Reading (A)

[Not in Crawley]

1 hour ago, Mounts Kipper said:

Let’s hope your saying the same Saturday night.

Even if we lose, Evatt really ground my gears for some reason.

[Matt Lofthouse]

2 hours ago, Kane57 said:

Whereas I think Johnston is the weak link. He's slow, can't pass or head and offers nothing going forward. Give me Conway every time. 

Watch Johnston on Saturday. Almost every pass of his either forces the recipient to a) stop running forward or b) move backwards to collect it 

Yet schuey selects him for every game. Seems like it’s only you with an axe to grind towards Johnston. 

[Johnnyrotten]

11 hours ago, RUREADY2ROLL said:

Lincoln and Reading Away and didn’t lose one; tonight we battered the form team but missed chances yet again.

 

We played well and should have won, but in the last month this "form team" has lost 3-1 at Orient, drawn 2-2 home v both Barnsley and Exeter, and lost at Wimbledon 3-2.  Seem to concede goals for fun even when winning, but still exposed our inability to score away.

They are really bad, apart from Marriott.  

[Eddie]

The season of ‘if’.

If Kenny scores when through one on one (he’d looked a class above with his finishing in the warm up in front of us - I wouldn’t have wanted another player in that position for us).

If Apter connects with an easy chance.

If Dalby’s header goes the other side of the post.

If they don’t score a great goal with their only attack

… then we win a game that we dominated away at a team bang in form. But we didn’t, again.

It felt like one of those early season away games. Performance was good, we were by far the better team, Reading were using every trick in the book to stop us (there was a good 20-25 min spell from where Marriott tactically went down ‘injured’ because he knew he was going off where there was hardly any football played) and in the end we managed to break through but only to get the point when we deserved all 3 - was it Orient where ACD scored the last minute equaliser, felt like that again.

It just feels like luck is against us. We’ve brought in better players, we’ve switched the whole attacking unit and still we have the same problems - even to the point that every bounce of the ball seems to go against us, we’ve only had 1 penalty etc etc.. It’s hard to watch that last night and be critical because “on another day” we win it comfortably.

Specific points on the game:

- I’m not GJ’s biggest fan but he wasn’t at fault for the goal. Conway was our furthest player forward and the through ball got cut out. From there it was a really good move and there’s no way you could expect GJ to have pulled out to where Marriott was - rock and hard place. If anything, watch Cissoko - he’s strolling back when you can clearly see the danger down that side, he had a decent enough game so I’m not going in on him, but he could have bust a gut to cover Conway.

- Conway is bipolar. One minute he’s flying down the wing and beating his man, then he spends the next 5 occasions just turning back and slowing everything down, even when he’s past the winger / full back.

- Dalby had another good game

- RR looks very very impressive. You can just tell from the way he carries himself that he’s a step up in quality.

- Sheehan should never take a corner again

- Squad depth is clear. Bringing those subs on is a luxury in this league and I think will prove the difference through the play offs

- Savage is twat, just like his dad

- If we’d have scored 5 mins earlier then we’d have won it. Reading had nothing and were absolutely clinging on.

I think I’ve accepted that it will be the play offs. So be it, we’re on a good run and have a squad that can cope. There’s extra battle in this team and far more quality - with the likes of Kenny, RR and Apter still getting up to speed. No need to be too disappointed - if Lincoln do go on to take 2nd then fair play, it’s a hell of a run.

[Johnnyrotten]

11 hours ago, RUREADY2ROLL said:

It wasn’t his fault for tge goal; Johnston should have been marking the cunt who scored

I'll leave that for SS to decide, Mark Iles seems to blame Conway more than GJ.

Whatever, he was back to the player we were watching pre-Christmas, outstanding.

[Johnnyrotten]

11 hours ago, RUREADY2ROLL said:

Reading won’t be in the playoffs

Agreed, so poor, but they'll probably win at Port Vale on Saturday to keep up the illusion of being in good form.

