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ricardo

Ricardo's Report v Reading.

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A bridge too far.

I can''t fault the effort shown by the boys tonight but we seldom looked like scoring goals at any period of the match. The lucky underpants failed to work their magic but in truth this season was not lost tonight but was lost in the stupid points chucked away in the early part of the season. I suppose some will say we still have a chance but in my opinion it''s going to require a miracle on a par with the raising of Lazarus.

I thought Reading looked a decent side, strong at the back and fast skillful forwards who always had us at full stretch. The Doc and Shaks were again outstanding but you need a creative midfield if you are going to make chances and thats something we have lacked all season. The second goal was a killer and I put that down to the keeper. He was not alive to the situation and the Doc had to put it out of play and you just knew we would pay for it when the cross came over. How the Doc didn''t win player of the season remains a mystery to me. Good luck to Crofty, I don''t fault him for effort but I saw two beatuiful crosses leading to goals tonight and thats more than I''ve seen from Croft all season.

The only plus point for me was the showing of young Cody McDonald, he will be a great asset next year. As for the rest of them, well I don''t know where we go from here.

I am now listening to Radio Norfolk and some people are saying its not all over. Believe me folks tonight its done and dusted.

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[quote user="ricardo"]

A bridge too far.

I can''t fault the effort shown by the boys tonight but we seldom looked like scoring goals at any period of the match. The lucky underpants failed to work their magic but in truth this season was not lost tonight but was lost in the stupid points chucked away in the early part of the season. I suppose some will say we still have a chance but in my opinion it''s going to require a miracle on a par with the raising of Lazarus.

I thought Reading looked a decent side, strong at the back and fast skillful forwards who always had us at full stretch. The Doc and Shaks were again outstanding but you need a creative midfield if you are going to make chances and thats something we have lacked all season. The second goal was a killer and I put that down to the keeper. He was not alive to the situation and the Doc had to put it out of play and you just knew we would pay for it when the cross came over. How the Doc didn''t win player of the season remains a mystery to me. Good luck to Crofty, I don''t fault him for effort but I saw two beatuiful crosses leading to goals tonight and thats more than I''ve seen from Croft all season.

The only plus point for me was the showing of young Cody McDonald, he will be a great asset next year. As for the rest of them, well I don''t know where we go from here.

I am now listening to Radio Norfolk and some people are saying its not all over. Believe me folks tonight its done and dusted.

[/quote]

Ricardo - your analysis is spot on.

The first half was very even, but I always felt that Reading could up their game, whilst we couldn''t. This proved to be the case. Reading''s defence was too strong and we never once troubled them. Our wide men were very very poor and couldn''t get in behind their defence to put crosses in for Lee. McDonald ran the channels very well and was our only hope of scoring a goal. Clingan and Russell struggled to keep possession so poor was the our team going forward. Shackell and Doherty also played well and were strong. The rest of the team were very poor. League 1 here we come, with very little of a team left. Thank you very much Delia smith. Now FUCK OFF.

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[quote user="ricardo"]

 Believe me folks tonight its done and dusted.

[/quote]

Thank you for all your reports over the season Ricardo. Probably the longest walk to Trowse tonight.

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Agreed we wont win at Charlton let alone pray for Barnsley to lose on top of that.

Scary times ahead as I genuinely don''t think we will be much of a threat in league 1 next season, this is officialy the lowest I have ever felt as a Norwich fan and i''m not saying that lightly.

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[quote user="West_London_Canary"]

Agreed we wont win at Charlton let alone pray for Barnsley to lose on top of that.

Scary times ahead as I genuinely don''t think we will be much of a threat in league 1 next season, this is officialy the lowest I have ever felt as a Norwich fan and i''m not saying that lightly.

[/quote]Agreed, worse ever football supporting experience of my 29 years

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[quote user="ricardo"]

A bridge too far.

I can''t fault the effort shown by the boys tonight but we seldom looked like scoring goals at any period of the match. The lucky underpants failed to work their magic but in truth this season was not lost tonight but was lost in the stupid points chucked away in the early part of the season. I suppose some will say we still have a chance but in my opinion it''s going to require a miracle on a par with the raising of Lazarus.

I thought Reading looked a decent side, strong at the back and fast skillful forwards who always had us at full stretch. The Doc and Shaks were again outstanding but you need a creative midfield if you are going to make chances and thats something we have lacked all season. The second goal was a killer and I put that down to the keeper. He was not alive to the situation and the Doc had to put it out of play and you just knew we would pay for it when the cross came over. How the Doc didn''t win player of the season remains a mystery to me. Good luck to Crofty, I don''t fault him for effort but I saw two beatuiful crosses leading to goals tonight and thats more than I''ve seen from Croft all season.

The only plus point for me was the showing of young Cody McDonald, he will be a great asset next year. As for the rest of them, well I don''t know where we go from here.

I am now listening to Radio Norfolk and some people are saying its not all over. Believe me folks tonight its done and dusted.

[/quote]

We just weren''t good enough were we? How we ended up swapping a squad of talented footballers for a group of gambles I will never understand. The board are to blame for appointing Grant and Roeder. With hindsight what else could we expect?

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[quote user="ricardo"]

A bridge too far.

I can''t fault the effort shown by the boys tonight but we seldom looked like scoring goals at any period of the match. The lucky underpants failed to work their magic but in truth this season was not lost tonight but was lost in the stupid points chucked away in the early part of the season. I suppose some will say we still have a chance but in my opinion it''s going to require a miracle on a par with the raising of Lazarus.

