Griffin's Penultimate Stand - Division 2 2018-19

[cantagalo]

I was thinking that club song was beyond embarrassing.

Then at 2:33 the rap kicked in and I had to crawl under the sofa.

[Kevin S]

Sheffield united 1 west brom 2. What a great result! Didn't see it but a friend texted to say we were awful in the first half then brilliant in the second. Still a few points behind Norwich and Leeds though, having played one more game than them. Surely one of them will go on a bad run soon?

I wouldn't even say we were on a bad run but your three on the spin has got you back in touching distance of us now.

[Sits]

Thanks for that BB&F, it does indeed explain a lot. If it wasn’t so terrible you’d have to laugh. Which I did at the part about Jaap Stam’s football philosophy.

[Jon]

Bloody hell! I didn't know Royston drenthe was/is at reading.

Kev - touching distance yes but both Norwich and Leeds have been particularly adept at turning losing situations into draws and wins these last few weeks. Looking at that Serbian league table, i should be happy that we top the goals for column in the division but i can't get truly excited about it when two thirds of our strike force are on loan from premier league clubs. Conversely, our goals against column is one of the poorest in the top half of the division. (only one quarter of our defence are on loan from the premier league).

[Big Boobs and FIRE!]

Current comfort stat doing the rounds amongst Reading fans is that the club currently have won only 16 of their last 77 games.

Fortunately, our new Portuguese saviour has the much superior record, having won a stunning 19 of his last 74 matches as manager.

Added to this was the rumour that his 2.5 year contract is worth £11 million. The club quickly dispelled this myth by clarifying it is actually 11 million euro.

We are fucked.

[Glass Half Empty]

Might be interesting if Forestieri gets picked to play.. https://www.thestar.co.uk/sport/foot...ieri-1-9512249 What a tool.

[ad hoc]

This story has got a bit surreal today with the latest apparently being that nobody remembered to send a letter either to Wednesday or Forestieri to actually let him know about the court date. As a result the arrest warrant has been withdrawn and a new date set (and presumably this time they've actually told the people who need to be there about it)

[Sporting]

This division is downright mad.

[SouthdownRebel]

Norwich should probably invest in some defenders, not to mention some better lightbulbs.

[Kevin S]

Sakes.

[Glass Half Empty]

This story has got a bit surreal today with the latest apparently being that nobody remembered to send a letter either to Wednesday or Forestieri to actually let him know about the court date. As a result the arrest warrant has been withdrawn and a new date set (and presumably this time they've actually told the people who need to be there about it)

What the hell is happening to this country? A law court is assembled and no-one bothered to tell the accused?

[diggedy derek]

Thanks very much for that insightful and thoroughly depressing read BBAF. Some of the contract extensions in particular have been baffling in recent years, guided it seems as much by bravado as business sense. Aluko has been an unmitigated disaster.

It was by all accounts a decent performance today to get a point at QPR, with Reading dominating possession, but I'm very sceptical about possession stats in general. I think a focus on possession is a great thing for a manager to bring up in a job interview, a la Jaap Staam, and the kind of thing players are usually happy to give a try, but whether it's a good longterm strategy for grinding out points is an entirely different matter.

[Gangster Octopus]

Fucking bag of fucking bollocksing shit. We're doomed.

[Fearful Symmetry]

Still in a state of disbelief over here in East Yorkshire. Going to the league leaders after your best centre back in recent games gets recalled by his parent club, and missing your best striker and midfielder, and beating them comfortably really is 'pinch me' territory. There's never been much doubt that the squad is a capable enough one, but that it was being hamstrung by underperforming players and a limited manager. Suddenly it seems that Kamil Grosicki is very much interested again after his transfer window escapade (and is clearly one of the best players in this division), while the previously much maligned Markus Henricksen has morphed into the bastard lovechild of Robert Koren and Ian Ashbee. And I guess it's a begrudging tip of the cap to Adkins for inspiring a run of form that's taken us from second bottom to a comfortable mid table position and eyeing up the play offs at the very least (I still don't like him, though)

