Looking up or Looking down?

[Elmer Park]

I am not really looking up or down yet as we have such a moderate mid table sort of team but if we have another poor month we will all be looking downwards.

A bit of a mixed bag of fixtures this month.

If Saturday's match goes ahead it is our best chance of an away win in December but scoring the first goal would be useful. Coventry are hard to beat and on current form a draw is quite possible unless we start taking our chances. We will have to produce one of our best performances of the season to have a chance of getting anything at Derby. I fancy us against Bristol City but I can see Hull away being another Middlesbrough after a long journey with a short recovery time from the previous match. All in all I will say at a push six or seven points this month keeping us around the same place in the table which is pretty much where I think we will finish unless there are significant ins or outs in January which could push this very moderate team up or down the table.

[Isaac Hunt]

Sheffield Utd (A) - reckon this will be off
Coventry City (H) draw
Derby County (A) lose
Bristol City (H) win
Hull City (A) draw

5 points

[roadrunner]

Sat 4 Sheffield Utd (A) Nice 0-4 win here and then we'll see.


Sat 11 Coventry City (H)
Sat 18 Derby County (A)
Sun 26 Bristol City (H)
Tue 28 Hull City (A)

I fancy three wins,and if we're lucky, four with a probable defeat at Derby (but maybe we get lucky there too)
and maybe we'll only draw with either Brizzle or Coventry


We need a solid win to nil at Sheffield to kick-start it.

You are ridiculously over optimistic, almost deranged.

[Snowball]

Sat 4 Sheffield Utd (A) Nice 0-4 win here and then we'll see.


Sat 11 Coventry City (H)
Sat 18 Derby County (A)
Sun 26 Bristol City (H)
Tue 28 Hull City (A)

I fancy three wins,and if we're lucky, four with a probable defeat at Derby (but maybe we get lucky there too)
and maybe we'll only draw with either Brizzle or Coventry


We need a solid win to nil at Sheffield to kick-start it.

You are ridiculously over optimistic, almost deranged.

You are ridiculously pessimistic. Deranged.

[Snowball]

Sheffield Home

H 0-3 L QPR
H 1-0 W Preston 18th when played, now bottom
H 0-4 L Scunthorpe
H 1-0 W Portsmouth (bottom when played)
H 0-1 L Watford
H 3-3 D Burnley
H 0-1 L Coventry
H 1-2 L Ipswich Town
H 3-2 Crystal Palace (2nd bottom when played)


So 3 wins versus lowly clubs, FIVE defeats and a draw 9-16

Of course we might fail to win, but we have to be looking to beat
sides struggling like this or even 11th will seem high.

[leon]

if we have our traditionally bad Christmas period then I would say looking down - and in a bit of trouble. That said if Kebe can turn it on a bit (like he did Saturday) and Hunt stays fit enough to score a few goals - then we should be ok.

[Svlad Cjelli]

0 points, and an extra 5 matches to be played later in the season.

100% record so far....

[PEARCEY]

Much more winnable set of matches ahead. Hoping we might be in the top 6 come the New Year.

Really?

Derby and Coventry have got their best sides for years, Bristol City are improving every week, and Hull and Sheffield Utd away are not gimme's either.

I fancy us to beat Coventry and Bristol City at home. Would have thought Sheffield on Saturday was winnable...as for Hull we would be good for a draw. Derby away is tough but drawable. These are by no means that toughest batch of games this season.

[Snowball]

Much more winnable set of matches ahead. Hoping we might be in the top 6 come the New Year.

Really?

Derby and Coventry have got their best sides for years, Bristol City are improving every week, and Hull and Sheffield Utd away are not gimme's either.

I fancy us to beat Coventry and Bristol City at home. Would have thought Sheffield on Saturday was winnable...as for Hull we would be good for a draw. Derby away is tough but drawable. These are by no means that toughest batch of games this season.

You'll need to ring your doctor, Pearcey. I predicted one point less (losing at Derby) and according to Road Runner that was:

You are ridiculously over optimistic, almost deranged.

[roadrunner]

Now 6 points off 6th and 6 points off 22nd.

If we don't find a goal scorer in January I'm very concerned we'll soon be involved in a relegation battle, and being shot-shy and then low on confidence too, we could be in big trouble this season. Reasons for concern.