[Wanderlust]

37 minutes ago, Tombwfc said:

 

What you're saying now (this team is miles better than the one two years ago) is exactly what people (quite possibly you) were saying about the team we had at the start of the season with ACD, Burstow firing etc. We haven't seen anything like enough of Apter, Kenny, CBT to make a judgement and opinions will evolve as time goes on as they have done with Forss/Gale/Burstow/Duberry/Dalby.

The jury has to be out on the season and where we're heading when there is still a lot of games to play, we've been patchy throughout and had two fairly distinct 'era's' of loan players pre and post-January.

But regardless, all I said was that the idea this team has improved away from home in any sense vs the 23/24 team isn't true. That's not a comment on Evatt vs SS, it's just a fact. 

I would agree but would add that IMO our patchiness is as much to do with our playing style under both Evatt and SS as much as our players.

I think that as far back as Evatt’s first season we have tried to play attractive attacking football in various guises - perhaps because it sells more tickets and merch - and opposition teams know it and plan for it. 
We’ve had endless possession passing across the back waiting for an opportunity for an opening against a packed defence.We’ve had everybody up bar Santos. We’ve had a string of skilful midfielders trying to slot pinpoint passes through the lines. We’ve had feed everything to the wingers. And now we’ve got cross everything into the box (often poorly) for the big man. All good if it works. But in everything either manager has tried, attack has been the priority at the expense of defence and we continue with wingbacks like Conway and Tutu and push them on leaving ourselves exposed.

For this approach to work we need better service to lethal strikers at one end, and rock solid defence at the other and if we persist with WBs we need 3 decent CBs to give us protection. I think it’s pointless blaming individual players all the time - they all have good games and bad games which is entirely normal and is the reason we have subs available, but it’s unfair to criticise them when our system leaves defenders exposed at the back and forwards facing packed defences at the other end.

Individually, I think we have quality players for this level who may thrive in other teams but collectively we still haven’t got the balance right IMO.

[wakey]

18 minutes ago, Farnywhite said:

Iles saying it didnt  look good 

Iles also saying Marriott's goal "looped" above Bonham and Johnston put (Dalby's) header wide.

Huge pinch of salt.

[Johnnyrotten]

11 hours ago, royal white said:

We’re depending to much on other teams fucking up. 
 

Our run in is a shocker 

The last 5 always get quoted.

Last 7 for me, starting with Stevenage and Plymouth.

Not saying we won't win our fair share, bring it on, but Stevenage home can't be classed as easier than Luton or Huddersfield and Plymouth away is one of those games you just know will be tough (another 1-1 probably).

[meanderson93]

15 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:

We played well and should have won, but in the last month this "form team" has lost 3-1 at Orient, drawn 2-2 home v both Barnsley and Exeter, and lost at Wimbledon 3-2.  Seem to concede goals for fun even when winning, but still exposed our inability to score away.

They are really bad, apart from Marriott.  

With all that being said, they have only lost once at home since August. We played well and yes on the balance of things had enough opportunities to win the game.

But, a draw there is far from a shameful result.

[Johnnyrotten]

11 hours ago, Traf said:

We've improved from the Evatt era in so much that we're now very difficult to beat and not a soft touch away from home, but our finishing has let us down again.

We have to put games to bed like Cardiff & Lincoln seem to do.

That said, the playoff teams don't scare me and I think we win them if we have to.

We're on our way...

We aren't a soft touch you're right, but these draws aren't getting us enough points.  Granted it may be useful in an away leg in the play offs.

But we've gone backwards compared to under Evatt away overall, its about points not being tough to beat.

37 points in 23-24, and even last season's disaster of a season under both IE and SS, we got 31 away points.

Currently on 20, we'd need 12 points from the last 6 to beat last season and there's no sign of us averaging 2 points a game when its currently 1.2.

Last 2 seasons we scored 34 and 31 goals away, this season 14 so far, that's where we've deteriorated, we no longer have that knack of nicking goals especially in the 1st half.

