BFTG-Stoke

[Norfolk Royal]

Should also say it made a big difference having a player like Baba to come off the bench late on today. He pretty much snuffed out any late attacks Stoke we’re able to mount.

[CountryRoyal]

I too, like Ian, would prefer to see us playing on the front foot more, be more dominant and play higher up with more intensity (like we did against Blackburn), however I can’t fault the style so long as it picks up results. I do get nervy without the ball so long when we have a narrow lead as all it takes is small moments and we could concede - overall we are looking far more solid though (at least at home).

Joao put a lot more of a shift in today which is encouraging and rewarded with 2 goals, although I do squirm a bit when I see him take a penalty. Fornah is quality and Hutchinson was a beast. A lot of really strong individual performances.

Great positive response to the big defeat last time out, long may this good home form continue.

[genome]

Tom Ince was just outstanding. He played like someone who was being managed by their Dad and feared a bollocking if he didn't put in 110%

Hang on...

[Norfolk Royal]

Tom Ince was just outstanding. He played like someone who was being managed by their Dad and feared a bollocking if he didn't put in 110%

Hang on...

Lol, exactly. Long may it continue.

[Hound]

Some comical shit housing from Lumley on Twitter

Do like the guy, just going to have to accept he’ll have a few nightmares

[paultheroyal]

Hutchinson 9 motm
Ince 8.5
Joao 8
Everyone else 7.5

Great win, great fight, transformation and reaction from setbacks just superb. Paul Ince doing an amazing job.

[SWLR]

Couple of observations:

Ince - was having a shocker early on - kept giving the ball away, but as stated above gave his all through to the end - and that cross-field ball on the break deserved being converted

Hendrick - playing deeper role, offered an out ball from defence not seen so far this season.. hence comments above about not passing from side to side as we had the option to move the ball quicker through midfield. Stoke put someone on him in second half so less effective.

Back 3/5 stopped any meaningful chances marshalled by our new blond bombshell

Attacking - like the Cardiff game, we just look more dangerous that an opposition who we let have the ball. Long/ Jaoa needs time, but means there is always an outball.

Crowd - these early kick-offs are often flat but good atmosphere generated by all. Roads out/into London much quieter too.

Main downer - NO PIES in ED stand and they ran out of sausage rolls!!

[CountryRoyal]

Some comical shit housing from Lumley on Twitter

Do like the guy, just going to have to accept he’ll have a few nightmares

Link? Can't find his profile.

[TiagoIlori]

Touch wood but it’s very nice feeling like we can go into any home game and get a result. Players clearly have had it emphasised to them how important home form is this season.

[morganb]

Some comical shit housing from Lumley on Twitter

Do like the guy, just going to have to accept he’ll have a few nightmares

Link? Can't find his profile.

Not sure if referring to these two clips on Twitter -

https://twitter.com/callumcap/status/15 ... owKTg&s=19

[Hound]

Some comical shit housing from Lumley on Twitter

Do like the guy, just going to have to accept he’ll have a few nightmares

Link? Can't find his profile.

It’s a video of him rather than by him. Ridiculous play acting and time wasting. Did make me chuckle though

[Hound]

Some comical shit housing from Lumley on Twitter

Do like the guy, just going to have to accept he’ll have a few nightmares

Link? Can't find his profile.

Not sure if referring to these two clips on Twitter -

https://twitter.com/callumcap/status/15 ... owKTg&s=19

Yep that

[Royal Rother]

, although I do squirm a bit when I see him take a penalty.

Me too after his feeble rolls to the keeper a year or so back.

But today’s was perfect. Powerful, along the turf and in the corner. That’s how to take a penalty.

[Royalcop]

First game this season so a chance to see the new signings. Very impressed by Fornah, Hendrick less so - thought he would be more creative - Hutchinson was ok but that early tackle was stupid; none of our three CBs filled me with much confidence. Long wasn’t on it today and looks overweight to me, hope he doesn’t turn out to be a signing based more on nostalgia than what the team needed. Thought we really lacked a ball-playing mid today i.e. Swift, maybe Ejaria can fill this role but he’s so inconsistent.

