Back from the game - Brizzle City

[heathrow royal]

Only 1 player stood out as having good game for us last night and i thought cummings was our MOM

[sandman]

Only 1 outfield player stood out as having good game for us last night and i thought cummings was our MOM

Corrected.

[heathrow royal]

Ta. Has sean morrison picked an injury or something??

[Allyh84]

Wasn't it Cummings who let the ball bounce past him for their 2nd?

The comeback is more and more ludicrous every time I think about it. It's not even like we battered their goal at the end!

[heathrow royal]

Think that was pearce but could be wrong

[Kitson12]

Think that was pearce but could be wrong

Cummings should have easily dealt with that ball, but it's one mistake on an otherwise good night for him. Definitely our MOTM.

[Big Foot]

Wasn't it Cummings who let the ball bounce past him for their 2nd?

The comeback is more and more ludicrous every time I think about it. It's not even like we battered their goal at the end!

All stemmed from an absolutely dire clearance by Jobi which went straight to them, they knocked it down the line and the rest as they say....

Brett Pitman is an absolute prick for his celebration, one day he will get his comeuppance from Reading FC

[roadrunner]

Brett Pitman is an absolute prick for his celebration, one day he will get his comeuppance from Reading FC

What did he do? At least we had the last laugh.

[M-U-R-T-Y]

It's never boring supporting Reading, at least we can say that much.

[Rex]

Brett Pitman is an absolute prick for his celebration, one day he will get his comeuppance from Reading FC

What did he do? At least we had the last laugh.

Stood with arms outstretched in the arrogant posture of a man about to have his ego slapped around his face when we win.

[sandman]

Behaving like a footballer then.

[Svlad Cjelli]

Brett Pitman is an absolute prick for his celebration, one day he will get his comeuppance from Reading FC

What did he do? At least we had the last laugh.

Stood with arms outstretched in the arrogant posture of a man about to have his ego slapped around his face when we win.

Directly in front of - and to - the away supporters, though.

[Cypry]

Got to say for the first 15 up until their first goal we weren't that bad, in fact we created a couple of chances just before they scored, and seemed to be the better side (save for the disallowed goal which it seems from the press reports might be a bit debatable - impossible to tell from our end).

We had a very obvious game plan though of hoofing it to Hunt and hoping he could get his head on it - early on for the first few balls Hunt did OK.

Once we were one down, the teams heads seemed to drop, and that was that for the first half - we persisted with the long balls to Hunt, who failed to win any of them, and other than that we seemed totally devoid of any ideas. Gorkks had a shocking first half (lost count of the number of awful hoofs which seemed to go anywhere other than to a Reading player), Leigertwood and Tabb seemed to do nothing but pass backwards / sideways, and whilst Cummings tried to overlap with Hunt, Hunt is plainly not a winger and Cummings looked like he didn't have the confidence in Hunt to really go for it.

Mills was disappointing, with very little in the way of attacking effort (something which I've felt he's done pretty well since he joined). With no service, Church and Le Fondre were completely isolated with only the odd high ball through the middle which Le Fondre was never going to get, and Church struggled to get on the end of. Despite playing so poorly I can't remember Feds having to do a great deal.

Second half and it was stalemate for a bit with neither side really doing much - notable that we were hitting a lot less of the long balls towards Hunt, but the midfield were still going sideways at best. Then we got hit on the break, Cummings got done for pace, and the cross found Pitman completely unmarked - not much that Feds could do. You could argue that Cummings should have stopped the cross, but the fact that nobody tracked Pitmans run was probably the biggest issue. By the way, have we upset Pitman? What was all that about celebrating in front of us?

At that point we looked like capitulating - Feds made a series of "spectacular" saves - not sure if they were all going in (we were't directly behind the goal), but he certainly kept us in the game at a point when they seemed to be able to burst through us at will.

