Brian are you REALLY a pillock?

[loyal-royal]

This is'nt just Long though, we aint good enough thats it. Brian either needs to get a couple of people in jan or we will be a mid table club (maybe worst). I just wish he would come out to interviews and stop saying the same old ****. Stop saying we were better, stop saying we kept another clean sheet. We didnt beat them and the simple fact for that is because we couldnt score and i agree we need a striker, thats what i want to hear!

[Snowball]

It's snowball who keeps comparing Long to Doyle,nobody else.
FWIW Doyle plays for a team second from bottom in the Premier League.

The most important Long-Doyle comparison is for when they have both played in the CCC

Long's worst-ever run was under Rodgers where he only got three starts in 5-6 months
and played for tiny amounts of times totally 650 or whatever it was minutes and failed to score.

That's 7+ 90-minutes games

Of course the rest of the team wasn't exactly pulling up trees either

Doyle IN THE CCC with a MUCH better team managed 8-7-6-5-5-5-5-4 goalless game runs

In his last 26 games for us, plus 4 internationals, he managed just 4 goals. Long is pilloried for
only scoring 4 in 19! And Doyle was then sold for 6.5 Milllion. The point is that Long, compared
to Doyle has LESS barren spells, and SHORTER barren spells. The second point is that even top
strikers can have barren spells


19-11-2008 Ireland 0
22-11-2008 Reading 0
25-11-2008 Reading 1
01-12-2008 Reading 0
06-12-2008 Reading 0
09-12-2008 Reading 0
13-12-2008 Reading 0
20-12-2008 Reading 1
26-12-2008 Reading 0
28-12-2008 Reading 0
09-01-2009 Reading 1
17-01-2009 Reading 0
27-01-2009 Reading 0
31-01-2009 Reading 0
07-02-2009 Reading 0
11-02-2009 Ireland 0
21-02-2009 Reading 0
28-02-2009 Reading 0
03-03-2009 Reading 1
07-03-2009 Reading 0
10-03-2009 Reading 0
14-03-2009 Reading 0
17-03-2009 Reading 0
21-03-2009 Reading 0
28-03-2009 Ireland 0
01-04-2009 Ireland 0
10-04-2009 Reading 0
03-05-2009 Reading 0
09-05-2009 Reading 0


4 goals in 30 games and this is in a better side than the current one, a team who came fourth

[Yorkshire Royal]

Long's just a bit.. well..shit really.. anyone who watches him knows this. You can have stats and debates, but you can't get away from the fact, that he is not very good at football.

[RoyalBlue]

Brett Pitman, 12 Appearances, no goals.

Droughts happen to strikers. Doyle has had at least three terrible patches in his career.

Those who point at other strikers at other clubs going through poor periods are tending to conveniently overlook one important point. Other clubs have other strikers who are scoring whilst the one goes through a poor period. We don't!

[Alan Partridge]

It's snowball who keeps comparing Long to Doyle,nobody else.
FWIW Doyle plays for a team second from bottom in the Premier League.

The most important Long-Doyle comparison is for when they have both played in the CCC

Long's worst-ever run was under Rodgers where he only got three starts in 5-6 months
and played for tiny amounts of times totally 650 or whatever it was minutes and failed to score.

That's 7+ 90-minutes games

Of course the rest of the team wasn't exactly pulling up trees either

Doyle IN THE CCC with a MUCH better team managed 8-7-6-5-5-5-5-4 goalless game runs

In his last 26 games for us, plus 4 internationals, he managed just 4 goals. Long is pilloried for
only scoring 4 in 19! And Doyle was then sold for 6.5 Milllion. The point is that Long, compared
to Doyle has LESS barren spells, and SHORTER barren spells. The second point is that even top
strikers can have barren spells


19-11-2008 Ireland 0
22-11-2008 Reading 0
25-11-2008 Reading 1
01-12-2008 Reading 0
06-12-2008 Reading 0
09-12-2008 Reading 0
13-12-2008 Reading 0
20-12-2008 Reading 1
26-12-2008 Reading 0
28-12-2008 Reading 0
09-01-2009 Reading 1
17-01-2009 Reading 0
27-01-2009 Reading 0
31-01-2009 Reading 0
07-02-2009 Reading 0
11-02-2009 Ireland 0
21-02-2009 Reading 0
28-02-2009 Reading 0
03-03-2009 Reading 1
07-03-2009 Reading 0
10-03-2009 Reading 0
14-03-2009 Reading 0
17-03-2009 Reading 0
21-03-2009 Reading 0
28-03-2009 Ireland 0
01-04-2009 Ireland 0
10-04-2009 Reading 0
03-05-2009 Reading 0
09-05-2009 Reading 0


4 goals in 30 games and this is in a better side than the current one, a team who came fourth

Doyle took criticism when he went through a poor run with the whole side in the season where Reading finished 4th in a 3 horse race.

