Hamer makes a superb save from Guthrie's effort from the resulting free-kick. It was heading into the top right-hand corner of the goal.
We've gone 4-4-2, Cousins out on the right, Harriott on the left, Poyet and Petrucci in the middle with Reza and Church up front.
Full time 0-1 Another home defeat, another OK performance but once again we struggled to create chances. Yeovil's win today means Tuesday's game is massive. Look forward to hearing from those who were there.
Felt that we had the measure of Reading in the First-Half and that we passed the ball well... Ajdarevic did some neat flicks and did some good link-up play with Jackson and Wiggins... Harriott ran well with the ball but his distribution was awful today (was shocked each time he wasnt taken off during any of the substitutions) Reading in the Second Half were much the better side and Ben Hamer pulled off a great save from a Free Kick to ensure they didnt go 1-0 up earlier than when they did... Williams their scorer was a good dribbler of the ball and wasted two or three efforts before finally scoring. We only really had one good effort ourselves and I said before the game that Cousins was good at passing and tackling but couldnt shoot (after Charlton showed the highlights of his 1on1 against Leeds)... Unfortunately our best effort fell to Cousins who's weak effort just dribbled to their Goalkeeper. Referee was a little bit questionable... First-Half he gave a free-kick for a foul on their Goalkeeper... Second Half Hamer was fouled whilst punching the ball and he gave a corner
Referee was very questionable; but that's no excuse. Several Reading players could have been booked for quite bad fouls including Williams (thug), Guthrie and Pogretcetc. But Simon Church is turning me into an Atheist.
Didn't play badly, didn't play well... was boring game. Church will never amount to anything I'm afraid, normally I like the fact he runs and works hard but today he really didn't even run about that much, than again him up top on his own is pointless. Yeah, pretty boring game, and had 0-0 written all over it. first half didn't see any problems for us, and then 2nd half they came at us but didn't really look that dangerous. We lost the ball for their goal and then they countered as we should have done and boom! GOAL, we build up too slow, and really gutted by this as I saw this game as one for the taking Oh and ref very questionable. Trying to figure out when the last time we scored 2 in the league, Brighton on boxing day... last time we came from a goal down... Brighton boxing day.. can't really see where 2 goals will come from at all.
We were ok for the first half then the second half starts- Astrid had had enough, trudging round the pitch like an old man, what was that all about? He couldn't have suddenly been that knackered surely? If he was he's got a medical problem, if not he's got an attitude problem. He might as well have held up a sign that said I want out of this. So he got his wish, and replacing him with Reza weakened the midfield, even more so when Jacko went off. All our nice passing came to nothing when we reached the penalty area. Reading's goal came from a fast decisive break and we're just not capable of that I'm afraid. I can understand the logic of playing only one striker, because our strikers aren't great, but until Obika came on Church was totally isolated up front and didn't stand a chance really. I just can't see where the next goal is coming from.
A game of two halves today. There was some lovely football on show and we bossed Reading for large spells, but there was never a goal on the cards for us. The longer the game went on, the livelier Reading became and it was all pretty predictable. Williams was Reading's best player, but he should have been sent in the first half. Harriott was utter garbage and should have been replaced at half time. Jackson looked knackered and when he went off all semblance of a midfield disappeared. Bring back Sordell and Obika and go for it against Yeovil with a 4-3-3. COYR!
It's very strange because many people understandably praised Riga for bringing a more attacking formation in, and Riga himself said he was looking to attack more and score more. I've got to say I'm surprised that Obika isn't starting more often. Is there something wrong with his attitude? The result at the City Ground today highlights what I was saying last week. A win on Tuesday would bring back hope
