Back From the Game Birmingham

[marcusopp]

I thought this was a VERY good result. Birmingham are nailed on for top six, IMO, and look a class act,
will probably make top three.

8 Federici He's becoming a seriously good keeper. Kept us in the game when it mattered.
7 Cummings A solid performance. Could turn out to be a top player if he keeps improving.
8 Pearce One fantastic tackle in first half, good enough to be Gorks. Another great interception. Great CB pair. Forgive him the header that hit the post...
8 Gorks. I love that he can actually play a bit of football. WAY better than Matt Mills.
8 J Mills. Well done to the lad. Is learning fast. Showed speed in first half to catch overlapper. Great shot.

This is becoming a really good back five

8 Elwood. Another very, very good performance. Almost at his imperious best. Controlling play more.
8 Karacan With Elwood (good partnership) but some much better, controlled, passing.

I agree with most of that.
I think McAnuff did quite well. Church was statuesque up front, giving him no options, which meant he had to take the sting out of the attacks.
Kebe's only just getting back to fitness, he'll be fine in a few games.
Definitely start Hunt over Church though.
6 Kebe. Watching Jimmy is a bit sad these days. If he's going, don;t play him at all.
7 McAnuff. OK without being fantastic, but made a goal, so...

8 Le Fondre. Did LOADS of great work for the whole of the 90 minutes. Top Player
6 Church. Started brightly, but was poor after 20 minutes.

7 Hal Robson Kanu More up for it in the short time he was on.
8 Hunt. Lively, and of course he got the winner, so...

[muddyfeet]

actually thought Le Fondre had a poor game on sat. yes the service was dire but he miss hit alot of passes & was off the pace imo

[Maguire]

Very good result against a clearly talented side who will be, in pundit parlance, there or thereabouts come the end of the season. I think the main reason we nicked it was due to their clear fatigue - Reading were getting to the ball a lot quicker in the last 20.

We're obvs lacking a cutting edge up front and Church simply wasn't in the game. HOWEVER, they had some excellent defenders and I don't blame him too much. Le Fonder was brighter though.

Kebe was awful, defence was mainly good, Karacan was a bit off the pace.

That's about it. Good win and a crucial 3 points in our relegation battle.

[Big Foot]

Wide-men are key to the Reading style of recent years (except BR of course). Recall him being decent for Cardiff and if played anywhere near the level of today consistently, then I'd happily swap him for Feds. Actually Feds had a decent game today, far more mobile and prepared to leave the confines of his six-yard box.

Remembered back to the game Cardiff beat us 1-0 in when BR was in charge. They played in yellow that night (I think) and Burke scored the winner - had horrible thoughts of him doing the same yesterday.

One thing I've noticed with our wingers - predominantly with McAnuff on the left yesterday - is where they actually are when they receive the ball from a full back. I'd say >80% of those occasions yesterday, the wingers were still in our own half. If they received the ball further up the pitch, would we have a greater chance of success in the final third?

[bcubed]

Was it just me or did you think the crowd reaction to our goal was distinctly underwhelming?

[muddyfeet]

Was it just me or did you think the crowd reaction to our goal was distinctly underwhelming?

everyone was half asleep by that time

[If you still hate Futcher]

I thought it was more shock and relief than apathy - it was as if there was an audible sigh from the crowd as the ball was put across, as it looked to be going straight to the keeper, only for Hunt to nick in between and get a toe on it - even then it only had just enough to get over the line

[winchester_royal]

Was it just me or did you think the crowd reaction to our goal was distinctly underwhelming?

I think the east stand was more interested in sticking two fingers up at the Brum fans than actually celebrating the goal.

[Allyh84]

Decent from us, scrappy 1-0, always satisfying. That's by far the best I've seen Mills/Pearce play for us as well. Agree that we're getting solid, albeit young back 5.

Kebe is a shit useless oxf*rd who only turns up for the big fa cup/tv games. Sick of him. Can't cross. Doesn't run fast anymore. Sits all match crywa*king over oxf*rd off to France. I'll gladly pay his fare to get back there.

[melonhead]

he was clearly up for it at the start, but i think his first four crosses all hit the 1st defender, and his head went down a bit

althoughi am clearly just making excuses for him

[Z175]

One thing I've noticed with our wingers - predominantly with McAnuff on the left yesterday - is where they actually are when they receive the ball from a full back. I'd say >80% of those occasions yesterday, the wingers were still in our own half. If they received the ball further up the pitch, would we have a greater chance of success in the final third?

