Leroy returns as boss finally realises we can’t score

With the Royals looking more doomed by the minute, Steve Coppell has made the decision to recall Leroy Lita from his loan spell at Charlton.

The decision to recall the controversial striker was made as the Royals continue to struggle in front of goal and have now fallen right into the centre of a relegation dogfight. One can’t help but wonder whether this decision might have been better made three games ago, when Kevin Doyle was proving he couldn’t hit a barn door with a banjo. But he’s not the only one struggling.

Lita scored three times in his brief stint at Charlton and we must hope his presence in the side will make an immediate impact or Lita will find himself back in the Championship, only this time with this club.

Thanks for the help Boro

Well it looks like we are in real trouble as Middlesbrough failed to even hold Bolton to a draw, with the away team winning 1-0. Looks like relegation is staring us in the face. Let’s hope Villa can do us a favour against Birmingham. Guess we will find out tomorrow where we stand. But right now, I’ve started to lose the faith.

Three games to go, come on Boro and Villa!

I predicted a 4-0 defeat and am pleased to say I was wrong, even though Arsenal should have scored 5 or more in a game which the Royals really didn’t stand a chance.

The manager made six changes to the side that lost to Fulham. In came Kitson, Convey, Murty, Sonko, Cisse and Kebe, replacing Long, Doyle, Matejovsky, Shorey, Oster and finally Stephen Hunt at last. We also saw the side switch to a 3-4-3 formation or a 5-4-1 however you wanted to look at it with Murty and Rosenior the wing backs.

The game appeared to be nicely poised for the first half hour, though Arsenal controlled the play and looked far more likely to score. Eventually they found the breakthrough as Koka-Kolo Toure picked out Adebayor, who was helped by some predictably useless defending from Sonko, and he found himself one on one with Hahnemann and slotted neatly past the American.

From that point on it looked like the floodgates where going to open and Arsenal waltz the game by 5 or 6 goals and I was starting to worry that I didn’t predict enough goals. Not before long it was 2-0 when Gilberto’s shot took a deflection off Bikey’s head to go past an outstretched Hahnemann hand.

The Royals were lucky to cling on to a 2-0 scoreline at half time as they faced wave after wave of Gunner attacks, with the home side squandering chances almost left, right and centre.

Things didn’t get much better in the second half either as the Gunners again outclassed the Royals and should have taken their chances. I had to keep checking that I wasn’t watching an FA Cup game as Arsenal looked in an entirely different league to Reading.

It wasn’t until the last 15 minutes that Reading finally started to create chances as you sensed Arsenal had taken their foot off the gas somewhat after hitting the bar twice in quick succession. First Van Persie struck the woodwork with a beautiful free kick and then Walcott hit the bar.

Bobby Convey, one of only 3 players that caught my eye for the Royals, finally created a chance for the away side all by himself as he danced between the Arsenal defence, but his shot was tipped over by Lehmann. On the subject of Convey, wasn’t it rather nice to finally see a left winger with some sort of footballing ability? While he did make some shocking passes (as did most of the Reading team) it was nice to see a left winger beat his man on occasion and being able to control the ball first time. I hope that Convey can stay in the side and we won’t have to put up with the crap that is churned out for 90 minutes when Stephen Hunt plays.

The other two players that stood out for me were Dave Kitson, who did as well as he could playing in the lone striker role but suffered from a lack of support. The other player was, as usual, Andre Bikey who looked a completely different player when he was asked to play in the central midfield role midway during the second half.

Michael Duberry went close after Convey’s chance and then he had to be alert at that back as Fabregas’ goal bound shot was hacked off the line by the defender, making his first appearance since January (probably would have been easier if we’d had started with him instead of Sonko). Arsenal would also have a goal ruled out for offside and it would finally end, in front of a rather sparse crowd as they’d all seem to have left with around 10 minutes to go.

2-0 is probably the best we could have hoped for in that game and the scoreline indeed flattered us. We were very poor after we had our early five minute spell. I thought Jimmy Kebe, who was making his first start, looks like an absolutely terrible player. His passing was particularly awful as was his touch (kind of like a tall, lanky version of Stephen Hunt) and he didn’t show any of this pace and skill that we were lead to believe he had. Suddenly it made John Oster not look like such a bad player after all. Hopefully Glen Little will be fit to start next weekend as I really hope we don’t see any of this French 2nd division guy again. Luckily he came off injured later on in the game to be replaced by Matejovsky.

