound odd after a win, when we had what felt like a loss against QPR but we were better against QPR. We were so-so tonight against and awful team who thoroughly deserve to go down. But we DID deserve to win. WELL DONE BOYS!!!

Southwood - 7. Actually very solid with a couple of good saves, some refreshingly confident catches, good kicks, good command. Can't fault him except for his ridiculous comedy moment of falling when coming for the ball. It looked so comical the awful ref thought he must've been fouled and gave us a bizarre FK, Welcome Southwood. I feel sorry for Rafael but he may have real competition on his hands.

Yiadom - 7 terrific going forward. Getting back to the Yids we know.

Morro - 6.5- seemed to do not much wrong in fairness after slating the hell out of him last game.

Moore - 6.5 He gets a lot of stick and I still don't agree with all of it. I'm not saying we looked ten times better after Holmes came on for him, but that's exactly what I'm saying

Rahman - 6.5 Just a solid left back really. As I say a bit of a Matty Robinson moment having a half decent left back join us.

Laurent - 6 did ok, tried hard but was quite a scrappy game

Swift - 7.5 Some lovely balls to Yids, great goal. I've always rated far higher than Olise. He's a gem. ONE of his ridiculous back heels finally worked. I think I've counted 4 utter fails now from him trying to back heel it. Cut it out mate.

Hal - 4 Sorry but totally out of his depth. Looks like a League 2 imposter sorry. Still won't forget that great assist for Swift's first against QPR, but that's literally I can think of that he's ever done. Reminds me a bit of that little guy (Boye?) whom Gomez loved, dammit can't remember his name. Lots of little bits of promise but always cocking up. Only worthwhile contribution was makign a meal out of hurting his face to get that FK for Swift to score.

TDB - 8 Brilliant player. Good goals. Would love him to stay but somehow doubt it

Ejaria - 6 surprisingly poor actually. Yes at fault for not even attempting to jump for their goal, but worse still going forward he had flashes of promise but was just meh.

Puscas 8 Absolutely class. Running his socks off, he was everywhere. Really deserves a goal at some point. Pauno has clearly been reading HNA as we've been crying out for him to play to his strengths.

Subs:

Hoilet 7 Some good flashes. Extra point for not being Hal.

Holmes - 8 I thought he was absolutely immense in defence. Again, I'm not saying we looked ten times better after Holmes came on for him, but that's exactly what I'm saying.

Tetek - 6 Erm. He's Serbian I think. And sounds like he should be a Transformer. Can't comment on this game but tbf I've always liked him.

Pauno - Very very pleased for him. I think it was harsh what happened against QPR and I really want it to work for him. He didn't take off Puscas, wow! A deserved win. WE'RE ONLY 5 POINTS OFF THE PLAYOFFS. BETTER THAN HOW WE FINISHED LAST SEASON.

Fans - only sing when we're winning. But yeah. Such is the new way eh?

Peterborough - 0 Very very poor side. To only put ONE past our awful defence you've got to be pretty bloody poor. That player though Mick George he was absolutely everywhere. We desperately need someone with that energy in our team, although his performance was variable.

Lastly sorry can't resist but "Upon this rock we shall build our recovery."

[royalp-we]

An absolutely turgid first 60mins then a few moments of brilliance and we’ve come out on top.

Let’s face it, Peterborough are going down - although I hope we can build on this - 2 games unbeaten

Glad to see Southwood didn’t have a howler. Pulled off a good save in the first half. Not much else to do.

At the closing stages I thought to myself our midfield might be something special this year with Halilovic, Dele-Bashiru, Ejaria, Rino, Laurent and Swift. They are all of a similar age and when they get momentum we can really put teams to the sword - it’s just work in progress to get them going through the gears instead of waiting till the second half to start actually playing!

[Lower West]

A welcome 3 points.

Against better sides the game could have been over by half time.

Let's hope that the available players quickly gel and build an understanding. Before it's too late.

[Zip]

Has Swift saved Pauno his job? We were dreadful until the free=kick. Then we score and look like a completely different side.
Puscas did really well for the second and Dele Bashiru’s third which I thought was going over the bar was sensational. His finish for his first was excellent too.
We have scored 13 in 7 and are joint second top scorers yet we cannot keep a clean sheet and yet again concede from a set piece at the back post.

Southwood that one drop apart was composed, alert and made an excellent save. It’s his shirt now.
Moore adds to the injury list but it sounds like a Dann, Drinkwater, Rino and Rafael should all be back in the next couple of weeks which will strengthen the squad.

