Back from the game - Coventry (A)

[LoyalRoyalFan]

The atmosphere did dip markedly once the game started. Says it all really. Apart from a couple of efforts in the first half we didn't test their keeper. I didn't understand why Harte didn't have a crack at goal from the free-kick near the end. Instead the ball was passed short to him and he started trying to beat players. Daft given his ability from free-kicks.

Boring and dull match - poor atmosphere.

Good day out nonetheless.

[Svlad Cjelli]

Poor, poor game - Reading looked like they were just going through the motions rather than wanting to win. Not really much desire there so they were slowest to every ball. Having said that. they got absolutely nothing out of the ref - he was as bad as the one who reffed us vs Hull a few months ago ( )

So we've stuttered into the play-offs- but it's worrying just how timidly we've crept in compared with how emphatic everything was just a few weeks ago. Not a good omen.

Inflatables not as good as in some years - too many people just held onto them, and the stand was much too high and steep for them to work well - everything was lost down the front really quickly, and no-one at the front had the foresight to send them back up. Plus there it was just too big an area - with quite a few day trippers - for it to really work. Blackburn was still the best for inflatables.

[Royal Lady]

The wind didn't help with the inflatables tbf - it was swirling them all over the place.

[SLAMMED]

[NR_Royal]

The wind kept pushing the inflatables forwards. Every time I hit one back, it went forwards.

[Rex]

Did Ian Royal ever get that inflatable pumped up.

[Sarah Star]

Is this for real or did you just photoshop some pictures of inflatables and hands onto an old photo?

[Svlad Cjelli]

That's my crocodile being taken away!

[BenReadingFC]

Blobby got rescued after deviating over the meshing, Typical stewards just take them away and not just throw them back. Fuckers

[Jerry St Clair]

Blobby got rescued after deviating over the meshing, Typical stewards just take them away and not just throw them back. Fuckers

To be fair, I was approached by a steward in the concourse who solemnly told me that if my sheep ended up on the perimeter track it would be deflated and taken away. Though they were going to be put in a big skip for retrieval afterwards if I so wished.

[PEARCEY]

I hadn't thought you lot wanted them back. Lol. They took away hundreds of them.

[Elm Park Old Boy]

Let's not be too gloomy......

Npower Championship table snapshot

As it stood on 12 Feb 2011 23:59 UK
Position Team P GD PTS
1 QPR 30 31 59
2 Cardiff 30 14 54
3 Norwich 31 10 54
4 Swansea 31 11 53
5 Nott'm Ft 28 16 52
6 Leeds 31 10 52
7 Leicester 31 1 48
8 Burnley 30 9 46
9 Millwall 31 9 46
10 Hull 31 4 45
11 Watford 29 10 43
12 Reading 30 11 42
13 Barnsley 31 -8 41
14 Coventry 31 -3 39
15 Ipswich 29 -2 38
16 Doncaster 29 -7 37
17 Derby 30 -3 35
18 Portsmouth 30 -5 35
19 Bristol City 31 -11 35
20 Middlesbrough 30 -5 33
21 Crystal Palace 31 -21 31
22 Sheff Utd 30 -21 28
23 Scunthorpe 28 -25 24
24 Preston 29 -25 21

[SLAMMED]

That is pretty incredible, as is this:

[John Peel]

^ +1!

[PEARCEY]

That table does say a lot...10 points behind Leeds.

[SLAMMED]

That's my crocodile being taken away!

Could be mine. I had one of them as well.

Asda?

[Libertine]

Well I am glad to see the fans and inflatables were there doing your part. And other than the game people had/made their own fun. Great pics and stories.

I dunno...as others have asked, did we peak too soon?

[muddyfeet]

Just got back to London, feel rough as, will write something more coherent Tom!!

[Ian Royal]

Just got back.

Well that was a nightmare journey to cap a oxf*rd atrocious display of clueless football. The journey may just be colouring my match report a bit, but I couldn't give a rats arse right now.

We were shambolic, playing the worst sort of percentage puntball. The most frustrating things is its exactly the same shit we've been playing all season and we've got good enough players and there are enough shit teams out there for it to get us into the play offs. But we'll get absolutely murdered in the Prem playing it. Which is ok, because before that can happen Swansea are going to bend us over and arse rape us in the play offs.

Federici - 5 Distribution awful. If you're going to hoof it, at least hoof it to the middle of the pitch where we might pick up a second ball (assuming we have a midfield). Made some good camera saves that McCarthy would haev made look routine.
Griffin - 6 I'm sure he used to be really good - can't remember anything good or particularly bad.
Harte - 6 His lack of pace caused us problems, but apart from run slowly he didn't do a lot wrong.
Mills - -357 His positioning is poor. He is the biggest cuplrit of mindless, easily telegraphed percentage hoofball we have. Piss off to Billy Big Bollocksville where you belong.
Khizanishvili - 6 Best ball playing centreback but quite casual at times
Karacan - 4 non-existent except when in headless chicken mode. You are a midfielder, put your foot on the ball and pass it ffs. In fairness not much he can do with Mills and co repeatedly pumping the ball 6 miles over his head.
Leigertwood - 5 non-existent - but what do you expect when the ball is consistently pumped 5.5 miles over his head.
Antonio - 5 looked promising briefly with the ball at his feet, but obviously has no idea what he's actually doing.
McAnuff - 4 Not sure he was even at the game. One of our best ball players and we did nothing to get him involved.
Hunt - 4 first time I've seen Hunt play crap and not score recently - no service whatsoever so he couldn't have hoped to get better than a 6 anyway.
Long - 4 I can't blame him for spending his entire time looking to fall over to get a freekick, because he had bugger all chance of doing anything else.

Howard - 5 Too little way too late. You don't bring on a play maker when you have none of the ball and are pumping it aimlessly upfield and hope he'll change the game.
Robson-Kanu - 3 he's got pace, he's got skill. he knows what he's doing. He's just really shit at doing it for some reason.

We've been wide open in midfield for close to half a dozen games now and we just let an utterly mediocre Coventry side make us look like relegation material, waltzing through our midfield at will. And they still barely looked like scoring.

A word to the Coventry fans. Worst Mexican wave ever. oxf*rd atrocious. And it might be an idea not to slag off a team that played abysmally yet still held you to a 0-0 draw in a meaningless game, when you've done nothing for the last 20 million years except get relegated.

I wish I'd stayed in the oxf*rd Taxi and watched Ben's face get slowly turned into bloody mincemeat by that pissing dolphin. Ta for the Lols Rexers, Badg, Leics & Ben... by far and away the best part of the day.

oxf*rd Tiki Pole.

[Ian Royal]

Did Ian Royal ever get that inflatable pumped up.

Yep just in time for the kick off. Badger Finger finished it off for me. I think he got worried when I started going blue and wheezing.

The guys who had the other one were sat just in front of us so we had a fight with them and I came out a clear winner.

Chief Steward had a word with me in the concourse saying all the big inflatables would be stuck in the tunnell and left for people to take away after the game, but that we shouldn't bet on getting them back because he had a couple of "arseholes" working for him who got their jollies from puncturing them, even though he's told them not to.