Blackpool v Reading Official Matchday Thread 26.02.22

How far did Reece James launch that throw in the build up to Bowler’s goal ? Looked a far distance.

Their keeper must have the smallest on show since the days of Tony Caig ?
 
Enjoyed the game but i think the scoreline was a little flattering whilst we still deserved the win. I find it hard to set expectations for this team. At the start of the season picking up the odd win/point here and there and scraping survival would have been enough for me.

I think my mindset changed when we went on that run of consistently winning and also how near we’ve come to picking up more wins but just falling slightly short.

I’m now at a point where i think we can give anyone in this division a game even though we might lack the same individual quality.

We’re going to finish mid-table and that’s probably about where we are. Frustrating in some senses because if the stars aligned we’d be pushing for the play offs but realistically its been a great effort and season
 
Agree with Pommo above, scoreline did flatter but still can’t believe we won with that Ref in charge, nearly asked a Reading fan what the name of their Ref was!

Workrate was immense but that ball would not run for us at times and never more so when a Reading defender hooked the ball over his head without looking only for it to fall at the feet if one of his own teammates.

TBH Reading looked good at times and their little midfielder ran the show for them, wouldn’t be surprised to see them escape the relegation zone in the next few weeks.

But to score 4, despite everything was remarkable, enjoyed it but by God it was cold in the South today, made worse by the sun shining on the East all afternoon!

Well done boys, a triumph over adversity still, I’ll take that 👍
 
Bigpommo said:
Enjoyed the game but i think the scoreline was a little flattering whilst we still deserved the win. I find it hard to set expectations for this team. At the start of the season picking up the odd win/point here and there and scraping survival would have been enough for me.

I think my mindset changed when we went on that run of consistently winning and also how near we’ve come to picking up more wins but just falling slightly short.

I’m now at a point where i think we can give anyone in this division a game even though we might lack the same individual quality.

We’re going to finish mid-table and that’s probably about where we are. Frustrating in some senses because if the stars aligned we’d be pushing for the play offs but realistically its been a great effort and season
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If Dougall's goal against QPR had stood we'd only be 7 points off the playoffs with 12 games left. That's friggin frustrating!
 
Scoreline definitely flattered us. Defensively we were vulnerable and Gabriel was poor imo, with Thornily not much better. Further forward far more positive. I thought Stewart and Madine were outstanding and its great to see some clinical finishing. Bowlers goal was sublime. Don't agree with comments about the ref either. He allowed play to flow instead of some of the stop start whistle happy officials we've had at times. Penalty claims were rightly refused. Reading were a very good team going forward but poor in defence which is why they are where they are. Our position in mid table is about right - we're no better than that at present but Critch has done a great job on this team so far.
 
Can't really agree with you on the ref every 50/ 50 went their way though I amazed he allowed the Madine goal and I thought Thornley had a good game he needed to.
 
td53 said:
https://mclfoot.blogspot.com/2022/02/incey-incey-whats-score-mighty-vs.html

A wordy match report as usual...
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I reckon you must mumble voice memos into your phone to get all those events in the right order, but however you do it, it was excellent, as usual.

I would like to comment on this (emboldened) part which happened only a few yards in front of me:

"Madine takes the applause as he trots off and YTS Madine (Jake Beesley) come on. The ball is out wide. Beesley is wrestling for it. CJ takes over..."

Beesley was being held in an armlock by the defender, which, as you mentioned is not a foul when committed upon a Blackpool player. Despite this, he collected the ball and deliberately flicked it on to CJ... and we know the rest. His first (and maybe only) touch in the game but it led to the goal.

It was an 'assist once-removed' - if that's not a term in football, then it should be. 😆
 
Grumpy_no_more said:
I reckon you must mumble voice memos into your phone to get all those events in the right order, but however you do it, it was excellent, as usual.

I would like to comment on this (emboldened) part which happened only a few yards in front of me:

"Madine takes the applause as he trots off and YTS Madine (Jake Beesley) come on. The ball is out wide. Beesley is wrestling for it. CJ takes over..."