[Zico]

41 minutes ago, Farnywhite said:

Iles saying it didnt  look good 

what do you think 

just one of them things

like Stephen Hunt on Petr Cech

except this guy just burst his lip

 

[masi 51]

1 hour ago, Tombwfc said:

 

What you're saying now (this team is miles better than the one two years ago) is exactly what people (quite possibly you) were saying about the team we had at the start of the season with ACD, Burstow firing etc. We haven't seen anything like enough of Apter, Kenny, CBT to make a judgement and opinions will evolve as time goes on as they have done with Forss/Gale/Burstow/Duberry/Dalby.

The jury has to be out on the season and where we're heading when there is still a lot of games to play, we've been patchy throughout and had two fairly distinct 'era's' of loan players pre and post-January.

But regardless, all I said was that the idea this team has improved away from home in any sense vs the 23/24 team isn't true. That's not a comment on Evatt vs SS, it's just a fact. 

Have a look where those players we had two seasons ago are now playing  or not in several cases. ....Apter has a lge1 hat trick in the last 12 months Despite being a winger and went for £2m in the summer, Kenny is now a full International who scores goals and already has a better cv than either Charles or Collins. CBT is a top lge1 lower Championship player for the last five seasons.

I never said anything about the new players last August apart from Erhahon because i simply had never heard of any of them.  Taylor looked good initially but has fallen out of favour Simons likewise but is still learning the game. Gale is another who is hit and miss and that could apply to Burstow, Forss, and ACD  they are all learning still and are inconsistent......The Evatt team was full of decent established lower league pros who played at their ceiling with us.

SS squad/team is raw and full of potential.....For what its worth the 22/23 team was the best we have had under Evatt and we messed up that season because we wanted to win the EFL cup and injuries cost us dear

 

[woolli]

39 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:

We played well and should have won, but in the last month this "form team" has lost 3-1 at Orient, drawn 2-2 home v both Barnsley and Exeter, and lost at Wimbledon 3-2.  Seem to concede goals for fun even when winning, but still exposed our inability to score away.

They are really bad, apart from Marriott.  

If they are really bad, what about the 17 teams below them?

[Eddie]

12 minutes ago, Zico said:

what do you think 

just one of them things

like Stephen Hunt on Petr Cech

except this guy just burst his lip

 

The way their players were searching the pitch where he was lay, I’d assumed that he’d lost a tooth or two. No idea if he did or not but there were a few of them looking round as though they were looking for something.

[Johnnyrotten]

11 hours ago, onefinfrandsen said:

If we had lost tonight I’m pretty sure you would have said a draw would have been a good result.

I'm grateful for the point rather than none, and we absolutely deserved not to lose, but I'll agree to disagree.  If we'd lost tonight, as at Doncaster and Stevenage, I wouldn't have said a draw was enough, these were always games we had to win to make up for losing those games over Christmas and before then.  

We've seen what the 2 dropped points has done, reading this thread, everyone's now looking at the play offs and before Saturday all the talk was of the top 2.  Draws costing us again, they aren't good results, other than Lincoln because clearly they are a good side, the other draws we've got are at teams that won't be challenging.

[Johnnyrotten]

3 hours ago, bwfc4ife said:

It's weird how people can see things so differently. I think we've looked way more solid without Conway. I like the lad but i don't think he offers anywhere near enough going forward given how shit he is at defending and weak in the tackle. Every time he got in a crossing position last night it was either a nothing ball or cut out easily. I think he holds onto it way too much.

We've conceded numerous times this season because of his poor positioning and teams actively target him. A simple ball over the top and he's fucked, very much like Johnston in that regard. Looking at his stats also, 30 apps in league 1 and only 2 assists. Not exactly, great numbers for leaving us wide open time after time. 

I didn't think we looked solid at Lincoln personally, but as you say we all see things differently.  And Barnsley 2nd half was defensively dodgy, I remember praising our keeper for making saves, thank god for him.  If we've looked better defensively at all I'd put it down to Forino and having a proper keeper, and maybe GJs more defensive mindset at LB granted.

Last night our keeper had 2 shots to save, 1 a deflected pot shot, virtually no corners or crosses or anything, I'm struggling to think of a game we were more solid than last night, maybe just Wigan all season?  And I get that they scored from a breakaway - I take that criticism of Conway as I said, he was too far up the pitch on that occasion but on another day that's not a goal.

