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Showing posts from 2017

Reading 0-2 Wolves

After a dismal opening to the season there are signs that Reading are improving, even in a 2-0 loss to league leaders Wolves. Reading started strongly, as Ruddy in the Wolverhampton goal didn't. A fairly straightforward long range shot from Swift could only be tipped onto the post, before Barrow closed down a poor attempted clearance by the keeper - and the ricochet almost found the net. Against the run of play the midlanders took the lead. Frankly, letting a player clean through with a back three is disappointing. Tiago Ilori had, loosely, tracked the run of Cavaleiro but made a ridiculous decision to step up and allow his fellow countryman clean through. Manone went down early and made it easier, but in truth it was a foregone conclusion. Ilori then made almost the exact same mistake. Letting Cavaleiro in behind, and he was lucky he didn't make contact with the striker because it would have been event worse. It wasn't surprising then to see Ilori make way after h...

Boring, Boring Reading

A first win in eight as Reading beat a surprisingly dull Leeds side. In many ways the story was not so different to matches within our winless run, but thankfully we came up against a far more profligate outfit. Much like against Norwich the first half was excellent. There was much more cohesion going forward, although there weren't many chances. The best coming from Aluko, who forced a good save down low to the keeper's right. It must be said, at times Leeds made Beerens seem like Messi, but the final ball was often lacking. Perhaps surprisingly with only four at the back, Reading excelled defensively. The most complete performance at the back that I have seen in quite a while - Leeds basically didn't have a sniff. There were a couple of chances that they managed to get behind, but Ilori and Bacuna managed to get back and make the tackle. Bacuna was particularly impressive all game, after half time there was a chance where three Leeds players were bearing down on Manon...

September

September was not a particularly good month for Reading Football Club. Two points from fifteen see us (quote, unquote) languishing toward the wrong end of the Championship. Poor football has exacerbated the fans' annoyance, but are things really as bad as they seem? Played five, drawn two, lost three. It sounds bad, but when you consider the goal difference over those five matches is only -3 (or the same as our loss away to Brentford last year) it's clear that we're much closer than our points haul makes out. We're not shipping goals in blow out losses like last season. Instead all our problems are at the other end. Four goals in the same period is a serious issue, and thus we come to the start of our bad run - game one, Bristol City at home. Now this, unequivocally, was a game that we should have won. Bodvarsson allowed the critics in with a fairly substandard performance that allowed ex-Swindon centre back Aden Flint to win it late on. Bristol went into the intern...

Millwall 2-1 Reading. Stam.

29 May 2017, 17:49 - Liam Kelly hammers a penalty into the roof of the net in front of the Huddersfield end of Wembley to put Reading 3-1 up, and on the verge of the Premier League. Stam's side had been brushed off as promotion contenders for most of the year, but after a third place finish - made all the more remarkable by three successive managerial failures, and finishes of 17th and 19th in the two previous seasons - it seemed they would, like John Cena, overcome the odds once more to reach the promised land. Of course, it wasn't to work out like that, but Stam instilled a new feeling of genuine hope that hadn't been at the Madejski since, arguably, McDermott guided the team to the Championship title half a decade prior. Just four months down the line and there are some calling for his head. Of the team that started the final Williams and Al Habsi have left, Swift and Kermorgant injured, and Grabban's loan expired. Then Obita, an integral part of the squad la...