Ido wonder if these sort of games, like Villa away will come back to haunt us ? Would of expected Holty to have bagged both those headers last season?
think CH was happy to get the away point and the first clean sheet away from home for over 30 games and we might have thought we might have sneaked a goal and the win
Opportunity missed to go 11th, but its a point away from home with a clean sheet I guess. Man Utd next though....
Any away point in this league is good. When Reading looked at their fixtures this would of been one of the games they had down as 'winable' or 'must win'. We look strong.
i would have settled for a point before the game. I'm now in that very very rare position of actually wanting Man ure to win tonight.
Well we are in a better situation after the game than before. Gained a point on QPR nad neither Reading or Southampton closed the gap. 1st Away clean sheet in 38 games so plenty of positives
Good point. Maintained the gap to 18th place. We are just 2 points behind where we were last season after 11 games. Who's complaining?
Again, more imprtant not to lose. I'll take the same result next week, but personally hoping to see a slightly different team - Pilks seems to be struggling a bit!!
Totally agree think his decision making was a bit poor shooting from way out and not slipping in holt the stand out moments. Think the regular goals last year boosted his confidence so maybe he needs one? I also wonder why we don't switch our wingers wings let them have a go at different full backs throughout the game?
I agree with the positives but would lve to see us move the ball more quickly, there's a hesitancy which bac fires as space suddenly shuts down. I think it will come well I hope it will
They do switch more when playing at home, and Pilks sometimes also roams over to the right along with Snodgrass/Bennett. Reading have scored 23 goals already this season, so I think CH's priority was keeping them out, with a win being a bonus if we could snatch it. He clearly wasn't prepared to do anything to unsettle the balance.
I don't understand - or want to, particularly the last two comments on here. What I did see this afternoon was Garrido in acres of space down the left, picked out frequently by Pilks, Hoolers, Tettey etc, but his final ball never once beat the front defender? Surely if we're playing with only one officially 'up front' we need decent service into the oppositions danger areas?
Crossing was said to be one of JG's strengths, and that was borne out in his first couple of games. Maybe he has caught the poor crossing bug from the others because it has been generally pretty dire this season. Having got the defence sorted, I get the impression CH is turning his attention more to getting the ball in the net so I expect to see more signs now of serious work on the training ground on crosses and set pieces.
That is what he suggested in the post match interview, and it is an area that needs developing, although the extent of the decrement in quality of crosses this season is surprising, at least it means it can be recaptured and improved upon from last season.
Finally ... a few words of praise from the Reading lads, and here's to the best of luck to you for the remainder of the season! -------------------------------------------------------------------- Reading FC Official Site Shorey and McCleary buoyed by clean sheet http://www.readingfc.co.uk/news/article/lets-build-on-it-131112-484244.aspx A step in the right direction - that's the general consensus around Reading Football Club after Brian McDermott's men earned a solid clean sheet against Norwich on Saturday. It may have not been that first win that the Royals undoubtedly deserve, but Garath McCleary and Nicky Shorey both felt that it really gives the side something to build on. "It was a well contested game," said McCleary. "Norwich are a good team but we got a clean sheet so we can build on that. All the boys had a good game and we defended well. Everyone dug in and we did what was needed of us to get a clean sheet. But we know that we've got to create a few more chances up front and hopefully that will come on Saturday. We're going in the right direction. We played really well over the last two games so hopefully we can build on it now." Left back Shorey shared the same optimism, but also rued the fact that the Royals didn't test Canaries goalkeeper John Ruddy as much as they perhaps should have. "We're disappointed because we were at home," Nicky admitted. "We had a lot of crosses in the box but nothing fell for us. To be fair to Norwich, they won a lot of the balls which was unlike us - against QPR we pretty much won every header. But the positive is that we've kept a clean sheet and we were very solid at the back. There have been a lot of goals at both games recently so as a defender it's nice to keep a clean sheet." With no mid-week fixture, the focus is entirely on another big game at the Madejski on Saturday - against David Moyes' prospering Everton side.