Jarrod Bowen's 2 goals yesterday will have stuck a bit more on his value, and herein lies the rub. On normal Planet Football, we'd be ensuring that the better players (Bowen, Grosicki and to a lesser extent, Campbell) would be retained and some money would be available to strengthen a couple of key positions (we're in dire need of a striker who might actually score goals as backup for Campbell, and another centre back to replace Tommy Elphick). But of course, Hull City's owners don't live in the real world, takeover talk has stagnated, and despite the fact there's no pressing need to cash in on any of the playing assets, it's not beyond the realm of possibility that the Allams will still sell players and pocket the cash out of pure spite. And that's why thousands will still not be returning to the KC any time soon, and that's unfair on the players, who deserve the plaudits of a much larger audience.

[ad hoc]

Is it true that the Norwich team didn't warm up again after a break due to a floodlight failure 5 minutes from the end, whereas Derby did, and then scored twice to win?

[jameswba]

Fucking bag of fucking bollocksing shit. We're doomed.

You'll be a loss to the division in that case. A Slovak TV channel showed a re-run of the Bristol City game last night, probably as there's a bit of curiosity here as to how Slovakia's Under-21 'keeper is doing in the Championship. Rotherham were excellent, looked the more clued-up side until the sendings-off (the first of which was very harsh), and created the clearer chances. The wide players caused trouble for Bristol City all game. I'd struggle to believe that Ipswich, Bolton and Reading (at the very least) aren't worse than Rotherham.

[cantagalo]

I may have been a bit rash calling for Thomas Frank’s head earlier in the thread. His switch to a back three has stabilised the defence and achieved a three game unbeaten run with just one goal conceded.

Yesterday’s 0-0 at Birmingham was a horrible, nasty game with neither side able to create a clear chance but I was delighted to see Brentford stand up for themselves and give as good as they got.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Without diminishing Reading, who were better than advertised, we looked seriously tired on Saturday. Schteve's insistence on playing the the same eleven players game in and game out (injuries excepted) with no subs until the 85th minute, has paid dividends until now. But the holiday period is beginning to wear some of them down. I suspect the trip to Villa Park on Wednesday will underline this. If we can escape with a point it'll go down as a very good result.

[Jon]

Reading down three nil at home to Swansea at half time in the new manager's home debut. Yikes!

[Big Boobs and FIRE!]

Reading down three nil at home to Swansea at half time in the new manager's home debut. Yikes!

Don't worry, his half time team talk with have an immediate effect.

The club's pre-match Twitter message was very prophetic.

[tee rex]

Fucking bag of fucking bollocksing shit. We're doomed.

The way the others are collapsing, you should be safe on goal difference just by completing the fixtures.

[Fearful Symmetry]

Okay, okay, this is just getting silly now................

[Amor de Cosmos]

So Schteve fields an unaltered team once again, and we get our away point. Nicely done. I'm guessing he'll play the stiffs against Leeds in t'cup next week, but who knows. He's clearly a manager who doesn't believe in making a changes just for the sake of it.

[Kevin S]

Steve Bruce confirmed as new SWFC manager.

[Kevin S]

Okay, okay, this is just getting silly now................

Did you see the "before and after" league table on Quest last night? Incredible form from Hull of late. Mind you, the quality of players has always been there, I suppose.

Ipswich on the other hand threw away another lead yesterday with some more kamikaze defending. To get to 45 points (which even then is kind of borderline rather than safe) would mean they need to get 30 points from these final 20 games.

Something like W8 D6 L6 would do that. Which for any other team in the division doesn't look impossible, but Lambert needs to get some new players in and fast if they are going to do it. It already looks too late.

The one thing you can say though is that they have had the lead in 13 matches this season (or 13 times, not sure) but have thrown it away 11 times to win only twice all season. If (and it's a huge if) they can cut that out then there is something of a chance still.