Back from the pain

[Zip]

Agreed Tom Mc has a good future at the club. I was a little surprised at his lack of pace though. Thought he was quicker than that. He had a torrid second half and I’m not sure he will be feeling too good right now. I would bench him on Saturday so that the club can work on his confidence over the break. Let’s see what Gibson is made of.

[Silver Fox]

Defensively we lack pace. Going forward we lack creativity. Honeymoon is over.

Desperately need Meite back. Swift is a huge loss.

Do we really lack creativity going forward?

Or are we creating a similar quantity of chances as we were before but not taking them any more?

I would say we created more chances last night than we have for a while. Combination of poor finishing and good keeping stopped us from getting a couple of goals last night.

There really wasn't too much to get annoyed by last night in terms of forward play bar finishing, we also put a lot of crosses into dangerous areas. Fine margins.

Defensively, the opener was bad luck. Sinclair was onside but that ball got to him from a tackle by a PNE player. Ball could have gone anywhere but went to him, shit happens. 2nd TMaC was caught out badly just after we had changed things up, poor but that goal doesn't happen following their bit of luck a minute earlier and 90th min 3rd goals are neither here nor there.

So yeah, lots to work on but nothing to get too upset about either.

Agreed with all that. All I've got to go on are the highlights on Quest (first on!!!) but it looks like if there was such a thing as using up all our luck in front of goal then maybe we've done that in the first 9 games, fortunately the mythical luckometer has now been reset, at least in the minds of people who believe that sort of thing.

Top of the league after 10 will do me and it seems pleasant that there doesn't seem to be too much of a meltdown here, which is a rare delight. Win on Saturday and all will be very good again.

[JR]

From the start we looked shaky and Rafael not his usual steady self. Shows how much a dominant pair of centre backs help. I think it’s time to introduce Gibson as McIntyre out of his depth at the moment. Although have no knowledge of Gibson’s ability....

Not convinced by Semedo and whether he works for our shape.

Thought Aluko was great and some cracking early crosses and very unlucky not to score a worldy.

Had some great chances before and after half time - football is a game of fine lines, so we may be talking very differently if had taken one of those. Shows how important our early clinical form was.

Overall, we should remember that this is always going to happen at times in the championship and it’s about bouncing back sooner rather than later.

And we are still 3 points clear - any of us would have taken that a month ago.

[Snowflake Royal]

LOL at people writing off McIntyre after one poor game, a guy who impressed in the Championship last season, and demanding we see Gibson instead, a guy most of us have never seen play who impressed at L1 last season.

Scoreline flattered Preston but they deserved the win. Too many mistakes and too easily exposed plus we didn't take our chances as we did early on.

The injuries have taken their toll, but we're beginning to get people back.

[Hound]

definitely not writing McIntyre off, but he looked very dodgy for whatever reason. Unlike Moore, doesn't have the strength to make up for his lack of height and looked slow. Definitely worth trying Gibson for the next game

Could have a bench of proper first team squad players for stoke hopefully.

[Zip]

definitely not writing McIntyre off, but he looked very dodgy for whatever reason. Unlike Moore, doesn't have the strength to make up for his lack of height and looked slow. Definitely worth trying Gibson for the next game

Could have a bench of proper first team squad players for stoke hopefully.

Yeah I think we need to see what Gibson is like. Tom Mc should be very much part of the first team squad but last night was painful and I would be a bit concerned at starting him against Stoke.

[NewCorkSeth]

TMac got caught out due to his pace and experience last night. Nothing too concerning for me. He will learn. Morro next to him similarly has a lack of pace but hadls the experience to know how to position himself. McIntyre will learn.

I cant believe we are yet again in a position with an academy CB where fans are willing to dump them due to making mistakes. Young players make mistakes. Its part of the game.

Cooper is now one of the best CBs in the league. That doesn't happen overnight.

[Zip]

TMac got caught out due to his pace and experience last night. Nothing too concerning for me. He will learn. Morro next to him similarly has a lack of pace but hadls the experience to know how to position himself. McIntyre will learn.

I cant believe we are yet again in a position with an academy CB where fans are willing to dump them due to making mistakes. Young players make mistakes. Its part of the game.

Cooper is now one of the best CBs in the league. That doesn't happen overnight.

Spot on. Cooper made mistakes and was dropped and then sold. Tom Mc will learn from this.

[SouthDownsRoyal]

I couldn't give a shit about the result. We are first on Quest!!!

I bet we are bet quest were LOLing at that

[hughsies no.1]

Pretty much to echo what has been said in here already. Joao or Aluko chance goes in before the break it is a different game -

Positives (always have to lead with these as Adkins would) -
- Creating more chances now
- Semedo looks a solid signing
- Injured players to come back (key players too)
- Still 3pts clear at the top of the league
- Aluko, causing all kinds of problems in the first half

Negatives
- Sluggish start again
- Didn't take our chances (that we are now creating)
- McIntyre performance, didn't look up to it and looks much better playing in the middle of the park, talk was he was set be sent on loan and that never materialised. Him starting ahead of Gibson further makes me believe that Gibson wasn't Pauno's signing and he was already lined up under Bowen. Gibson has to start Saturday if Moore not available though.

Easy to say, but was never confident of beating PNE with their away form. I do think we will beat Stoke on Saturday though.

Up the Royals.

