Just back at my computer for the first time since watching the Reading match, and I am still buzzing inside knowing that we are as good as staying up now. I was a bit sceptical before the game started because a) We were using the same (or at least similar) line-up we had in the Wigan game where we had been so poor. There was no sign of Whittaker (who I assume must have had some sort of injury because he wasn't on the bench) or of John Ruddy or Becchio. Then b) We had been given silly little bits of card to wave around during the match supposedly to make some noise with them, though by the end I was actually rather won over by them and I kept hold of mine. The atmosphere at Carrow Road was really good though, helped by the appearance of our Youth FA cup finalists, Dion Dublin, Darren Eadie and the legendary Darren Huckerby before kick-off and half-time. I don't want to right a massive post as I usually do, so all I'll say on the game, is that we started out really strongly (Garrido nearly scored!), went really flat and gave the ball away, picked up for the rest of the first half and then controlled the game with a barrage of chances for pretty much the entire second half. The scoreline was kind to Reading; Kei Kamara should probably have scored five or six goals and the only real shot they had that needed saving went into the back of the net. I have not seen a replay of the Reading goal, so correct me if I am wrong but to me it looked like a bit of a gaffe by Mark Bunn in goal and he should have saved it. IMO, none of the team did worse than ok (Even Howson!) but I thought the following players deserved a special mention: Rusty - his best game in a long time. He was never really troubled by the Reading attackers and was first to every ball. Got forwards a lot too, up and down the pitch all game long. Snodgrass - His crossing from open play was a bit hit and miss but he wreaked havoc on the Reading box from set plays and boy did he put a shift in. Went off injured near the end, but can't of been too bad because he was on the pitch clapping our terrific support at full-time. Ryan Bennett: Of course he scored yesterday, but it was his first match in ages and he came onto the pitch and slotted seamlessly into our defence and gave a commanding performance. Didn't deserve to concede a goal. Johnson - My man of the match, he was absolutely superb yesterday! He is everywhere on the pitch at once tackling, intercepting and getting really stuck into the game. And didn't even get a booking for once. And as an aside, what happened between Snodgrass and Gunter in the second half? There was some sort of coming together which Snodgrass was penalized for but during his protestations to the referee he was pointing to his leg as if to say he was stamped on maybe? Anyway, as Gunter brushed past him, he threw something between a slap and a punch at Gunter that personally I thought he was lucky only to get booked for considering that it could be interpretative as aggressive conduct. Something must of happened to make Snoddy so angry.
Good summary, DM. I think their goal caught out everybody. Bunn got a hand to it, but couldn't get it around the post. didn't see the Snods incident, but I thought the ref was good for once and used the advantage rule to good effect. KK was my man of the match (he also made the MotD team of the week), but BJ was also excellent.
Should hopefully boost morale which is a good thing hopefully that will motivate us to pick up to get some more points on the table. With Snodders there has been previous altercations between him and members of the Welsh national team Chris Gunter and Craig Bellamy in particular.
