Back from the game - Coventry (H)

[East Stand Royal 500]

Reading some of the comments I wonder if I was at a different game. Apart from his well-taken goal Cisse was poor IMO. The main reason why Coventry got into a position where Doobs conceded the free kick was because Harps and Cisse allowed the Coventry midfield to boss them. Cisse in particular showed no positional nous and seemed to be marking the ref for large parts of the game. Harps improved as the game progressed and the midfield started to look more solid when Gunnarson came on.

[Wax Jacket]

Cisse and Harper may have struggled a bit but they were up against 3 in midfield remember - so they did pretty will considering.

big gamble form Coventry and it didn't pay off - our centre backs held firm and the resulting lack of width was massively exposed by Reading

[yappy]

So Fox was booed all night because he spat at Hunt? N? I didn't see it but my mate did. I believe there may have been some scuffle after the final whistle as a result of this with Shane or something else after full time?

It seemed very fitting the the ungiven own goal came off his head! That'll learn him...

If you look at Fox's celebration as well, when he was running back past the east stand, he started beating his chest in front of our fans, something that didn't go down too well with some of the people around me, so I think he got a little bit of stick for that too.

[John 3:16]

I wasn't cold last night, you'll all be so pleased to hear.

I had on: Long-johns, jeans, long sleeved t-shirt, short sleeved t-shirt, Reading shirt, hoodie, fleece, ski jacket, scarf, hat. very toasty thanks. Took me half an hour to get undressed when I got in though!

Girl in front of me had a hot water bottle with her which she kept going to the toilets to fill up.

What about the game you ask? meh. It was ok. When they scored I thought from our performance that that was it, another defeat. But then we turned it on and the second goal was class. Rosienior was MOM. Kebe had a good night, Henry made some great crosses, Ingi was great, Hunts were great, Doyle was marked out of it but did well, good to see Doobs back and played well after a while. Didn't notice much pointing today but I'm sure he was still doing it, just that the team were much better so I wasn't concentrating on him.

[AlexY25]

I thought we showed real quality, to pull out the win when the performance wasnt great. I think S.Hunt and Kebe had awesome games on the wing. Cisse carried the central midfield, harps did okay, made a few good passes but i don't think he should be playing 90 minutes every game. It wasn't doyles best game, but noel had a good game. Our defence was good i thought apart from a few mistakes that didnt amount to anything. I think doobs will be fine for the next 2 games.

[Scarface]

Pretty boring game, but we showed just enough quality to win without really getting into top gear.

If Coppell had the bottle to select Marek, we'd win the league.

[readingbedding]

If Coppell had left we would be lower than 3rd.

[Royal Rother]

Once we scored we settled down and hardly got out of 2nd gear. We could have scored 6 or 7. Shunt should have scored a minute after we'd equalised, and was wrongly given offside when clean through in the last few minutes. Duberry probably should have scored from his header and a 6'+ striker getting on the end of Rosenior's crosses could have bagged a couple.

Although midfield closing down was a bit weak at times Coventry hardly had a shot once we took control and I thought we played some very nice football at times. Comparing results is pretty irrelevant but it does no harm to say that we looked different class to a team who beat Birmingham away.

There are lot of games in December and it was good to see a very very comfortable win that no-one had to knacker themselves to achieve.

[Alan Partridge]

If Coppell had left we would be lower than 3rd.

That we'll never know.

[Wycombe Royal]

If Coppell had the bottle to select Marek, we'd win the league.

and

[winchester_royal]

If Coppell had the bottle to select Marek, we'd win the league.

and

What may I ask, is so hilarious?

[Archie's penalty]

The slavish worship of Matejovsky perchance? Or perhaps that should be Slavonic?

[Bowman's Quiver]

We are the best attacking side in this division by a distance but other frailties will cost us promotion unless they are sorted ASAP yet, in agreeing with Steve Coppell's post match observations, it was indeed pleasing, for a change, to see us come from behind to win.

However, our poor start was due almost entirely to a dire central midfield's needless waste of possession.

