Reading 3 - West Bromwich Albion 2

Summary:

Three goals for Reading in the last ten minutes of the game snatched defeat from the jaws of victory for Albion and denied them a top six place in the Premiership. Jonas Olsson and Jerome Thomas were recalled to the side along with Graham Dorrans while George Thorne retained his place alongside Chris Brunt in the defensive section of midfield and injury to Shane Long meant that Romelu Lukaku started alone up front.

It was all going well - Albion dominated the play, with Lukaku scoring once in each half and also hitting the post and the bar, but with eleven minutes of full time left to play Steve Clarke decided to bring on Markus Rosenberg for Dorrans.

Within two minutes, Reading had pulled one goal back through Jimmy Kebe. Jonas Olsson handled the ball inside the area five minutes later to allow Adam Le Fondre to level the scores from the penalty spot and in the first minute of added time, a free kick was flicked on for Pavel Pogrebnyak to slot home past Ben Foster.

"Disappointing" barely sums it up.

oshawabaggie:

In a word SHOCKING - as in 'surprise' and as in 'awful'. Coasting to a win and we take off Dorrans who played Ok, if not great, and put on a guy who doesn't have defensive bone in his body. But the worst thing about the substitution was the message it sent. 'We've got this one won lads'. Well, guess what.....

We played solidly for 80 minutes and should have been four or five up, and then defended like clowns for 10 minutes. After all the late game collapses this season you would think we would have learned how to hold on to a lead - against Reading for christs sake. Morrison and Lukaku deserved better than this.

Like the rest of you, I'm stunned and pissed off.

Baggyjon:

Okay. The last four years have been great. I hope that we have not peaked but I suspect as a club we have reached the limit of our ambition. As i have said before the clubs structure, sound but limited financial base and relative small attendance capacity in the Premier league does not allow our progress above the top 10.

That in itself is a fantastic achievment for a club our size but, and it is a big but, why do we continually shoot ourselves in the foot? Can someone please explain why at 2-0 up with 8 minutes to play we take off a midfielder and replace him with probably the most inefective signing since De Freitas. I have to say a catastrophic decision by Clarke. Remember it was at Reading that again we were 2-0 up in a cup tie and lost to a Leroy Lita hat trick.

This isn't the first puzzling sub by Clarke.

Why are we missing Long at his former club. With such an important game surely a player as important as that should be put in cotton wool. Especially with Jakob, Mulumbu out and Injuries to Olsson and Popov.

We have probaly enough points to retain our Prem. status this sesaon but I cannot see the proposed riches from next years Prem. being invested to any great extent by Mr Peace.

Enjoy it while it lasts.

Paul Gainham:

Days like this are why beer was invented.

I am literally lost for words. Cruising against a poor reading side and then switch off. Clarkes substitution played a part but was equally matched in its stupidity by a defence who suddenly thought the game was over :-(

In the midst of our annoyance and anger, what should not be overlooked today was how well both Morrison and Lukaku played. They literally tore the reading defence apart and with Lukaku hitting both the post and bar, on another day we could have easily been 4-0 up.

Just have to put this down as an awful day at the office and look to put it right against QPR and Villa.

Steve Fereday:

Just back. Quite unbelievable. Lukaku scored 2, hit the woodwork with 2, but worse, had opportunities to lay off at least 3 for tap in's. It really could have been 5 before he scored his second.

As for Olsson's 'challenge' for the pen - it was nothing short of ridiculous as from 110 yards away I could see him charging in. He should be fined 2 weeks wages for that as he cost us the game. Completely unnecessary.

As for Dorrans, it is so sad to see him like this. I remember that kid when he first came to us and he wanted the ball all the time. He is a shadow of that player.

I have said it many times - get that kid Allen back from Pompey. Throw him in. He has so much talent. He can change us so much with something called confidence. Who did we see who had that today?

At 2 nil up against a team like Reading we should be putting the game to bed. Ridgewell had a nightmare. Popov in.

