A lot of similarities between this game and Bristol on Saturday - both had instantly forgettable first halves, followed by much better second half performances by us and both 3 points and clean sheetsReading was both a game of two halves and a game of two subs - the introduction of Siaz and Clarke really turning this game from a turgid bore fest into a sparkling night of entertaiment (bit of hyperbole there but not too much) We got inside the ground just in time to hear a real cheer and an 'oooo' from the crowd - I was told Douglas , not for the first time, had missed with an easy header. Had that gone in it may have been a different game, as it was Reading for the most part parked the bus and had all 11 man back defending for most of the time with the odd worrying foray into our area where they only created a few half chances For us, Phillips was a make shift centre half - he did well enough but we did miss some of his passing further up the pitch, and Baker after a good 5 minute cameo on Saturday showed why he has barely had a game this season as he really struggled to make any impact Alioski with whom lots of fans are losing patience was also anonymous and his most memorable moment was his attempt to change the 55 (or whatever it is now) games without a penalty with a dive that was so obvious we could tell from the Revie Stand and the ref quite rightly booked him Bielsa knew things were not right and sent on the mercurial wizard Samu Saiz, I love watching him play, and Jack Clarke a player with immense potential, and it almost paid dividends in seconds as Clarke beat his man and put a lovely ball across to Samu whose shot was going to ripple in the back of the net but got deflected wide instead With these two on the pitch we looked a totally different team and uppped both our passion and work rate as Saiz pulled the strings and Clarke had the beating of the full back We had a few chances and then a lovely cross field pass came out to the left where Douglas and Pablo combined - Pablo with a great cheeky back heel and then Douglas' cross was met by Roofe who could not quite bundle it in, but the ball rebounded off the keeper to Dallas who poked home from a few yards out 1-0 and game over (we hoped) We could have had a second when Roofe did everything right with his downwards header back across the keeper but the keeper made a top class save - real quality We huffed and puffed a bit after that but never looked like getting the second that would ahve put it to bed, instead a rare attack from Reading and as the winger tried to get his cross in Douglas tangled with him - the ref of course pointed to the spot - a silly place and an awful time to give away a penalty However BPF restored to the line up after injury (and sort of being dropped) made a great save low to his right and tipped it round the post - tremendous save from a keeper under pressure, who to be fair had a good night. He showed he is good enough at this level but needs to cut out the mistakes. Some have said he has cost us points this season, well he saved us 2 last night A real headache going forward for Bielsa now - Saiz and Clarke both showed what we are lacking at times with guile from one and directness from the other, and both need to get more time on the pitch So happy enough - not great performances but two home wins in 4 days - something we have failed to do in the past against two lower table teams Points dropped by Norwich and Boro added to my satisfaction on the night - onwards and upwards Dave _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: https://mailman.gn.apc.org/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email [email protected]
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