Heroic performance......but

[handbags_harris]

To a certain degree I'm with you IR, there were times when we were content to merely clear the ball rather than find a man. The Utd equaliser was a case in point, Sonks merely headed it as far up the field as he could rather than head to Seol who was in space 10-15 yards in front of him. However it must be taken into account that we are still a team who are learning to play in this league, so some slack must be given. Games like this will highlight our shortcomings, but if we can play to our strengths like we have been doing and work on the weaknesses then we'll be doing ok. Games like yesterdays WILL highlight what we're doing wrong and ball retention was one of our shortcomings yesterday, but then again when you play against the likes of Man Utd you're not going to be seeing a great deal of the ball anyway!

[dantheloyalroyal]

Typical west stand celebration. Standing and clapping.

Just what I was going to say!

[dantheloyalroyal]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ltbhYhY2QU

North Stand do it better

Reference the poster of this thread. We have just drawn at home to one of the best European sides going, need we worry about ball retention?

And heres another http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ActvTzXnd8c&NR

[Millsy]

Bearing in mind we played with a depleted team against their full team I'm proud.

We played without our number one striker and had to resort to bringing on a youngster (but couldn't in the end anyway tahnks to Murty's injury) whereas ManUtd had their full strength Rooney and Ronaldo and Saha came on later.

Who knows - if they were as unfortunate as us and had Ronaldo ruled out like we had Kitson ruled out we'd have won that match.

Yes, a very heroic perfomance indeed.

[SpaceCruiser]

I am in no doubt that it was Coppell's attitude of downplaying the achievements that enabled the team to remain utterly focussed last year and eventually for them to beat the points record.

He is doing the same thing again and will I am sure, as a result, squeeze a few extra points out of his players than if he went into the back-slapping favoured by many other managers after a good performance. If the fans want to go wild and then NOT have the intelligence to assess where things might be improved that's up to them but I prefer a little more cerebral approach once the euphoria has settled.

You risk overheating that single cell your brain possesses.

[Royal Rother]

Does that mean you agree with my point?

[Hampshire Royal]

I'm gutted that we only drew at home against one of our rivals for the Champions League.

Coppell out!!!!!

[Frustrated_Royal]

Hello

Looking at the last two home games, if you look at the possession stats you would be hard pushed to predict that Reading would have got 4 points out of a possible 6. Picking up points in games like that is fantastic.

I think this confirms that we're very hard to score against at the moment and the defence have shown that they may well be able to cope at Premiership level.

As I've said before, if you look at the Premiership how many sides would you say have a genuine team spirit. I think you'd be hard pushed to find any at all. I think that Reading have it in abundance and that is a major reason why I think that relegation is unlikely.

Look at players like Hunt and Gunnarsson when they come on. They look ecstatic to get their ten or fifteen minute bursts from the bench. I'm not so sure other Premiership substitutes would be so 'positive' at not being in the starting XI.

Does anyone agree? No? Good.

[Peter Kay - Top of the To]

Hello

Looking at the last two home games, if you look at the possession stats you would be hard pushed to predict that Reading would have got 4 points out of a possible 6. Picking up points in games like that is fantastic.

I think this confirms that we're very hard to score against at the moment and the defence have shown that they may well be able to cope at Premiership level.

As I've said before, if you look at the Premiership how many sides would you say have a genuine team spirit. I think you'd be hard pushed to find any at all. I think that Reading have it in abundance and that is a major reason why I think that relegation is unlikely.

Look at players like Hunt and Gunnarsson when they come on. They look ecstatic to get their ten or fifteen minute bursts from the bench. I'm not so sure other Premiership substitutes would be so 'positive' at not being in the starting XI.

Does anyone agree? No? Good.

I do. The managers policy of trusting the players he has is paying off. We obviously tried to attract some established players in the summer, but when they didnt come, he obviously got to a stage where he figured, what we have is good enough to get us through to January. Time will obviously tell. Im trying not to get too carried away by Saturday, although it was fantastic. Weather we can carve results away from home at places like Fulham, West Ham, Blackburn and Boro will be an even better indicator of how sustainable we are with the current squad.

My biggest worry is injuries.