[URZZZZ]

Pretty much to echo what has been said in here already. Joao or Aluko chance goes in before the break it is a different game -

Positives (always have to lead with these as Adkins would) -
- Creating more chances now
- Semedo looks a solid signing
- Injured players to come back (key players too)
- Still 3pts clear at the top of the league
- Aluko, causing all kinds of problems in the first half

Negatives
- Sluggish start again
- Didn't take our chances (that we are now creating)
- McIntyre performance, didn't look up to it and looks much better playing in the middle of the park, talk was he was set be sent on loan and that never materialised. Him starting ahead of Gibson further makes me believe that Gibson wasn't Pauno's signing and he was already lined up under Bowen. Gibson has to start Saturday if Moore not available though.

Easy to say, but was never confident of beating PNE with their away form. I do think we will beat Stoke on Saturday though.

Up the Royals.

Think Gibson was also signed as LB cover, may well see him there if Richards becomes unavailable

Personally think it’ll send out the wrong message by dropping McIntyre now, but I guess we’ll see

[skipper]

Is this the Joao that Sheff Wed and Blackburn warned us about?

Not taking his chance in the Coventry game cost us that, defo. Had he scored it, would have been a different momentum and outcome.

Who would try Holmes in the centre, ahead of McIntyre, after last nights performance? (or is he injured? I forget)

[Zip]

Is this the Joao that Sheff Wed and Blackburn warned us about?

Not taking his chance in the Coventry game cost us that, defo. Had he scored it, would have been a different momentum and outcome.

Who would try Holmes in the centre, ahead of McIntyre, after last nights performance? (or is he injured? I forget)

Holmes is still injured.

[Snowflake Royal]

Never drop a player you just brought in after just one game for poor performance unless they were horrendous, sends an awful message. Especially dropping them for someone even less proven than they are who won'tbe here next season.

[paultheroyal]

Going forward i thought we looked decent, created a number of chances on another day could of scored 3 comfortably. I dont mind Esteves, like how he gets forward but good to see Yiadom back. Mcintyre had a poor game, he will know that, and thats where the game was lost.

Win against Stoke, stay top, 2 week break. Come on, no-one, no one would of expected that at start of season (if it happens). Lets hope we get a reaction.

[tidus_mi2]

Hopefully McIntyre will be looking to prove a point against Stoke, agree that if he's dropped it will just kill his confidence.

[Vision]

Up until the penalty incident McIntyre was excellent. Interceptions, headers, bringing the ball out. Rafael was a bystander up until that point despite Preston having a lot of 1st half possession.

After the penalty it seemed to knock his confidence. maybe down to trying too hard rather than an inherent lack of pace. It's what you can get with young players. Where more experienced players would accept the mistake as part of the game and move on, it affects younger players more deeply.

Will have to keep an eye on him in training this week but as long as there are no obvious signs that it's going to affect him negatively then I'd definitely start him against Stoke (assuming Moore is still injured of course ). It's part and parcel of developing young players , especially defenders.

In general I thought we actually played better than against Coventry. We created a lot more for sure and Meite would've lapped up some of those crosses from Richards and Aluko from the left side. It makes it all the more puzzling we don't do it more often when Meite is in the team.

I'm still pretty confident we can perhaps push for a play off spot but I think this is a season , due to the truncated nature of it, when the teams with the deepest squads will come to the fore for automatic. . We're not at that level yet but I'm enjoying watching us all the same.

PS. Semedo might be the oddest playerI've I've seen on a Reading shirt. I really can't quite work him out. At one period he seems to be everywhere , then suddenly you don't notice him for ages. He's got a great leap but doesn't seem to win as many headers as you think he should. He looks really awkward then out of nowhere will produce a really good piece of skill. A really weird footballer.

[South Coast Royal]

For a team at the top of it's division the start last night was surprising, on the back foot waiting for things to happen.
It had the feeling of being "one of those games" and even with the penalty miss by Preston it still felt like that.

The rejuvenated ,and back to his old self ,Moore was badly missed-he is a real presence at the back and a positive rather than passive defender.
Unfortunately McIntyre does still look like a young lad making his way (22nd birthday tomorrow but not a lot of game time for that age) and his lack of experience showed.
Perhaps we can understand why the club brought in another centre-back albeit that he is also cover for left-back.

I do feel a bit sorry for Joao as , despite having a 5-man midfield, he is often on his own with no support-although they said on commentary that his headed chance was a bad miss I thought that on the rare occasion of support he and Semedo got in each other's way-in fact Semedo was better placed.

Aluko had a few good touches but, along with all of our midfielders, I don't think he (nor they) do enough and we rely so much on a few chances being converted in each game (e.g. 4/4 v Blackburn).
When those few chances are not converted we suffer (last night and v Coventry) and our front players cannot be expected to maintain such a high level of performance and have done brilliantly so far in exceeding expectations.

Hopefully Meite won't be out for too long nor Moore as both are this season very important to the way that we play.

[Lower West]

Agreed Tom Mc has a good future at the club. I was a little surprised at his lack of pace though. Thought he was quicker than that. He had a torrid second half and I’m not sure he will be feeling too good right now. I would bench him on Saturday so that the club can work on his confidence over the break. Let’s see what Gibson is made of.

Match fitness etc comes with playing games. Little point in chopping and changing.

[Millsy]

Yes folks please give young Mcinytre a chance. He has been excellent most times I have watched him at all levels from U18 onwards. He will know he had an awful match tonight.

My view is he is just too slow.

I wasn't too much of a fan as he seemed too lightweight but maybe that's why he was better. He's now bulked out but that has affected his pace probably. The penalty because he just couldn't keep up and slipped. The second goal crap pace. Even the third goal just couldn't keep up with the guy.