Beesley was being held in an armlock by the defender, which, as you mentioned is not a foul when committed upon a Blackpool player. Despite this, he collected the ball and deliberately flicked it on to CJ... and we know the rest. His first (and maybe only) touch in the game but it led to the goal.

It was an 'assist once-removed' - if that's not a term in football, then it should be. 😆
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Beesley has really impressed me thus far.
 
It's great to read these comments after a match, especially a win, and helps to keep my thoughts about the match in the order they happened. I couldn't understand why Big Marv wasn't even on the bench at QPR, but the team seemed a lot stronger yesterday for Reading, who recently won 3-2 at Dungdale. We had a bad start, and allowed them to score a poorly conceded goal. Ekpiteta deservedly put us level with a nice little header.
The referee and linesmen were awful yet again, and when Gary Madine scored, I half expected them to disallow the goal for climbing, and I'm certain they would've done if he had done that against Bournemouth. Thank goodness they let it go, which gave us the confidence to put the gloss on the result with the two superb strikes from Lavery and Bowler respectively. Neil Critchley, please don't swap and change the team around too much at Stoke, and send the lads out to win the match.
🧡 UTMP 🧡
 
Murciaseasider said:
Scoreline definitely flattered us. Defensively we were vulnerable and Gabriel was poor imo, with Thornily not much better. Further forward far more positive. I thought Stewart and Madine were outstanding and its great to see some clinical finishing. Bowlers goal was sublime. Don't agree with comments about the ref either. He allowed play to flow instead of some of the stop start whistle happy officials we've had at times. Penalty claims were rightly refused. Reading were a very good team going forward but poor in defence which is why they are where they are. Our position in mid table is about right - we're no better than that at present but Critch has done a great job on this team so far.
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Talk me through all the Reading chances. The bottom line is they created hardly anything. A free kick tipped over and that was about it. By contrast, Madine had a header saved at point blank range, CJ should have done much better than blaze wide, etc etc. We were far the better team despite continuing to miss several key players.

As for the referee, we were given 3 free kicks all day, including one after we'd scored 4. Talk me through the free kick Yates conceded that he was booked for.
 
Murciaseasider said:
Scoreline definitely flattered us. Defensively we were vulnerable and Gabriel was poor imo, with Thornily not much better. Further forward far more positive. I thought Stewart and Madine were outstanding and its great to see some clinical finishing. Bowlers goal was sublime. Don't agree with comments about the ref either. He allowed play to flow instead of some of the stop start whistle happy officials we've had at times. Penalty claims were rightly refused. Reading were a very good team going forward but poor in defence which is why they are where they are. Our position in mid table is about right - we're no better than that at present but Critch has done a great job on this team so far.
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He only let the game flow when reading had the ball, The trip on madine was from tangling of legs maybe a soft penalty if given but he gave the decsion for very similar things to Reading in dangerous areas on the edge of the box. The blatant push on Madine again a soft penalty if given, but he pulled up blackpool players numerous times for pushes which were certainly less obvious than the one on Madine.

he was generally inconsistent and his inconsitancy went one way
 
Wizaard said:
Talk me through all the Reading chances. The bottom line is they created hardly anything. A free kick tipped over and that was about it. By contrast, Madine had a header saved at point blank range, CJ should have done much better than blaze wide, etc etc. We were far the better team despite continuing to miss several key players.

As for the referee, we were given 3 free kicks all day, including one after we'd scored 4. Talk me through the free kick Yates conceded that he was booked for.
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Seems you don't like to accept that plenty of people are saying the scoreline flattered us. Why are they saying that? Because it did that's why! Critchley said it too but you seem to not want to acknowledge that.'
 
