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Thanks, Paul.
I only watched the first-half and I certainly didn’t think that Reading were worth a two-goal lead. Neither did I think we were that bad first half. Alright we had difficulty dealing with the pace they had out wide but we were quite sharp into the tackle and as you were saying we probably passed the ball a little more accurately than we have been recently.
As I said I didn’t watch the second half but the side must have shown great character to keep fighting until the end to salvage a point. It felt like a win.
I didn’t realise it was the same ref who had the Millwall match, he was unbelievably bad that day but as you say he was bad for both sides.
Well done lads and Mr. Warnock, of course.
Hope to be there for Hull on Saturday.
Sublime report, Paul. Every avenue covered.
I particularly commend you for your restraint regarding the referee. Had I been writing that report, I would not have been able to hold back my comments regarding his performance to the very end of my piece.
For I cannot recall a more one-eyed refereeing display in my life. Thank heavens for technology: were it not for his wristwatch, he would never have allowed that Tomlin goal.
And mentioning Tomlin…
To me, he should be the first name on the teamsheet. If he cannot last 60 minutes (as Bellamy suggested last night) then take him off at the hour mark. But don’t bring him on with less than 15 minutes to go. It is a criminal waste. For I submit that he is the only player on City’s books who could hack it in the Premier League.
Omar Bogle infuriated last night. Did exactly what many Grimsby fans always reckoned of him…viz., he spends his time being caught offside and stupidly fouling. But one hopes that Mr Warnock can turn him into a proper player, in the way that he has performed alchemy on raw energetic individuals before.
One sad thing for me was Callum Paterson.
The day he was signed, I wrote you a personal email to say that I had seen him play several times for Hearts and Scotland, and thought him something of a superman.
Well, I reluctantly have to say that he is not the same player now.
I am hoping that it is a confidence thing: let’s be fair, that knee condition of his would have ended careers just three decades back.
But whatever, he is a shadow of the phenomenon I saw playing North of the Border. Let us hope that his operation was 100% successful…but I am beginning to wonder.
Paul – thanks for another excellent read. My boots have long since gone, but I have the socks!!
When I saw our outfit, I thought we may have a difficult night because was it not the same shirt that we wore against Preston, and we know how that turned out.Being two down at half-time, there was a sense of foreboding, but…but we were wearing blue shorts and blue socks ( just like me). Oh ye of little faith. How the lads responded in the second forty-five and did the travelling 1300 plus proud, and how they deserved the equaliser.
Some sloppy defending in the first half aided with some bad luck ( Barrow’s shot was seemingly well covered by Etheridge). But once Bruno was restored to the centre of defence and Peltier on at right back, the whole back line looked more secure although there was the occasional scare. Bamba once again immense and how important he is to the side.
Some positive attacking moves all night, and a couple of Joe Ralls’ fiercely struck efforts were certainly goal bound, only to be blocked, one inadvertently by Tomlin.
Our most expensive purchase of the season still does not look fit enough to me, and it was his silly foul that almost caused disaster at the death because from the resultant free kick McShane’s header hit a post.
So it is Hull next, new Manager and Fraser Campbell et al. Just hope we are able to start more on the front foot and with pace to cause Dawson and Co problems.
Thanks Paul not surer about your line up its certainly has a difference.
I would like to see Camp play and Fred given a run instead of Bogle just to judge his ability up front with supply from Lange , Hoillet and Tomlin.
The defense needs real full backs not one’s shoe horned in so Manga ,Bamba and Morrison can play ,we were exposed last night by real pace thank god they had no jack in the box to score.
Ralls was excellent last night and wit some luck may have had two as could Bogle who does look like he has something about him .
Thought Patterson was played in the wrong position , and at the moment a 20 minute man , rather than play him wide, I’d pop up front, to see what impact he would do in the last quarter of a game
Reading will be in and around the play offs and in them if they get a central striker ,we drew away against a good top 10 side,with a depleted squad ,therefore all bodes well for the future.
Saturday may need some thinking, as Gunnerson looks out for some time ,and he has a World Cup coming up , so we may not see much of him in my view ????.
I would buy another midfielder ,striker and full back come January to supplement what we have,as we have a lot of good players to come in when fit : Zohore, Healey, Harris ,Mr Venezuela, Richards, Pelt’s is coming back.
Bryson, Ward and Patterson are good hard working players .
Cheers for another enjoyable read Paul.
Strange that both Paterson and Bogle who have shown great promise, should have probably their poorest games to date.
Morrison going off seemed to help our cause as Manga was struggling with Barrow’s pace.
I again thought Tomlin should have been introduced at half time as he offers a lot more in an attacking sense than all our other midfielders even allowing for his supposed lack of fitness. I sincerely hope he doesn’t go the same way as our last playmaker – Whitts. He can unlock tight defences. My fear is he does not conform to the Warnock work ethic.
Should none of the recognised strikers be available for Hull perhaps Laing up top would be worth considering.
I meant of course re Lee Tomlin…
” if he cannot last NINETY minutes”.
D’oh!
Senility is setting in.
Apols.
Apologies for being so late with my reply and I’m afraid that it’s going to have to be brief. As always, thanks for your comments and I thought I’d limit myself to three issues that crop up more than once. First, Lee Tomlin – I said in my piece on the Norwich game that he looked “off the pace” at times when he came on – maybe that was a bit harsh, but play seemed to slow down when the ball went to him. I should add though that it’s probably true to say that play will always slow down when the ball reaches Tomlin even if he manages to get his fitness levels to the sort of place Neil Warnock wants them to be, because he is a different sort of player to almost every one else on the staff – he looks to put his foot on the ball and, even, if there is a loss of tempo, his ability to unlock defences by showing the vision some of his colleagues lack means there is no loss of threat to the opposition goal. I can understand why Neil Warnock decides not to play him in some games, but would also say that it seems to me that certain matches are made for him (given Hull’s record, I think he could be risked from the start on Saturday) – the truth is though that although many supporters would love to see him involved more, the man who counts thinks differently at the moment and it must be admitted that we aren’t doing bad so far with Tomlin having a back seat.
Second, Callum Paterson – thinking of Monday in particular, I’m still not sure where he was supposed to be playing because, having started watching the match about five minutes in, I don’t whether Sky had us down as playing with three centre backs or an ordinary back four. I’ve seen reports saying it was the former and others saying it was the latter – so Paterson could have been being used as a wing back or a right sided midfield player. I’d say it was the latter, but either way, it was probably his worst game for us so far, but I’m not too concerned about that, because he’s still making his way back from a serious injury which ensured that he did not have a proper pre season training programme and I;ve seen plenty of players down the years who have “quiet” seasons after that has happened – I’d still say he’s going to be a very good signing for us.
Finally, the ref – I thought he was even poorer in our recent match with Millwall.
Hi Paul,
I have mainly relied on your excellent reports to date this season but I was able to watch this one and it was great to get a text afterwards from a mate who is Reading born and bred. It went along the lines of: Soooooooooooo (expletive deleted) Lucky! Actually I didn’t think we were and it is a sign of the times that I never felt we were out of it even st 2-0 – The Warnock effect for sure as I never felt this way in the past! Many thanks for your excellent blog and best wishes for Christmas and the New Year.
Mike
Thanks Mike with apologies for the delay in replying. I suppose if you think that any goal scored so late on has an element of luck to it, then you are going to say we were lucky to get the draw on Monday, but, I’m with you – although there were times when I felt we had no chance of getting anything out of the game, a draw was a fair result in the end.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you.