Whilst Cisse took large strides towards redemption with another well taken goal, Marek Mateosky, fending off hypothermia from the sidelines, must have been wondering what in God's name he has to do get ahead of the currently very average James Harper or, even to be allowed a few minutes on the same pitch as so many who possess just a fraction of his ability.

We went behind to a quality free kick but with Marcus standing so close to his right hand post, any decent strike in the far corners would have been a certain goal.

Hunt's fortuitous opener was the turning point that seemed to calm everyone's nerves and from the moment he converted his 2nd and our 3rd, the rest of the evening resembled a training session.

As much as I like James Harper and value his long years of service, he and Ingimarsson are the last bastions of the "106" still enjoying preferential treatment from it's manager.

Ingimarsson was no better than Duberry tonight but guess who gets all the "sixes" here and who gets the "eights" along with MoM Rosenior

Once again our manager has assembled a strong and impressive squad but unless he's prepared to upset some favourites in order to pick his strongest team, this could be a second season of under achievement.

Marcus's positioning was questionable at best, shockingly poor at worse. I was sat the other end of the ground but could see the gaping hole he was inviting Fox to aim at to his left hand side.

[Alan Partridge]

A Wall can be just a smuch a hindrance as it is a blocker in some cases. I mean if you gave Fox a free shot from the same position, no wall with Hahnemann stood in the middle looking straight at it and let Fox have that floaty shot, you would be seriously annoyed if that goes past you. By making a wall and standing on the other side, it leaves a massive target, he knows if he gets it over the wall it's in. Loads of people called the goal and i must say Hahnemann's positioning was very very poor. The free kick was excellent and he put it right in the top corner but i feel we helped him do it.

[East Stand Royal 500]

Girl in front of me had a hot water bottle with her which she kept going to the toilets to fill up.

What with?

[Tilehurst End]

Full commentary on 5 Live Extra last night. Sounded fairly comfortable once we'd equalised and some of the early crowd noise came across.
Rosenior was their man of the match and they pointed out on more than one occasion that Reading's "star" players are still willing to work hard for the team.

Oh, and they mentioned it was a bit nippy.

[Maguire]

A Wall can be just a smuch a hindrance as it is a blocker in some cases. I mean if you gave Fox a free shot from the same position, no wall with Hahnemann stood in the middle looking straight at it and let Fox have that floaty shot, you would be seriously annoyed if that goes past you. By making a wall and standing on the other side, it leaves a massive target, he knows if he gets it over the wall it's in. Loads of people called the goal and i must say Hahnemann's positioning was very very poor. The free kick was excellent and he put it right in the top corner but i feel we helped him do it.

The way you avoid conceding those free-kicks is by not fouling in the first place. Marcus has to make a wall when it's that close and there's no way he can save one that's stuck in the top corner like that. Good goals.

He's still a fat, flat-footed, useless hindrance though, don't get me wrong.

[Thaumagurist*]

Girl in front of me had a hot water bottle with her which she kept going to the toilets to fill up.

What with?

Disgustingly with her own piss, presumably!!!

[Negative_Jeff]

On a slightly different note - great atmosphere for the first 10 minutes and then the stewards chucked their oar in and ruined it. At one time there were EIGHT stewards / tangos at the top of Y25/6 despite their being no malice in any of the chants. Far too OTT IMO and time for someone to have a word with these jobsworths.

This was quite pathetic tonight. On a cold night, folk warming themselves up by creating a surprisingly decent atmosphere only for the Happiness Patrol, led by the grey haired wannabe bouncer in the baseball cap, to wade on in and eyeball anyone who dared to stand up and join in. With barely 300 Coventry fans gathered a fair distance away there was no hint of any trouble whatsoever. Clive Doyle 1-0 Reading fans.

I completely fail to understand the motive behind the way these stewards still go about their job at RFC. Their objective was realised several seasons ago, and atmosphere and passion are now virtually non existant.
I would happily treat Clive Doyle to a ticket for Ashton Gate so that he could witness first hand how a sensible stewarding policy can enhance the matchday experience,but the club are simply not interested.

[Stranded]

And there was me thinking it would have been hot water...