What Doyle had in his favour was a track record and previous history as a goalscorer and as one of Reading's best players, so there was a hope and an expectation that Doyle could improve again. Long doesn't, he's always been inconsistant/poor and his goal record this season is nothing short of appalling. As i said a few months ago, i fully expect him to be terrible until Jan/Feb go on a 4 game scoring streak and get a 4 year contract.

[brendywendy]

This is'nt just Long though, we aint good enough thats it. Brian either needs to get a couple of people in jan or we will be a mid table club (maybe worst). I just wish he would come out to interviews and stop saying the same old ****. Stop saying we were better, stop saying we kept another clean sheet. We didnt beat them and the simple fact for that is because we couldnt score and i agree we need a striker, thats what i want to hear!

but we have been the better team in most of our recent draws, we have had the chances to have got enough points from the run to be in the PO positions, we have just kept 2 clean sheets in a row after becoming worryingly leaky.
imo hes given long/nhunt/church till jan to get going, and if it doesnt work(which it doesnt look like it is), youll get your wish for new players
my worst fear is that long and nhunt then score 3-4 each over xmas, and then well go with what weve got again
hopefully we may have learnt that lesson, but who knows

[Mr Angry]

Oh Christ - another Snowball stat fest!

[Snowball]

Brett Pitman, 12 Appearances, no goals.

Those who point at other strikers at other clubs going through poor periods are tending to conveniently overlook one important point. Other clubs have other strikers who are scoring whilst the one goes through a poor period. We don't!

Brett Pitman (5) is Bristol's top-scorer

5 Brett Pitman
5 Jonathan Stead
3 David Clarkson
3 Marvin Elliott
3 Albert Adomah
1 Jamie McAllister
1 Steven Caulker
1 Danny Haynes
1 Ivan Sproule
1 Damion Stewart

25 Goals

How does that compare to

4 Jimmy Kebe
4 Matt Mills
4 Ian Harte
4 Shane Long
3 Simon Church
3 Noel Hunt
2 Jem Karacan
2 Hal Robson-Kanu
2 Gylfi Sigurdsson
1 Michail Antonio
1 Alex Pearce
1 Jobi McAnuff
1 Rasiak

32 Goals

[Royal Lady]

Personally, I think Long was only as "good" as he was in previous seasons because he had Doyle, in particular, passing great balls to him - nowadays there is no-one, except Kebe on a good day, who can make a pinpoint pass or create something to allow Long to nip in. Long is not a natural striker - yet he is now, effectively, our first choice striker and that's only because NHunt has been long term injured and Church isn't that great either. We could overlook Long's shortcomings when we had Sig, but now all focus is on him to score. Don't get me wrong, I do think he has a fantastic work rate and he does put himself about a lot but he's not one for finishing the job - I on Saturday, in particular, that he hung back a fair bit, when I'd expect him to be in the box poaching for a sniff of the ball all of the time as our "main" striker- but some of his misses are woeful and I think it's partly down to lack of talent and partly down to lack of confidence. I think Brian is trying to give him some confidence because he knows we're going to have to rely on what we've got for striking choices.

[brendywendy]

think Brian is trying to give him some confidence because he knows we're going to have to rely on what we've got for striking choices.

i think hes doing it because he believes in shane longs ability, and his own ability to coach/cuddle the best out of him.
i believe the only reason hes doing it is because he knows he can do something else come jan

[Forbury Lion]

Whether the manager feels Long is up to it or not, he has little options but to get the best out of him. Publicly getting behind a player may be one way of doing this.

[brendywendy]

agreed- 's called management

[Snowball]

Personally, I think Long was only as "good" as he was in previous seasons because he had Doyle, in particular, passing great balls to him - nowadays there is no-one, except Kebe on a good day, who can make a pinpoint pass or create something to allow Long to nip in. Long is not a natural striker - yet he is now, effectively, our first choice striker and that's only because NHunt has been long term injured and Church isn't that great either. We could overlook Long's shortcomings when we had Sig, but now all focus is on him to score. Don't get me wrong, I do think he has a fantastic work rate and he does put himself about a lot but he's not one for finishing the job - I on Saturday, in particular, that he hung back a fair bit, when I'd expect him to be in the box poaching for a sniff of the ball all of the time as our "main" striker- but some of his misses are woeful and I think it's partly down to lack of talent and partly down to lack of confidence. I think Brian is trying to give him some confidence because he knows we're going to have to rely on what we've got for striking choices.

Where do you people dig up these crazy notions?

Obviously Doyle was not responsible for any of this season's goals by Long (4) or last season's (9) and I've just looked at Long's first ten goals and Doyle was involved in, wait for it, wait for it. ONE So, so far, Doyle has been responsible/involved in ONE goal out of 23. There are only ten more to check!