[Millsy]

I'd definitely say our medical team (or lack thereof) is saving Pauno's job.

[Royal_jimmy]

Considering the low attendance and the sub par performance I thought the atmosphere was brilliant tonight, even when we were struggling at times.

[CountryRoyal]

For the most part it was a crap game between two really shit sides. Step forward the only player seemingly capable of any quality and then it’s a different game. It’s a really important win but I’m not convinced at all. We always look like we want to do the most difficult thing and ignore the simple option. Defensively not great but weren’t really tested properly.

Thought Southwood was really good and Holmes was excellent when he came on. Someone needs to tell Halilovic he doesn’t have to pass everything first time. So oxf*rd frustrating to watch.

Signs of Pauno learning by not making a defensive sub sitting back on the lead? Or different time/different team? We will see. I would love him to be able to turn it around but just don’t see it and so all this does is paper over the cracks and delays the inevitable. Still, 3 points is 3 points.

On the opposition, it’s early days but based on that display I’d be absolutely gobsmacked if Posh don’t go down. Awful.

[NewCorkSeth]

First half was poor for sure but we actually didn't look like conceding. We just seemed to be stuck in the same rhythm as Peterborough.

I mad a few notes during the game and the first is now stupid but TDB very frequently does the absolute wrong thing with the ball. Good player don't get me wrong but his passing is so much slower than the rest of the teams. I kept thinking him and Laurent should swap roles but then he goes and scores 2. Great to see someone actually get in the box eh?

Puscas played well. Was in probably his best position to score when Swift could have made a simple pass to him but I cant blame Swift for shooting right now with the form he is in.

Laurent looks different. He looks unsure of himself or something. He doesn't look like he is relishing the midfield battle anymore.

Why did Moore and Morro switch sides for this game? Is it possible that Puscas prefers making runs top right and Moore has a better long ball? Anyway, when Holmes came on he genuinely looked fantastic. Now that Moore is injured I'm certain it won't take long for the twitter mobs to turn on Morro like they have Moore.

Swift is in the form of his life and we should all be grateful to watch it.

I dont think Halilovic was that bad you know. Just looked a little rusty and needs to make use of Yiadoms overlapping runs. Has a touch of the Alukos with his constant cutting in but it actually helped us a few times to get the ball into good space with Baba doing great work getting up and down the flank.

Good for Southwood. Hope he enjoyed it.

[Sanguine]

First game I've watched right through this season. Don't think we were as awful as many were making out. Rahman looks like a very good left-back - can see clearly that he is a Premier League loanee, assured first touch, gets forward and back at the right times. Halilovic looked half decent to me - a couple of sloppy moments but another player with a quality touch that makes it evident where he was in 'days of yore'. We passed the ball okay and I was encouraged by our pressing throughout the game.

We aren't a promotion team. A new manager won't make us a promotion team. Results on the whole obviously need to get better, but if we pick up wins at home against the bottom half as a minimum, then we'll keep a distance between us and relegation, and that's all we can really ask for this season.

I'd completely missed Rafa's injury, which I read was 'in the aftermath of the QPR game.' Did he punch a wall or something?

[NewCorkSeth]

First game I've watched right through this season. Don't think we were as awful as many were making out. Rahman looks like a very good left-back - can see clearly that he is a Premier League loanee, assured first touch, gets forward and back at the right times. Halilovic looked half decent to me - a couple of sloppy moments but another player with a quality touch that makes it evident where he was in 'days of yore'. We passed the ball okay and I was encouraged by our pressing throughout the game.

We aren't a promotion team. A new manager won't make us a promotion team. Results on the whole obviously need to get better, but if we pick up wins at home against the bottom half as a minimum, then we'll keep a distance between us and relegation, and that's all we can really ask for this season.

I'd completely missed Rafa's injury, which I read was 'in the aftermath of the QPR game.' Did he punch a wall or something?

He punched Tom Holmes who is described as "a wall".

[RG30]

Delighted with the 3 points but until the goal it had been a poor performance that lacked any real intensity and composure. Interesting that on the xG we still lost 0.57-0.61. Don’t think we’ve won a league game all season on the metric.

Without getting the goal his recent performances deserved thought Puscas was excellent and led the line really well. His assists for the second was an excellent bit of play. Also was pleasantly surprised by Southwood’s display. Not been convinced by him previously but thought he did what he had to do well.

[Hendo]

Delighted with the 3 points but until the goal it had been a poor performance that lacked any real intensity and composure. Interesting that on the xG we still lost 0.57-0.61. Don’t think we’ve won a league game all season on the metric.