Costero Poderoso said:
He only let the game flow when reading had the ball, The trip on madine was from tangling of legs maybe a soft penalty if given but he gave the decsion for very similar things to Reading in dangerous areas on the edge of the box. The blatant push on Madine again a soft penalty if given, but he pulled up blackpool players numerous times for pushes which were certainly less obvious than the one on Madine.

he was generally inconsistent and his inconsitancy went one way
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Good summary of the refs performance. He gave them a lot of soft free kicks and they were soft but you could see why they were given. Yates seemed to win the ball fairly though but he clearly said something throwing the ball away so he was rightly booked..
 
20togo said:
Good summary of the refs performance. He gave them a lot of soft free kicks and they were soft but you could see why they were given. Yates seemed to win the ball fairly though but he clearly said something throwing the ball away so he was rightly booked..
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Yet everyone else thought rhe ref was the worst of the season. Having an opinion clearly only works one way.😉
 
Wizaard said:
Yet everyone else thought rhe ref was the worst of the season. Having an opinion clearly only works one way.😉
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I think we've had worse because there's been more critical decisions gone against us. QPR disallowed goal, Stoke, Fletcher should have been sent off, and even Bournemouths penalty that they missed was i thought a harsh decision. It's refs decisions that affect the ourcome/result of the game rhat annoy me rather than the odd soft free kick given against us in the middle of the park.
 
20togo said:
I think we've had worse because there's been more critical decisions gone against us. QPR disallowed goal, Stoke, Fletcher should have been sent off, and even Bournemouths penalty that they missed was i thought a harsh decision. It's refs decisions that affect the ourcome/result of the game rhat annoy me rather than the odd soft free kick given against us in the middle of the park.
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With the benefit of a couple of days' hindsight, I think a lot of Saturday's 'flattered' comments were because of our recent history of conceding late goals and points. Being 2 1 up made us in the stands that much more nervous because of that. When you watch the game back in full, they never really created any decent chances. Grimshaw didn't have to make a save from open play in that second half when you look back at it more dispassionately.
 
Wizaard said:
With the benefit of a couple of days' hindsight, I think a lot of Saturday's 'flattered' comments were because of our recent history of conceding late goals and points. Being 2 1 up made us in the stands that much more nervous because of that. When you watch the game back in full, they never really created any decent chances. Grimshaw didn't have to make a save from open play in that second half when you look back at it more dispassionately.
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I've already said on the thread that we should have been winning at half time. And it's pretty much unanimously agreed on here that when we are winning the later the game gets we tend to sit deeper and deeper and saturday was no exception. The game was pretty much played entirely in our half. They created next to nothing but you just have to watch Lee's video to see how they nearly did. We didn't play well in that second half and that's why so many on here we're saying that the scoreline flattered us and they were right. We basically did nothing in that second half for forty minutes apart from score from the corner.s. We sat back allowing them to dominate possession whilst constantly giving the ball away by eirher poor passing or players turning into trouble and getting caught on the ball. Then in the last five minutes we scored two great goals on the counter attack and so everyone left the ground or posted on here feeling delighted. But there was that recognition because we'd been poor in that second half for so long the scoreline flattered us and that's why so many posters have said as such.
 
20togo said:
I've already said on the thread that we should have been winning at half time. And it's pretty much unanimously agreed on here that when we are winning the later the game gets we tend to sit deeper and deeper and saturday was no exception. The game was pretty much played entirely in our half. They created next to nothing but you just have to watch Lee's video to see how they nearly did. We didn't play well in that second half and that's why so many on here we're saying that the scoreline flattered us and they were right. We basically did nothing in that second half for forty minutes apart from score from the corner.s. We sat back allowing them to dominate possession whilst constantly giving the ball away by eirher poor passing or players turning into trouble and getting caught on the ball. Then in the last five minutes we scored two great goals on the counter attack and so everyone left the ground or posted on here feeling delighted. But there was that recognition because we'd been poor in that second half for so long the scoreline flattered us and that's why so many posters have said as such.
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We did nothing but score three goals. Something doesn't quite add up there.