And then, finally McD decided to play with two proper wingers - what a difference that made? Hunt in the middle alongside ALF, and Jobi playing on his better side...
I can't remember Bristol creating a decent chance after that, and we were very obviously in the ascendency. Tabb started to run at their defence (Leigertwood was still playing every ball sideways), and we looked like a half decent side at last.
It was really hard to see much detail for the goals - certainly the first came from a run by Tabb and a half decent cross - not seen the TV highlights so I don't know exactly how much of a clanger James made, but McAnuff certainly finished well (nice to see a player getting in at the far post - far too often we seem to forget to leave a player at the back of the box). Muted celebrations from our lot, but then just a few minutes late we were level - a half decent shot from HRK, and James split it to ALF who couldn't miss from what he says on the O/S. Much better reaction from the away end, and suddenly it seemed we could get all three points - nice statement of intent from McD bringing Manset on (although Hunt looked absolutely dead just before he came off) and a great finish from Manset for his goal....

Got to say it was one of the stranger games, and I still don't quite know whether to be over the moon with the win, disappointed with at least 50 minutes of truly awful play, or what?
I guess all we can hope is that a turn around like that will give the team a degree of momentum going into a very tricky game on Saturday....

[rhroyal]

Sounds by all accounts like we really were poor in the first 70 minutes, against a poor Bristol City side. At the same time, we showed spirit and ruthlessness the moment we were given a sniff. That's very encouraging; keep that up and start performing like we can and we could be a real force.

[heathrow royal]

Sounds by all accounts like we really were poor in the first 70 minutes, against a poor Bristol City side. At the same time, we showed spirit and ruthlessness the moment we were given a sniff. That's very encouraging; keep that up and start performing like we can and we could be a real force.

Basically sums it up. But to be honest the game should of been over by the time we got our first.

[Tony Le Mesmer]

Think that was pearce but could be wrong

Cummings should have easily dealt with that ball, but it's one mistake on an otherwise good night for him. Definitely our MOTM.

Dear lord.

Caught sauntering out of position on numerous occasions in the 1st half. Almost embarrased himself when failing to deal with the ball running wide at start of 2 nd half instead of just getting rid. At fault for their 2nd goal. In fact i think every Bristol attack game down our right. They clearly targeted him as our weak spot. The guy is average at best and does not have aclue how to get the basics right when defending. I have no idea why people big him up.

[RoyalBlue]

Think that was pearce but could be wrong

Cummings should have easily dealt with that ball, but it's one mistake on an otherwise good night for him. Definitely our MOTM.

Dear lord.

Caught sauntering out of position on numerous occasions in the 1st half. Almost embarrased himself when failing to deal with the ball running wide at start of 2 nd half instead of just getting rid. At fault for their 2nd goal. In fact i think every Bristol attack game down our right. They clearly targeted him as our weak spot. The guy is average at best and does not have aclue how to get the basics right when defending. I have no idea why people big him up.

Perhaps you should ask Mick Gooding why. He is someone who knows a fair bit about decent footballers and was one of those bigging up Cummings last night. May have been partly at fault for their 2nd goal, (although where was the marking?) but also prevented a certain goal.

IMO a decent and rapidly improving player - definitely better than the aging liability that Griffin was becoming.

[Tony Le Mesmer]

Not saying hes not as good as Griffin (this year), or that he should be dropped. Just dont know what people see in him. His positional sense is absolutely terrible and left us open time and again in the 1st half. That said MIlls and Pearce were utterly inpet last night so im not singling him out.

[Barry the bird boggler]

Brett Pitman is an absolute prick for his celebration, one day he will get his comeuppance from Reading FC

Stood with arms outstretched in the arrogant posture of a man about to have his ego slapped around his face when we win.

Directly in front of - and to - the away supporters, though.

We should have rioted, he'd have got in a lot of trouble then.....

[Focher]

Dear lord.

Caught sauntering out of position on numerous occasions in the 1st half. Almost embarrased himself when failing to deal with the ball running wide at start of 2 nd half instead of just getting rid. At fault for their 2nd goal. In fact i think every Bristol attack game down our right. They clearly targeted him as our weak spot. The guy is average at best and does not have aclue how to get the basics right when defending. I have no idea why people big him up.

racist