Match Report: Sublime to Ridiculous as City Anonymous Again

[Mr Popodopolous]

1 hour ago, johnheadbcfc said:

Klose went down 3 times like a child no strength at all.

Well maybe, but Idk I'm on the fence. It makes no difference in the grand scheme.

@Major Isewater Thanks for that too, just seen highlights and bits of game, on the fence about the Klose one but rearrange in the right order..the, over, cracks, papering. We would have lost anyway.

[One Team]

12 hours ago, Olé said:

As if to highlight the ridiculous inconsistency that makes the Championship special, City followed up their convincing but rare win at West Brom on Tuesday night with an utterly abject display in front of the capacity away following at Reading - ponderous, mistake prone and slow, creating nothing and in the end well beaten by a limited Reading side.

This was as bad as it gets: a defence that miscued clearances to opponents, utterly ineffective wing backs with and without the ball, and a succession of odd substitutions that hauled off City's better players. By the time Zak Vyner - our only real playmaker via long balls - was removed, the game was up, even if the visitors were denied penalty shouts.

City looked well off the pace from the word go. In two minutes Rob Atkinson underhit a clearance straight to Tom Ince who ran to the byline and lifted into the six yard box where Yakou Meite saw his glanced header go wide. City had little in response besides miskicks and bad crosses and Max O'Leary had only one save to make from Jeff Hendrick.

It was an awful half of non descript football, although in the final five minutes of the half Antoine Semenyo won a right wing free kick that Alex Scott floated into the box where in a crowd Semenyo swiveled at the near post and fired well over. Right after the break the ball broke to Abdul Baba whose fizzing 20 yard shot kept low but flashed just wide.

Hapless City continued to give it away with loose touches and clearances around their own box setting up a succession of Reading corners. So it was absolutely no surprise when they went in front on 52 minutes from a right wing corner that was whipped into the six yard box and met at the near post by Mamadou Loum who buried his header. 

City's triple sub - for energetic Joe Williams and both strikers - was an odd reaction for a team that gave their front men no service, but Chris Martin, Andi Weimann and Tommy Conway entered and just inside the hour mark should have had a penalty as Martin nodded down a long ball, Reading handled and Mark Sykes drilled into the side netting.

Minutes later another deep pass from City's oddly best playmaker Vyner saw Weimann bring it down and race into a 2 on 2, holding off his marker before spinning crossfield for the onrushing Jay Dasilva who had time and space to test the keeper but - characteristic of recent form - lobbed a feeble looped ball over the box which Martin wasn't expecting. 

By now it was open season on the City goal as the visitors struggled to clear their lines - Ince blasting well over after a lengthy spell of pressure. Cam Pring entered for Dasilva and heading into the final quarter of an hour the away side won corners where Conway amongst others seemed to be assaulted in Reading's scrum while the ball arched in.

City have probably gone longer than anyone in the football league without a penalty and after the handball and now this it looked as though the ref was happy to allow anytying in the Reading box. Before the last 10 Sykes was tripped on the right and Matty James free kick into the danger area was only half cleared and Atkinson hooked well over.

City were getting some much needed joy as Vyner of all players strode foward and found the open man with through balls - a Martin lay off putting Weimann clean through that Reading desperately hooked behind. And so Pearson hauled Vyner off. And that was it - and in the final exchanges O'Leary raced off his line rashly twice and was nearly caught. 

Before the end the keeper made a brilliant save with his legs as an average Reading side yet again carved through City's lines and found the spare man as Ince roared in far post poised to blast home. Up the other end late sub King flicked Sykes cross over a crowded box - but keeper Joe Lumley beat Conway to the ball far post then feigned injury.

Along with referee John Busby's disinterest in the repeated marshaling of City players at set pieces, he seemed happy as Timm Klose got bundled clumsily off the ball on a break out on the right touchline deep in injury time, Shane Long going clear to center for injury time sub Andy Carroll to finish unerringly as the massed away ranks headed for the exit.

This has been a distinctly mixed season for City but after a strong display at West Brom there was little clue that they'd offer so little for 90 minutes at a very basic Reading team. Pearson's side was full of unforced errors as it played out of defence, it's wing backs are a disaster, far too deep and unable to cross, and the manager has no faith in his strikers. 

 

O'Leary 5

Klose 5

Atkinson 5

Vyner 7

Dasilva 4

Sykes 5

James 6

Williams 6

Scott 6

Semenyo 6

Wells 5

 

Martin 6

Weimann 6

Conway 4

Pring 6

King 5

Another superb report @Olé thank you. 

I’d agree with Dasilva being our worst starting player. A mate and I have been saying for a while the best thing about him is his song. 

Whilst I don’t think Max is solely at fault for our goals shipped I do wonder if NP will now revert back to Bentley, similar to that which he has done before.

[RedM]

1 hour ago, redsquirrel said:

i dont think hes done enough or mature enough to consider himself a guaranteed starter, wells has done much more,to come in put in the effort he does after so long on the bench makes him more of a pro, imo of course. that is where conway comes in too as id imagine the pair of them worked a lot together during nw quiet time,ie,playing for each other instead of going for glory most times

I don't really think you can compare Pring and Wells at all, different positions and very different careers and level of experience. I do agree Pring isn't a guaranteed starter, I never said he was.

I do think though with the form of JD this season Pring has been overlooked somewhat and certainly under utilised. How many times has he even made the squad never mind been used, less than a handful I would imagine.

[2015]

We were average at 0-0, then suddenly Reading go 1-0 up and NP decides to take off our 3 best players on the day and just resort to banging up to Martin. It was a crazy decision and didn't make any sense to me. Did we even give their keeper a shot to save?

[Red-Robbo]

11 hours ago, Olé said:

I had the same conversation in the pub at Reading station after. But I stand by my view. Vyner has the odd misplaced touch but by the end today before the ridiculous decision to sub him off he was doing everything that his teammates weren't.

The entire team decided he was the only one with the confidence to play forward balls. We slowed it down to 1mph and did nothing but go backwards. Our best two chances were late on with Zak striding up and playing a ball through the middle. So we took him off (like Williams before him).

 

 

I can picture that. One of the things about Vyner is he often looks a bit wobbly at the start of the game, but plays himself in. 

[Lew-T]

8 hours ago, Dullmoan Tone said:

What has happened to Dasilva?

He used to be the player you could bet would retain possession and link the attack. Granted he wouldn’t score more than 1 in a thousand shots, but a good player doesn’t become this inconsistent overnight?

I’d be looking to offload JD this summer if possible. Like Massengo, I’ve lost patience with him, and a change I think would be best for all parties.

[Davefevs]

7 hours ago, 2015 said:

We were average at 0-0, then suddenly Reading go 1-0 up and NP decides to take off our 3 best players on the day and just resort to banging up to Martin. It was a crazy decision and didn't make any sense to me. Did we even give their keeper a shot to save?

Williams was decent enough, but the stretch for the ball from Scott, probably showed he was nearing his blowout. Wells ok, Semenyo below par for me.  I thought everyone was pretty average, akthough id have persevered with Semenyo for that bit of magic.