Reading v Derby --October 7--[R]

[prvev]

Well...

[prvev]

We've apparently had the better of the first 8 minutes.

[Derrida]

I'd rather have the better of the first few goals.

Hey, Feilhaber is playing. Cool. Anyone who actually sees the game, I'm interested in how he plays.

Come on you Royals!

[prvev]

Hunt just misses a header.

[Derrida]

Would really like to see Doyle get a goal today. He's had all kinds of chances and it's good that he's getting into scoring situations, but he really needs to find that scoring touch.

[prvev]

60th minute..still 0-0..Oster for Rosenior.

[Katsbox]

Would really like to see Doyle get a goal today. He's had all kinds of chances and it's good that he's getting into scoring situations, but he really needs to find that scoring touch.


Your wish!!!!

[rms5555]

Doyle!!!!! 1-0

[prvev]

Woohoo! 1-0!

[prvev]

Lewis for Felihaber, Barnes for Howard.

[rms5555]

My p2p feed is jumpy, but it looks like a bad clearance off a corner went to Doyle who finished with a nice header to the corner of the net. We needed that badly and we really need Doyle to get going again like last year.

[prvev]

3 points!

[rms5555]

3 minutes stoppage time

[Neeto]

Final 1-0!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[rms5555]

Full time. Reading 1-0. Not the greatest performance, but I'll take it.

[Nyghtewynd]

Forgive me if I'm not filled with joy when the best Reading can do at home against easily the worst team in the PL is a 1-0 win.

[mschofield]

Forgive me if I'm not filled with joy when the best Reading can do at home against easily the worst team in the PL is a 1-0 win.
Yeah, but three points is three points right now. If Reading can get a little confidence going, and get back on their game, they're ab fine. Derby didn't have a clear chance today, and Reading had several (well, almost several, but closer).
I would have liked a couple more, but the most important thing we could have had right now is for doyle to score this season.

[Derrida]

Would've liked a 3-0 or 4-0, but there's no way I'm going to complain about 3 points right now. Especially since we put up a clean sheet after letting in something like 30 goals in the past couple weeks.

I finally got my Reading kit (Doyle 9) and wore it proudly today. And on the same day Doyle got his first goal of the year. Coincidence? Well, yes. But still, it's nice.

We've got some tough matches coming up. Let's hope they can hold onto the winning ways.

[RichardL]

The Novamura wallpaper company will on Monday bring out a Reading v Derby themed range of a few hundred rolls, as from afar it’ll be good for papering over any cracks. It’s unlikely to bear closer scrutiny however, as this was a win achieved despite the performance, rather than because of it, and Reading still look likely to finish near the 17th place they found themselves at the start of play, than the 12th place that they currently sit.

Against a Derby team who supposedly make Reading look like a cavalier swashbuckling bastion of belief, Reading needed to make a bright start. They tried, illuminating the stadium like a low energy bulb – quite efficient but not really adequate for purpose. Hunt missed two chances. Doyle headed another over, but it wasn’t convincing. Luckily Derby had less to offer than a soviet-era Polish supermarket, and wouldn’t register a single shot on target in the whole match. The fact that the away end was comfortably over half empty suggests belief off the pitch is equally as barren.

The worry with Reading this season has been the spell just after half time. Had Derby nicked one, it could have been a very different story, but although they didn’t look like troubling Hahnemann, nothing is certain. On the hour the again ineffective Rosenior was replaced with Oster, and although his impact wouldn’t be described as sensational, at least not without the aid of high quality recreational drugs, he did make a difference.

For the first time in a while Reading had a little more shape, and a little width. Although not directly involved with the goal, it was his move to the right as Murty advanced that meant the full-back couldn’t close him down, and enabled him to put in a decent cross. OK, the ball did flick off a Derby head before reaching Doyle, whose laser-guided effort went across Bywater and into the inside of the far side-netting for the opening goal.

So error-strewn had been the previous hour that it was hard to tell if leading made Reading nervy, or if they just continued as before. With Reading’s midfield still tackling with the resolution of defrosted prawns, and confidence less stable than an epileptic on a water-bed, anything could have happened. Derby even managed a few shots of their own, albeit usually from long range, but the game in reality just kind of fizzled out.

Reading will take the three points, but if Steve Coppell goes home to the family tonight and plays a game of monopoly then he should be able to count of this game as a get out of jail free card, as it’s unlikely Reading will win a premiership game again playing so badly.

[T_Rock]

3 badly needed points. If only Reading played Derby every week.