Reading (A) Emirates F.A.Cup 4th rd, Jan 30th 3pm

[Guest]

Etheridge stretchered off :(

Please don't let this be serious, two things, McBlunder back in goal for important upcoming matches, and does that mean we can't get postponement for international duties if he's injured? (are StKitts playing?)

Yes, they are.

[Ancient Moaner]

And it's now 3-0 according to BBC stats (which are all over the place at the moment)
Bad news is that Burton have clawed one back at Rochdale! :(

[Welsh_Saddler]

4-0 :( EDIT - Must have been disallowed.....still 3-0. re-edit.......Now it's 4-0 !!! :roll:

[Guest]

Gillingham and Burton have lost.

[Guest]

4-0 :( EDIT - Must have been disallowed.....still 3-0. re-edit.......Now it's 4-0 !!! :roll:

O'D out.

[Welsh_Saddler]

Coventry now 1-2 at home to Scunthorpe, with a couple of minutes to go.

Coventry down to 10 men following a red card. (Vincelot - 2 yellows)

Edit - Coventry lost 1-2 :D

[aaaae]

We were fairly rubbish, best team definitely won. Don't watch their 3rd on the highlights, you'll be as depressed as I am.

Onwards to the league but we will have to be better than this.

[Guest]

Starting line-up against Reading:

Etheridge

Demetriou
Downing
O'Connor
Taylor

Chambers
Mantom
Forde
Henry

Sawyers

Bradshaw

Substitutes: MacGillivray, Lalkovic. Preston, Flanagan, Morris, Cook, Kinsella

Can't believe you have done this - don't you know it isn't allowed as we all have these Smart phone thingies!

:wink:

Is Milan out of favour with SOD?

Impact sub? :?

Yeah, last game he came on in the 86th minute.

Didn't feature today...

[funk_hits_the_fan]

I remember saying when the ridiculous hysteria around the Brentford game started that an FA Cup run could nause up out chances of promotion.

With Etheridge stretched off and our confidence taking a beating I hate to say I think I may have been right.

[EvenFlow]

Had a feeling that today would be a bridge too far, as far as higher-level opposition went. Hope the severity of the scoreline (obviously don't know how reflective of events it was, having not been there) lights a fire as opposed to denting confidence, as today's league results (Wigan aside) couldn't have gone any better.

With reports that Taylor was suspect today, I hope that he comes out of the firing line for a bit, with Rico going back to LB, and Lalkovic or Morris (K) coming back in. I thought he was poor against Posh & Dale, and had a few questionable moments against Blackpool.

Conversely, hope Etheridge isn't out for too long. He's been hitting O'Donnell levels of importance recently.

[philthesaddler]

Not too fussed about the result, quite worried about several aspects of the performance tho.

We've had this result coming for a few weeks now, we've started to leak goals and lack ideas up front.

Today, too many players were nowhere near good enough:

Sawyers, off the boil massively. Has been terrific in the first half of the season but let's be honest, his last few games have been well below the level he has set for himself.

Forde, didn't get in to the game enough today - offered little on or off the ball.

Taylor, looks jittery and slow, but of a liability nowadays.

Demetriou, again, not up to his high standards that he's set for himself.

Mantom, off the pace, neither here nor there, turning in to a run of the mill league one midfielder.

I know it's only the cup but this should act as a wake up call to the club. We might not stand a better chance of promotion for another 10 years - this group of players is good but needs freshening up with some talent to get us across the line. Other clubs are doing it, let's not get left behind.

Finally, a word for Reading - what an utter dump. Ground miles away from the city centre in the middle of nowhere, barely any transport links to get there, dull stadium, half full, zero atmosphere and awful awful fans who only made a noise once they were leading. Won't bother going back to this dump

[SaddlerCrewe]

SOD has told BBC WM that Etheridge has a badly cut knee.
I hope that means he won't be out for long

[chunkster]

SOD has told BBC WM that Etheridge has a badly cut knee.
I hope that means he won't be out for long

last time he was out with a badly cut knee it was about 2-3 weeks. because of the stitches :( , we need to go into the loan market for a keeper. i wonder who's available?