Lets get some runners. Allen in, El Ghanassy in, anyone who can run with it - in.

We lost against Fulham who were complete rubbish, today Reading who were complete rubbish. ALBION you need to turn up next Sat at 5.30 to demolish another team who are complete rubbish. Do it.

Rant over.

Brendan Clegg:

Just a couple of opinions...

Rosenberg has been a huge disappointment this season but i Cant see how he is getting the blame for this, or Steve Clarke to be honest.

Sometimes in football things conspire against you, normally through your own errors, and these things happen.

Rather than blaming a forward shouldnt we be berating a defence that was pretty good for 81 minutes and then collapsed?

The first goal should have been blocked as a cross, then Either centre back should have put their head on it. Even after that Ridgewell should have tracked his man rather than standing still. There was still some fortune in that the slightest touch from the attacker who tried to head it before Kebe bundled it home.

For the second, what the Hell was Olsson doing? I'm pretty sure i saw two penalties, one for the clumsy tackle and then handball when he missed the ball with his foot.

Against Fulham it was Jones, McAuley and Foster who completely knocked the stuffing out of us right after we equalised and then looked like scoring with every attack.

And yet these players are immense for huge portions of games.

Final point I'd like to make...

Lukaku is coming along nicely and showing huge improvement BUT against Fulham and Reading he's had about 10 really good opportunities to score and only put 3 away.

An extra goal in either game and we'd probably have 6 points more by now, especially given the timing of the chances. There are plenty of other games this year where he has missed many chances and it has cost us. (eg Newcastle away).

This is why we have him at the moment. If he gets his conversion rate even up to 50 percent he'll be a monster. We still might benefit from that. But we do foresake a lot in experience, ball retention, doing the right things at the right time when he plays.

Would Long or Odemwingie have finished all of these chances better? Probably. Would they have got into those positions in the first place? Not so sure.

I thought George Thorne hit a level of perfromance yesterday that I didnt think he had in him, a pleasant surprise.

I was delighted to see Thomas back and I thought has intelligence, ability to hold and carry the ball and movement created loads of space for Morrison and was far more effective than Brunt, Zolly, Dorrans, Rosenberg or Fortune have been in that position. I cant believe we can entertain letting him go now or in the summer. Finding any player as good or better to replace him on our budget is a massive gamble.

We were a bit like this last year then we went and stuffed the Wolves. Might be worth a cheeky few quid on us doing the same to Villa and Lambert going next week. I dont think we are too far away from giving someone a real hiding.

Lamp Baggie:

Since we were played off the park by Swansea we have struggled - we have managed two scrappy wins in 10 & no doubt will finish around mid-table.

What an embarrassing collapse against arguably one of the poorest teams to have played at the top level - what happened game won, on cruise control & no Mulumbu running himself into the ground - these blokes are professionals on huge money... shocking

SC win lose or draw he doesn't change - fair enough a typical dour Scot that the premiership loves & we are punching above our weight - but he can be depressing for feck sake cheer up & enjoy the ride

This is a poor premiership & we have now probably missed our opportunity for an exceptional season maybe expectations are too high but we can always hope... can't we?

A few thoughts at the moment

• Foster - doesn't look right - came back too early?
• Jacob - boy do we miss him
• Brunt - never a holding midfield player in million years
• Morrison - in right position behind striker a top player
• Rosenberg - poor chap completely out of his depth he has added absolutely nothing to the team in fact makes us weaker
• Thorne - lets hope he continues to make an impact
• Lukaka - agree strike rate not good enough but is a real handful - does SC play him at the expense of our main man Shane why he's not our player
• Chris Wood - not even given a chance & shipped out on the cheap scoring goals for fun
• Jones - great going forward & defensively better but still room for improvement

Next two games we'll probably define the rest of the season - can we rise to the challenge & get back on track or roll-over & slip back into the mire?

Plenty of questions... over to you SC