Back From The Game - Watford (H)

[tomrfcurz]

Dissapointed. Yet again. First half was a shocker, yes Leigertwood was our best player, perhaps his fault for the goal however but i don't remember anything of harm on Loach's goal first half, every ball didn't seem like it was going to get bast the Watford back four and i feel we could have been at least 2 down at HT.

Second half much improved it must be said but i thought the early goal would have fired up the boys a lot more than it did; we still didn't create much. However i felt the midfield were solid, Leigertwood specifically - outstanding and needs to sign in the Summer, end of. Howard i don't think was as bad as people made out but at points it definitely felt like he wasn't giving much, definitely not 100%.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Shocking defending in the first half. Their goal was a collection of awful mistakes and failure to clear the lines. Matt Mills once again showing his incapability for being captain. Both Federici and Harte had shockers in the first half.

Never really got going. Scott Loach made a mistake and that was about as good as it got for us in the final third.

People slagging off Simon Church and Brian Howard on the radio need to re-watch the game. McDermott harps on about going for 3 points, but takes off Hunt when we could have gone to 4-3-3.

[tomrfcurz]

Shocking defending in the first half. Their goal was a collection of awful mistakes and failure to clear the lines. Matt Mills once again showing his incapability for being captain. Both Federici and Harte had shockers in the first half.

Never really got going. Scott Loach made a mistake and that was about as good as it got for us in the final third.

People slagging off Simon Church and Brian Howard on the radio need to re-watch the game. McDermott harps on about going for 3 points, but takes off Hunt when we could have gone to 4-4-3.

Sneaked on an extra player?

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Shocking defending in the first half. Their goal was a collection of awful mistakes and failure to clear the lines. Matt Mills once again showing his incapability for being captain. Both Federici and Harte had shockers in the first half.

Never really got going. Scott Loach made a mistake and that was about as good as it got for us in the final third.

People slagging off Simon Church and Brian Howard on the radio need to re-watch the game. McDermott harps on about going for 3 points, but takes off Hunt when we could have gone to 4-4-3.

Sneaked on an extra player?

Edit

[tomrfcurz]

and Harte had shockers in the first half.

Big giant surprise there..

Second half however he was miles better and played brilliantly balls across the park

[LoyalRoyalFan]

and Harte had shockers in the first half.

Big giant surprise there..

Second half however he was miles better and played brilliantly balls across the park

He was fractionally better in the second half. Still got caught out far too often to be a Championship full back. Get Williams or Armstrong in.

The first half he had a shocker. Prime example was when Federici was running out to collect the ball and Harte put it over the ball with no Watford player within miles. No communication at all. Experienced

[Kitson12]

We're missing Pearce at the back too. And I think Howard had a fair game, nothing massively special, but not much wrong.
McAnuff is lost in the middle, keep him out wide or take him off, don't put him inside.
Antonio could have added something different, long throws, whereas HRK just runs and doesn't do much else.

The worst thing about today was the total lack of movement. Absolutely piss-poor. At least we've not lost any ground on the play-off chasing pack.

[tomrfcurz]

We're missing Pearce at the back too. And I think Howard had a fair game, nothing massively special, but not much wrong.
McAnuff is lost in the middle, keep him out wide or take him off, don't put him inside.
Antonio could have added something different, long throws, whereas HRK just runs and doesn't do much else.

The worst thing about today was the total lack of movement. Absolutely piss-poor. At least we've not lost any ground on the play-off chasing pack.

Doesn't that make it more frustrating? We could have gained a brilliant 3 points and instead got one. Admittedly it's not as bad as it couldv'e been but again we cannot beat a team above us

[Kitson12]

We're missing Pearce at the back too. And I think Howard had a fair game, nothing massively special, but not much wrong.
McAnuff is lost in the middle, keep him out wide or take him off, don't put him inside.
Antonio could have added something different, long throws, whereas HRK just runs and doesn't do much else.

The worst thing about today was the total lack of movement. Absolutely piss-poor. At least we've not lost any ground on the play-off chasing pack.

Doesn't that make it more frustrating? We could have gained a brilliant 3 points and instead got one. Admittedly it's not as bad as it couldv'e been but again we cannot beat a team above us

I'm clutching at straws to find any positives (bar Ledge), but yes, it's the most frustrating thing really.

[Whore Jackie]

Frankly, to come in at half-time only one down was a miracle. Second-half bit better, but real lack of quality all over the park. Thought McDermott's substitutions were really poor, it took all the momentum – and there wasn't a lot – out of the game. McAnuff doesn't want to play centre-mid and it just clogs things up. Leigertwood MOM by a mile.

[sandman]

The jar of bolognese sauce that just dropped on my foot was more fun than that. Awful defending, no creativity, long balls and the world's worst "impact sub" making his usual woeful contribution.

Kebe's useless twin brother is back with avengeance but seems to only come out after half time. Harte was terrible as always forcing his team mates to cover the acres of space he left behind him and stretching us beyond belief. Brian Howard was actually ok but seems to go into daydreams akin to Father Dougle in Father Ted where he just stares into space while people are going past him. Ledge was the MoM obviously as he was the only one who looked interested at all. And the two strikers had no service whatsoever mainly due to every Kebe cross hit the first man.