And I certainly wouldn't class us as 'poor' in the second half. Far from it.
 
Wizaard said:
We did nothing but score three goals. Something doesn't quite add up there.

And I certainly wouldn't class us as 'poor' in the second half. Far from it.
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Jeez, why are you incapable of reading what I've said! I said for forty minutes. The last two goals were after that forty minutes. So it does add up. Read the threads. Many have said the scoreline flattered us or words to that effect. Including Critchley!
 
20togo said:
Jeez, why are you incapable of reading what I've said! I said for forty minutes. The last two goals were after that forty minutes. So it does add up. Read the threads. Many have said the scoreline flattered us or words to that effect. Including Critchley!
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And I say you're talking nonsense. 40 minutes pressure my arse.

And many haven't said anything of the sort and you're twisting what Critch said.
 
Wizaard said:
And I say you're talking nonsense. 40 minutes pressure my arse.

And many haven't said anything of the sort and you're twisting what Critch said.
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Where have I used the word pressure? Think you're struggling on this one.
 
20togo said:
Where have I used the word pressure? Think you're struggling on this one.
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So 40 minutes of the game was in our half but there was no pressure? In which case, how did the result flatter us when we won by 3 clear goals?
 
Wizaard said:
So 40 minutes of the game was in our half but there was no pressure? In which case, how did the result flatter us when we won by 3 clear goals?
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two goals were scored in the last five minutes. For forty minutes we played poorly giving the ball away countless times, players losing the ball in possession etc. As I said we played well and deserved to be winning at half time. If we'd won 2-1 I'd have come away thinking the same. We deserved to win and because of our poor display second half 2-1 was about the right scoreline. We scored two great late goals on the counter attack to make it more comfortable than the scoreline suggested. In other words it flattered us as many have said. Has anyone apart from yourself said specifically 4-1 was the right score line? We're all happy with the scoreline and we'll take it after the luck that hasn't gone our way but plenty of said 4-1 was a flattering scoreline.
 
20togo said:
I think we've had worse because there's been more critical decisions gone against us. QPR disallowed goal, Stoke, Fletcher should have been sent off, and even Bournemouths penalty that they missed was i thought a harsh decision. It's refs decisions that affect the ourcome/result of the game rhat annoy me rather than the odd soft free kick given against us in the middle of the park.
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The non critical decisions though pile up. I think the sending off for QPR was caused by a cumulative effect of the ref on that night in the first half allowing obvious fouls; blatent and deliberate pushes and trips on blackpool players which gave that particular defender cause to believe that the ref was protecting him (them). The obvious foul on James was let go, and a slightly over the top challenge by James (probably thinking this ref will allow a level of physicality) results in a free kick and the QPR player getting his (probably) frilly knickers in a twist about it. The red card ensues. If the ref is going to allow physicality then he has to let it go both ways.

The ref on saturday was as bad as anything ive seen this season, the difference between some of the other bad refs this season is that there were no decisions that he could make in our box and I think that was because our defenders were deliberately ensuring that they didnt give the ref the opportunity to make a bad decision, because given the opportunity he would have done i think. In that light Reading were given maybe more space and time to play going forward which made it look like they were than they actually were. they also knew that if they fell over they would get a free kick, and their defenders knew they were largely safe from decsions against them.

We may have conceded some possesion overall to them as a result of standing off of them and allowing them to play in the midfield. i think anyone could make the case that the posession stats are distorted by the refs interactions.