I’ll be interested to know why Shorey was dropped. Was it just because Coppell wanted Rosenior’s pace against Walcott’s? Or was it because the “England international” has withdrawn from contract negotiations, I would suspect it was the latter. But we shall soon see. I hope we haven’t seen the last of Shorey, despite the fact he has not been at his best this year, I still feel he offers more than Rosenior on the left. Rosenior was poor in the first half as he made some curious passes out of play and struggled to deal with Walcott, but let’s face it, Walcott was superb today.

It’ll be time to watch Soccer Saturday and hope that Middlesbrough will be able to do us a favour against Bolton, otherwise survival will be starting to look like a tough ask for Reading.

Let’s hope the other results go our way as the Gunners are going to be tough to breach

Berkshire’s finest will once again grace the nation’s television screens and will hopefully perform slightly better than the last time the Sky cameras caught them in action. Last time out on the box the Royals looked absolutely terrible in the 3-1 defeat against Aston Villa in March and unfortunately coming off the back of an embarrassing home defeat to Fulham, the Emirates Stadium is not the best place to strut your stuff against an Arsenal team looking to avenge their defeat against Manchester United last weekend that all but signalled the end of their championship chase.

Steve Coppell has promised to make changes to the side that fell to Fulham last Saturday and it is more than likely that John Oster will be the first casualty, with Glen Little poised to make his first start for the Royals since, ironically, Arsenal’s north London rivals Tottenham defeated us at White Hart Lane on the 1st April last year. It will be a much different situation that he finds himself in to that one year ago.

This time last year we had coincidentally defeated Fulham 1-0 at home and were sitting pretty in 8th place heading into the game against Bolton at the Reebok. What a difference a year makes. This year the Royals are faced with a similar situation to that of ten years ago, battling relegation, though I suppose it’s alot better to be doing it in the Premier League this time round than scrapping at the bottom of Division 1.

The boss has already decided he wants a positive attitude from the players because playing for a draw will only result in getting a hammering from the Gunners. I’m not entirely sure of what this will mean for the club who only seem to know how to hoof the ball forward and chase after it, hoping they will get a set piece in an attacking position (we boast a league high 30% of our goals from headers (11 of 37)).

Arsenal will be a difficult side, despite their indifferent form as of late, and I’m probably being ridiculously pessimistic but I think anything less than a 3-0 defeat will be a good result. Hopefully Adebayor will put on another clinic of how not to finish like he did against United, somehow I doubt he won’t.

My prediction: Arsenal 4 - 0 Royals, very pessimistic, I really hope I’m wrong but we made Fulham look like a top side last weekend and if we play anything like that this weekend, Arsenal will simply tear us to shreds.

Royals slip back into relegation fight in embarrassing defeat against Fulham

Well after confidently predicting a 2-0 win for the Royals, I was glad to see I got the score right. Unfortunately for me and the other countless Royals supporters, it was 2-0 to Fulham, who secured their first away win in 18 months, well done boys!

The embarrassing defeat was made worse by the fact our fellow strugglers Bolton won and Birmingham picked up a point, so anyone who took the 16/1 odds of us getting relegated before Saturday must be slightly happier now as they have fallen all the way to 5/1 after all the results have come in.

The performance was just shambolic from the start. Fulham controlled the proceedings and we made them look like a side who are challenging for Europe, not one that is the next best team up from Derby.

It’s hard looking down the side to find any player who stood out particularly. Though I’d have to give the man of the match award to Marcus Hahnemann because if it wasn’t for his excellent saves, then the result could have been far more humiliating.

What is also worrying about Reading at the moment is that their best defender is also our most attacking threat. There only seems to be one player who looks like scoring and that is Andre Bikey, who always seems to be a threat from corners and attacking free kicks, he looks a bit like Nemanja Vidic when going forward as he is fearless in the air.

The manager has to be questioned for his team selection. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one baffled by Kitson once again being consigned to the substitutes bench. So once again we had the Doyle and Long partnership thrust upon us. Hello? Err Steve? You could always give Kitson and Long a go together because Doyle has truly forgotten where the goal is (though irritatingly he’s still playing well). Or here’s an even better idea. RECALL LEROY LITA! Is he not scoring goals? I think you’d find he is for Charlton. Anything is better than nothing.