1 Queens Park Rangers 20 41
2 Cardiff City 21 37
=====================
3 Swansea City 21 37
4 Leeds United 21 35
5 Coventry City 21 34
6 Norwich City 21 33
=====================
7 Derby County 21 30
8 Watford 21 30
9 Burnley 20 29
10 Barnsley 20 29
11 Millwall 21 28
12 Portsmouth 20 28
13 Leicester City 21 28
14 Reading 20 27
15 Nottingham Forest 19 27
16 Doncaster Rovers 20 27
17 Bristol City 20 26
18 Ipswich Town 21 24
19 Hull City 20 23
20 Sheffield United 20 22
21 Middlesbrough 21 21
=====================
22 Crystal Palace 21 21
23 Scunthorpe United 20 20
24 Preston North End 21 19

[Snowball]

There really can't be a lot wrong with this side. One half-decent win and we could be flying

We have conceded 22 goals in 20 games but 12 of those goals were in just 4 of those games Boro, QPR, Donny, Norwich


We have only conceded 10 goals in the other 16 games. That's on a par with QPR and better than Cardiff


And we are still (God knows how) the 5th best GD in the league

1 20 +24 Queens Park Rangers
2 21 +13 Cardiff City
3 21 +10 Swansea City
4 21 +07 Derby County
5 20 +06 Reading
5 20 +06 Burnley
7 21 +05 Coventry City


We are on a bad run, confidence is bound to be wobbling, but there's no way we are a worse side than 10th or so

[Snowball]

Last Season, this

Last season after 20 games we were 19th Reading 20 1-4-5 07-14 4-1-5 15-18 -10 GD 20 Points
This season after 20 games we are: 14th Reading 20 4-5-2 17-11 2-4-3 11-11 +06 GD 27 Points (A game in hand)

7 points, (effectively 8 with GD) 5 positions better off (with the game at Sheffield United in hand)


Last season we were 18 points off second
This season we are 10 points off second with a game in hand - eight points better off than last season and a game in hand



Last season we were 22 points off top spot
This season we are 14 points off top spot - - eight points better off than last season

Last season we were 2 points above the bottom 3 and two of the clubs below us had a game in hand on us
This season we are 6 points above the 4th-bottom club with a game in hand and +16 GD


Final position last season 9th, was achieved by playing the next 26 games (starting with Dodger’s last game v Scunthorpe) W12 D7 L7 46-31

The same run this season would mean a final total of P46 W18 D16 L12 74-53 70 Points

Not that it will happen

[Mad Dog's Ghost]

So why bother posting any of that.

Last season we had a great creative midfielder by the way who weighed in with a load of goals.

[Wimb]

We'll be looking up.

This recent 'barren' run has come against top 10 sides and even then with a slice of luck we'd have picked up a few more points. I think the fact we're not winning those matches tells us we won't be top 6 but I honestly think we'll be top 10.

[Snowball]

So why bother posting any of that.

Last season we had a great creative midfielder by the way who weighed in with a load of goals.

Because we have a very solid defence, improved by Elwood who will improve every game

Because three strikers are not BAD strikers, they are merely off-form strikers

Because there is the January window

Because we are a much sounder team now, just lacking a touch of flair and a bit of a luck

Because we have only lost a quarter of our games (5) Only QPR and Forest are better than that (1) & (4)

Because we have had a horrendously difficult run of games and got 11 points from 8 games with just one defeat by the best team in the league



1-3 QPR TOP
1-1 Cardiff City SECOND
3-3 Norwich City FOURTH
0-0 Leeds United FIFTH
0-0 Coventry City SIXTH
1-1 Watford EIGHTH
4-0 Burnley NINTH
4-3 Doncaster 16th now but were flying when we played them

P8 W2 D5 L1 14-11

[SLAMMED]

P8 WD D5 L1 14-11

We won D games?

[Ian Royal]

We've scored more than once in only 6 games out of 20 though, with 17 of our 28 goals coming in just 5 matches. We're currently on relegation form with just 6 points from the last 21.

We don't spread our ok number of goals across enough games. take out a couple of the high scoring thrillers and suddenly our scoring record looks pretty weak. Mainly that's because we're playing a decidedly average goalscorer (actually that's overstating his record IMO) as our main goal threat.

[weybridgewanderer]

Last Season, this

Last season after 20 games we were 19th Reading 20 1-4-5 07-14 4-1-5 15-18 -10 GD 20 Points
This season after 20 games we are: 14th Reading 20 4-5-2 17-11 2-4-3 11-11 +06 GD 27 Points (A game in hand)

7 points, (effectively 8 with GD) 5 positions better off (with the game at Sheffield United in hand)

How can a comparison of 20 games last season and 20 games this season leave us with a game in hand? surely thats 19 compared with 20 or 20 compared with 21 if we still have 1 game to play?

[MmmMonsterMunch]

"Because three strikers are not BAD strikers, they are merely off-form strikers"

Yeah right! When has any of the three EVER been on fire for Reading since they joined? Answer - NEVER!!

Hunt was made to look better than he is by having Doyle up top with him.

Slate me all you like but none of them are good enough. We probably have one of the worst sets of strikers in the division. Church may come good in 2 seasons or so providing he has a quality partner to learn from but that doesn't look like happening any time soon.

Going to watch Reading is depressing these days. No flair players, no clinical finishers & some god awful defending.

Definitely looking down not up. FWIW, I reckon where we are now is pretty much where we'll end up. I think bottom half (13-17th) is about right especially if no strikers arrive in Jan.

[RoyalJames101]

If we lose at Derby we've gone 7 games without a win.

If we win at Derby we're 6 games unbeaten.

I think it depends on if we win/lose which way we'll look at things.