Offside

Was it as long ago as the 1905-1906 season when we finished top of the 2nd tier?

I think Man City will finish top but I’d prefer it to be Liverpool. I have no affinity with them but at least it would be a change.

The standard of refereeing is inconsistent, but I’m not sure if it’s getting worse and their job is admittedly made difficult by the amount of cheating players of all teams indulge in. The frustrating thing is when referees are inconsistent within a game and when they fail to deal with things like time-wasting early enough. There’s also little things like being inconsistent when clamping down on players taking throw-ins or free kicks several yards further up the pitch than they should. One of the things that annoys me the most (and this does seem to be happening more) is when the linesmen don’t want to make a decision (e.g. with throw-ins) and wait to see which way the ref gives it before pointing their flag.

Smith’s injury using up one of our substitutions made things more difficult, but I agree Palmer should have come on. We had precious little creativity yesterday and seemed to rely on crosses into the box, which apart from Brownhill’s goal Reading dealt with comfortably. Presumably Weimann was taken off because he was running out of steam, but with hindsight it might have been better to keep him on and bring Palmer on for Pack. Taylor was largely ineffective, mainly because we weren’t really creating anything - we needed some spark in midfield instead.

It was a well-worked free kick routine, but one we should have defended against better. We’ve fallen into a bit of a habit of conceding soft goals at home - Wigan’s late equaliser and set pieces vs WBA and today.

Another lacklustre and frustrating home performance. We simply didn’t play well enough to beat a well organised and tenacious Reading side. First half was ok and we were unlucky not to score when it was headed off the line. 2nd half we just fizzled out and lacked creativity and quality. It was all too comfortable for their defence. In the last part of the game they looked more dangerous than us.

Not sure - it’s been a few years since I’ve been there to see City play.

Agree, £32 is an appalling price to charge away fans.

Firstly, I think the fact that we are competing at the top end of the Championship speaks volumes for how much progress the club has made over the last few seasons. I don’t think we’ll get promoted this season (I think we’ll get beaten in the play-offs) but it seems like expectations have been raised and we now see ourselves as a club with realistic aspirations for promotion rather than just being happy to be an established Championship club. If we get promoted to the Premier League, like others have said on this thread I expect we’d be relegated after one season, but the hope is that we could build from there after benefitting from the experience, raised profile and extra cash. I assume we’d also be more attractive to potential signings. On a side note, part of me is wary of being in the Premier League and I suspect the journey to get there might be better than the reality of being there. Having said that, we have to have ambitions to compete at the highest level and the club seems to be in the healthiest state I’ve seen it since I started attending games as a child in 1981.

I really liked Bradley Orr - he went from being a below-average midfielder when we signed him to a very decent and thoroughly committed right back. Adam Locke was also a very good right back. Luke Ayling too, although we mostly saw him in a back three. Other than that Andy Llewelyn did good service for us in that position. There have been some shockers as well. Foster was mobile and fairly quick but that was about it. Mitchell was atrocious. And that moment when Lavin kicked the ball at a spectator at Reading summed him up.

I’ve voted yes. I reckon we’ll finish 6th. Whatever happens, it’s brilliant that we’ve got something to play for at this stage of the season - what could have been an uninspiring fixture vs Reading takes on more significance. I’m still trying to take it one game at a time. Losing today was no disgrace, but three points on Friday now becomes key. A season that felt indifferent a few months ago has become a really good, exciting one.

What a soft penalty decision. No wonder our players were furious with the ref for giving that. Other than that it looks like Aston Villa had quite a few chances, but equally a couple of key decisions went against us and on another day we could have earned a point.

Very close call. Looks level (just about) in the picture, but in real time might have looked different. Commentators on RB seemed surprised it was disallowed.

I’ve got a feeling we’ll lose by a couple of goals today. Then again, I had a similar feeling in recent games v Sheffield Utd, Middlesbrough and WBA, so what do I know? COYR

I rate Eliasson highly and thought he played very well last night. His crossing has always been good but it seems like other aspects of his game have improved - mainly his confidence in taking the ball past defenders and his physicality (he’s not the strongest of players but he was certainly getting stuck in last night).