Tonight's thoughts/ratings
#1
Ratings first
Johnstone 6. Might have made more effort for their goal, possibly unsighted again. Two good stops. OK overall.
Furlong 7. Good running and support of Phillips, especially in our good attacking spells at the beginning of first half and second half of the second half. 
Gibbs. 7. See Furlong. Defended solidly too. 
Bartley. 6. struggled at times, but ok overall. 
Ajayi. 7. Thought he was solid tonight. 
Krov 6. Not his best game, but always wanted the ball. Great attitude. And won the pen. 
Livermore. 6. fairly solid, if unspectacular.
Sawyers 6. Poorest game by far, but still did well in the last 20 minutes when probing. 
Diangana 6. Started well, faded, then had a good spell before he was hooked. 
Austin. 6. Not match fit, but still getting in the right spaces. forced one good save. 
Phillips 7. Good outlet throughout and linked up well with Furlong. A threat. 

Subs Zohore 8. A handful, and could have had a couple of goals. Unlucky when his shocked was well blocked. Great, calm pen too, when under pressure and faced with their keeper's clowning antics. 
Pereira  8. Great touches and movement. Always wanting the ball, and caused a lot of problems for Reading with his intricate movements.
Edwards 7. great cameo and again, like the other two subs, gave us something different when we needed it. 

Well, I'm disappointed not for us to have won. Another draw at home doesn't look great, but this was an improvement on Millwall. I thought we really tested Reading in the second half, and they scored against the run of play, but we really upped the gears and could have won on another night. Reading were better than last season by a mile, and will do fairly well this season. Top half team, for me. 

As for us, we will get it right over time. This football is better than last season's. It has more longevity than when you play a more direct, attritional game, as you can improve it by making tweaks. We looked a threat with Zohore on and when we were a little more direct and we got behind Reading as well as through them , as we did for the pen. I think we can improve the chances and goals scored, as these new players, will gel as time goes on. We look a better unit and are compact. I'm certain the goals will come, we all need to be patient. And we are unbeaten with 2 points per game. I'd like to see a clean sheet though - hopefully starting on Saturday.
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#2
GOOD POST RICH
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#3
Hard to disagree with that, frustrating we can't seem to figure out how to grind out a 1-0 like Leeds did. I worry for us at the top end of the table until we can master that.
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#4
I may have seen things differently to others, but for me the first 'penalty' when Furlong went down, 1. he went down far too easily (as seemed to happen with all of our players last night, and it really annoyed me!) 2. minimal contact 3.outside the box... Of course, it could have been my seat angle (low down in the SME corner), but for me it didn't look like a pen.

I thought Reading deserve a lot of credit for stifling our usual play, they looked solid defensively and we're (on here) always quick to blame our team rather than say the opposition played well. They seemed to rattle Sawyers, and he had an unusually below par game, and with him affected everyone was affected, will we be so easily nullified if the opposition just crowd and hassle Sawyers? Hopefully it was just a dodgy game for him.

Same criticism as every match so far, we have no teeth. How long was it before we made their keeper need to make a save? 20 shots with only 4 on target is a big concern. We cannot rely on luck and ref decisions to save us every game. Austin looked pretty poor to me, rarely in a good position, knackered and off the pace. As with every game, great play all the way up to where it really matters, then we have no player who seems able to hit the target... I said to my mate, we're a team of midfielders.


Pros:

Furlong looked pretty tricksy in spells, maybe not as sound as Ferguson looked at the back though. Linked up well with Phillips at times which seemed to spur Phillips on, as at Forest with Ferguson, but then not against Millwall... Time will tell if (both pairs) can keep it up.

Krov, I love him. Could do with a little earlier release though, but he's the kind of player we've been missing I think.

SJ - stupidly, I'd just said he's looking a lot better tonight, then he ends up rooted to his spot. I've seen no replays, and again from my seat it didn't look that an amazing of a shot...Reports are suggesting it was a belter though, so maybe I'm being too harsh on SJ again.
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