MATCHWATCH : Brighton & Hove Albion U21 (a)

[Royal_jimmy]

Most embarrassing thing about tonight is their winning penalty was scored by a 15 year old who probably has a paper round first thing tomorrow

[Orion1871]

Impressive from Reading to find a new low just when you think they might have turned the corner on the pitch.

Is this finally it? Is losing to Brighton under 21s the lowest we can go? Let's be honest, probably not. Over reaction, I'm sure, but it does feel like we will get relegated because finding even lower lows is just what the Dai Yongge iteration of RFC does.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Yeah it's certainly a low point losing to an U21 side. Granted, a lot of our players are hardly seasoned pro's but still, most should have enough in them to be seeing them off.

I'm starting to think that we are quite weak once we make changes from our standard XI. We had several in our team last night, but when others step in we just seem to look so much worse overall as a team and the results show that as well.

[WestYorksRoyal]

I don't really care about being out, but a few concerns about the game that may read across to the league. We were toothless without Smith and Knibbs, and I'm concerned we have several key players who we don't have cover for. Even barring injuries, is it really sustainable to keep winning through Azeez's weekly goal of the season contest? Seems like in league games we've not broken teams down but seen him smash one in from 25 yards. I thought we would win last night by 4 or 5, but we were so toothless and without cutting edge.

I may be reading into it too much. There was no intensity, it was almost an academy match in an empty stadium. Perhaps we'll see more tempo and intensity on Saturday. One thing for sure, the team have put extra pressure on themselves for Saturday now.

[NathStPaul]

Who really cares? Saw a lot of deeply lonely people on Twitter/X last night losing their minds. Its a 3rd rate cup competition that is nothing more than a distraction for us. The league is all that matters.

[Hound]

I’m not exactly slitting my wrists but it’s frustrating to lose it. Yes it’s not a big competition but a very good chance to have had a bit of fun and a day out at Wembley. Now we’ve just the grind of avoiding relegation to look forward to.

For all of our upturn there’s still more than a suspicion as noted above that we are heavily reliant on Smith/Knibbs/Azeez. In a way that’s fair enough as they are our 3 main forwards but would be really concerned if any of the 3 were out for any period of time. More than 1 out of the 3 out and I think we’d be stuffed

[WestYorksRoyal]

I do wonder if the lack of depth is normal in L1. Teams can't afford a large roster of high quality players. So it's hardly surprising that we're reliant upon Wing, Azeez, Knibbs and Smith. I don't know enough about this division, but I expect even Pompey and Bolton have 3 or 4 crucial players whose absence would seriously harm them. In the Championship, the relegated side with parachute payments have depth which is really why they're likely to finish at the top. In 20/21 it felt like we were running on fumes by March while those with more resources kept going. I don't think that exists down here.

So perhaps we should just be thankful to have 4 players of that quality and cross our fingers.

[blythspartan]

I’m not exactly slitting my wrists but it’s frustrating to lose it. Yes it’s not a big competition but a very good chance to have had a bit of fun and a day out at Wembley. Now we’ve just the grind of avoiding relegation to look forward to.

For all of our upturn there’s still more than a suspicion as noted above that we are heavily reliant on Smith/Knibbs/Azeez. In a way that’s fair enough as they are our 3 main forwards but would be really concerned if any of the 3 were out for any period of time. More than 1 out of the 3 out and I think we’d be stuffed

It could have been like the season we won the Simod Cup and got relegated.

I do question how many fans would have made the trip to Wembley had we reached the final. I am not sure I’d have bothered tbh. Maybe 15 to 20k at best.

[hughsies no.1]

Absolute toothless display, like many after the first 10 mins I thought it was just a matter of time. But those ten mins must have gone to the players heads and they were clearly just treating it as a training match thinking it would be a given we would eventually score. We didn't, we got sloppy and complacent and were punished.

Bindon was head and shoulders above anyone else for us, making key interceptions. Azeez morphed back into his infuriating self. No-one else is worthy of a mention.

Also something I noticed is how the style of play completely changed last night, obviously down to no Smith and Knibbs. But since we have turned the corner we have become a long ball team, play long to Smith then pick up the pieces in the final third - which has resulted in majority of our goals and chances in recent weeks. It is not pretty, but has proved effective. Just found it interesting we completely binned that approach off last night.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

I do wonder if the lack of depth is normal in L1. Teams can't afford a large roster of high quality players. So it's hardly surprising that we're reliant upon Wing, Azeez, Knibbs and Smith. I don't know enough about this division, but I expect even Pompey and Bolton have 3 or 4 crucial players whose absence would seriously harm them. In the Championship, the relegated side with parachute payments have depth which is really why they're likely to finish at the top. In 20/21 it felt like we were running on fumes by March while those with more resources kept going. I don't think that exists down here.

So perhaps we should just be thankful to have 4 players of that quality and cross our fingers.

Yes I don't think it is that much different to any other side really, every team has their best players who have the most influence that would mean they'd be a lot worse off without them. Wing and Smith for me are our most important, Knibbs and Azeez are in good form and look to be improving as well.

It goes without saying, keep our best, most influential players fit, we will get results.

[blythspartan]

My concern now that we’re in the second half of the season is if Smith gets injured. I don’t have much faith in Ehib as a backup striker. Someone on Twitter said that he reminds him of Joao without the same talent and I kind of agree.

Can anyone on here with a better understanding of football than me pinpoint why it doesn’t seem to be working for Ehib atm?

[Hendo]

Can't imagine getting the odd couple of minutes here and there in the league is helping.

