Smallwood- solid performance, played it simple and battled hard . KLP - had a good game , created and was a pest on both wings Baxter - made some good saves which kept us in the game . Another good battling team performance with flashes of decent passing that opened up Reading . Well done boys Come on City
KLP a constant threat, highly rated by the biased Reading commentators as well. Some achievement. Smallwood - very solid and a cool head Honeyman- worked hard as always, bit quieter second half but no lack of effort.
Re. MR Martin , personally I felt none of Reading's penalty calls were penalties . Well done referee.
It was a good team performance with no real standouts for me, but... Baxter - a couple of excellent saves. Honeyman - buzzes about like a... ummm... hornet? Wilks - he scored for ****s sake. Don't knock it. Maybe he put spin on the ball so it arrived at the keeper like a bar of Lifebuoy. Who knows?
Greaves KLP McLaughlin Despite his awful miss, Wilks was a little better today, and well done for the goal.
Bernard’s handball would’ve been given with VAR. Bernard’s tackle in the second half wouldn’t have been given with VAR as he got a toe on the ball first. The challenge on Carroll in the first half could’ve gone either way. In any case, we were really lucky. We’ve been really lucky in our last 5 games regarding decisions. I noticed it after the goal that shouldn’t have been against Brum and the ref was quite generous to us against Cardiff. We’ve played some really nice football recently with three at the back but we’ve had a lot of luck gone our way which has led to us picking up crucial points.
Honeyman - Once again the engine that drives this team. Baxter - Another impressive performance. Kept us in the game. KLP - Back to his best. Always a threat.
Think KLP is hedging his bets for an Xmas move , now he’s given the space to shine , so many players do this at appropriate times. The idiot for Watford Dennis tried to dribble through Man City a number of times probably hoped Pep might come for him. He failed each time he tried .
Baxter Greaves KLP Replay clearly showed he didn't get any of the ball, but to be fair to the ref, in real time it looked like he did. Handball was clear pen, Carroll's looked like a pathetic flop to the ground. Also in the list of questionable decisions: Not sure Wilks was offside, yes when cross went in but not active, but in the replay looked like he'd got back onside before the ball was knocked back to him Possible handball before their goal? Greaves being flattened by Carroll jumping in late and leading with his elbow, didn't even get a talking to. Late in the game, Honeyman fouled one of theirs by the touchline and got a clear elbow in the chops right in front of ref and linesman, again no action whatsoever.
Yeah, watching the highlights, Bernard got none of the ball. Foul on Swift and should’ve been a pen. Bernard’s handball would’ve been given after VAR as it was in an unnatural position. We, and Bernard, were extremely lucky.
May actually have been Magennis given as offside. He was offside and he was interfering with play, leading to the ball coming of their defender who Magennis was challenging from an offside position, toward Wilks.
Greaves Baxter Docherty/Smallwood as for the ref … meh! Some days it goes for you and some days it doesn’t. The first call was never a penalty and the ref was perfectly placed. Any other calls … well mmm I’ll take it. If I was a Reading fan, this paragraph would be completely different! (Of course)