[Lower West]

If that was a full strength Man Utd side on Saturday then I'd put my life savings on Chelsea to win the premiership this season. With Giggs out and an unfit Saha relegated to the bench they really didnt have a cutting edge upfront. With Ronaldo out they would struggle even more. I was impressed with Rooneys work rate. Rather like Harper at times you don't notice him for periods during the game but he is always involved.

Thought that Lita played with a much better attitude on Saturday. Very little of his normal falling over. Also tried much harder to link play up.

[Nezhen]

Can anyone else beat Khartoum as the most bizare place to have watched the Manure game ?. Are you part of some sort of weird African / international Reading cult then international Royal ?

[International Royal]

No, no weird international cult here, I just travel (for work) a lot. Quite a few football supporting ex-pats here though. In fact most ex-pats in places like this fall into one of the 3 'M's. Those being Missionaries, Mercenaries (as in for financial gain) and finally Misfits!

Mostly it is Man U and Liverpool that are the best supported / followed, even amongst the Sudanese. The Reading story is however beginning to become better known.

People were impressed by the performance against Man U.

[Spirit of Elm Park]

I don't think we were ever going to retain the ball for long periods against Man Utd. The way we defended was perfect for the occasion, I doubt many fans noticed that we were playing 2 close banks of four on the edge of our area, by doing that there was no space between the two for United to hurt us, thats why they were restricted to long shots for the majority of the game.

Our support shouting "get out" and "push up" at every opportunity made me laugh at how little some people realise what goes on tactically.

Great defensive performance.

[Norfolk Royal]

Fantastic performance. Watched the game live in Khartoum of all places. Had to put up with Eddie Lewis of Supersports (South African satellite package) and his bias for Man U. While I think it was a great backs to the wall performance these type of performance can't be sustainable surely? We have to work on ball retention and possession as the ball just keeps coming back. Yes, it will be easier when Kitson comes back as the ball will stick better. I think the main problem was in the centre of midfield, can we play 2 wide men?

Brilliant point today though.

Spot on.

Unless we improve our ball retention how can we expect to hold onto 7th place in the table or beat the likes of MAN U on a regular basis.

A quick comparison between the 2 clubs reveals who has true ambition and who is happy just to survive in the top flight.

Had we spent the same as Man U in the summer we would now have real prospects of a place in the Champions League rather than the distinctly 2nd rate UEFA Cup.

It's also thoroughly depressing to read about occupants of the West Stand who merely clapped to celebrate yesterday's goal.

It's at times like this when supporting RFC really sucks

What would actually satisfy you? Perhaps if a fan responded to a goal being scored by losing all control of bodily functions?

[Royal Rother]

NR, Woodcote's a bit odd. I think he was being ironic, but it's hard to tell as he's very good at hiding any semblance of a sense of humour.

[SpaceCruiser]

NR, Woodcote's a bit odd.

So are you.

[Royal Rother]

I thank you!

[Woodcote Royal]

Fantastic performance. Watched the game live in Khartoum of all places. Had to put up with Eddie Lewis of Supersports (South African satellite package) and his bias for Man U. While I think it was a great backs to the wall performance these type of performance can't be sustainable surely? We have to work on ball retention and possession as the ball just keeps coming back. Yes, it will be easier when Kitson comes back as the ball will stick better. I think the main problem was in the centre of midfield, can we play 2 wide men?

Brilliant point today though.

Spot on.

Unless we improve our ball retention how can we expect to hold onto 7th place in the table or beat the likes of MAN U on a regular basis.

A quick comparison between the 2 clubs reveals who has true ambition and who is happy just to survive in the top flight.

Had we spent the same as Man U in the summer we would now have real prospects of a place in the Champions League rather than the distinctly 2nd rate UEFA Cup.

It's also thoroughly depressing to read about occupants of the West Stand who merely clapped to celebrate yesterday's goal.

It's at times like this when supporting RFC really sucks

What would actually satisfy you? Perhaps if a fan responded to a goal being scored by losing all control of bodily functions?

I'm surprised that anyone would have taken my observations as anything other than ironic

But, thinking about it, I guess that would have to excluded the kind of idiot who is more concerned about how other fans celebrate success than the success itself