Goal 1 Derby 2-2 (Shorey, Sidwell)

88th Minute Equaliser saved unbeaten record. Shorey corner headed on by Sidwell. Long outjumps defenders

Goal 2 Derby 5-0 (Murty)

The Royals were running riot, and sub Shane Long thumped home a superb header from Graeme Murty's brilliant cross.

Goal 3 Derby 5-0 (Sidwell, Hunt)

Long added his second of the game, with Hunt playing him in after the ball was well won by Sidwell. It was a neat finish by the youngster after his first touch seem to take him wide. At the same moment, news filtered through that Sheffield United had equalised.

Goal 4 Liverpool 3-4 (Oster, Little)

And to set up a grandstand finish, Shane Long dramatically reduced the deficit to one with little more than six minutes of normal time remaining. A stunning ball by John Oster found Little racing in from the left and he chipped it up to Long at the far post who headed home from close range.

Goal 5 Burnley 3-2 (Lita & Oster)

Lita won the ball well in midfield, and showed strength and quality to interchange passes with John Oster. He looked up and found Long, who took a touch under pressure from keeper Brian Jensen in the area and was forced wide.

Goal 6 Sheffield United 3-1 Rebound tucked away after Sidwell shot

Sidwell was in on goal but got crowded out, only for the United clearance to bounce straight off him and into Shane Long's path. He tucked home off the post, and celebrated his first Premiership goal by claterring into mascot Kingsley!

Goal 7 Wigan 3-2 SHunt

It came out to Hunt, and he stood up a cross to the back post where Long rose brilliantly over David Unsworth to nod home.

Goal 8 Portsmouth 4-7 Deflected Harper shot

Then, Reading had a third with 12 minutes left. Harper hit a cracker from the edge of the box, and it was deflected by sub Shane Long on its way past James. Pompey screamed for offside, but the linesman correctly kept his flag down.

Goal 9 Newcastle 2-1

The delivery aimed for Sonko, and he battled for a header. It fell loose to Long, who chested then rifled just inside the post with his second touch. A fantastic introduction for the young Irishman, and for a second it looked like it had got away with him, but he rifled home for a vital goal.

Goal 10 2-0 v Man City DOYLE! (At Last!)

The much-threatened opening goal came after 61 minutes and it was made in Ireland. Hahnemann's long ball was flicked on by Long, and Doyle did brilliantly to hold off Michael Ball on the left wing before delivering a pinpoint low cross to Long who sidefooted home from ten yards.

[RoyalJames101]

Snowball, you need to remember that football is played on the pitch on not just on the stats.

I do like Long and he does a good job for the team, but after the five chances he missed on Saturday, how can you defend him?!

[Snowball]

While Kevin Doyle was at Reading, Shane Long scored 18 goals.

Just ONE goal was down to a Doyle assist. Doyle wasn't even involved in the move for any of the other 17 goals




Goal 11 (Norwich 2-0) Henry

Henry did really well to take possession and get out wide, then whipped in a fabulous cross, matched by a cracking header from Long at the near post.

Long also won a penalty, converted by Shunt

Goal 12 Southampton 1-1 Duberry knock-down. Long wins point

With six minutes left, we had an equaliser. A free kick was knocked down by Duberry, and Long bravely got there to head home among a crowd of bodies. He clattered into 'keeper Davis but it was of no concern as he celebrated a vital goal.

Goal 13 2-1 win at Wednesday. HUNT.

Long scores winner and clears off his own line.

Almost immediately, Reading took the lead. Duberry won possession in midfield, and immediately fed Stephen Hunt in a central area. With space in front of him, the winger played an excellent pass to Shane Long, who steadied himself 12 yards out and thundered home emphatically.

Goal 14 2-2 v Charlton Matejovsky pass, burst thru by Long, Penalty

Reading came out for the second half with all guns blazing, and were level in an instant. From the kick off Marek Matejovsky played it forward to Long, who burst into the box. He may have been nudged in the back at first, but then was scythed down by a sliding challenge for a penalty.

Long took the responsibility himself and smashed home to the penalty, sending Rob Elliott the wrong way for 1-1.

Goal 15 2-2 v Charlton TABB

Within a couple of minutes Tabb made a key contribution with a corner, teeing up Long for a bullet header at the near post as he got across his man for 2-1.

Goal 16 2-0 v Derby KARACAN

Then it was 2-0 and the game was ours. Jem Karacan played a cracking ball through for Long, who timed his run perfectly to go clear on goal. He steadied himself and sidefooted a low finish that clipped Bywater but rippled the net to send our small away contingent into raptures.

Goal 17 2-0 v Norwich KEBE

But the goal did come soon after, and Kebe was the provider. Jem Karacan released the Malian down the left, and the winger swung in a brilliant left-footed cross. Long had peeled away at the back post, and with a delivery like that, he had a simple task of heading home.

