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So what you’re saying is that we’re not guaranteed to go up yet? Asking for a friend.

writings not bad either

I think our recent success has almost made a few of us think we were just going to continue winning forever. Football just doesn't work that way, certainly not the championship. We were 5 points clear of Leeds Saturday morning and 6 now. Maintained our advantage on sheff utd. Theres always going to be ups and downs and there has been all season. After our defeat at Preston we were down but hadn't dropped points since then until now. I've seen nothing since then or even tonight to suggest we are not the best team in the league. Others would have lost in this situation. This is how teams of Readings position always frustrate teams like us and it's why the likes of Man city / Liverpool drop points to lower league opposition in a season - it happens. We will learn from it and move on. 5 to go.

No shake up for me. Vrancic in for Cantwell and leave it at that.

We all knew this would happen because of people being complacent on a forum.

Absolutely agree. Let's stick to our guns, eh? I'd say 35 points from the last 42 available is a decent return. Remember when we were fighting our way up the table, into the top half, then into the playoffs, then into the top two? Well it turns out we're still six points clear. It's an absurd time to start sh¡tting ourselves and pointing fingers.

Put a beard on Emi and call him Joey Jo Jo a new academy product.

Vrancic looked influential the moment he got on the pitch so maybe will start on Sunday. He has the guile and delivery that will be vital against Wigan.

Its 1 draw. Chill out

Glad I don't have to eat any hats.

You too, can go on the stupid list.

Always thought Maddo would be Erikson replacement once he leaves Spurs, but as others have said Leicester was a shrewd move for him , playing every week in an established(for now) premier league side. He is on view to all the 'big' clubs. doing himself no harm whatsoever.

No, Maddison really wasn’t. Too many people actually said we’re better off without Maddison which is ridiculous. He was one of the good things in a struggling season that was all about transition but it was because he’s that good that he still shone through whilst the club was going through the massive changes. Selling him was a necessity unfortunately but no doubt had he stayed, we’d still have togetherness (that comes from Farkes leadership), we’d also still have bucket loads of goals and probably a smoother start to the season. To compare him to those that clearly didn’t fit in the group (Oliveira) is disrespectful to what James brought to the team and club last season, a model professional who will reach the top of the game.

Farke didnt get it wrong. He knows more than us lot. Hes also kinda earnt that right to know more than us, with half of you lot wanting him gone at the start of the season. Bringing in Cantwell didnt cost us the game. We dominated. Unlucky but unbeaten, on to the next one.

There is no direct replacement for Emi, but technically speaking Todd is probably the closest to it. Vrancic and Leitner both excel central and deeper, and Farke (quite rightly) didn't want to disturb a midfield axis that had garnered eight wins on the bounce. McLean has been quietly effective and gets through a ton of work, while Trybull has been like Tettey on steroids. Good spot on Hernandez/Lewis though, agree with that.

But we'll never know what happened if Vrancic had started. I predicted he'd start with Cantwell, and I also said before the match that my preference would've been for Vrancic for the reasons you underlined. But whatever Farke's reasons were for picking Cantwell, I trust his judgement completely... and I'm not going to play the hindsight game. We've won eight on the bounce with this tactical setup for goodness sake!

I can blame Rhodes for this last gasp 2-2 Reff watch clock 2 times was really last attack and we really need only to put ball over central line to end all. At this huge moment Rhodes not press good and they back ball in front of our penal 😕 Kenny MoM is lol for me .Good game for him but despite we concede 2 goals both Godfrey and ZImbo was phenomenal today not only because goals but over all amazing play from this impressive players. Feel sorry for my favourite Klose but seems this 2 if not suspended or injured is first choice for sure. Godfrey will play really big football very soon imo.My MoM today. We miss badly Buendia flame and is a big shame 2 more game suspension also if come straight not same form etc etc . Cantwell not bad but not ahead Vrancic/Leitner no way . We was a short of special players with today starting 11. More pressure on us probably Sunday at noon as both sheff and Leeds can win at home. still 5 to go 7 clear is amazing position.Keep fingers to be solved sooner than later ... Amazing joy for our 2nd goal today rock carra under flood lights... OTBC

That's nuts. I thought he had a largely positive influence in general, obviously gave the ball away for Reading's first but otherwise I thought he was decent enough.

Playing Cantwell ahead of Vrancic tonight was a huge error in my view and must not be repeated again. Indeed the lack of minutes Vrancic and Leitner have had of late has been questionable although masked by the run of results. We improved markedly when Vrancic came on and McLean moved to the left. Cantwell did little wrong but played very much safety first football and we lacked the incision that Vrancic brings.

This is, to me at least, a rather unique way of looking at added time. I get what your saying and emotions are running high at the moment, but I see added time as a neutral entity not for reasons of disadvantage or advantage to one team or another.

Yeah...I think we live in the most glassiest of glass houses when it comes to complaining about goals scored after the minimum allotted added time.

Stiepermann is too influential to the way we play. Vrancic in for Cantwell should be enough. Todd had a chance to impress tonight, he worked hard and had some good touches, but didn't really make much creative impact. Vrancic was influential from the moment he got on the pitch.

