Sent Off From The Bench

Heartbreak. Absolute heartbreak. After eighty-five minutes Cooper reaches across Bolasie, and the Crystal Palace man takes a tumble inside the box. After a couple of seconds Mike Dean points at the spot. Cabaye converts, even with Al-Habsi managing to get a hand to it and Palace proceed to Wembley. At the ground I thought it was a penalty, from replays it's the definition of soft. After Benteke's tumble last weekend Palace may feel like things have been set right, but from Reading's point of view it was just the solidification of how awful a game Dean had. Palace were the better team, and really should have been out of sight, but a string of excellent Al-Hasbi saves, alongside some goalline clearances, and Palace's profligacy generally - in total they had twenty-three shots - kept the home side in it. In fact if Ola John had kept his composure when Hennessey flapped at the ball and it fell to the Dutchman, then The Royals could have gone one-nil up. Instead he shot wi...

Reading fans have now gone two games without seeing a goal after this weekend's game against Burnley ended in a second consecutive goalless draw. At least this time there was some excitement. Andre Gray's Shots In truth Burnley should have been out sight, but Andre Gray had an absolutely shocking game. In the third minute the division top scorer nipped in front of Cooper, but skied it from six yards. Around the hour mark he tumbled (read: dived) over the leg of Al-Habsi to win a penalty. After a fair bit of a kerfuffle, in which Reading showed passion that's been lacking for much of the season, Gray's shot was well saved. Potentially Hal scuffing up the penalty spot wasn't the greatest show of sportsmanship ever, and Al-Habsi may have been off his line before the ball was struck but all of that is consigned to irrelevance. Seconds later the Burnley striker somehow knocked the ball wide from the centre of the goal, five yards out. It is somewhat telling that ...

I don't think I've ever been as heartbroken about a player leaving as Nick Blackman. Sure, we've sold key players before - Gylfi, Shane, Kevin to name but three - but those players have, on the whole, moved out of the division and progressed their careers rather than go to serial-bottlers Derby. To make things worse, Blackman will make his league debut for Derby against us assuming he plays. Perhaps my disappointment stems from the fact that I can, rather smugly, say "I was right." Almost nobody had faith after his, admittedly poor, first couple of seasons but I stayed resolute. I am firmly of the opinion that, had he been managed better, he would have shown this sort of form far earlier in his Reading career. @TheTilehurstEnd @WilliamOwain if Blackman fulfils his potential he'll blow Kebe out the water, & HRK can be solid. Still, atm Id take Kebe! — Matthew Williamson (@Photomattic) June 24, 2015 You should see a couple of the replies to t...

Three wins in the last fourteen games would suggest that Reading aren't playing at their best, and Steve Clarke paid the price after a lacklustre 1-0 defeat to Queen's Park Rangers. Brian McDermott came in, and has had a less than perfect start. A Danny Williams screamer beat Blackburn, and scraping past Bristol City bookended defeats to Wolves and Brentford. This, somehow, comes from a team that has a rather respectable record against the top 6: P 6 W 3 D 1 L 2 F 11 A 6 GD +5 Bearing in mind that both defeats saw The Royals finish with fewer men than they started the matches with. That is quite remarkable, and it backs up my belief that this team should be easily good enough to finish within the play-off positions, if not better. However, at the moment, the team is clearly not living up to its potential. Why? Michael Hector Our Chelsea loanee has the worst footballing brain I've ever had the displeasure of seeing in a footballer. Constantly losing hi...

A busy transfer window for Reading saw huge change at the usually consistent club. Stalwarts Pearce, Federici, and Karacan all left, with almost a dozen new faces coming in. Hector's surprise move to Chelsea on deadline day sealed what had been a frantic few months. So the next question, ahead of tonight's game against Ipswich, is, 'what's the best way to line up our new squad'? The obvious answer to that would be the good, old-fashioned 4-4-2. Sá has shown himself to hold up the ball excellently, and can bring new(er) boy Vydra into the attack. We've already seen the former's heading of the ball to be a threat, while the latter is ferocious in the box with his feet. Combined with the creativity of McCleary and Hurtado down both wings, there's sure to be goals. Williams can continue his role as the aggressor, picked over Quinn for his dribbling from deep, and shooting from distance. They're similar players, but Williams' ability to ...

Football's back, and this summer has been an exciting one by anyone's standards, but particularly for a club with Reading's recent history in the transfer windows. Indeed Quinn, Sá, and McShane - who was given the armband - all started their first competitive matches in a Reading shirt, alongside Aaron Tshibola making his full debut. However after a lively start where Norwood hit the bar within the first five minutes, after a foul on Sá, the same problems as last season seemed to take hold. Charles Watts put this down to a lack of firepower - which I think is incredibly harsh. The moment the back four or Norwood got the ball the two strikers - Blackman and Sá - started runs up field, where the ball would be pinged the length of the field in a half-baked attempt to try and find them. Nobody showed for the ball, and when they did they were ignored in favour of the Hollywood ball. Inevitably this led to a loss of possession, and the cycle restarted. With McShane and Hector a...

The FA Cup Quarter Finals generally mean heartbreak for Reading fans, and that could still be the case after the side battled in a hard fought 0-0 draw at a sold out Valley Parade. In the first half Reading were the better side, but were obviously under instruction to clear the ball at the first chance they could, which meant that clever build up play was few and far between. Jamie Mackie battled for absolutely everything down the right hand side, while Pog ran and ran, albeit with varying success. As the half progressed Danny Williams came more into the game, with a couple of bursting runs, and two long range efforts which didn't trouble the keeper. The only real chance of note was from the right; Mackie managed to get in behind the defender and pulled it back to Pogrebnyak, but his shot ricocheted against the post and harmlessly away.  Pearce and Hector looked solid at the back, and were rarely troubled in the first 45. The Royals maintained a pretty rigid back four, with Kelly a...