Goal 18 2-0 v Norwich KEBE

Kebe was running riot down the left, and with 12 minutes left his brilliance put the game out of sight, He whipped in a fantastic cross from the left, this time with his right foot, and Long did very, very well to head it inside the post.

Long's finish was right out of the top drawer, and credit must also go to boss Steve Coppell for keeping Kebe on the left.



Doyle leaves club.

[Snowball]

Snowball, you need to remember that football is played on the pitch on not just on the stats.

I do like Long and he does a good job for the team, but after the five chances he missed on Saturday, how can you defend him?!

I'm not defending anybody, just making the point that only one of Shane Long's goals EVER, came from a Doyle assist.

Yet another RFC myth blown out of the water

[Ian Royal]

Here we go again, snowball making a thread that should die a quick death go on interminably along the same lines as half a dozen others he's ruined.

[Snowball]

Here we go again, snowball making a thread that should die a quick death go on interminably along the same lines as half a dozen others he's ruined.

Muppet.

Someone posted that Doyle made Long look good. Utterly erroneous. Facts not guesses.

[Snowball]

Personally, I think Long was only as "good" as he was in previous seasons because he had Doyle, in particular, passing great balls to him - nowadays there is no-one, except Kebe on a good day, who can make a pinpoint pass or create something to allow Long to nip in. Long is not a natural striker - yet he is now, effectively, our first choice striker and that's only because NHunt has been long term injured and Church isn't that great either. We could overlook Long's shortcomings when we had Sig, but now all focus is on him to score. Don't get me wrong, I do think he has a fantastic work rate and he does put himself about a lot but he's not one for finishing the job - I on Saturday, in particular, that he hung back a fair bit, when I'd expect him to be in the box poaching for a sniff of the ball all of the time as our "main" striker- but some of his misses are woeful and I think it's partly down to lack of talent and partly down to lack of confidence. I think Brian is trying to give him some confidence because he knows we're going to have to rely on what we've got for striking choices.

Royal Lady (Hi)

Doyle made just 1 of Long's 33 goals.

I was surprised to discover that Gylfi did not have a single assist with any of Long's goals

He was involved in one goal where he won the ball, fed Kebe who found Long for Long's second versus Villa.

So you could say Gylfi half-made one (with Kebe)

What is striking is how Shane has scored with help from Murty, Sonko (the name of my two black labs, BTW) Sidwell, Harper, Little, Doyle (once) SHunt, Bertrand, Doobs, Karacan, Howard, and (particularly) Kebe. I'd say that shows he's dependent on nobody.


This season? So far he's made 3 or 4 of his 4 goals.

Self-Made. Palace
Three minutes later Brian McDermott's team did take the lead, and it was a goal created and converted by Shane Long. He showed great pace to take on McCarthy out wide, and darted into the area. As the Palace defender tried to get back, he was all over Long's back and a spot kick was awarded. Long took the spot kick himself, and sent Julian Speroni the wrong way for his first goal of the campaign.

Self-Made. Burnley
Just three minutes later we had the lead and it was a goal all of Shane Long's making. He picked the ball up perhaps 20 yards inside the Burnley half and left Leon Cort for dead with his pace and power. The Clarets' defender attempted a challenge inside the area, but was much too late and clearly fouled the Irishman as he was in on goal. It looked a clear goalscoring opportunity and there was nobody between Long and the goal, but referee Miller only showed a yellow card. Despite Brian Jensen's attempt at timewasting antics, Long stepped up calmly and scored low to the 'keeper's right for a goal all that came completely from his own hard work.

Self-Made v QPR

Out of nowhere, Shane Long produced something special to reignite the contest. Turning away from his man, he unleashed an unstoppable right-footed strike that whistled past Kenny and into the top right corner. A quite wonderful goal from Long which may well be the best he's ever scored. The rejuvenated Royals fans rejoiced and sensed a way back into the match.

?????? v Norwich

Within a minute we were level, Lappin clearly bringing down Long in the box, the Irishman slamming home the spot kick himself.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

Whether the manager feels Long is up to it or not, he has little options but to get the best out of him. Publicly getting behind a player may be one way of doing this.

In a bizarre way, despite missing several chances at the weekend, I thought it was encouraging from Long.

My main criticism of Long has been a lack of striker's instinct to get in positions to have a shot. He got into those positions, even if he didn't take the chances. If (and that's a big if) he can keep getting into those positions, the goals will come.

Had he scored one of the chances people would have been saying he played well, scoring one and could have had two or three more. Scoring none, and could have three or four more, isn't impressive though.


IF that sounds too positive then I'll just add that even though it's possible to "prove" with stats that Long is playing better than Doyle, would anyone not prefer to have Doyle out there?