Back From the Game Birmingham

[Snowball]

I thought this was a VERY good result. Birmingham are nailed on for top six, IMO, and look a class act,
will probably make top three.

8 Federici He's becoming a seriously good keeper. Kept us in the game when it mattered.
7 Cummings A solid performance. Could turn out to be a top player if he keeps improving.
8 Pearce One fantastic tackle in first half, good enough to be Gorks. Another great interception. Great CB pair. Forgive him the header that hit the post...
8 Gorks. I love that he can actually play a bit of football. WAY better than Matt Mills.
8 J Mills. Well done to the lad. Is learning fast. Showed speed in first half to catch overlapper. Great shot.

This is becoming a really good back five

8 Elwood. Another very, very good performance. Almost at his imperious best. Controlling play more.
8 Karacan With Elwood (good partnership) but some much better, controlled, passing.

6 Kebe. Watching Jimmy is a bit sad these days. If he's going, don;t play him at all.
7 McAnuff. OK without being fantastic, but made a goal, so...

8 Le Fondre. Did LOADS of great work for the whole of the 90 minutes. Top Player
6 Church. Started brightly, but was poor after 20 minutes.

7 Hal Robson Kanu More up for it in the short time he was on.
8 Hunt. Lively, and of course he got the winner, so...

[tomrfcurz]

Thought for the majority of the game it looked like a 0-0. Both sides seemed to be very keen to attack on the break but in the final third couldn't produce the goods. Neither us or Brum managed to get balls into the box consistently enough and of a good enough quality to cause too many threats.

Ratings to follow but i thought Leigertwood had a very solid game, McAnuff was quite busy for about 3/4's of the game but wasn't a huge threat throughout. Jimmy Kebe just doesn't look like he wants to be here, his confidence and even his blistering pace seems to have disappeared with any thoughts of signing a new deal. Gorkss and Pearce didn't do a lot wrong, defensively they seem to be sound but sometimes i wish they'd look up rather than hoofing out of play / up the field aimlessly. Strikers had a quiet game and despite looking busy at times i didn't think it was a game for either set of strikers, including theirs.

EDIT: Looks like the 2 threads were made at the same time, please merge!

[melonhead]

poor game, but solid and kept a very good side to feeding on scraps
thge defence keeper and middle of th epark are sorted. just need to get the creative part of our game going now. id imagine having hunt up front instead of church will only help matters, as well as sorting kebe out one way or another, need another winger in jan regardless

fed 8 -superb
pearce/gorkss 8 - superb
cummings 7 - did what he did very well
mills -8 same as cummings at the back, composed and solid, offered real drive, and some quality going forward
karacan/ledge 8- never stopped running, stopped them playing,and jem passed really well today
mcanuff 6- started really well, then faded, but worked hard, and came back into the game when switched to the right, should have squared for lefondre, but made up for it with the goal.
kebe -4 awful. beat the first man with a cross once.
church 6 - want him to succeed, but hes just not doing it currently
lefondre 7- worked hard, held the ball up well, but left feeding off scraps again for much of the game


kanu-6 did nowt that i noticed
nhunt-8 good effort for the last twenty, caused them some problems, and great near post finish

[melonhead]

woukld say that a few times pearce did put his foot on the ball in the area, under pressure, look up, and play a decent pass instead of a hoof, as did gorkss
although agree they could still do more

[Svlad Cjelli]

As someone texted to BBCRB a game quite like Tuesday's, which really deserved to be a draw. But we got the odd goal in this one where Forest got it on Tuesday, so happy with 3 points from these two games.

[SCIAG]

Feds 7.5- made some good saves

Cummings 7- seemed to be caught out of position once or twice, but he pulled out a few moments of magic, particularly twisting Elliot in knots at one point.
Pearce 8- excellent in the first half, a bit shakier in the second half
Gorkss 7- the opposite to Pearce really. Not his best game though.
Mills 8.5 MOTM- overlapped well, looked composed on the ball, defended excellently. He's proving the doubters wrong one game at a time. Might still be a few question marks over whether he gets back to defend quickly enough.

Kebe 6- one or two good runs, but he never really had any end product. Doesn't suit this team.
Legs 7.5- relieved the pressure on the defence a few times.
Karacan 7
McAnuff 7- boosted for setting up the goal, before that he had a few issues with end product and should have set up Le Fondre for a tap in when 2 on 1 with goalkeeper.

Le Fondre 7- his movement was really good. Unfortunately we didn't always pick him out, and he didn't really get to do what he does best
Church 6- movement also good, but his touch let him down on one occasion when we were threatening and he didn't get involved as much as Le Fondre

Subs:
HRK n/a
Hunt 8/10- his first really good game for a long time. Goal was simple, but he looked confident and driven every time he was on the ball. Good decision by BMc to put him on ahead of Manset.

[Schards#2]

Fairly dull game

Didn't deserve to win

Did win

Defence loking better as Mills had the best game I've seen him play, but we aren't going to be scoring many this season with the "firepower" at our disposal.

[Whore Jackie]

One of those games you couldn't really seem either team winning. Plenty of endeavour, but the final ball from both teams was poor. Well-chuffed with 3 points, we've deserved that a few times lately.

