(Kebe, McAnuff, Hunt : King)
Leccy Board Championship : 16/04/2011
Madjeski Stadium, Reading (Ground no.68)
Yakubocrow
That was hard work but I have finally completed my masterpiece; the Yakubocrow is hanging off my washing line. The Yakubocrow is a life-sized model of Yakubu made from various household items and was produced over the past few nights after work. Forget revision, I wanted to create a piece of art which help with the stress of it.
It was produced for two reasons. Stop the local cats shitting in our back garden and to provide relief after seeing City pissing this play-off attempt up the wall. In the nearby shed in our back graden is a selection of weapons stretching from cricket bat to sledgehammer, these weapons are used to strike the Yakubocrow in order to relief the stress and frustation of it all. Cos that's all this attempt to get into the play-offs has done, frustrate me. So, having a nice Yakubocrow to destroy will help me through such agony.
NB. Yakubu is chosen due to the size of his arse, not his performances.
The past three games have been a bit like of a round of golf in which you lose the will to live and question youre ability. As you start off really well with the odd birdie and par (Burnley win), then get into a bit of a mess bogeying a few holes(Palace draw) and eventually you completely lose your head whilst stuck in a bunker (Reading loss). Basically, Rory McIlroy's recent failure at the US Masters.
That's pretty much the gist of the past three games. No nearer the playoffs yet it's still mathematically possible. The bastards, it's only Leicester who could do this! I am actually quite happy, I am on my holidays from Sunday onwards. The defence has been the problem and will remain the problem this season with such decisions as dropping the in-form Ben Mee for an available again, Jeffrey Bruma. Mee's twitter says he's as baffled as the rest of us.
First Reading goal, at least half of the defence keeps Shane Long onside despite an attempt to claim otherwise and Bamba's made to look a total mug by him as Long strugs him off running towards goal. The ball is squared to Jimmy Kebe who sees off the challenge of Van Aanholt easy to score. Second goal within a minute of that, marking slack from a throw-in...Oakley makes an interception but his first touch is so poor, Reading pick it up. McAnuff fakes his shot three times which Jeffrey Bruma falls for three times and eventually, the ball is struck into the net.
Despite all the dismay at the back, Bamba always struggling with Long whilst Bruma had a horror show displaying all the signs of 'it's not my fault' attitude. Bruma's selection even more the odd when you consider his last appearance was cut short thanks to a self-inflicted red card. We should have probably been level, Reading played like an away side. Plenty of men behind the ball and counter attacking when our move broke down. The ball was moved around slowly in front of reading but still half-chances appeared for Yakubu, King and Bamba. Just before the break, Wellens with the most clear-cut opportunity of the lot...his shot blocked by Matt Mills. To finish the half off, Kebe missed an absolute sitter with the defence in disarray.
This is somewhat a reoccuring theme after the break. Plenty of possession and eventually chances, Yakubu flashed a header away with no-one marking him, Vassell had a simple volley which he blazed over. However When the move broke down, it fell into Jimmy Kebe's feet who has this knack of just jogging past players without ever looking like tries. Shame his finishing is not the same quality, a further two sitters missed by him,he could have had four alone.
The killer came from one of these breakdown's Kebe legged it down the wing from pretty much one corner flag to another, Kamara was dismissed in the same fashion Usain Bolt would dismiss me in a sprint race. Personally, I'd just crop Kebe in the same fashion I'd do to quick lads at school and still do on Sunday mornings now. Keve squared it for Long but Vitor (who come on for a Bamba injured in the process of sprint back during one of these counter attacks) managed a brilliant tackle but it unluckily fell to Noel Hunt who simply struck it in the net.
The only cheer for Leicester, a crisp 25 yard drive from Andy King whose increasingly as the season wore on looked like he had cement in his boots. Hopefully, that's a confidence boost.
Reading had their game plan spot on, two banks of four, stuck up the pressure and take advantage when the full-backs get caught out of position. You'd have to say in Shane Long and Jimmy Kebe, they've have two of the best players in the division with Matt Mills and Jem Karacem not far behind. Playoffs? Maybe but it's a lottery, unless Hull or someone of similar ilk get some momentum between now and May 7th...I'd say they are favourites.
Any team which play 4-4-2 at the minute cause Leicester an issue, the four men in the opposition's midfield can quite easy cover the midfield three of City plus the full-backs. We pass it around too slow to take advantage of the extra man, when the ball's passed quick, a gap will open up but the ball's not zipped quicker enough. This is proven right if you look back at the fixture list with the only win over a 4-4-2 playing side, being against Scunthorpe (where unsurprisingly all the goals came from set pieces). Our most impressive performance against a team lined up in 4-4-2? QPR away when the formation was changed to a narrow 4-4-2.
Now if a team plays 4-3-3 against us (Donny, Burnley, Barnsley). They are dismissed with ease because the full-backs come into the game more as there's more space to exploit which is further proved right by goals for Naughton and Van Aanholt in these fixtures. So there's a problem, be interesting to see if ol'Sven spots it.
He's realised that he's just lost ten million (according to the News of the World)
I just went home and ensured I added more padding to Yakubocrow.
Onto Reading's Madejski,I don't like criticising new-build stadiums as ident-kit and all that jazz. The design of Madejski's is slightly different to the rest, extremely steep with the level of the seats broken up at the top. It's top-end of the market too, quite plush, plenty of leg-room and breezeblocks at a minimum. Problem is it's in the middle of nowhere, Reading three miles down an A road. Nearby is a Holiday Inn, loads of office blocks and a shitty retail park containing B&Q and Carpet-Right. There's the hint of housing estate if you further enough away. Which we did in the hunt of not being ripped off by one of the car parks, £5 to £8. We eventually plumping for the £7 one which donated 75% to Cancer Research. A compromise.
The stadium just doesn't facilite for a good football day. I'd hate going here week after week. It wouldn't be a 'day', it would be a chore. There didn't even seem to be a route of walking to and from the ground like Middlesbrough or like the Walkers. It was transport or nothing. Advice? Choose your visit here carefully basically if you have to travel a distance.
Bit of a lazy report, agreed? The reason I didn't go into massive detail about the game is it was the main FLS match on Saturday, so most folk seen it live or on the highlights. Cheerio, might do an article on Brighton in the week plus Florist on Friday and maybe Yeovil v Bournemouth on Saturday.
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