Jerry's yellow card was born from frustration, he won the ball, as he had done numerous times that day only to be pulled up for it and I seem to remember there was a sequence of plays in quick succession prior where we had turned over Reading posession and started to make a break only to be penalised each time. With refs as useless as these, any kind of player reaction in frustration is going to lead to a yellow, protests that he's making crappy decisions leads to a yellow, the manager and coaches complaining leads to a yellow and any direct public criticism leads to post game disciplinary actions. In many respects the clubs have to suck it up and in that light we get decsions that have probably cost us 8 points this season alone.

i dont necesarily thinks these refs are bent, i just think they are useless and really should not be in the pro game. I noticed on saturday that the muppet in charge had his big FIFA badge on, so he must be doing international games as well somehere, you dont see that badge on all the refs.

my apologies - minor rant over
 
Costero Poderoso said:
The non critical decisions though pile up. I think the sending off for QPR was caused by a cumulative effect of the ref on that night in the first half allowing obvious fouls; blatent and deliberate pushes and trips on blackpool players which gave that particular defender cause to believe that the ref was protecting him (them). The obvious foul on James was let go, and a slightly over the top challenge by James (probably thinking this ref will allow a level of physicality) results in a free kick and the QPR player getting his (probably) frilly knickers in a twist about it. The red card ensues. If the ref is going to allow physicality then he has to let it go both ways.

The ref on saturday was as bad as anything ive seen this season, the difference between some of the other bad refs this season is that there were no decisions that he could make in our box and I think that was because our defenders were deliberately ensuring that they didnt give the ref the opportunity to make a bad decision, because given the opportunity he would have done i think. In that light Reading were given maybe more space and time to play going forward which made it look like they were than they actually were. they also knew that if they fell over they would get a free kick, and their defenders knew they were largely safe from decsions against them.

We may have conceded some possesion overall to them as a result of standing off of them and allowing them to play in the midfield. i think anyone could make the case that the posession stats are distorted by the refs interactions.

Jerry's yellow card was born from frustration, he won the ball, as he had done numerous times that day only to be pulled up for it and I seem to remember there was a sequence of plays in quick succession prior where we had turned over Reading posession and started to make a break only to be penalised each time. With refs as useless as these, any kind of player reaction in frustration is going to lead to a yellow, protests that he's making crappy decisions leads to a yellow, the manager and coaches complaining leads to a yellow and any direct public criticism leads to post game disciplinary actions. In many respects the clubs have to suck it up and in that light we get decsions that have probably cost us 8 points this season alone.

i dont necesarily thinks these refs are bent, i just think they are useless and really should not be in the pro game. I noticed on saturday that the muppet in charge had his big FIFA badge on, so he must be doing international games as well somehere, you dont see that badge on all the refs.

my apologies - minor rant over
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Good post.
 
20togo said:
two goals were scored in the last five minutes. For forty minutes we played poorly giving the ball away countless times, players losing the ball in possession etc. As I said we played well and deserved to be winning at half time. If we'd won 2-1 I'd have come away thinking the same. We deserved to win and because of our poor display second half 2-1 was about the right scoreline. We scored two great late goals on the counter attack to make it more comfortable than the scoreline suggested. In other words it flattered us as many have said. Has anyone apart from yourself said specifically 4-1 was the right score line? We're all happy with the scoreline and we'll take it after the luck that hasn't gone our way but plenty of said 4-1 was a flattering scoreline.
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Often we didn't lose the ball in possession. We were fouled but no whistle. There's only a couple of you think the ref gave correct decisions but I'm not making a big deal of it.

Three people have said the score flattered us. There were 11,000 there more or less, so I'm taking the silent majority as being with me.😉

I've been on the Reading board and seen the comments there. One person said the score flattered us and was shot down by people at the game who pointed our we could easily have scored another three or so.
 
Costero Poderoso said:
The non critical decisions though pile up. I think the sending off for QPR was caused by a cumulative effect of the ref on that night in the first half allowing obvious fouls; blatent and deliberate pushes and trips on blackpool players which gave that particular defender cause to believe that the ref was protecting him (them). The obvious foul on James was let go, and a slightly over the top challenge by James (probably thinking this ref will allow a level of physicality) results in a free kick and the QPR player getting his (probably) frilly knickers in a twist about it. The red card ensues. If the ref is going to allow physicality then he has to let it go both ways.