Rahman coming on second half made a big difference and I don’t remember a RFC team battling that hard since McDermott days - very encouraging.

Oh and Lumley was great, unflappable and decent distribution. Saw him in the car park after the game and made a point of thanking him for making the first goal.

[CountryRoyal]

Link? Can't find his profile.

Not sure if referring to these two clips on Twitter -

https://twitter.com/callumcap/status/15 ... owKTg&s=19

Yep that

looool

You just know we'd be fuming if it happened to us

[AthleticoSpizz]

First game this season so a chance to see the new signings. Very impressed by Fornah, Hendrick less so - thought he would be more creative - Hutchinson was ok but that early tackle was stupid; none of our three CBs filled me with much confidence. Long wasn’t on it today and looks overweight to me, hope he doesn’t turn out to be a signing based more on nostalgia than what the team needed. Thought we really lacked a ball-playing mid today i.e. Swift, maybe Ejaria can fill this role but he’s so inconsistent.

Rahman coming on second half made a big difference and I don’t remember a RFC team battling that hard since McDermott days - very encouraging.

Oh and Lumley was great, unflappable and decent distribution. Saw him in the car park after the game and made a point of thanking him for making the first goal.

btw, we won

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Enjoyed that. Such a difference to last season. The main difference being that the players seem to be trying a lot harder. That’s the bottom line.

This was typified by Tom Ince who in the last few minutes sprinted across the field as if his life depended on it and put in a great tackle to prevent an attack.

That sort of lung busting effort lifts the crowd and was something we saw so little of last season.

What would have happened last year was that a player would have sullenly trotted back to a defensive position allowing the Stoke player to come forward unchallenged to pass it, conceding 20 yards defensively.

Thought the ref was poor. One of their players made three bookable tackles but did not receive one caution while Hutchinson, who was fantastic btw, was booked for his first challenge. We should have had at least one more penalty as well. VAR would definitely have found the trip on Yiadom was a pen. Jaoa was much better today.

Stoke played like we did last season. They look to be lower table fodder.

Can we sustain this. Maybe. We’ve got four first choices to come back. Will be an interesting season and we haven’t had that for a few years. Excellent.

Yeah a pretty good summary. Really surprised Clucas didn't see at least a card for that and Lewis Baker who committed 4/5 fouls himself, so not sure how they didn't get any bookings in the game. Agree about potentially getting at least one more penalty as well. I think Flint handballed as well from Ince's free kick, which I thought was contentious.

But overall, a really pleasing performance and victory. Important as well with Watford away coming up which will probably end up being a loss, so it avoids 3 straight defeats and gives us some confidence going into that game as well.

[Franchise FC]

I was just looking at the table (we’re third by the way), and noticed that there are only two teams in the Championship that have no draw (us and Blackburn)
Out of interest looked at the other divisions and there are two, and exactly two teams with no draws in each division
Thanks for listening

[Royalcop]

First game this season so a chance to see the new signings. Very impressed by Fornah, Hendrick less so - thought he would be more creative - Hutchinson was ok but that early tackle was stupid; none of our three CBs filled me with much confidence. Long wasn’t on it today and looks overweight to me, hope he doesn’t turn out to be a signing based more on nostalgia than what the team needed. Thought we really lacked a ball-playing mid today i.e. Swift, maybe Ejaria can fill this role but he’s so inconsistent.

Rahman coming on second half made a big difference and I don’t remember a RFC team battling that hard since McDermott days - very encouraging.

Oh and Lumley was great, unflappable and decent distribution. Saw him in the car park after the game and made a point of thanking him for making the first goal.

btw, we won

Oh sorry, of course - we won so all objectivity abandoned and everyone gets 10/10 until we lose, then it’s 0/10s all round

[AthleticoSpizz]

Currist

Enjoy the moment(s)

Didn’t realise that there were two ‘Royal Jimmys’ here