Sent Off From The Bench

It wasn't a happy afternoon in the East Midlands where, for the first time this season, Reading's inexperience really shone through. With The Pog out injured it fell to Cox to lead the line, with Ryan Edwards just behind him. As normal there was an almost incestual link between the two clubs, with Michail Antonio starting for the home side, plus former Forest players Cox and Gunter in hoops. Interestingly the home support didn't seem to be overjoyed with the returns. "Simon Cox, he's always offside" rang round the ground on multiple occasions, while Gunter was subjected to the fact he, "used to play for a big club". I'm assuming they were talking about Tottenham. Excitingly Kuhl made his first start, and he looked calm and composed on the ball. He completed 86% of passes, although only 'completed' two of nine crosses - most of them from corners. In that stat Obita didn't fare much better, not finding anybody with any of his f...

The first home game of the season with a largely happy one for The Royals, as the team started off with great intent - within seconds of the start Cox skips through the defence, but his shot was well blocked. Blackman, quickly becoming known for his audacious long distance attempts, fired wide from thirty yards before Gunter brilliantly tracked back to stop Royals' legend Jay Tabb from putting the ball into the box, although his delivery from the corner raises questions why he wasn't in charge of set pieces in his days here. The corner was scrambled around in the area, eventually being cleared off the line. Corners aren't the only set piece that Ipswich have in their arsenal, Elliot Hewitt's long throw caused some problems in the defence. Hector looks a lot more comfortable on the ball than Morrison, although his passing accuracy (60%) is actually down from Morro's last week away at Wigan (67%). Overall the team's passing is confident, and assured - if...

I don't think I've ever seen a team quite as united as Reading. Now obviously I buy into that because I'm also a fan, and I follow the team closer than any other. I see the banter between the team on twitter, and read about the positive atmosphere on Charles Watts webchats. Therefore it's quite surprising to hear that Sean Morrison is pushing for a move to Cardiff. Don't get me wrong, I don't think anybody is suggesting that he's worth £4m, and to sell him at that price - with a valid replacement brought in - would be ludicrously good business for the club. However he wants to go to a division rival ? That stings a little. It's bringing back all sorts of memories of the 'Matt Mills incident', only with less middle finger involved. ALF obviously moved there during the summer too, but by all reports only so that The Royals could pay the impending tax bill which he can probably be let off for. There's players at the club who could be pl...

It's been 102 days since that soul crushing Saturday afternoon at the Madejski, as fans stormed the pitch and then very quickly deserted it again. A long, protracted summer followed. The ownership saga rolled on, with new names being linked on an almost daily basis. Both front runners back in May, Teddy Sagi and Mohit Burman, faded into another 'what if?'. Weeks went by with absolutely no news, as deals fell through at the hands of the mysterious Vibrac Corporation. Slowly, however, it seemed like something was happening. A young businessman by the name of Samrit Bunditkitsada seemed to be close to taking over from SJM, with a rival group - allegedly containing the much demonised Chris Samuelson - not far behind. Details emerged that Samrit was the head of a quartet interested in purchasing the club, and the entire Reading fanbase appeared to send him friend requests on Facebook. The contrast between the Thai's open, enthusiastic communication with fans, and the cl...

Reading 1-3 Swansea Our only home friendly comes the week before the season-proper is about to get under way against a good Swansea side whose quality told in a brief first half spurt. It was also the homecoming of one 'Gylfi Sigurdsson', and it's not hard to see the programme is right when it describes him as one of the most technically gifted players to ever pull on a Reading shirt. The only thing of interest in the first five minutes is Lukasz Fabianksi's terrible distribution, and indeed Nick Blackman almost managed to capitalise after one of the keeper's mis-clearances fell to him, but a fantastic last ditch tackle robbed him of any chance to shoot. Swansea responded well, and a long ball from Jonjo Shelvey - who seemed to forget at points that the game was a friendly - split the defence but Bafetimbi Gomis just missed bringing the ball down, and in the end it ran harmlessly through to Alex McCarthy. Early on in my notes I wrote that any team wh...