Steele did excellent, couple of great saves and steady. Both full backs steady, distribution slack at times but solid (yes I know about kozzys og) otherwise fine Potter and Foster steady and solid Back 4 as a whole, lacked pace, but we know that. JCR was man to man on James Harper, effective, but not brilliant. Colace, so good to have him back, he made such a difference Halfredson, tired in second half, but still looks a good loan Macken, worked tirelessly Boggy, scored two Odejayi, got us a penalty
I agree spartacus we need a win on Saturday to prove it was no fluke tonite and to kick start our seaon , winning breeds confidence
Agree with some of that but not all of it First half we were the better side and created a few decent chances - Reading were woeful though Steele did have to come off his line smartish a couple of times Second half someone had given the reading players a rocket as they were quite a bit better and but for a string of fine saves by Steele we would have lost Boggy took his goal well after a great move almost ruined by a dreadfull pass from JCR Also had a great move leading to the penalty - It was a clear pen as Oddjob was through at the end of a great move and was hauled to the ground before he could slot the ball home - at least that must have been what the reading player was expecting my expectations were somewhat less but hey the big man got us a pen which Boggy tooked away well My assesment of players Steele MOTM 9 - played really well some quality saves - one in particular was top class - commanded his area well - could do nothing about the goal Kozluk - 5 (-1 for an own goal) didnt do too badly but distribution was poor on the ball some decent tackles and managed to avoid being booked El Hamour - 5 some good stuff and some bad - too lightweight and error prone - deserved his booking Foster and Potter - 6 each did OK - Potter looked better at Centre half than left back JCR 6 ran about quite a bit without ever really imposing himself put the pass through for boggy to score - though it was a poor ball, forced a good save as well from their keeper Iceman - 6 some good stuff - but hasnt got the pace of our league yet so got caught a few times - looks promising though Colace - 7 Great to have him back as Reading said makes a huge difference Boggy - 8 was a pain to their defence and still looks like the only player we have who knows how to score Oddjob and Macken - 6 did OK - Macken missed a great chance early on Oddjob got us the pen at the end didnt look that threatening though Formatin seemed all over the place couldnt decide if it was supposed to be 4-3-3 or 4-4-2 especially in the first half lets not kid ourselves both sides were poor and on that showing will struggle in the league this year Still a win is a win - more of the same on Saturdat would be great
If we could get the three points it'd take the pressure off a bit going into the international break and give them some time to work with the new players and on the defending in training (maybe even get some cover in for the defence - I know, that might be a bit too much to ask!) On the other hand, if we lose, two weeks at the bottom without a game is going to seem like a lifetime. So, we've gotta get behind the team from the start on Saturday, regardless of our views on the manager. It could be a pivotal game for us and it'd certainly send Reading into a mini-crisis if we beat them.