[Ancient Moaner]

SOD has told BBC WM that Etheridge has a badly cut knee.
I hope that means he won't be out for long

last time he was out with a badly cut knee it was about 2-3 weeks. because of the stitches :( , we need to go into the loan market for a keeper. i wonder who's available?

Guy called O'Donnell can't get near Wigan's first 11, worth a punt?

[chestersaddler]

Well that was a bit barclays.

On current form I can't see clubs queuing up to buy Tom. Had a golden chance at 0-0 but fudge it up and pretty anonymous after that. I thought it was going well until they scored, however, in the end 4-0 might have flattered them but they deserved the win.

I feel sorry for their fans. A club ruined. So glad we don't have a sugar daddy owner.

[SaddlerCrewe]

The wonders of the internet..

https://twitter.com/Neil38Etheridge

[chestersaddler]

SOD has told BBC WM that Etheridge has a badly cut knee.
I hope that means he won't be out for long

last time he was out with a badly cut knee it was about 2-3 weeks. because of the stitches :( , we need to go into the loan market for a keeper. i wonder who's available?

Guy called O'Donnell can't get near Wigan's first 11, worth a punt?

fudge the money grabbing Scunthorpe :wink:

[scott_powell]

Literally don't care at all.

Ecstatic with the Gills, Burton and Coventry results though! All about the league now!

UTS :D

[chestersaddler]

Literally don't care at all.

Ecstatic with the Gills, Burton and Coventry results though! All about the league now!

UTS :D

You might if Reading draw Arsenal or the like in round 5 :wink:

[Ancient Moaner]

[quote="philthesaddler"]

We've had this result coming for a few weeks now, we've started to leak goals and lack ideas up front.

quote]

Quite agree Phil, we have had the chance of a punt or two in the Jan transfer window, other clubs have done so...Posh & Wigan etc, but what do we do? Borrow an average midfielder, that has failed to make impressions at York or Coventry, for a couple of months.

It is obvious that we need extra strike strength, we have seen from todays outrageous results in Div 1 that no games can be considered walkovers any more.

We need to have the strike power similar to Brizzle's of last year if we are to maintain a decent push for the top two spots, games in hand are only as good as the results achieved. We cannot expect that push to be totally at the mercy of ONE injury prone striker.

[scott_powell]

Literally don't care at all.

Ecstatic with the Gills, Burton and Coventry results though! All about the league now!

UTS :D

You might if Reading draw Arsenal or the like in round 5 :wink:

Not in the slightest.

[sallian]

We were awful.... in the opening 20mins we looked like if we got our act together and got the ball down and released passes earlier we could beat as Reading didn't look great and were struggling.....but then as their goal went in against the run of play....we proceeded to make Reading look excellent as we turned into a cross between The Three Stooges and Laurel and Hardy....

1) We didn't keep the ball down, kept slicing high and wide

2) Not enough running into space nor forward runs

3) Lots of passing sideways....like there was a brick wall in front.....not enough diagonal and straight balls forward

4) No runs into space

5) No passes into space

6) Reading were tall and athletic....we were midgets and looked like we didn't have the legs to make it into their last third

7) Walsall are clueless about the advantage of taking throws, goal kicks quickly....they want to give the opponent every chance to be organized

8) Walsall are clueless about breaking quickly it seems......let us take 20 passes to make a cross which could have been done long ago

9) Sawyers also hestitating and messing things up, he had a good shot which hit the crossbar/post corner...But maybe should've done better....Walsall couldn't keep the ball down all day it seemed

10) SOD not getting the best out of the team at the moment

11) Baxendale is small but leat he tries to open defences up

12) Rico Henry overrated with many limitations on this showing.....was tenacious in recovering possession....but wasn't managing to get past anyone when it counted

13) Team lacked ideas

Where is bakayoko and Lalkovic

It was bad and got worse.

Reading ground is excellent.....good turnout from the Walsall supporters

There is no way we are making automatic promotion without major corrections

[sallian]

Literally don't care at all.

Ecstatic with the Gills, Burton and Coventry results though! All about the league now!