Few decent performances for Reading, but the best player for me was their number 7 Chris Burke. Looked different class.

[melonhead]

i thought mills dealt with him really well tbf

[floyd__streete]

Good to get a scrappy win and a clean sheet. Still very little quality provided by the wide men, particularly by a typically disinterested Kebe this afternoon. Up front we looked as toothless as ever. Normally Church does very well in running the channels, but he didn't even contribute that today; no pace, can't beat anyone, weak finisher, you wonder what he really brings to the team. After a good run of games, Long finally came good - about this time last year as it happens - so maybe something will click with Church. With this paucity of striking options there is an onus on the defence to do their job well - today the back five did just that, job well done as a unit.

[Whore Jackie]

Yep, not knocking Mills, he coped pretty well. But he was a constant threat throughout and was the one player you'd willingly swap any of our players for.

[SCIAG]

Yep, not knocking Mills, he coped pretty well. But he was a constant threat throughout and was the one player you'd willingly swap any of our players for.

Even Federici?!?

[URZZZZZZZZ]

Legs, Karacan and Feds superb.

Back 4 solid

Kebe and McAnuff both horrendous

[Whore Jackie]

Wide-men are key to the Reading style of recent years (except BR of course). Recall him being decent for Cardiff and if played anywhere near the level of today consistently, then I'd happily swap him for Feds. Actually Feds had a decent game today, far more mobile and prepared to leave the confines of his six-yard box.

[Elm Park Old Boy]

...a typically disinterested Kebe....

I think you mean 'uninterested'.

That's all - A Pedant

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Will Karacan leave in January?

Next player to be sold.

[FiNeRaIn]

Will Karacan leave in January?

Next player to be sold.

Sorry but karacan is nowhere near as good as Reading fans make out. His game is really, really limited.

Having slated Mills in recent weeks he really stepped up today and looked solid, sensible with the ball and played very well. Was shocked at the huge outcry when he did that awful set piece as he was playing well apart from that and his head could have dropped after that booing. I would even go as far as to suggest he was my MOM.

The back 5 are looking more solid but Birmingham still did create chances so its not flawless, feds has continued on his good form and all those calling for him to be dropped earlier this season have been proved to be talking nonsense. Very steady performance from him.

Going forward we are just poor, I need to see that goal again but it looked like the defender left the ball for the keeper and hunt came in and poached....we have a real problem creating any real clear cut chances down to a lack of creativity in the middle of the park and our two former best players now simply beyond awful on either wing. I can't believe just how generally hopeless kebe is...mcanuff bar the cross for the goal was again poor. I think 90% of the ground would have finished that 1v1 better. Medium height....medium power...right at the keeper at the near post/middle of the goal? I mean really... what an awful finish. Birmingham were the side looking to play the ball on the deck and played some good stuff at times, we simply boot to the channels still and its really not effective now we don't have long. Why don't the team get this?

All in all its a good and much needed three points, a draw would have been a fair result but we were due a win and hopefully we can push on. Can't really see this as a spring board as I think attacking wise we are simply a lot worse than the top teams in the division but if we grind out wins we'll stay away from relegation and keep us mid table with a glimmer of a play-off spot.

[KEBEISTHEGREATEST]

The team today played well but if it wasn't a win I know people on here would be slating everyone left right and centre.

Feds: 7....A couple of top class stops,not too much to do.
Cummings: 8....Really starting to make a name for himself, another excellent performance from the young lad.
Pearce:6....Alex is growing since he has been partnered with Gorkss however still gives me nerves when heading.
Gorkss:9....Another outstanding performance from Gorkss today,Commanding the defence well and had C.Wood/King in his back pocket all game.
Mills:9....This young lad has come a long way in 7 games, Continiously been slated by fans around me at the Mad Stand however a very controlled performance for a player of a young age.
Kebe:3....Uninterested and cant cross, Waste of space.
Karacan:7...Didn't have much to do however what he did he did very well, not forgetting he is only young and lots of potential.
Legs:8....Strong and comfortable with the ball, didn't do anything wrong today.
McAnuff:6....If he wasn't captain he would have been dropped,Crosses mainly didn't beat the first man.
Le Fondre:8....Very hard working lad(Poacher my arse) didn't have the crosses to test the keeper, a good player overall.
Church:6....Held the ball up well, ran into blind alleys too much. Just don't rate him.

Kanu:5....Didn't have much to do once he came on.
Hunt:7....Nice finish for the goal gave him a low score due to him failing a penalty against a academy keeper at half time (TILAF)

Last 10 mins it felt like I was in Brazil, Nice drumming drummer I want to hear more of that.........Really got the crowd going.

[Man Friday]

KEBEISTHEGREATEST
Kebe:3....Uninterested and cant cross, Waste of space.

Love it!

[Basingstoke Royal]

We played ok, but no where near our best.

Really happy for Mills - Readings man of the match.

Hunt has to start the next game. He deserves his chance now, having watched church contribute nothing for weeks. If someone could explain to me what church offers this team it would be much appreciated. I can't see anything.

Kebe and mcanuff are going through a bad patch, but they are still our best/Only option.

Where is obita?