MATCHWATCH : Stevenage (a)

[Millsy]

FIRST AWAY LEAGUE WIN IN MIDWEEK, AGAINST A TEAM NOT BEGINNING WITH B, SINCE APRIL 2014

Almost a decade

Sorry but they're called Boro.

[Sutekh]

Current bottom of League One

14 Exeter 31 -19 36
15 Cambridge 28 -9 35
16 Wycombe 29 -4 34
17 Shrewsbury 30 -20 33
18 Burton 30 -14 32
19 Charlton 30 -3 31
20 Reading 30 -6 31
=========================
21 Port Vale 28 -15 30
22 Fleetwood 30 -20 25
23 Cheltenham 28 -19 23
24 Carlisle 30 -24 20

[Sutekh]

FIRST AWAY LEAGUE WIN IN MIDWEEK, AGAINST A TEAM NOT BEGINNING WITH B, SINCE APRIL 2014

Almost a decade

Sorry but they're called Boro.

Well that explains that then

[Brogue]

We have won a midweek away league game (in front of fans) for the first time since January 30th 2018, a 3-1 victory over Burton Albion, a game that was played 2,198 days ago.

[Stranded]

Great win on a horrible night.

Charlton is massive now as we can leapfrog them and go 3 pts ahead of them with a win. If we can win by 2 goals, we'll also have a better GD.

[skipper]

Imagine if we hadn't had the points deduction. We'd be 15th right now, with a run of 3 games in 4 you'd be hedging on a Reading win.

[Brogue]

[stealthpapes]

First BFTG?

Well, I'm in a Stevenage Holiday inn.

First half was desperate at time, just bodies in the way stopping Stevenage. Slightly shitty goal but who cares?

Second half was an epic. Just so much desire to NOT give in, not concede.

Loved it. Absolutely loved it.

[Brogue]

First BFTG?

Well, I'm in a Stevenage Holiday inn.

First half was desperate at time, just bodies in the way stopping Stevenage. Slightly shitty goal but who cares?

Second half was an epic. Just so much desire to NOT give in, not concede.

Loved it. Absolutely loved it.

Yeah a real desire to win, not seen in a few years. I wrote this on the selles in thread but will put it here also.

‘Turning point was the pitch for invasion imo. Players, staff, everyone, was just feeling sorry for ourselves just watching the club die in front of us. The pitch invasion made everyone think, no enough is enough if we are going to go we are going to go kicking and screaming. We are going to fight. And it’s galvanised everyone. fans are behind the players, the players are putting shifts in on the pitch. The fans are backing selles. It really does feel we have everyone facing in the same direction now. There is a passion there not seen for a number of years’

[yuomi]

Not pretty, but still beautiful. A properly gutsy win with 12 players who left it all out there. Freely admit I had my doubts about Mbengue but he was (relatively) imperious at times in that second half. Easily Mola's best game for us so far, and WiFi ran himself into the ground forward and back which is something Mukairu can't seem to do.


The occasions we were 4v3 and 3v2 in their half can be overlooked because we got the three points.

[Brogue]

Reading fans fighting a couple of Stevenage fans after the game. Dicks

https://x.com/away_ends/status/17549945 ... zleRCWjxvA

[tidus_mi2]

Reading fans fighting a couple of Stevenage fans after the game. Dicks

https://x.com/away_ends/status/17549945 ... zleRCWjxvA

Absolute cowards, fighting at a football match is twatish enough, outnumbering 2 guys and acting tough is a whole other level.

[Royal_jimmy]

As much as it's not good to see these scenes the Stevenage fans who were chanting about wanting us to go bust were asking for it. They came looking for a fight and were stood outside the away end after the game.

[Royal_jimmy]

About time we won away at a club not beginning with B in midweek. That was one depressing monkey we got off our backs.

Ruben Selles deserves a statue if we survive this season.

[Uke]

What a night! Wet but worth it

[Royalwaster]

Just watched the highlights on Sky and literally all their chances seem to come from long kicks from their goal keeper or corners ... I guess that's their tactic. Lucky it didn't work for once!

[bloody Volvo driver]

Read reports of local scrotes causing problems for Cambridge fans after their games was postponed late on due to a power outage, so they have history.

Let’s face it, not much going on in Stevenage, so they have to amuse themselves somehow, utter hole of a town.

[Hound]

Just watched the highlights on Sky and literally all their chances seem to come from long kicks from their goal keeper or corners ... I guess that's their tactic. Lucky it didn't work for once!

Yeah they were comical - just big hoofs up.

Great win in dreadful conditions. Fantastic to come away with a clean sheet as well

[Stranded]

Just watched the highlights on Sky and literally all their chances seem to come from long kicks from their goal keeper or corners ... I guess that's their tactic. Lucky it didn't work for once!

Yeah they were comical - just big hoofs up.

Great win in dreadful conditions. Fantastic to come away with a clean sheet as well

Yep they know their limitations and look to exploit their height and strength or just cause complete chaos in the penalty area hoping something will drop. It's quite satisfying that the winner came from one of their own tactics, long throw towards a big man causing a defender to mistime his header and only succeed in knocking it in to his own net. (How many points has OG won us this year? - 5 at least).

Their limited tactic turned to desparation as the game wore on but the determination by the defence and midfield to stand firm is something we have not seen by a Reading team in quite some time, it was a joy to behold. The only small complaint would be that we didn't take advantage of the many opportunities to break on them or that we created ourselves. Smith will have nightmares of a sliding defender blocking a certain goal after he had done everything right but he also put in a great shift up top.

Ehibihatihoman was also excellent in a kind of Meite role off the left - you could tell (in the 1st half certainly) that the Stevenage defence were wary of him - great win.

Real chance now in the next 2 to string some wins together and open up a gap to a number of teams. Charlton is a real six pointer and a win will put us 3 points above them - which given after Shrewbury we were 15 points behind them is an amazing turnaround in 14 games.

10 game form now sees us 7th and then only on goals scored - no-one will be looking forward to playing us at the moment.

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Did really well to grind out a win in the end, conditions were really poor but we were very much up against it in the first half but we have come away with a very good result, lifts us out of the bottom 4 as well.

A real chance to kick on now with some vey winnable fixtures coming up, especially at home. A lot of credit goes to Selles for giving us some hope and turning this around on the field at least.