Author Archive for Terry

Doyle goal celebration ban - Is Kingsley in the Dock again?

Published by
Terry
at October 11, 2007 in kingsley. 1 Comment

When we saw the headline Doyle goal celebration ban we were worried that Kingsley was in trouble yet again.

But no, it is Kevin Doyle’s knee slide that is banned as it could cause him a serious injury. And with the injury list mounting back up (Doyle has played right midfield on occasion so should be worried that the curse may strike him) a self inflicted knee knack is the last thing that is wanted.

In fact, Kingsley has got the official all clear to continue to mob Reading goal scorers

However, Dillon has given Doyle the all-clear to bundle Kingsley. He joked: “Kingsley’s okay to dive on him, though.”

And quite right too. Kingsley is only getting revenge after Shane Long attacked him last season.

You might also want to read :

Steve Coppell’s Managers Job - 4 years old today.

Published by
Terry
at October 9, 2007 in steve coppell. 0 Comments

Four years ago today, the BBC announced that Steve Coppell was the new Reading manager

He takes over with the Royals in mid-table after a run of just one win from six league matches under caretaker boss Kevin Dillon.

Arise, Sir Steve of Coppell. Thank you very much for the last 4 years. They have been fantastic.

You might also want to read :

Doyle is back as Reading sink Rams

Published by
Terry
at October 9, 2007 in Premiership, Reading and Reviews. 0 Comments

Reading 1 (Doyle 63) Derby County 0

We got Row B seats in the East Stand for this game and my son really enjoyed being so close to the action and also in amongst the louder section of fans. However, being so close to the pitch made it much harder to follow patterns of play in the game, and indeed the way Duberry often punted the ball high into the air, I spent much of the game looking up.

The game started with most of the play at the away end. Reading had three clear chances, 2 for Hunt and 1 for Doyle before Murty hit a shot that clearly was handball for a penalty (on the replays in MOTD2 anyway; couldn’t tell where I was sitting). It wasn’t pretty but at least Derby never looked like scoring which was a bit improvement over last week.

Second half and it was still mostly Reading, but they weren’t getting very far. The number of freekicks messed up by Shorey and Rosenior reached double figures, and eventually Rosenior was replaced by Jonny Oster. Whilst Oster himself didn’t change the game with any individual piece of skill, this was the turning point in the game. I think it was the fact we had a proper right midfielder on the pitch.

Harper took the ball right from a throw in, passing to Murty. Murty came forward, whilst Oster took the left back wide, Murty was able to find space to put in a cross. The ball came across the Derby defence (taking a deflection I think) and finding the head of Kevin Doyle. Doyle guided the ball to the far post, and after taking an seeming eternity, the ball beat the keeper and was in the net.

I was hoping Doyle would come our way, but instead he enjoyed a celebration with Kingsley. Good man.

Kingsley celebration

Derby pushed forward after going 1-0 down but never troubled us really, getting caught offside more than once or twice. It was Reading that came closer to getting a 2nd as Oster had about half an hour to take a shot from about 7 yards out, but took a whole hour and was closed out.

Special mentions to
1) Dave Kitson. Tireless running and good all round forward play. My MOTD.
2) The bloke next to me for going on and on about how bad Dubbery and Gunnardson(sic) were. Whilst he had a point about Gunnarson, you should not barrack the players, do you want them to lose ?
3) Derby leftback, . Manages to handball twice (once for what should have been a pen) and boots the ball hard straight at John Oster and still doesn’t get booked.
4) My son for repeating a joke endlessly now doubt annoying everyone around us “Look there is Kingsley, lioning down”

You might also want to read :

7-4

Published by
Terry
at October 1, 2007 in Portsmouth, Premiership, Reading and Reviews. 0 Comments

Portsmouth 7 Reading 4.

How can you analyse a game like that? I’d run out space just listing the goal scorers. Instead I’ll detail the small bits and how I listened to the game.

I’d been helping out in the garden at my children’s school until around 3 when one of the teachers went to leave in the card. She is a ST holder and lives very close to the ground. She reported that we’d just conceeded. By the time I got home it was 2-0 and the BBC Berkshire commentary recorded how we were being totally overrun, picking out Murty and Gunnarsson as the major problems. I then heard we got one back, but no one was sure who had got it - if Rosenior’s shot had crossed the line it was his, otherwise Hunt had got the followup (it was Rosenior’s goal)

Second half and I was still listening to BBC Berkshire. 2-2 through a howler from David James, 3-2 to Portmouth, then a penalty. Astonishing game. Shorey missed it and then it all went completely and utterly wrong. I think I stopped listening at about 5-2. I mean, how can you lose track of the number of goals scored in a game.