One player has got to get out of that side. Stephen Hunt has outstayed his welcome on the left hand side. The club really missed a trick in rejecting Sunderland’s £5 million bid in January, we will never have an offer that good again. £5 million would have been more than ample to sign a replacement who at least would have one shred of any ability. The guy is just all about running. So what? Since when does being an energetic player guarantee you a place in the first team of a Premier League. He’s like Park Ji-Sung, but at least Park has alot of talent. Stephen Hunt’s touch, crossing and finishing is just woeful and he has no skill to take on anyone. Does anyone remember Andy Hughes? This is the reincarnation of him. Give Bobby Convey a go.

Arsenal away next week means things are hardly going to get any better for us anytime soon, and we must now be praying the results go our way otherwise we will be saying goodbye to the Premier League. What has happened to Tenacity, Spirit and Flair?

Marek back from suspension as the Cottagers come to the Mad Stad, but the Arse-Seol won’t be there

Marek Matejovsky has served his one match ban and should fit straight back into the lineup as the Royals face relegation doomed Fulham in a must win game at the Madejski.

With Bolton battling West Ham a win for the Royals could all but mean safety, providing the Hammers do us a favour, due to the fact we still have Wigan and Derby to face…and Arsenal should be an easy three points too.

The one worry going into the game is that Fulham have failed to win away from Craven Cottage in well over a year and the Royals do seem to be a team where you can break your unwanted streaks against.

The Royals have been given the added boost of the return of Glen Little, who is slowly regaining match fitness and will hopefully feature before the end of the season, but against Fulham is unlikely. Graeme Murty is now fully fit after his rather convenient injury that saw Liam Rosenior successfully take over the skipper’s right back starting spot.

Rosenior has enjoyed a successful spell in the side since Murty’s injury and part of the Royals resurgence must be credited to him. Rosenior is a former Fulham player and arrived at the Madejski during August after being exchanged for Seol Ki-Hyeon, Sulky or Arse-Seol, whatever you really want to call him and we have certainly got the better end of the deal as he has clearly failed to make an impact at Fulham (he actually wanted to leave the Royals so he could play more games, ironically we have had no right winger all season and he hasn’t been picked since January, wrong move son) and he will likely play no part for Fulham in the game tomorrow.

The Royals will be desperate to overcome the embarrassing 3-0 defeat at Newcastle last week and get revenge on the 3-0 defeat suffered at Craven Cottage earlier in the season and I am confident they will do so.

Prediction: Royals 2 Fulham 0, Kevin Doyle will score his first goal this year.

Newcastle beat sorry Royals

I hope I wasn’t the only person unimpressed with the performance of Reading’s boys in the loss at Newcastle. There seemed to be a lack of any passion in the performance, but maybe we were just unfortunate to be playing Newcastle just as they hit a run of good form that should see them challenging for the cups and league treble next season…get real.

I don’t want to dwell on the game too much as I hope to forget about it quickly and look forward to the crunch match next week at the Mad Stad against the probably doomed Fulham, that should hopefully see us confirm our status as a Premier League side next season, well nearly mathematically but 35 points should be enough surely.

It was nice to see Emerse Fae appear today, I had almost forgotten that we even had him anymore after he has failed to make an impact after his club record move in the summer. He has been unlucky recently after being out after contracting malaria during his trip to the African Nations and I have no doubts that it’s been tough for him to watch Kalifa Cisse make an impact (I use them term lightly) in the team and Fae being unable to do anything about it. Hopefully he can get a few games under his belt and develop into the player we hope he can become.

Stop what you are doing, there’s big news out of Reading! Stephen Hunt trims hair

It’s a big weekend of football. Arsenal face Liverpool again and we have the FA Cup Semi Finals to look forward to. But all that pales in significance to the big news that has come out of Reading Football Club. Stephen Hunt has cut his mop, or that’s what we have been lead to believe.

Time will tell if the new streamline mop will make Stephen Hunt a better footballer. I’ll be willing to bet it won’t.

Geordies look for three straight, Royals look for safety

Yes pinch yourself, that’s right. Newcastle United have managed to string two wins in a row together. Unfortunately they had to do that just as the Royals head to St. James’ Park to face King Kev’s Army. Confidence will be high at the home of fickle football fans and they must be thinking they can make it three on the trot. Victory for the Royals and a defeat for Bolton will surely mean we can sleep soundly in our beds knowing we face a third season in the top flight.

