Back from the game - Newcastle

[Ian Royal]

But did any of our team spot the handball? I didn't see any protests at the time. If they didn't the right to review would have made no difference.

Jobi & Gorkss were appealing for it.

And Jem in particular. McCarthy just sat on the ground and went "what the fuk I am supposed to do about that"

[blueroyals]

But did any of our team spot the handball? I didn't see any protests at the time. If they didn't the right to review would have made no difference.

According to some of the press reports some our players did protest, but I didn't notice it. I also didn't notice it at the time but apparently Ba tapped his hand and then shrugged during his celebration.

The shrug...



As BM has said "The fourth official said something about not too many players appealing. The goalkeeper appealed straight away but that is not what we are about, we don't want players jumping up and down."

bloody cheating scum

Not his fault the ref didn't see it. I'd be quite happy for our players to do the same. The way he tapped his hand and shrugged just tells me that, like the 24,000 fans, 22 players and millions watching at home on TV, he couldn't believe that the ref (who had a clear line of sight) gave the goal.

FWIW I thought Mariner had a solid game (despite missing the handball) and the standard of refereeing in this league is miles better than the Championship's.

[USA_Loyal_Royal]

once again, i didnt watch the match because i had to work. im tired of these Saturday morning shifts where i miss every game. i kept up with the match through facebook/droid app/twitter as usual. i was very happy to see the good comments from those watching the game. from what i can gather, we outplayed newcastle in almost every stat, and we looked more likely to get a winner/win the game through the match. i saw the handball picture, im astonished the ref missed it considering his position. we will hopefully get these points back at some point in the season, everything evens itself out. if we can play like this every week we will comfortably stay up. keep in mind all the teams we played so far are probably going to finish either top of the table, or higher mid table.

[Royal Bahamas]

Reading FC, the Premier League team, turned up for work in the second half today, and put every team in the league on notice. Don't be fooled by the number of points we have, or by our position in the table. We played as well as any team I have seeb this season. Well done Reading!
.........and don't get hooked up on the dodgy calls from the officials. Yes, I know they have probably cost us 4 pts so far,.....but remember, that what goes around, comes around. We'll get 'our' calls before the season ends.

[pea]

Why are people still surprised that Cummings is excellent?

[Ark Royal]

Absolutely fu cking gutted. My first reaction to Ba's second was it was a wicked deflection, but how the fu ck could Marriner miss that? Fuming. Great second half - Hunt and Mariappa were terrific and Jobi just got better as the game went on. So unlucky to clatter the post. We will get points if we play like that against the teams that are going to be around us. Onward and upward.

[Libertine]

Not his fault the ref didn't see it. I'd be quite happy for our players to do the same. The way he tapped his hand and shrugged just tells me that, like the 24,000 fans, 22 players and millions watching at home on TV, he couldn't believe that the ref (who had a clear line of sight) gave the goal.

FWIW I thought Mariner had a solid game (despite missing the handball) and the standard of refereeing in this league is miles better than the Championship's.

Seriously, how could the ref say he didn't see it?

[seahawk10]

It's games like today that I love being a Reading supporter. We may not have won the game but can walk away with broad chests. Unlike against Spurs and more like the game away at QPR ,Today we battled, We fought but got done over by a dodgy handball goal, But we will remember, We will continue in this spirit. We will fight to survive and we will not give up. We are good enough, and We can compete against anyone.
We have the tenacity, the spirit, the flair, the belief
We are Reading FC
ROAR!

[Barry the bird boggler]

Absolutely fu cking gutted. My first reaction to Ba's second was it was a wicked deflection, but how the fu ck could Marriner miss that? Fuming. Great second half - Hunt and Mariappa were terrific and Jobi just got better as the game went on. So unlucky to clatter the post. We will get points if we play like that against the teams that are going to be around us. Onward and upward.

Only complaint in the entire game is that somone should have been making it harder for Ferguson to put that cross in in the first place.

Still onwards to Swansea and a hope that the same level of performance will be maintained (and hopefully a squad of players more than up for it after the Wembley play off).

[jumpers for goalposts]

This league in microcosm: defend as poorly as we did and get punished. They had 2 attempts on goal and scored them both. On another day we should have scored 3 or 4. Yes i'm very encouraged by the massive improvement over the Spurs game, but the fact remains that if we continue to give away such soft goals we will be going down. McAnuff and Hunt were excellent today as already mentioned by many

[RoyalBlue]

Having now see the handball on MOTD I realise that Ba gave Marriner a bloody big clue that there was something wrong with the way he had scored. He actually turns his head and looks hard at Marriner to chacke he had awarded the goal before celebrating.

The game would be far much better if all players were honest but sadly the sporting/honest ones are in a tiny minority. How many of ours rushed to tell the ref that we hadn't scored that 'goal' at Watford?!

[Handsome Man]

Good performance and team spirit seemed more important than the actual result as I was leaving the ground yesterday with a nice sense of elation having been thoroughly entertained. Five games without a win is still a worry though, but we haven't playe anybody yet from our relegation mini-league.

McCarthy 7

Cummings 8 linked the attacking play effectively and his pace was welcome in defence and made a difference
Shorey 8 carries the ball forward really well (remember we only really started hoofing when Armstrong replaced him)
Mariappa 7 good debut, but caught out for the first
Gorkss 7 better than recently, but disappeared for the second

Leigertwood 9 we won midfield, because he did everything he could to make it happen
Karacan 8 A bit more like last season
Kebe 7 back, scored and pre-occupied three defenders for the whole game
MacAnuff 9 brilliant motm performance

Pog 7 a focal point for loads of attacks
Hunt 8 good goal and a great performance - worthy of lots of man-of-the-match picks

Referee - I thought he was great with his playing the advantage and use of the yellow card. That picture of him looking straight at Ba's hand is pretty damming though - he couldn't have had a better position.