They are down there for a reason and Nelson won’t be playing Easy 3 points grow a pair everyone

I'm going to come in for a bit of stick for this, but I absolutely can't stand that time-wasting from Rhodes. They proved all game they held a threat on the counter, and 3 times instead of playing in the spare man to try and get the 3rd goal he takes it to the byline and we give the ball away. We had the momentum, could have kept knocking at their door but they knew we weren't coming at them, and took their opportunity. Proper annoyed. In some ways I'm glad we only got a point and it happened that way, we did not play well until Godfrey gave us a rocket up the backside and hopefully it's showed Farke he's got to have a rethink. Without Buendia we looked short of invention, we were too static and although we had plenty of chances we lacked the aggression and cutting edge. Steipermann had a bad game, Mclean's deliveries were awful and Lewis just couldn't do anything right going forwards but was decent defensively. Waiting until 71 minutes to change things up was a total waste, changes were needed earlier. Farke needs to have a rethink for next game, Mario and Leitner in for me, Steiperman and Cantwell out. If Pukki is fit then he starts.

https://twitter.com/NorwichCityFC/status/1116015489661018113?s=20 Even the social media team are killing it this season. Brilliant effort

Jesus, Pete! Did any of that first paragraph make sense in your head before it all dribbled out over the keyboard and onto our screens in glorious stream-of-consciousness-o-vision? Even the thread title is afflicted with it! I agree with the handful of observations and sentiments I was able to extricate from the passage, though (ooer!) I do love the prospect of fulfilling promotion creams, though. Made my day, that one.

Should help to lubricate the process of 'going up'.

****ing hell, LDC being negative and Westcoast downplaying stats what a time to be alive.

A beautiful covfefe

I quite like his trolling to be honest. Especially when he winds up Savage. I'd take ol' Chris over Alan Shearer / Michael Owen (also known as The Boring Brothers) any day.

Long long time reader first time poster. But imo I don't think Farke will allow us to underestimate anyone. The way we have gone about are games is nothing short of confidence and professionalism.

Nothing is easy Though time gets you worrying My friend, it's OK Just take your life easy And stop all that hurrying Be happy my way When tension starts mounting And you've lost count of the pennies you've missed Just try hard And see why they're not worrying me They're last on my list Nothing's easy Nothing is easy You'll find that the squeeze Won't turn out so bad Your fingers may freeze Worse things happen at sea There's good times to be had So if you're alone And you're down to the bone Just give us a play You'll smile in a while And discover that I'll get you happy my way Nothing's easy

You can't win every game, just look at the recent record for Leeds & Sheff U.... The great thing is that even if we lose tonight, we'll be 5 points clear of 3rd place and 4 points clear of 2nd, with just 5 games to go. And if you'd offered me that at the start of the season....

Yes, but that is a separatist issue....

I really think I must be seeing things. From my perspective we conceded a poor goal but completely dominated the game from start to finish and despite a determined, organised and compact Reading team created numerous chances on goal. Not our best performance but such a hugely long way from 'dull'....90% of teams in our league would kill for a performance like that. Let's not start setting completely unrealistic expectations on performance levels just so we can have a moan...

What happened to 'in Farke we trust'? Lots of people with 20/20 hindsight accusing him of making an error in picking Cantwell on the back of eight straight victories. We had 75% possession tonight, and 25 shots on goal. Lack of creativity wasn't the problem.

Really, it is telling that as soon as vrancic was on the pitch we looked a whole lot better. Farke surely saw that and if he had put vrancic on instead of Rhodes I reckon we would have won. Vrancic really must start.

Irreplaceable

Absolutely shocking casual 'defending' there from Stiepermann

We were always due one of these, were never gonna win gonna win every game until the end.

3 points any which we can at this point in the season 😃

Looking through this thread, there are a few posters who appear to be affected by a touch of the 'Lakeys'!

Only one close to Buendia for goals and assists is super Mario, so I’ve actually changed my mind from another thread and hope Vrancic gets the nod.

I have faith in our manager and the lads...but the change in the team will need a new approach, I mean it will have effect on the way we play. Mario, Todd or Mo are good players , but they're different to Emi... It won't be easy and we will need to get off to a good start...but I'm confident our quality will be enough to win it

Farke wants a keeper who is good with his feet too, though. That's the reason Guardiola didn't fancy Hart for Man City. If we do sign another keeper it'll be one who can distribute better and is more technically sound.

It’s even worse than that if you’re an Ipswich fan KG. They *know* it will be sh*t.

It has to be the support element Double N. Nobody in their right mind would would pay for something they were unsure of the outcome in terms of product, entertainment and value for money. But if you love your club then your state of mind is something that can be dismissed as irrelevant. I can post on here with you guys and make points that others find ridiculous or debatable whereas if anyone says anything about NCFC to me who isn't one of us, then I risk donating blood in defence.

Buendia over them both. Guess we will find out next season .

I don’t mind Wilder at all. Passionate man running the club he supports, lucky guy! Yes, we had the trouble with the Bramall Lane scuffles, but I understand their fans getting annoyed about the ‘professional tactics’ that were employed that day - let’s face it, if it happened to us and we lost at Carrow Rd, we’d all be pissed off about it too, and that’s a fact. It’s not a preference for me between Sheff Utd and Leeds at all, its an easy choice - 95% of Leeds fans come across as the most scummy arrogant bunch (with a small minority of decent fans thrown in as well). Despite what they may think, they are owed NOTHING. They live constantly on excuses for their own teams shortcomings, and can’t accept that many other teams have had far more success than them in recent years. For me, Sheff Utd have a far better team and totally deserve autos - Wilders done a good job, a bit of a pantomime villain at times, but I reckon he’s probably a very decent bloke just looking out for his club in the same manner you or I would should we have the once in a lifetime opportunity of becoming manager of our own beloved club.

Nah, I wouldn't be seen dead in Leeds! 🤭 My money was on Tony Greig.