Reading v Aston Villa Feb. 24 [R]

[prvev]

Ugh.

[Neeto]

GOAL SHOREY!!!!!!
FT
Reading 1-2 Villa
Meh, not enough though and we loose 8 straight. I thought we played well. We just got caught off guard on the counter attacks. The difference in pace from both teams really showed today with Villa having players like Abonglahor and Young who can get past defences with great speed. I'm excited about Kebe though. He has some great pace and I can not wait until he can play a full 90 minute game in BPL.

Hooray, we finally don't play against a top 6 club next week. We are away at Boro and this is a must win game.

[Laudy]

I did not see the game but all of the summaries say that Sonko and Cisse both played rather poorly. Another penalty given, although it was very harsh as it has been said that Cisse tried to move his hand. Even though it did not result in a goal we cannot keep giving penalties. I was very nervous about this game because we needed the points badly but Aston Villa is a very good team. So now we are alone in the last relegation spot as Birmingham got a point from Arsenal which is huge for them. Fulham and Derby both lost so we just lost ground to Birmingham. Sunderland and Bolton both lost so we still remain 3 points below Bolton, and 4 behind Sunderland. We are still in contention but have to win. If fear if we keep losing the players are going to lose heart and it will become an epidemic with the team. I can't remember the last game we won, it is a sad state of affairs.:(

[Katsbox]

I watched the game on Setanta. Cisse was disappointing - outclassed for sure - and Sonko had a few of his "what is he thinking, just boot the dang ball" moments. I don't think Oster did enough defending. Doyle was working hard all day, but the stats at the end of the game showed he didn't have a shot - on or off goal - all game. Kitson had only 2 - both off target.

Shorey played well - his consolation goal was sweet, but I have to ask what is with his crosses? In the last 4-6 weeks I have noticed that about 50% of his crosses hit the man marking him - what is going on?? Yet again there was very little service into the box for the strikers (crosses, crosses, corners & crosses). It's like Reading just decided not to play that way anymore.

All that said, and despite Coppell saying Reading were outplayed, I really felt they could have gotten an ugly, scrappy point from the game. They came out really bright the first 20 minutes - great energy, beautiful passing - but they looked like they had run out of gas and confidence the last 10-15 minutes of the half. I thought that missed PK was going to be the bit of luck to get Reading going, but instead it seemed to take the wind out of their sails. Second half, Reading had a couple of scrambles in the box that Villa were lucky to clear and one or two other chances that Villa just defended well.

Villa were always going to be hard, but Reading just need something from every game now. A hard loss at home.

[Pablo Chicago]

Sonko getting stood up and turned around, and Cisse's desperate out-of-position lunge illustrate why we haven't even drawn in the scrappy close ones this season. I've lost count of how many times opponents have blown by our defenders like they were stuck in quicksand.

Sonko may be the CL's Superman, but he's the Prem's version of Clark Kent.