I put the telly and watched the equivalent of people reading out teletext for you, Sky Sport’s Soccer Saturday. Chris Kamara was going mental reporting on the game. Every so often, they report “There’s been another goal at Fratten Park!” and I’d think, we’ll 5-3 or 6-4 wouldn’t be so bad, but the goals kept coming. In the end 7-4, the highest aggregate Premiership game ever.

Later on I watched Match of the Day, and we were on first. How I wished we were the last game like usual.

You can’t analyse that except to say that whatever the question is, Gunarsson is not the answer.

You might also want to read :
  • No related posts

Convey suffers leg injury

Published by
Terry
at September 28, 2007 in Convey and Portsmouth. 0 Comments

I was going to write a post today on the respective merits of playing Bobby Convey ahead of Stephen Hunt against Portmouth tomorrow, but it appears Mr. Convey has gone and got himself a leg injury so can’t play tomorrow.

Portsmouth away is not a game I expect us to win. We never do well there and I don’t expect us tomorrow, so any points will be a massive bonus. Can someone nick that blokes bells when they are down there?

It has been reported that in addition to bus and travel problems, there was a broken turnstile in the North Stand for Wednesday’s game against Liverpool greatly adding to the trouble of getting players into the ground. I hope the officials release some information on what went wrong as they have promised to refund anyone who missed a substantial part of the game. Rumours of John Halls asking for a refund have been strongly refuted.

You might also want to read :

Torrez smashes Reading out of Cup

Published by
Terry
at September 25, 2007 in Carling Cup, Liverpool, Reading and Reviews. 0 Comments

Liverpool beat Reading 4-2 with a hat-trick from Fernando Torrez to dump the Royals out of the cup in the 3rd round for the second season running.

I didn’t go to the game tonight for a number of reasons. Cost of an extra game in a busy month, too late to take my son and the fact that getting to the ground would have been a nightmare. Once again there were reports of a nightmare on the buses with traffic chaos on the motorway near the ground. The buses were running on the same timetable as the Chelsea game and I got to the ground at 8:05 for that and this was a 7:45 kickoff. I watched on telly and noticed how many empty seats at the start were only filled by half time. No drummer until about 15 minutes into the game, so it must have been bad!

Anyway, to the match itself and it was clear that Torrez was a class above every other player on the pitch. Not surprising considering he cost about 5 times the whole cost of the Reading side. He ended up with a hat trick and could have had a few more. Duberry and Bikey actually had good games and did well but the Spaniard was simply too good for them. What was surprising was why Benitez rested him for the recent league games and played him tonight. Is the Carling Cup more important that the Premier League?

Coppell rested a lot of the Reading 1st team and drafted in quite a few of the fringe players. Of the additions, Lita started slowly but got better as the game went on and ran the Liverpool defence ragged. He also produced the best piece of skill on the night, a fabulous overhead kick that the keeper did well to tip over the bar.

Convey had another good game, scoring a cracking goal (even if Lita was offside for it) and is generally getting back to his form of two seasons ago. Its now debatable whether Hunt should keep his place with the improving Convey coming back to form. If only the right midfield position had similar selection problems.

John Halls, despite scoring and putting in a few good crosses, looked way out of his depth. Clearly not at the same level as the rest of the players on the pitch, he was slow and was out of position quite often and was lucky not to get more than just one yellow card for pulling players back who had gone passed him. He was replaced by the young James Henry who showed promise for an 18 year old during the brief spell he was on.

Those that did less well also included Shane Long and Fae. Long looked off the pace and lacked a good first touch all night. Fae is still feeling his way into English football and whilst had a number of good moments lacked a real purpose going forward and doesn’t seem to be able to tackle well, an important skill for a central midfielder.

However, Reading mostly matched Liverpool player for player except for Torrez who looks like he is going to have a good season and if Benitez plays him often enough, Liverpool might just win the league.

You might also want to read :
  • No related posts

Leroy Lita Video

Published by
Terry
at September 25, 2007 in Glen Little, Reading and lita. 0 Comments

Wow, look at this! A You Tube of Leroy Lita “scoring” :-

Hah, anyway, just makes me realise how much we are missing Blakey (Glen Little to those who are not aware) on the right. Plus, didn’t Mourinho look unhappy? Not as unhappy as he did last week. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer (Royal Berkshire Ambulance hating) man.