All in all a typical Reading, Watford game. Don't know why we bother sometimes and with that in mind see you Tuesday.

[andrew1957]

Feel very fed up and frustrated.

Yet another draw. Every time we draw I cannot help wondering how many of these draws would have been wins if Siggy was still here. In the long run I think that the Chairman will rue his decision to sell Siggy. It is once in a blue moon that you bring through a young player of that quality and we could have built a team around him. I have little doubt that we would have won at least 8 of the drawn games if he had stayed and we would then be up the top competing with QPR for outright promotion.

As it is next season the better players will want to leave inevitably - as we have no ambition. Season ticket holders will revolt and crowds will plummet to 10-11,000. In the long run the loss of "customers" will cost the Chairman a great deal more than the £7M gained for Siggy. Once attendances drop it will be hard to get them up again.

The only way we can rebuild now is a/ if the policy is reversed and we start to buy quality PL standard players for next season or b/ we get relegated to League 1 and rebuild with just Academy youngsters and cheap lower league players. Two or three seasons in league 1 and then promotion might enable us to bring enough young players through to have another go at the top of the Championship.

As the Chairman is VERY UNLIKELY to go for option "a" almost certainly the likes of Kebe, Fed and Long will leave. If so I really do not see a future for us at the current level. It is just a case of how many seasons we can hang on before the inevitable relegation.

I don't blame the players. I don't blame Brian. He has done a good job with what he has. Today Legs had a good game. Fed was faultless. Howard had one of his better days. Long was off his game I thought. No one really grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck. Both sides HAD to win but a draw was a fair result overall - but probably means both sides will miss out on the play offs.

[handbags_harris]

The first half was defensively woeful from the central pairing, and Griffin can take his share of the blame for the opener for completely misreading the initial cross. Then just a comedy of errors, ball falls to Weimann who iirc took two or three stabs at it before getting it right. Maybe Harte had a hand in the slashing, can't remember, although collectively the defence needs to take a look at themselves for that. Watford were so on top at that stage it was unreal, and their quite superb counter attack which led to Graham's header four or five minutes later was a joy - if Arsenal had done that against Barcelona everyone would be purring. The only thing missing was the finish. By the half hour mark we could and should have been two or three down, but then suddenly out of nothing Legs produces a moment of magic and has Loach scrambling, and the last ten were all Reading with decent attacking play and were a little unfortunate (only a little mind) not to go in level.

Second half, after their 'keeper's howler, well it just resorted to classic Reading v Watford midtable clash didn't it? A lot of huff and puff from both sides, again Reading were maybe a little unlucky not to nick a second but you always felt that Watford were capable of prising open our back four at any moment.

Word for certain players:

McAnuff - absolutely in their defence's pocket when he ran at them. Clean tackles all game, easily dispossessed. Not his best game, seems as though he's too eager to impress against this old club in particular.

Mills - I don't think he's as bad as some loud and outspoken people make him out to be but how he keeps Zurab out of the side I don't know.

Harte: Decent game, don't remember him being beaten much at all today. Utterly bizarre that people think he had a poor game.

Howard: not his greatest game but I prefer to see him play in a 4-2-3-1. At least he looked to knock it about.

Federici: LRF, poor game? WTF are you on about???

[sandman]

Harte is never in position to get beaten. In fact he's usually better when he's facing the winger one on one.

[Super_horns]

Sounds like we played well on the road again but let in the usual sloppy goal.

Be interesting to hear how our 2 full backs played as Thompson has only just come into the side whilst Hodson is really a right back..

[handbags_harris]

The only way we can rebuild now is a/ if the policy is reversed and we start to buy quality PL standard players for next season or b/ we get relegated to League 1 and rebuild with just Academy youngsters and cheap lower league players. Two or three seasons in league 1 and then promotion might enable us to bring enough young players through to have another go at the top of the Championship.

Utter dogshit. Rebuild? Why do we need to rebuild?

[tee peg]

Brian says that we needed that extra bit of quality.Well that is news!!!
What do we do.Bring on Church!!

[Royalee]

Brian says that we needed that extra bit of quality.Well that is news!!!
What do we do.Bring on Church!!

We do need an extra bit of quality - we need a quality chairman and a quality manager, we have neither currently.

We need:
http://gobarbra.com/hit/new-26b2346640989dc513f20866afe8bb78

[Royal Lady]

It was interesting that McD said he would like to sign Leigertwood permanently and also interesting that he made no other comment about it - no "so I hope we can", "It depends what happens at the end of the season", "I'll be asking the Chairman" nothing. Just a statement that he'd like to sign him permanently, which, to my mind at least, gave me the impression that he knows he hasn't got a hope in hell for whatever reason.

[prostak]

Once attendances drop it will be hard to get them up again.

Well that just isn't true now, is it? Look at this graph for evidence.