[NathStPaul]

Can't imagine getting the odd couple of minutes here and there in the league is helping.

Ideal world he'd be in one of the better League 2 sides on loan playing week in and week out but needs must. Zero point in the supporters getting on his back, he is all we have as back up and that's just the way it is.

[South Coast Royal]

I am no longer a regular poster nor intend to be (I know,who cares apart from me?) but after last night I am so annoyed that I need to get it out of my system.

Before the Eastleigh game there was some discussion over whether we should try to stay in the competition.
IIRC it was around 50/50 but I was firmly of the view that a cup run plus the revenue that could be created would give everybody a lift and with games being played roughly once per month in the competition there would be little impact on league matches other than perhaps that a winning team in the FA Cup might help performances in the league.

For some reason our management seemed to take the Bristol Street Trophy more seriously than the FA Cup culminating in last night putting out almost our first team.

Going back to the FA Cup , the inevitable happened in that surrendering meekly to a non-league side we missed out on the possibility of progressing to the 4th round and a lucrative home tie v our regular FA Cup adversaries, Man Utd.
From a revenue perspective a replay v Eastleigh plus just a game at Newport and not even making the glamour of the 4th round would have produced more than all of the Bristol Street games put together let alone fans' interest in games outside the dross that is League 1.

We know that the club is directionless at the top-it feels to me the same with the coaching staff in that there are no aims nor directives.
Surely Selles and Bowen didn't sit down and decide that the Bristol Street Motors Trophy, after already not bothering about the Carabao Cup should be our main target-it looks like it with the sides that have been selected.

So now a long winter of scrapping around for survival points without any other distractions and probably gradually declining attendances because, even if last night's Trophy was the main aim, the players didn't seem to know because they treated it like a training session.

Wing showed that , given the space that he won't get in League games, he is an excellent passer of the ball but those that received those passes didn't have the energy or desire to make the best of them with Azeez being so far of the radar there was no surprise when he blasted his penalty wide.
I felt sorry for the 400 or so who made the journey as, especially with the second half performance, they might feel short changed.

Depressing times with the prospect of such uninspiring fixtures coming up v Port Vale, Wigan and Leyton Orient-life in Div 3 eh?
As another poster said, it is really not that long ago that we competed at the same level as Brighton but now our first team can't even beat their U21s.
If football is cyclical I am waiting for our upturn but it feels as though we need a hell of a lot of patience to endure the waiting and performances like last night don't help.

[Hound]

Can't imagine getting the odd couple of minutes here and there in the league is helping.

Ideal world he'd be in one of the better League 2 sides on loan playing week in and week out but needs must. Zero point in the supporters getting on his back, he is all we have as back up and that's just the way it is.

He was excellent start of the season. Been a big victim of rarely playing in the league and not playing u23 games etc either. Don’t think he has brilliantly managed tbh

Also it’s his first proper season. He’s done alright considering

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Can't imagine getting the odd couple of minutes here and there in the league is helping.

Ideal world he'd be in one of the better League 2 sides on loan playing week in and week out but needs must. Zero point in the supporters getting on his back, he is all we have as back up and that's just the way it is.

He was excellent start of the season. Been a big victim of rarely playing in the league and not playing u23 games etc either. Don’t think he has brilliantly managed tbh

Also it’s his first proper season. He’s done alright considering

It's tough for him though with Smith in front of him. He doesn't get a consistent run of games, but Smith is just the better option. If he can begin to have more of an impact again when he starts and the opportunities he does get from the bench, it's worth considering. I also don't think he is that well suited to how we play either. Many comparisons to Joao in terms of play style I think. He needs the ball into his feet and players around him, you'd think on paper we'd have that, but it doesn't seem to come off in practice.

[Hound]

Do think it’d be worth swapping him and Wareham round for a bit. Get Wareham on the bench and Ehibhatiomhan a run of games in the u23

[tidus_mi2]

Ideal world he'd be in one of the better League 2 sides on loan playing week in and week out but needs must. Zero point in the supporters getting on his back, he is all we have as back up and that's just the way it is.

He was excellent start of the season. Been a big victim of rarely playing in the league and not playing u23 games etc either. Don’t think he has brilliantly managed tbh

Also it’s his first proper season. He’s done alright considering

It's tough for him though with Smith in front of him. He doesn't get a consistent run of games, but Smith is just the better option. If he can begin to have more of an impact again when he starts and the opportunities he does get from the bench, it's worth considering. I also don't think he is that well suited to how we play either. Many comparisons to Joao in terms of play style I think. He needs the ball into his feet and players around him, you'd think on paper we'd have that, but it doesn't seem to come off in practice.

He was a regular in the side that was struggling to score goals and 10 points off safety, I don't think he's been bad per se, but the difference between him and Smith is incredibly apparent, he's still only 20 so has potential for improvement but I think we need a better 2nd choice striker right now.

As for this game, I watched it on Royals TV, we were definitely the better side and were unlucky not to win in the 90 but there was a distinct lack of urgency. Would have liked to get a Wembley outing after the shit we've had to put up with this season, but on the other hand, I'm really not fussed we're out or particularly embarrassed that it was to an U21 side.

[windermereROYAL]

Seem to remember Brighton beating somebody away 4-0 in the group stages so they`re no mugs.

[Hendo]

Seem to remember Brighton beating somebody away 4-0 in the group stages so they`re no mugs.

They won away at MK:Dons 4-0 in the previous round. No idea on strengths of teams though, etc...