Angell Delight
Life President
True to my word I feel it is extremely necessary to post on here that I was WRONG about Harrold. So much so infact that I am questioning whether or not he actually is the same bloke who looked so dreadful in the games I lined in over at Harlow Town in 2002. I see Dave Kitson's not in the Reading side at the moment - hmmm.......
Seriously though absolutely fantastic he was last night and without doubt should start at the Hawthorns, Freddy looked a LOT more comfortable playing alongside him too which should also be a deciding factor.
OK Paynter and JCR....(sigh)....unfortunately last night simply backed up my opinions on both and I'm not gonna go into what those are as you all know, many have slated me on here in the last few weeks for them so they should be fresh in your mind. I really can't believe JCR is preferred over Cole, yes we can all see Mitch has a couple of flaws in his game that definitely need to be improved but the fact remains he does at least get to the line and put balls into the box - and with Harrold in there hopefully from now on we NEED wingers who actually cross the ball!!! JCR put a measly TWO balls in last night (still more than normal I guess) and neither of them beat the 1st man anyway, both were about a foot-and-a-half off the ground!!! With Gower on the right and Cole left at least we'd have 2 balanced widemen who get to the line and deliver on a regular basis.
Thought Clarke and Hammell had particularly poor games last night defensively, hopefully this will just be a one-off as we all know they have quality (Efe is definitely needed though, there's no way we'd have shipped 3 last night if he was playing). On the plus side with Hammell his set-pieces are a peach, not just his goal but corners last night were excellent. The height and subsequent dip make it extremely difficult for the opposition to defend and this gives us a big advantage as having got used to them our lads will have a better idea of exactly where they're going whereas for the opposition Hammell's set-pieces must be a nightmare as they're not flat deliveries.
On the other subs Hunt was immense and Hooper looked extremely tidy with a great touch and a clever brain for such a young lad - hopefully both have played themselves into first-team contention for Saturday. With Coley gone I personally would rather see Hooper down the right than JCR but I very much doubt that will happen. I'd like to see Hunt given a go in midfield with Super Kev to be honest as Gutts is clearly out of form and needs a spell on the bench as having been patient with him I do feel last nights display was one bad performance too many.
Francis and Maher in particular were magnificent last night, quite how neither of them got MotM I'll never know. The sponsors are muppets and can't know anything about football - the only reason Hammell got the award was clearly because of his free-kick!! Feel I should also mention Francis' deliveries from the right, a couple in particular in the 2nd half were Beckham-esque in that he didn't even need to beat his man to deliver measured outswingers into the 6-yard-box which we were very unlucky not to score from. More of the same please - and JCR take note
Was speaking to some Norwich fans on the way out and they were understandably gutted, the one thing they said we had in that 2nd half that they didn't hence the reason we deserved the point was BATTLE and I didn't disagree with them. Yes we can't afford to defend like that every week but if we continue to show the same battling qualities we'll be fine come May.
Was also nice to meet a fellow Zoner on the walk back to the car in the shape of The Fitter, pleasure to meet you mate!!
Ratings:
Flahavan - 6
Francis - 8
Hammell - 6
Barrett - 7
Clarke - 5
Gower - 6
Maher - 9
Guttridge - 4
Campbell-Ryce - 4
Eastwood - 7
Paynter - 5
Subs:
Hunt - 8
Hooper - 7
Harrold - 8
Finally massive credit to Tilly for 3 early subs that changed the course of the game, brilliant!
Seriously though absolutely fantastic he was last night and without doubt should start at the Hawthorns, Freddy looked a LOT more comfortable playing alongside him too which should also be a deciding factor.
OK Paynter and JCR....(sigh)....unfortunately last night simply backed up my opinions on both and I'm not gonna go into what those are as you all know, many have slated me on here in the last few weeks for them so they should be fresh in your mind. I really can't believe JCR is preferred over Cole, yes we can all see Mitch has a couple of flaws in his game that definitely need to be improved but the fact remains he does at least get to the line and put balls into the box - and with Harrold in there hopefully from now on we NEED wingers who actually cross the ball!!! JCR put a measly TWO balls in last night (still more than normal I guess) and neither of them beat the 1st man anyway, both were about a foot-and-a-half off the ground!!! With Gower on the right and Cole left at least we'd have 2 balanced widemen who get to the line and deliver on a regular basis.
Thought Clarke and Hammell had particularly poor games last night defensively, hopefully this will just be a one-off as we all know they have quality (Efe is definitely needed though, there's no way we'd have shipped 3 last night if he was playing). On the plus side with Hammell his set-pieces are a peach, not just his goal but corners last night were excellent. The height and subsequent dip make it extremely difficult for the opposition to defend and this gives us a big advantage as having got used to them our lads will have a better idea of exactly where they're going whereas for the opposition Hammell's set-pieces must be a nightmare as they're not flat deliveries.
On the other subs Hunt was immense and Hooper looked extremely tidy with a great touch and a clever brain for such a young lad - hopefully both have played themselves into first-team contention for Saturday. With Coley gone I personally would rather see Hooper down the right than JCR but I very much doubt that will happen. I'd like to see Hunt given a go in midfield with Super Kev to be honest as Gutts is clearly out of form and needs a spell on the bench as having been patient with him I do feel last nights display was one bad performance too many.
Francis and Maher in particular were magnificent last night, quite how neither of them got MotM I'll never know. The sponsors are muppets and can't know anything about football - the only reason Hammell got the award was clearly because of his free-kick!! Feel I should also mention Francis' deliveries from the right, a couple in particular in the 2nd half were Beckham-esque in that he didn't even need to beat his man to deliver measured outswingers into the 6-yard-box which we were very unlucky not to score from. More of the same please - and JCR take note
Was speaking to some Norwich fans on the way out and they were understandably gutted, the one thing they said we had in that 2nd half that they didn't hence the reason we deserved the point was BATTLE and I didn't disagree with them. Yes we can't afford to defend like that every week but if we continue to show the same battling qualities we'll be fine come May.
Was also nice to meet a fellow Zoner on the walk back to the car in the shape of The Fitter, pleasure to meet you mate!!
Ratings:
Flahavan - 6
Francis - 8
Hammell - 6
Barrett - 7
Clarke - 5
Gower - 6
Maher - 9
Guttridge - 4
Campbell-Ryce - 4
Eastwood - 7
Paynter - 5
Subs:
Hunt - 8
Hooper - 7
Harrold - 8
Finally massive credit to Tilly for 3 early subs that changed the course of the game, brilliant!