Nail>>>head

This is why we're a less attacking team than we used to be. But its also why Cummings and Mills are doing better than Harte and Griffin. I dont think we want to make this trade off, if we could hang onto the ball more in the middle, (looking accusingly at Leigertwood and Church here but also Karacan Tabb and Mills) Kebe and McAnuff will be able to light their fireworks further up the pitch. No coincidence that Shane Long has left, he was very good at linking up with Kebe.

I'd hate to count the number of times we've given the ball away before getting to the final third, but it should be easily remedied.

[Hoop Blah]

One thing I've noticed with our wingers - predominantly with McAnuff on the left yesterday - is where they actually are when they receive the ball from a full back. I'd say >80% of those occasions yesterday, the wingers were still in our own half. If they received the ball further up the pitch, would we have a greater chance of success in the final third?

Nail>>>head

This is why we're a less attacking team than we used to be. But its also why Cummings and Mills are doing better than Harte and Griffin. I dont think we want to make this trade off, if we could hang onto the ball more in the middle, (looking accusingly at Leigertwood and Church here but also Karacan Tabb and Mills) Kebe and McAnuff will be able to light their fireworks further up the pitch. No coincidence that Shane Long has left, he was very good at linking up with Kebe.

I'd hate to count the number of times we've given the ball away before getting to the final third, but it should be easily remedied.

Don't tell that to Wycombe, he seems to think we're only missing Long and a bit of form from the wingers and that's it.

[West Stand Man]

he was clearly up for it at the start, but i think his first four crosses all hit the 1st defender, and his head went down a bit

althoughi am clearly just making excuses for him

He is not at his best at the moment, but I don't sense an attitude, more a lack of form.

[SpaceCruiser]

I thought that we should have done better. The quality of our crossing wasn't really good at all and the free kicks and corners seemed either to go straight to the keeper or straight out of play. However, I thought as a team we were solid and Federici really did pull off some great saves. I'm delighted with the result and I don't care if anyone (like Schards) says we didn't deserve to win. We need to focus on the positives and start climbing up the table with a couple more wins.

BTW, what was the booing directed at Marlon King all about? I had to check with my brother to be sure that he was getting booed.

[melonhead]

he went to prison once

BOOOOOOOOO

[SpaceCruiser]

he went to prison once

BOOOOOOOOO

I wondered about that, but surely people wouldn't boo him for that?

[Mr Angry]

[quote="SpaceCruiser"]I thought that we should have done better. The quality of our crossing wasn't really good at all and the free kicks and corners seemed either to go straight to the keeper or straight out of play. However, I thought as a team we were solid and Federici really did pull off some great saves. I'm delighted with the result and I don't care if anyone (like Schards) says we didn't deserve to win. We need to focus on the positives and start climbing up the table with a couple more wins.

BTW, what was the booing directed at Marlon King all about? I had to check with my brother to be sure that he was getting booed.[/quote]



Seriously??

You don't know??

Do you ever read a newspaper, or watch the news, or take any sort of interest in anything that might be happening in the World?

At all??

Ever??

[Mr Angry]

he went to prison once

BOOOOOOOOO

I wondered about that, but surely people wouldn't boo him for that?

He was convicted of sexual assault and (iirc) ABH on a young woman.

[melonhead]

he went to prison once

BOOOOOOOOO

I wondered about that, but surely people wouldn't boo him for that?

Marlon King, was accused and convicted of ABH after breaking the 20-year-old student's nose after she rejected his advances in the Soho Revue nightclub in London last December.

The victim stated that , after rebuffing him when he groped her arse, the 29-year-old striker shouted "you're not even in my league, love, I'm a multimillionaire" before "smashing her in the face with a clenched fist".

[SpaceCruiser]

he went to prison once

BOOOOOOOOO

I wondered about that, but surely people wouldn't boo him for that?

Marlon King, was accused and convicted of ABH after breaking the 20-year-old student's nose after she rejected his advances in the Soho Revue nightclub in London last December.

The victim stated that , after rebuffing him when he groped her arse, the 29-year-old striker shouted "you're not even in my league, love, I'm a multimillionaire" before "smashing her in the face with a clenched fist".

Sounds like he was acting like an utterc*nt. Probably deserved to go to jail, but how long ago was this? 2, 3 years ago?