The only major concern coming into the game will be the suspension of Marek Matejovsky, after his ridiculous sending off last weekend in the draw with Blackburn. The boss has already confirmed that Kalifa Cisse will be taking his place at the centre of midfield…great. I don’t know if I’m the only one but from what I’ve seen he hasn’t been a particularly good signing and he doesn’t seem to possess any natural footballing ability. But at least he won’t be playing in the back four otherwise I’d be really annoyed, so hopefully Ivar and Bikey can avoid any form of suspension from now until the end of the season.

There is some good news heading into the weekend and that is the return of Glen Little. He looks set to be named in the squad for the first time in over a year after he has finally overcome his injuries. I think it will be very unlikely that he will feature at all in the game as he has only just returned to reserve team football, but it’s encouraging to know that he has recovered and he can challenge John Oster for the starting berth at right wing. But hopefully he will come back as strong as he was before the injury because he can be a great asset to the Royals and he has been missed all season.

Last seasons’ meeting at St. James’ Park saw the Royals suffer a heartbreaking loss at the hands of Turkish internation Emre, who scored a last gasp goal to give Newcastle all three points. But we have the upper hand on the Toon Army this season as goals from Kitson and Shane Long’s eyes shut and just swing method gave us a 2-1 win over Allardyce’s team back in October at the Mad Stad. Let’s hope we can do the double over our fellow strugglers. The god of footballing predictions Lawro has decided that Newcastle are going to win 2-0 in this one. But I’m going to be a bit optimistic and, just like last week, I reckon it will be a 1-1 draw. 

Another game closer to safety as Royals hold Rovers to stalemate

 

Reading Football Club took another step towards Premier League survival after a 0-0 draw against Blackburn Rovers. It was only the second 0-0 draw we have played in all season and the club had the longest spell between goalless draws of any top flight club. The last coming on the opening day in that not too spectacular stalemate at Old Trafford which saw Reading keep 11 men behind the ball for 90 minutes, frustrating the United players. But back to now and 0-0 is an excellent result for the Royals who have six games left in the season.

The main talking point of the game will have to have been the sending off of Czech international midfielder Marek Matejovsky for a second bookable offence. He was rightly booked earlier in the game for a petty challenge on David Dunn, but with 18 minutes left to go in a stale match, he was adjudged to have brought down Jason Roberts and he was given a second yellow and his marching orders by referee Mark Clattenburg. However TV replays showed that there really wasn’t much in the challenge and it really shouldn’t have warranted another yellow card.

It was a solid performance from the Royals and they arguably created the better chances in a game that won’t live long in the memory of either sets of supporters. And if it wasn’t for Stephen Hunt’s lack of finishing ability (and all round lack of ability, I still haven’t got my head round why a busy, hard working player with no skill deserves to be one of the top earners at the club, I mean come on have you seen the guys first touch? There isn’t one) then Reading could have been looking at three points and not just one. He failed to connect to a cross after some brilliant work from Shane Long (who despite some criticism from myself in recent weeks, impressed me in his cameo appearance).

Reading’s only other chance of note came in the dying seconds after Bikey (him again) rose well from a Shorey free kick but his header was hacked off the line. I have also been really impressed with Bikey since he has come back into the side and he seems to be responding well from Coppell’s praise during the week and he has also bounced back after the bizarre incident in the African Cup of Nations.. It finally looks like we have a solid defensive partnership now with Bikey and Ingimarsson and hopefully it’ll stay that way so we don’t see Sonko and his highly erratic brand of defending back in the side. Even Dubes has taken his place on the bench now. I had been surprised Coppell hadn’t gone with Bikey and Ingimarsson sooner when the Royals were flooding in goals as I had always thought that would be the best partnership, it’s not Ferdinand and Vidic, but it’s a great improvement to what we were seeing earlier in the season, and we must credit those two and Liam Rosenior for their part in the resurgence of the team.

The results of the other struggling teams didn’t look like they were going our way, but thanks to Arsenal for a fantastic comeback against Bolton means we can sleep a little easier with just six games left. It was amusing to see Derby finally rejoin their friends in the Championship in March. They have been an embarrassment to the Premier League this season and hopefully the three teams that come up will not build for a promotion season the year after relegation and actually give the league a go. Good Riddiance to Derby.

Newcastle next week is going to be tough as they have finally found a bit of form with two straight wins including a fantastic win at White Hart Lane today, but hopefully we can bring those delighted Geordie fans to tears at St James Park.