UTS :D

You would care if u'd had seen how bad we were

[sallian]

Not too fussed about the result, quite worried about several aspects of the performance tho.

We've had this result coming for a few weeks now, we've started to leak goals and lack ideas up front.

Today, too many players were nowhere near good enough:

Sawyers, off the boil massively. Has been terrific in the first half of the season but let's be honest, his last few games have been well below the level he has set for himself.

Forde, didn't get in to the game enough today - offered little on or off the ball.

Taylor, looks jittery and slow, but of a liability nowadays.

Demetriou, again, not up to his high standards that he's set for himself.

Mantom, off the pace, neither here nor there, turning in to a run of the mill league one midfielder.

I know it's only the cup but this should act as a wake up call to the club. We might not stand a better chance of promotion for another 10 years - this group of players is good but needs freshening up with some talent to get us across the line. Other clubs are doing it, let's not get left behind.

Finally, a word for Reading - what an utter dump. Ground miles away from the city centre in the middle of nowhere, barely any transport links to get there, dull stadium, half full, zero atmosphere and awful awful fans who only made a noise once they were leading. Won't bother going back to this dump

Yes in no man's retail park industrial estate land....but the ground is really nice, it certainly isn't dull.....one of best grounds i have been to

[Big Dave wfc]

Not too fussed about the result, quite worried about several aspects of the performance tho.

We've had this result coming for a few weeks now, we've started to leak goals and lack ideas up front.

Today, too many players were nowhere near good enough:

Sawyers, off the boil massively. Has been terrific in the first half of the season but let's be honest, his last few games have been well below the level he has set for himself.

Forde, didn't get in to the game enough today - offered little on or off the ball.

Taylor, looks jittery and slow, but of a liability nowadays.

Demetriou, again, not up to his high standards that he's set for himself.



Mantom, off the pace, neither here nor there, turning in to a run of the mill league one midfielder.

I know it's only the cup but this should act as a wake up call to the club. We might not stand a better chance of promotion for another 10 years - this group of players is good but needs freshening up with some talent to get us across the line. Other clubs are doing it, let's not get left behind.

Finally, a word for Reading - what an utter dump. Ground miles away from the city centre in the middle of nowhere, barely any transport links to get there, dull stadium, half full, zero atmosphere and awful awful fans who only made a noise once they were leading. Won't bother going back to this dump

well said, blackpool could have beaten us had they got shooting boots

[Mazza01]

Positives

1, Burton and Gillingham lost

2, if their was any scouts there watching our players I would expect no bids tomorrow.

Negatives

1, playing two left backs

2, the freezing out of Milan and Morris???? What's happening there.

3, we seem to be playing with no tempo or urgency from the off, we approached today's game like a pre season friendly.

As others have said that's been coming!

UTS

[chunkster]

The wonders of the internet..

https://twitter.com/Neil38Etheridge

There is no way he is playing again for the next 3 weeks :(

[sallian]

Positives

2, the freezing out of Milan and Morris???? What's happening there.

UTS

Very worrying as they have some dazzle and ooooomph which we very much need in the last third.....maybe personality clashes with the manager

[sallian]

this is most worrying of all.....

"but O’Driscoll felt there were still plenty of positives his team could draw on.

“I thought it took us a while to work out what we needed to do - but I thought once we did that we were well in the game,” the head coach said."

If he thinks we were anything other than diarrhoea today then he is nowhere near intelligent as I thought and hoped....maybe they put something in the tea at Walsall

Or maybe he didn't watch the game as he got distracted with some hot Berkshire girl or something

[Mazza01]

this is most worrying of all.....

"but O’Driscoll felt there were still plenty of positives his team could draw on.

“I thought it took us a while to work out what we needed to do - but I thought once we did that we were well in the game,” the head coach said."

If he thinks we were anything other than diarrhoea today then he is nowhere near intelligent as I thought and hoped....maybe they put something in the tea at Walsall

Or maybe he didn't watch the game as he got distracted with some hot Berkshire girl or something

In all fairness we was in control until that horrendous defending from Taylor lets them in. What followed was tripe though.