Nobody's perfect, but the difference in possession between Johnston (a CB out of position so not blaming him) and Conway is absolute chalk and cheese, I'd noticed from minute one his passing was crisp, accurate and on the floor, he was right on his game in possession IMO, and the number of times he got out of tight situations with skill and strength was great to watch.  

Maybe his crossing could have been better, but we have specialist wingers (5 at the last count), when do they ever get an assist or a decent cross in between them?  It doesn't happen so I'm not going to lay the blame at a young full back either.

[Tombwfc]

8 minutes ago, masi 51 said:

Have a look where those players we had two seasons ago are now playing  or not in several cases. ....Apter has a lge1 hat trick in the last 12 months Despite being a winger and went for £2m in the summer, Kenny is now a full International who scores goals and already has a better cv than either Charles or Collins. CBT is a top lge1 lower Championship player for the last five seasons.

I never said anything about the new players last August apart from Erhahon because i simply had never heard of any of them.  Taylor looked good initially but has fallen out of favour Simons likewise but is still learning the game. Gale is another who is hit and miss and that could apply to Burstow, Forss, and ACD  they are all learning still and are inconsistent......The Evatt team was full of decent established lower league pros who played at their ceiling with us.

SS squad/team is raw and full of potential.....For what its worth the 22/23 team was the best we have had under Evatt and we messed up that season because we wanted to win the EFL cup and injuries cost us dear

 

 

I'm not going to go back over anyone's posts, but it would be disingenuous to say that people weren't very high on Simons, Burstow, Forss and ACD etc. and thought they would be top quality players in this league (ACD obviously was). Forss has the best record of any attacking player we've signed this season by miles and never got going.

I'm hopeful for everyone, but there are no guarantees with any of them. That's the nature of loan players, if they were a sure thing they'd be playing for their parent clubs.

Kenny has five career goals above (barely) non-league level and one sub appearance for Ireland. Collins & Charles have 110+ L1 goals, 34 international caps and a L1 player of the season award. Kenny may or may not turn out to be a better player in time, but a better CV already?

[Rival Son]

54 minutes ago, Eddie said:

The season of ‘if’.

If Kenny scores when through one on one (he’d looked a class above with his finishing in the warm up in front of us - I wouldn’t have wanted another player in that position for us).

If Apter connects with an easy chance.

If Dalby’s header goes the other side of the post.

If they don’t score a great goal with their only attack

… then we win a game that we dominated away at a team bang in form. But we didn’t, again.

It felt like one of those early season away games. Performance was good, we were by far the better team, Reading were using every trick in the book to stop us (there was a good 20-25 min spell from where Marriott tactically went down ‘injured’ because he knew he was going off where there was hardly any football played) and in the end we managed to break through but only to get the point when we deserved all 3 - was it Orient where ACD scored the last minute equaliser, felt like that again.

It just feels like luck is against us. We’ve brought in better players, we’ve switched the whole attacking unit and still we have the same problems - even to the point that every bounce of the ball seems to go against us, we’ve only had 1 penalty etc etc.. It’s hard to watch that last night and be critical because “on another day” we win it comfortably.

Specific points on the game:

- I’m not GJ’s biggest fan but he wasn’t at fault for the goal. Conway was our furthest player forward and the through ball got cut out. From there it was a really good move and there’s no way you could expect GJ to have pulled out to where Marriott was - rock and hard place. If anything, watch Cissoko - he’s strolling back when you can clearly see the danger down that side, he had a decent enough game so I’m not going in on him, but he could have bust a gut to cover Conway.

- Conway is bipolar. One minute he’s flying down the wing and beating his man, then he spends the next 5 occasions just turning back and slowing everything down, even when he’s past the winger / full back.

- Dalby had another good game

- RR looks very very impressive. You can just tell from the way he carries himself that he’s a step up in quality.

