Skip to main content

QPR 1-3 Reading

Reading showed their metal as they finished the game with 10 men after Kaspars Gorkss saw himself sent off against his old team. The Royals started strongly, and were quickly ahead when a flowing team move saw ALF cross straight onto Danny Williams' head - and the ball flew past Green's despairing dive. A scrappy goal, finished by Kevin Doyle, saw any momentum very quickly killed. Chance after chance to clear the ball was missed before Doyler somehow scored with his knees. Seeing him celebrate really did hurt. If there's every a time not to then it's probably against the club who made your career.

The second half started slowly, seeing knocks to Pav and McCleary, before last week's naughty boy, Alex Pearce, tucked home a Jobi McAnuff corner and was swiftly followed by one of Garath McCleary's wonder strikes - which he seems to save for Harry Redknapp. From then on Reading were never really troubled, with QPR never really finding the right gear although Doyle once again had a chance to cut the deficit but somehow missed a header from 2 yards out which saw Reading hold onto the 3-1 scoreline.

That said, for the second week running, Reading ended with 10 men. Now, personally, I think it was a shocking decision from the referee, and you can watch the incident here, and I know that there's people saying that he shouldn't have lunged in - and he gave the referee a decision to make. But he didn't, quite frankly there is no way that Gorkss challenge deserved a red card, and I'm not entirely sure how the commentators came to the conclusion that it did.

Things to work on: Still have periods of hot/cold within the games, and maybe that's to be expected playing a side like QPR but how on Earth we let their goal in I will never know, had so many opportunities to clear and never did.

Good things: Seeing out the game we did impeccably, especially toward the end of the game. Also four shots on target (from six shots) and three goals, that's a pretty ruthless stat.

Blackburn, Brighton, Leeds, and Derby make up four of the next five games, I really hope we can carry some form through these minus the couple of blips we've had. I am crossing all my fingers and toes.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

If Anything, Reading's Win In Wales Is Just More Of The Same

Paunovic has been under increasing pressure in recent weeks. Last Tuesday he received criticism from all quarters after a dire midweek defeat to Sheffield United, where he changed the shape of the team to nullify the opposition threat. Although there were some interesting takes by those who didn't seem to fully appreciate the formation, it was clear that it wasn't just the opposition's attacking threat that the manager put the mockers on. And yet, one win seems to redeem all. My personal view on The Gaffer is that, given the injuries in the squad, he's doing as well as could reasonably be expected. Obviously he's made errors, but he's also been handicapped by off field matters. The six-point deduction has made the gap to relegation closer than it ought to be, but the team are clearly good enough to comfortably pull clear over the course of the season and, indeed, have been achieving if Reading had started on minus 6.  So my issue isn't with him, but with th

Starting the Year Renew

Ah, 2023. A new year. A time to take stock of what you have, and look forward to the twelve months ahead. The first thing on Paul Ince's plate is to renew Andy Carroll and Amadou Mbengue's contracts - something he's been very vocal about wanting to do. Mbengue is a difficult one. Yes, he is undoubtedly an exciting prospect but this is a club with six other senior centre backs. He'd be useful cover elsewhere, namely at right back, but Kelvin Abrefa has also showed some promise in that position in his, albeit small, cameos so far. Ince has already said his preferred back three is Yiadom, Holmes, and Sarr. Mbengue could be first-choice backup on the right side of that three, but given Yiadom is captain and played more minutes than anyone outside of Ince and Hendrick, realistically he won't get much of a look in. Likewise TMc is probably ahead of him for Sarr's spot. Shifting Moore and Dann in the summer still leaves him in the same position - and that's before

Summer 2024: Left Back

Finally, the summer. As ever, the first question on everyone's lips are - "who are we going to sign?". For Reading there is a glaring requirement to bring in players all down the left hand side, and so we'll first look at who could fit in at left back. So, what do our current left back options give us? Reading have, largely, used three different left backs. Starting the season with Matty Carson, before moving to Clinton Mola and Jeriel Dorsett. Let's start by examining what it was that caused Carson to be dropped. The main reason he simply did not do enough work defensively. Of left backs that have played over 500 minutes this season, Carson ranks lowest in successful defensive actions per 90 with just 7.17. Mola and Dorsett are both around 11. Even in the U21's game against Sunderland in the Premier League 2 Play-Off Semi Final (a mouthful) his side was targeted. There's all sorts of defensive frailties in his game that are unnecessary to go into, but eff