Reading @ West Ham 10/01/06- Pre/During/Post Match Talk, [ r ]

[mschofield]

I was positive that shot that Sidwell headed over the bar was going in. That was way too close.

Anyway, wow. This is great. Big win today over a very good West Ham team. Nobody could have expected 13 points in 7 games.
This run is not like last autumn, when Reading were simply overwhelming everything in their path. But there are very few who will outfight this team. Man, they don't let down for a single second. Beat a team that's more talented one week, and that's a great spot of luck. Make a habit of it, and it means something.
full credit to coppell and I'm beginning to think reading might be safe by boxing day:D .

[FC Zippy]

This run is not like last autumn, when Reading were simply overwhelming everything in their path. But there are very few who will outfight this team. Man, they don't let down for a single second. Beat a team that's more talented one week, and that's a great spot of luck. Make a habit of it, and it means something.
full credit to coppell and I'm beginning to think reading might be safe by boxing day:D .


These early wins can only help their confidence. Sheffield and Watford are already struggling, even though the Blades had a very nice win yesterday. This team just has to keep enough points to learn the Prem; Coppell seems to have them playing with confidence.

[aguy2die4]

congrats to Reading. 3 points. Away. West Ham. Enough said.

[aguy2die4]

a few additional notes.

that Seol goal was a cracker. Probably feature in the goal of the week.

de la cruz was v.disappointing compared to Murty. Seol had to do a lot of defending to cover that right hand side.

perhaps thats why majority of attacks were along the left wing thru Convey in the 2nd half.

Sonko was good, but he did give the ball away once when he tried to carry the ball out in to the midfield. He has done this a few times before. But his defending is solid. Calm, collected, strong and reads players movements well.

A good 3 pts. but the win was partly due to West Ham's inability to score. And Reading had like only 2 shots on target during the whole game.

Against Chelsea, Reading need to step up a lot more, if they want to steal a point or three from under their nose. Looking forward to it, as always.

[Pablo Chicago]

Coppell's post-match quotes:

"As soon as we scored we almost had the mentality of holding on. We didn't play as well as I'd have liked.

"They had lots of possession and when we got the ball we gave it away cheaply and that was a concern at half-time.

"The second half was scrappy but the qualities we do have, the way we work defensively meant it went our way."

[LetsGoYanks]

Awesome win!!

[RichardL]

Chris Tarrant, the UK host of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, is used to putting his contestants through the wringer for the sake of dramatic effect. But sat a few seats away from me today, he got a taste of his own medicine as Reading faced a long agonizing round of "positive?" "certain?" to see if Reading really did have the final answer to keeping West Ham at bay.

Appropriately enough, given the opposition, it absolutely hammered down prior to kick off as a thunderstorm rolled over East London. Reading's own thunderbolt arrived soon after, with Seol completing another lightening quick away start for Reading with a goal inside two minutes. A free kick on the edge of the box had to he retaken, and before fans had finished moaning about how badly executed free-kicks are never asked to be retaken, and that this one appeared to have been slightly bodged, Seol hit an unstoppable shot into the net in front of the travelling 3000.

In these opening stages Reading pushed forward with the eagerness of a 15 year old with fake ID queuing for a strip club, and looked possibly likely to increase their lead before West Ham could settle. But Ulises De La Cruz, making his first premiership start for Reading, conceded possession needlessly to put West Ham on the attack, and in doing so somehow set the tone for the rest of the game. Reading never really settled on the ball after that. Possession really is important at this level, but Reading were giving it away easier than a fat girl on a hen night.

For pretty much the entire rest of the game Reading managed little more than sporadic breaks, with all of the midfielders having as much success finding the right pass as 18 year olds have with finding their girlfriend's G-spot, with equally frustrating results. Like tourists who actually use the underground's vending machines, Doyle and Lita had trouble getting any change out of the West Ham defence, and had a day when they looked like twin lone-strikers rather than an actual partnership.

Luckily for Reading, while they are in a rich vein of from, West Ham are destitute in front of goal, having failed to score in 5 consecutive matches now. Not that they lack quality. Many premiership sides would welcome the talents of Carlos Tevez into their side, for example. He's here to make a name for himself, but sadly, for all his talent, at the moment he's only contribution is to take over Luke Chadwick's vacated baton of the premiership's ugliest footballer, while displaying a variety of slices that would make a luxury cake shop envious. His eventual substitution was no surprise, to be replaced by Teddy Sheringham, a player so old that his initial reaction to the pre-match deluge was to phone the wife and tell her to assemble the pets and get their ark out of the garage.

It made little difference. Reading's defence was firmer than cheap silicone breasts, and just as immovable, and when the ball did find its way into the Reading box, it was smothered by an impressive display by Hahnemann.

West Ham saved the best until last, with a neat close range chip looking to be sneaking in until Sidwell headed away from virtually under the crossbar.

In truth, despite their pressure, West Ham barely had a decent chance, or even an indecent one, so they can't complain too much about being unlucky. For Reading, who only mustered one other reasonable chance, a Seol header which would have gone in had it crept inside the post, a bit of work is needed to halt the trend of losing midfield so badly. At times today we were so deep that the Mariana Trench popped over to say hello.

Nobody at Reading can complain about 13 points from 7 games, but next up in two weeks are Chelsea. Maybe Shevchenko will carry on in the same form that's seen him flop like a dead fish so far this season, but as much as this win should be savoured, work needs to be done to ensure that the bubble of form that's floating so high at the moment doesn't fade and die like those at West Ham famously do.

[ScottyB10]

anyone find a video clip of the goal???

[K:theCore]

Sickness

http://dory.mncast.com/mncHMovie.swf?movieID=10001286020061001220953

[Pablo Chicago]

Once again, thanks for the summary Richard. No one can lace their match recap with sexual analogies like you can. ;)

[ScottyB10]

awesome

[chadu]

any clip for the game?

[ayers]

Sickness

http://dory.mncast.com/mncHMovie.swf?movieID=10001286020061001220953

:confused: I'm only getting a black screen.

[PacMan]

have u clicked the play arrow after the black screen comes up?

[hanul21]

have u clicked the play arrow after the black screen comes up?
yes.. wait for a few seconds and then press play

[ayers]

have u clicked the play arrow after the black screen comes up?

yes. maybe it's my work computer. will try again when i get home. thanks.

[K:theCore]

Seol was being a character apparently on Sunday. Im not sure what history he has had with West Ham but I dont think its all that good. I know he scored a winner against them when he was with the Wolves.

He outdid himself yesterday apparently.

First he did a lot of stalling.

Second, he popped off and shook Rennie's hand as he was subbed off. Obviously making fun of him for some iffy calls.

And I didnt see this but he reportedly patted Pardew on the back at the time he was subbed off...to which Pardew got angry and yelled something at Seol. :D

Anyone see the Pardew incident?

[ayers]

Seol's goal on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKrWtd6KaG0).

[chadu]

does anyone have the vid of the game?????