I thought Reading looked a decent side, strong at the back and fast skillful forwards who always had us at full stretch. The Doc and Shaks were again outstanding but you need a creative midfield if you are going to make chances and thats something we have lacked all season. The second goal was a killer and I put that down to the keeper. He was not alive to the situation and the Doc had to put it out of play and you just knew we would pay for it when the cross came over. How the Doc didn''t win player of the season remains a mystery to me. Good luck to Crofty, I don''t fault him for effort but I saw two beatuiful crosses leading to goals tonight and thats more than I''ve seen from Croft all season.

The only plus point for me was the showing of young Cody McDonald, he will be a great asset next year. As for the rest of them, well I don''t know where we go from here.

I am now listening to Radio Norfolk and some people are saying its not all over. Believe me folks tonight its done and dusted.

[/quote]Insightfully as ever Ricardo. It''s been the tale of the last 4 years, just not damn good enough. And I feel we''ve got what we deserved. I don''t think there is a chance in hell of us staying up now and I feel sorry for all those fans that have to make such an unpleasant journey home tonight in the cold miserable weather.

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Thanks Ricardo, couldn''t get to the match due to work commitments.

Managed to watch Sky but not the same.

You could pick massive holes in our side, from Otsemobor allowing two crosses from the right, a hesitant, uncertain goalkeeper, two crabs in midfield.

No wingers the two attempting being played out of position. Cody, the 22year old novice was the one bright spark. Oh Shacks still looks good and Doc is as clumsy as ever.

50 years on without the same hope as last time. How long before Delia is going rounf with the blankett for cash. With Gunn helping her as that is the only job left for him!

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Thought our back 4 did well, couldn''t really fault any of them.

In midfield Clingan and Russell really put a shift in and played well, doubt anyone else on the pitch covered more ground than them.

But as well all know it was out wide where we lost it. Too often Semmy tried to carry the ball forward only to find that Carney wasn''t infront of him like he should have been. Carney did try to have a go at points but you never get the feeling with him that he''s really in it for the cause. Same with Alan Gow although he looks even less convincing. He can do a few neat things with the ball but in general it all seems like it''s just too much like hard work for him (David Bell Syndrome).

Upfront Alan Lee kept battling away but hardly got anywhere. Cody Mac worried them with his pace and threatened to open them up but no matter how many times Bikey or Dubs grabbed hold of him the ref didn''t really want to know.

Still, it''s not over yet and with David Mooney available for the last game we might be more likely to score a goal.

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woz it the delia style happy clappy cup final atmosphere that helped us to lose??? - i was amazed by the atmosphere tonight - the

crowd did their best to lift the boys - most noise for years in the

lower barclay where i sit (nearest the snakepit) - all the usual

deadnecks around me were giving it large from the word go...

but - did cheering on the boys in such fervent fashion actually hinder

the boys rather than help them???it seemed to me that we showed plenty

of effort - but maybe too much - we didn''t pace ourselves and went for

it 190% from the first whistle - looking like the original headless

chickens - by the 2nd half we were spent - and reading ---who always

looked like they were playing within themselves---were the better side

in the 2nd half...we hardly had a decent effort on goal...while they put together 2 quality moves to sink our battleship...ouch[:''(]and why or why play carney on the right and gow on the left - it didn''t work last time against sheff wed and it didn''t work tonight...[:@]

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How can Shaks be outstanding when he let Long go for both goals.  He turned his back on him on both occassions. 

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Once again, Ricardo has got it 100% spot on. Not a word out of turn.Even if we do somehow stay up now, which I 1000% doubt (sods law says even if we beat Charlton, Barnsley will get a point or more) then something still needs to be done. What a catastrophic season for this fantastic club.

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The only thing I would question about your report was the effort.  The biggest game the clubs has faced in decades and at times all of clingan, rusty, carney, gow otsemebor & marshall we guilty of ball watching and going through the motions.

Doc and shacks were excellent,  and I thought Bertie had a good committed game too.   Lee was simply comfortably managed by a very strong centre back pair for reading yet our management team failed to see that  we were not getting anything from the long ball game.   The only time we looked dangerous was when cody or gow had the ball at their feet and ran at their central defenders - who if all else failed simply brought them down,  but at least it called them into drastic action.  Sadly our central midfield was not good enough to get the ball to these to players enough.  Ots failed to close down or challenge quickly enough for either goal and exposed our second biggest weakness of the season,  poor defending from full backs,  particularly Ots.  It was far from his worst game of the season,  but he simply was not up to the task.  As for criticising Shacks for the goals,  well I cant see that and for the second he clearly was already injured and could not jump;  a slow tactical change. 

Its impossible to criticise Lee or macdonald or suffered through appalling service and the game was lost in midfield.  

Gunn should have thrown caution to the wind and brought Jamie on - it really was well past $h!t or bust and changed to 4-3-3 or 3-4-3 or 4-2-4 or something - and with Rusty and clingan having no impact in an efective reading central midfield we woudl have lost nothing.

I agree that Cody shows great promise but today his inexperience against Bikey and Duberry showed - He should have been brought on after 60-65 mins as that pair were tiring with his fresh pair of legs.

Lack of midfield options and woeful quality in that area of the pitch finally did for us - as it has all season.

And spot on about POTS Ricardo - Doc was excellent again today.

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If some of the more experienced players showed the same commitment as McDonald, Shackell, Doherty and Bertrand  did tonight then we might have stood a chance.  Russell might as well have not been on the pitch,  Otsemebor just seems to switch off for long periods,  Gow needs to learn how to pass to other players instead of trying to take on the whole defence, Carney looked lost on the right, Clingan played well but lacked any real help in midfield, Lee needs to stop complaining all the time and get on with playing.

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