The ref on saturday was as bad as anything ive seen this season, the difference between some of the other bad refs this season is that there were no decisions that he could make in our box and I think that was because our defenders were deliberately ensuring that they didnt give the ref the opportunity to make a bad decision, because given the opportunity he would have done i think. In that light Reading were given maybe more space and time to play going forward which made it look like they were than they actually were. they also knew that if they fell over they would get a free kick, and their defenders knew they were largely safe from decsions against them.

We may have conceded some possesion overall to them as a result of standing off of them and allowing them to play in the midfield. i think anyone could make the case that the posession stats are distorted by the refs interactions.

Jerry's yellow card was born from frustration, he won the ball, as he had done numerous times that day only to be pulled up for it and I seem to remember there was a sequence of plays in quick succession prior where we had turned over Reading posession and started to make a break only to be penalised each time. With refs as useless as these, any kind of player reaction in frustration is going to lead to a yellow, protests that he's making crappy decisions leads to a yellow, the manager and coaches complaining leads to a yellow and any direct public criticism leads to post game disciplinary actions. In many respects the clubs have to suck it up and in that light we get decsions that have probably cost us 8 points this season alone.

i dont necesarily thinks these refs are bent, i just think they are useless and really should not be in the pro game. I noticed on saturday that the muppet in charge had his big FIFA badge on, so he must be doing international games as well somehere, you dont see that badge on all the refs.

my apologies - minor rant over
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I don't like refs full stop, but I think we need a sense of balance here. I doubt that there isn't a set of fans in the country that don't think that refs are biased against them. And that's in pretty much every game. And of course it's easy to forget games where decisions go in your favour. Swansea away had a case for at least three pens but none were given. I really don't think refs are biased,corrupt or anything like that. The simple fact is that a lot of them are just useless.
 
Wizaard said:
Often we didn't lose the ball in possession. We were fouled but no whistle. There's only a couple of you think the ref gave correct decisions but I'm not making a big deal of it.

Three people have said the score flattered us. There were 11,000 there more or less, so I'm taking the silent majority as being with me.😉

I've been on the Reading board and seen the comments there. One person said the score flattered us and was shot down by people at the game who pointed our we could easily have scored another three or so.
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hertfordseasider said:
Need to take control of this, we are very sloppy since the goal.
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Halifax71 said:
I'd try beesley. Assuming Critch thinks he's good enough. Why buy / put on bench if not.

Under the cosh, a change is needed.

Kirk as well.
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Poolster said:
we are constantly giving the ball away, sometimes under no pressure
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hertfordseasider said:
Why do we go into our shell when we get in front? They are all over us now, you think it's only a matter of time
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Vince McLean said:
Brilliant - smash and grab
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Poolster said:
2nd half we were a strange mixture of good and awful. Last 2 goals really well made and really well taken.
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Costero Poderoso said:
really good result, what you might call a grinder. thought CJ was immense today. back four were class against a decent front line for reading. Jerry ran his bollocks off.

thought Bowler had an off day with the exception of his goal. gave the ball away far too often.

ill take 4 goals and a slightly scrappy performance any day of the week.
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tangysider said:
Great result but we have played better and lost
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Fatboy said:
Swings and roundabouts so to speak !
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Bigpommo said:
Enjoyed the game but i think the scoreline was a little flattering whilst we still deserved the win. I find it hard to set expectations for this team. At the start of the season picking up the odd win/point here and there and scraping survival would have been enough for me.

I think my mindset changed when we went on that run of consistently winning and also how near we’ve come to picking up more wins but just falling slightly short.

I’m now at a point where i think we can give anyone in this division a game even though we might lack the same individual quality.

We’re going to finish mid-table and that’s probably about where we are. Frustrating in some senses because if the stars aligned we’d be pushing for the play offs but realistically its been a great effort and season
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Bottle said:
Agree with Pommo above, scoreline did flatter but still can’t believe we won with that Ref in charge, nearly asked a Reading fan what the name of their Ref was!