Without getting the goal his recent performances deserved thought Puscas was excellent and led the line really well. His assists for the second was an excellent bit of play. Also was pleasantly surprised by Southwood’s display. Not been convinced by him previously but thought he did what he had to do well.

[RG30]

^infogol app where I quoted my figures from

[andrew1957]

Have to say I agree with the comments about Swift saving Pauno's job. That was exactly my thought when the goal went in. It could just save our season because until that point we had not really looked like scoring and looked devoid of confidence. After the Swift goal we looked much better. Goals breed confidence.

I have tried not to join the Moore haters because he has at times been excellent for us in past seasons but there does seem to be something not right about him this season. He didn't really do anything much wrong before the injury, but I felt so much more confident of the defensive unit once Holmes had come on.

I felt the same about Southwood. I just always feel Rafa has a mistake in him whereas Southwood largely controlled his area and looked comfortable. Really hope he plays again against Fulham and we will see what he is made of against a better team.

Dele-Bashiru, Rahman, Laurent and Swift all looked class. Not a great fan of Yiadom but thought he was good last night and Puscas and Morrison had good games. Ejaria still doesn't look fit and Halilovic tried very hard but his end product was in the main
very disappointing.

Overall it was a struggle for 63 minutes until Swift scored. After that at times we looked like a very good side.

But everything will depend on injuries. We now only have 13 fit first team players by my calculation and we seem to be losing one each match so far. At that rate we will be playing a 100% U23 team before Christmas! We have had a horrific run of injuries for a number of seasons now but this seems like the worst that I can ever recall. Hopefully a few like Dann and Drinkwater will soon regain match fitness to help out.

On a personal note I put £50 on us to win at 19/10, also bet on Swift getting the first goal in the game and that there would be more than 3 goals in the game. Up about £150!!

[South Coast Royal]

Just on Drinkwater,I mentioned a few days ago that my son saw him play for Chelsea in a pre-season game at Bournemouth and ,bearing in mind that as a Chelsea fan he has never been impressed by Drinkwater, he said that he was the best player on the pitch.

Seemingly the player hasn't caught the Reading injury disease as the message appears to be that he and Dann are not match fit.

How fit does a Premier League winner need to be to get a game for us?

[genome]

Moore adds to the injury list but it sounds like a Dann, Drinkwater, Rino and Rafael should all be back in the next couple of weeks which will strengthen the squad.

One (sort of) positive is, our squad is going to be very strong around January time once the injured players come back in.

[leon]

Thought we were poor in the 1st half. Peterborough did their best to lose the ball when they had it but we really were static in midfield and never capitalised. They almost scored after Moore played Yiadom (I think) into trouble for no good reason. Other than that they looked like what they were.

Swift turned the game with that free kick - we looked a different side - up until they scored at the far post. Absolutely shocking defending.

TDB's second was an absolute cracker. Right in front of us behind the goal. I thought it had been deflected.

One last point Puscas must be going mad. There were at least 2 situations where it just needed a simple through ball. (Plus Swift not teeing him up.) That said he played really well. Looks up for it. Which is encouraging.

[hughsies no.1]

Firstly (before I get a bit negative), we really needed that win - Pauno needed that win - and football is about winning games and we got that all important win.

Prior to the 64th minute when Swifty had that free kick, I thought we looked like 11 individual players, no cohesion, no real pattern of play and for me only one team was in the game, and it wasn't us. Don't really recall any chances we created either. Posh were playing like the home team and our only answer was to hit them on the break with balls into the channel - could clearly see players getting frustrated with each other.

64th minute - John Swift stood over the ball, said to my mate next to me - we need some Swift magic here to get us out of this hole - and he produced. Unbelievable strike from a player we need to make the most of, as there is zero chance IMO that he will be a Reading player next season.

The goal obviously gave us a boost and swung the game, meant Posh needed to be a bit more open and meant we could expose them and duly resulted in a second goal, credit to Puscas for his work down the flank and a solid finish by TDB.

Then when they got one back (Ovie didn't even jump), I would be surprised if there was one Reading fan in the stadium that felt we were going to hold on, the energy was sucked out of the place and an equalsier would have been disastrous for us (they nearly had one too with that Ovie flick on...). Fortunately another bit of magic resulted in us getting the win - but I think we were very fortunate to be victors.

Very hopeful that the introduction of Scott Dann at the back will really sure us up, also think Drinkwater will make a positive difference, but there is still an awful lot of work to be done.

Roll on Fulham (a) on Saturday - but we will need to play A LOT better than that if we are going to get any points back to the Royal County!