You might also want to read :

Last minute winner for lucky Reading

Published by
Terry
at September 22, 2007 in Premiership, Reading, Reviews and Wigan. 0 Comments

Just got back from the game and have to contribute the 2-1 win against Wigan to a combination of pure luck and an astute substitution from Coppell. ` First half and Reading were playing well, on top and creating chances. Should have been 3-0 up before it finally became 1-0. Kirkland spilled a shot from Doyle and Dave Kitson was on hand to poke the ball in the net.

2nd half (and I’ve seen this a number of times now at the Madjeski) Reading were a different team, poor, 2nd to the ball, passing going wrong and conceded a goal from a corner.

Bobby Convey replaced Liam Rosenior and turned the game round. He found space, and ran at the Wigan defence, turned them and generally turned the game back in Reading’s favour.

But, before Reading scored we had a real scare at the other end, Marcus Hahnemann was left exposed on a 1 on 1 with Wigan’s Aghahowa and clipped the forward as he went passed. To the striker’s eternal credit, he didn’t go down as he thought he had a clear open goal to score, but he was slowed enough to let the defence back in.

But Reading had enough to score in the very last minute to gain a much needed three points. Kitson played a brilliant reverse pass to play in Harps to score. The crowd went mad. There was even time for a last minute shoving match but the crowd went home very happy with the result, but still concerned by the performance of some of the players.

You might also want to read :

Sunderland 2 Reading 1

Published by
Terry
at September 17, 2007 in Premiership, Reading, Reviews and Sunderland. 0 Comments

Things didn’t get any better for Reading away to Sunderland. Despite avoiding a third 3-0 defeat in a row, Reading never looked like winning this game. Dave Kitson scored what was a consolation goal towards the end of the game that Reading lost effectively in the 1st minute of the second half when they went 2-0 down.

Reading are now third from bottom and despite cries of “Second Season Syndrome” I trust Steve Coppell to turn things around. Fates have conspired against me (or perhaps for me and I’ve only seen Reading place well so far this season; United away on telly (hard fought 0-0, Chelsea at home (won the first half; no disgrace to lose to the Billionaires) and Everton at home (1-0 win and played generally well against a team that still looking good).

The defeats have come away from home and at home to West Ham who are now 6th (I was thankfully unable to see that game). Having not seen in full any of the last three games it is hard for me to know exactly what is wrong. Is it the defence missing the hopefully soon to return Sonko (perhaps Ingarmarsson has lost form)? Or have Reading not replaced Sidwell properly (the new signing not found their feet or form)? Or the loss of all three right sided midfielders to a team based on wide play?

Likely it is a combination of all three, but you look at the results and sort of can see that you would not expect Reading to win them. Although Bolton are bottom three too, last season they were top 6. Sunderland are a new team and running well at home (beating Spurs). West Ham are refurbished and back to their form of two seasons ago. Yet the Reading of last season would have picked up at least 2 or 3 points from those games whatever the opposition.

This Saturday is Wigan at home and whilst at this stage of the season not game is a “must win”; we should win it. If not, I’ll see first hand why not.

My son has a chart where he can put all the scores down. Filling it in hasn’t been too much fun so far. Let’s hope it gets better soon.

You might also want to read :

Reading 0-3 West Ham

Published by
Terry
at September 3, 2007 in Premiership and Reviews. 3 Comments

Ouch. Reading got ripped apart on the counter attack by a very fast paced West Ham team. The early goal set the pace and meant that Reading had to attack. As a result, West Ham were able to pick us off time after time.

On the one hand the scoreline slightly flattered West Ham, as Hunt hit the bar when it was only 1-0 and at 2-0 down, Doyle had a penalty saved and West Ham’s final goal came in the 94th minute when Reading had most of their defence up front desperately trying to get one back.

On the other hand, West Ham had enough one on ones with Hahnemann to make a reverse of last season 6-0 win possible. Hahnemann made a couple of key saves but maybe the most important chance in the 6th minute was one he should have saved and didn’t.

Coppell was good in the post match interviews, and I fully expect him to sort it out and turn it round. We clearly missed a proper right sided midfielder and hopefully either Little or Oster will be back soon. Duberry was far too slow to this sort of game, and the quicker Sonko gets back the better. Finally new signing Rosenior is reportedly a very fast player and has also played at right midfield, so maybe he can fill in there and play right back against the faster sides.

You might also want to read :