Two blokes behind me.
Go away and watch something shit like rugby. You clearly know nothing about football if you think it is OK to sit in the Reading end and support Newcastle. Your little squeaks of 'get in' and piss-poor interpretation of sports casual dress codes would be more appreciated there.

[PieEater]

This league in microcosm: defend as poorly as we did and get punished. They had 2 attempts on goal and scored them both. On another day we should have scored 3 or 4. Yes i'm very encouraged by the massive improvement over the Spurs game, but the fact remains that if we continue to give away such soft goals we will be going down. McAnuff and Hunt were excellent today as already mentioned by many

I don't think you can say we gave away soft goals, the first was a wondergoal. the second was blatant cheating. I thought there was something dodgy about the second when they didn't show the replay. I was surprised they glossed over it so quickly on MOTD too, we were robbed of two points that could relegate us, but we're a small fish in a big pond so presumably it doesn't matter. Imagine the hoo-ha if that had been ManU being denied a win by a Reading handball.

I'm encouraged by the performance and hopefully that will give the team some confidence for the next game. Hunty played really well as did McAnuff, Cummings and Mariappa. Roll on Swansea and some decisions going for us.

[Alexander Litvinenko]

I always thought that for handball to be an offence it had to be deliberate, and it there was no intent then play goes on.

So the question surely is not whether Marriner saw it, but whether he thinks it was deliberate.

FWIW I can't believe anyone in the world has reflexes quick enough to punch the ball in in that situation having just missed the header.

So, although no-one will agree with me because most people here love to wallow in a good sense of injustice, I have complaints -ball hit hand, no intent, play on.

[Super_horns]

Having now see the handball on MOTD I realise that Ba gave Marriner a bloody big clue that there was something wrong with the way he had scored. He actually turns his head and looks hard at Marriner to chacke he had awarded the goal before celebrating.

The game would be far much better if all players were honest but sadly the sporting/honest ones are in a tiny minority. How many of ours rushed to tell the ref that we hadn't scored that 'goal' at Watford?!

True but its pretty unsual and yesterday for example we won a penalty which was the winner potentially via a dive.

Are we complaining..no.

[PieEater]

I always thought that for handball to be an offence it had to be deliberate, and it there was no intent then play goes on.

So the question surely is not whether Marriner saw it, but whether he thinks it was deliberate.

FWIW I can't believe anyone in the world has reflexes quick enough to punch the ball in in that situation having just missed the header.

So, although no-one will agree with me because most people here love to wallow in a good sense of injustice, I have complaints -ball hit hand, no intent, play on.

If that was what ref's actually gave pens and free kicks for you'd have a point. The fact is that they will give a pen if an attacker blasts a ball at a defenders arm if their arms aren't at their side. To me they now seem interpret it as gaining an advantage from the ball hitting your hand/arm rather than intent.

[M Brook]

It's games like today that I love being a Reading supporter. We may not have won the game but can walk away with broad chests. Unlike against Spurs and more like the game away at QPR ,Today we battled, We fought but got done over by a dodgy handball goal, But we will remember, We will continue in this spirit. We will fight to survive and we will not give up. We are good enough, and We can compete against anyone.
We have the tenacity, the spirit, the flair, the belief. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in Wales, we shall fight in the north and the south and in London, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our goal, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the wings, we shall fight in the midfield and defence; we shall never surrender
We are Reading FC
ROAR!

Lights cigar, raises two fingers to Pardew.

[Schards#2]

I always thought that for handball to be an offence it had to be deliberate, and it there was no intent then play goes on.

So the question surely is not whether Marriner saw it, but whether he thinks it was deliberate.

FWIW I can't believe anyone in the world has reflexes quick enough to punch the ball in in that situation having just missed the header.

So, although no-one will agree with me because most people here love to wallow in a good sense of injustice, I have complaints -ball hit hand, no intent, play on.

You are, of course, technically right, but if someone shoots on target and the ball hits the (non moving) arm of a defender, 99/100 that is given as a penalty even if the handball is not intentional.

Similarly, if a ref sees what happened yesterday 99/100 would disallow it even if it is unintentional (which i'm sure it was).

[RoyalBlue]

I always thought that for handball to be an offence it had to be deliberate, and it there was no intent then play goes on.

So the question surely is not whether Marriner saw it, but whether he thinks it was deliberate.

FWIW I can't believe anyone in the world has reflexes quick enough to punch the ball in in that situation having just missed the header.

So, although no-one will agree with me because most people here love to wallow in a good sense of injustice, I have complaints -ball hit hand, no intent, play on.

You are, of course, technically right, but if someone shoots on target and the ball hits the (non moving) arm of a defender, 99/100 that is given as a penalty even if the handball is not intentional.

Similarly, if a ref sees what happened yesterday 99/100 would disallow it even if it is unintentional (which i'm sure it was).

You are low on the stats! It must be at least 99.99%!

How many times do you see refs award freekicks after a player gains control when the ball bounces off their hand?

There is no way that goal should have stood. Clearly the asst ref is one of those who believes he is only there to watch out for offsides and throws.

[Alexander Litvinenko]

Agreed with the above - just very unfortunate that we get the one ref who actually gets 100% right when the vast, vast majority of others would get it wrong.