Workrate was immense but that ball would not run for us at times and never more so when a Reading defender hooked the ball over his head without looking only for it to fall at the feet if one of his own teammates.

TBH Reading looked good at times and their little midfielder ran the show for them, wouldn’t be surprised to see them escape the relegation zone in the next few weeks.

But to score 4, despite everything was remarkable, enjoyed it but by God it was cold in the South today, made worse by the sun shining on the East all afternoon!

Well done boys, a triumph over adversity still, I’ll take that 👍
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Murciaseasider said:
Scoreline definitely flattered us. Defensively we were vulnerable and Gabriel was poor imo, with Thornily not much better. Further forward far more positive. I thought Stewart and Madine were outstanding and its great to see some clinical finishing. Bowlers goal was sublime. Don't agree with comments about the ref either. He allowed play to flow instead of some of the stop start whistle happy officials we've had at times. Penalty claims were rightly refused. Reading were a very good team going forward but poor in defence which is why they are where they are. Our position in mid table is about right - we're no better than that at present but Critch has done a great job on this team so far.
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That's just from a portion of this thread. Posts that show concern as to how we were playing in the second half. There's other threads too including Beds.thread which mention the word flattered.
 
20togo said:
That's just from a portion of this thread. Posts that show concern as to how we were playing in the second half. There's other threads too including Beds.thread which mention the word flattered.
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Yes. Thanks for corroborating that people were panicking because we've had a series of late concessions recently. In actual fact we were comfortable throughout but people were hysterical in the moment. It was you and Beds who used the words flattered. Others disagreed.

Also good to see you included a quote from someone who thought the ref had a good game. I rest my case.
 
20togo said:
I don't like refs full stop, but I think we need a sense of balance here. I doubt that there isn't a set of fans in the country that don't think that refs are biased against them. And that's in pretty much every game. And of course it's easy to forget games where decisions go in your favour. Swansea away had a case for at least three pens but none were given. I really don't think refs are biased,corrupt or anything like that. The simple fact is that a lot of them are just useless.
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I would agree with you on most of that, Manure and citeh fans who think refs are biased against them are obviously deluded because it has been shown empirically several times that they do get more decisions going their way. Theres a certain amount of confrmation bias, in that they only see the marginal decsions against them and risreagrd the positive.

Swansea away i seem to remember we had a couple of reasonable shouts for pens as well waved away, and of the swansea shouts any of them given would have been soft, and no more justified than what we had turned down on saturday. The bowler one at cardiff was outrageous two hands in the middle of his back

i think refs are biased, but the bias stems from incompetence, and a basic lack of accountability, rather than outright bentedness. Until the leagues find a way to make the refs accountable for poor / bad / wrong decisions, the standard will just keep dropping. I think eventually it will arrive in the courts, there will be such a blatently bad decsion that costs a team a PL place, or something else worth millions to corporate owners who see football as a purely money making exercise, and they will try and get compensation. we are getting close to that point already with middlesborough suing derby.
 
One of the Reading players has complained that the game hinged on our second goal being allowed and I think he had a point. Key decision that went our way.
 
20togo said:
I thought we were just bloody awful second half. Reading were the much better team and dominated possession as we continually gave the ball away with players turning into trouble and getting caught on the ball. But we restricted them to very little and took out chances very well when they came along. First half we were much the better team and should have scored more than one. Funny old game.
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Yes, that's how I saw it.
 
I saw it the same and am flabergasted at people saying madine was mom.Yes he played a bit better than he has been playing and was ok but come on .,Even heard one guy i listened to saying the header he missed was brilliant. No it wasnt it was a sitter directed straight at the goalie .What i have noticed for years is some well known posters say anything and people repeat like sheep and they forget previous dreadfull performances and calls for players to be dropped .Madine even admits he didnt play that well but because a deluded worshipper thinks he was mom people with the memories of a goldfish repeat it and it becomes a cliche.If we had lost opinions would be very different even with the same performance .
 
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