- Sheehan should never take a corner again

- Squad depth is clear. Bringing those subs on is a luxury in this league and I think will prove the difference through the play offs

- Savage is twat, just like his dad

- If we’d have scored 5 mins earlier then we’d have won it. Reading had nothing and were absolutely clinging on.

I think I’ve accepted that it will be the play offs. So be it, we’re on a good run and have a squad that can cope. There’s extra battle in this team and far more quality - with the likes of Kenny, RR and Apter still getting up to speed. No need to be too disappointed - if Lincoln do go on to take 2nd then fair play, it’s a hell of a run.

Just about to leave Reading for the drive home, and I’ve finally read a decent take on last night’s match.

This Johnston pile-on is becoming pathetic. He had a good game and made some crucial challenges in the first half. The goal was not down to him (or Bonham). It was a great break and excellent finish from right wing by Marriott. “Forino would have stopped him”. 🤣

Ten minutes later, Apter had a similar but  even better break to equalise. Again, no error from a Reading defender; just great wing play, which was let down by a poor and very off-target shot. And that is where the problem lies.

Not the defence but our woeful finishing, across the team. We had more than enough possession, territory and good opportunities to have won that match 4-1. Once again, our finishing let us down. Once again, we have an (unjustified) pile-on to Johnston.

Finishing aside, we continue to play well and I expect us to finish third. Hopefully, we get the job done in the playoffs, this time.

[little whitt]

1 hour ago, barrycowdrill said:

Play offs look inevitable. Where we finish, god knows. I think we have too big a cushion to 6th so either 3rd, 4th or 5th. 
 

don’t fear anyone in there but then also don’t fancy us against anyone either. Weird one 

Are you booking the Flights 😜😜

[Johnnyrotten]

1 hour ago, meanderson93 said:

With all that being said, they have only lost once at home since August. We played well and yes on the balance of things had enough opportunities to win the game.

But, a draw there is far from a shameful result.

Agreed not a shameful result.  In isolation and if it had been in Oct or Nov its all good.  Its just that we're in the catch up game because we've used up all our bad results at places like Northampton, Burton, Wycombe, Peterboro, Doncaster.

Before last night Reading had played 16, winning 8 and failing to win the other 8, so they win half their homes (less than half now).  We can't say a point is any better than what half the teams get, its not terrible but unfortunately another opportunity missed.

[barrycowdrill]

22 minutes ago, little whitt said:

Are you booking the Flights 😜😜

Not to Stockport or Bradford no 

[deeane Koontz]

Always a bit iffy when Johnston and Conway are playing next to each other when we're not playing 3 centrebacks and don't have the numbers to cover as There's occasions when the other team are attacking one may as well in another stadium going off their positioning 

[deeane Koontz]

Anyway we're a bit good at scoring late goals aren't we. Better feeling than having a nack for conceding them then.

[Ani]

Not reading through all the posts but have read a few to get a feel.

Last night was a performance which has become our norm this season. Lots of possession but untill last 10-15 minutes no real sustained pressure when you were thinking a goal is coming. We even had the usual early chance missed. 
Did not look like conceding, till we did, then back to the same routine, lots of possession trying to get fwad but as usual no one driving through from midfield as the 2 in there have enough to do already.

The goal, we want full backs to get forward and the risk is giving the ball away leaves us exposed. Think it was the only time Savage found his man all night. Do think GJ has to get further over and unusual for a keeper to get beat from there, but equally unusual at this level for someone to thundertwat it like that. 

Once we are chasing the game hard not get frustrated with players making small mistakes. Apter did well getting involved but have to be disappointed with his outcomes. Cisoko some nice bits but no real outcomes. 
 

Subs IMO came too late, but with the time to be added on for the injury the first two got best part of 30 mins and second two 20. I am not a fan of Christie but is he worth a place due to his set pieces, especially if Dempsey is not starting. 
 

Got to keep going and the challenge for SS is to lift the players so we maintain form for what is more likely than not another go at the play offs. 
 

My biggest worry is that it is 18th Feb with 13 games to play and we do not know our best XI, even allowing for new signings that is crazy.