Reading 3 - West Bromwich Albion 1

Date:	Saturday 20th February 2016
Competition:	FA Cup (R5)
Reading: 6.8
WBA: 3.2	(4-4-2) Foster 4.7, Chester 3.9, Evans 4.6, Olsson 3.7, Brunt 4.4, Sessegnon 5.1, Fletcher 4.8, Sandro 3.1 (Pritchard, 82 4.8), McClean 3.9 (Anichebe, 75 2.3), Berahino 3.7, Rondón 3.3 Unused subs: Myhill, Yacob, Gardner, Pocognoli, Lambert Manager: Tony Pulis 2.9
Scorers:	Fletcher (54)
Referee:	Anthony Taylor (Cheshire) 5.7
Attendance:	19,566   Home Fans 5.7   Away Fans 4.8

Summary:

Having squeezed through rounds 3 and 4 of the FA Cup, Albion crashed out in round five thanks to a Reading side a full division below them who were simply too good. Despite taking the lead through Darren Fletcher, an Albion old boy levelled the scores five minutes later - though not one of those you might have expected like Simon Cox or Matej Vydra, but defender Paul McShane who is now their captain.

The Albion defence that had performed heroics at Everton the previous week was made to look second best as Reading scored two more goals to grab a quarter final spot that belied their League form.

Albion losing Cup games to lower opposition is so little of a story nowadays that it was left to a small section of the away supports to make sure they still made the headlines. Coming over to give his shirt to a young girl in the stands, Chris Brunt was struck just under the eye by a coin and had to be ushered away by police and stewards. A shambolic day out in every respect.

Philip Cole (RSABaggie):

I'm not going to give a full match report as I'm too disgusted with that showing. After marginal wins against Bristol City and Peterborough - for crying out loud - we didn't strike it three times lucky against Reading. To be honest I expected this to happen but I didn't expect it to be as bad as this. To sit back against a middling Championship side is not good enough and, as has happened so many times this season, we made a poor side look good and Reading deserved their win.

There really is no future in this ultra-defensive, turgid, percentage based football that Tony Pulis produces - just a continual escape from relegation each season until the one where our luck runs out. If Jeremy Peace has any ambition for our club he really must get in a decent coach this summer - my vote is for David Moyes.

Steve Fereday:

Feel sorry for the 4000 who went. A great pity that Brunt's block tackle on himself was at the opposite end away from the Albion fans, as had they seen it close up, it would have made up for some of the misery. A lovely swing wi his left foot, trapped the ball onto his right and almost knocked him off his feet and it squirted out for a throw. I was weein meself and said to my son that all that was missing was his trademark scarecrow arm flap and appeal to the ref for it to be his throw... Stunning. Much like when I throw the cardboard bit of a loo roll to my cat Percy and he grabs it with his front paws and scratches it with his back legs.

Chelsea, Man City, Spurs and Everton can all rest easy tonite that the threat of getting Albion in the next round has gone away.

Pulis take a bow.

Kev Buckley:

I watched this one on ESPN and, as I'm led to believe that the E in ESPN stands for Entertainment, I guess they'll be relieved that they'll not have to Program us on their Network again in their coverage of this year's competition - but on to what I saw.

Not many sides play three Cup Finals in a season, let alone in one competition, but the luck of draw saw Albion's experienced, yet slightly depleted squad, forced to take part in yet a third match against a lower league opposition who will, surely, have treated their fixture against a top flight club, with such a renowned manager, as their own "Cup Final'.

True to his word, the manager treated the Cup seriously, in choosing to deploy the 8m-pound Cup specialist centre-back he'd acquired, albeit at full-back, as well as sacrificing the safety of having Gardner in front of him, for the less than safe Sessengnon. Serious or what?

Reading, with four ex-Albion players, Robson Kanu, McShane and Cox, in the starting line up, plus Matej Vydra on the bench, and Stephen Reid in the dug-out, were certainly the faster out of the blocks, dispossessing Sandro, who was probably surprised by the intensity of the occasion and who never really looked as though he came to terms with it, within the first ten seconds, after the top flight side had elected to take possession of the ball via the kick-off, but not to worry. Under Pulis, Albion are no longer a side who worry about conceding possession and they had no trouble retreating quickly into their usual starting positions and waiting for the opposition to make a mistake.

On 11 minutes we had the obligatory "Chris Brunt, we know, can hit them" as he lined up a free-kick twenty yards out and in a central position, however the "curse of commentator" struck yet again and the ball sailed over the bar.

On 20 mins Billy Big Knobs was gifted the ball just inside our half but as he tried to play in the one Albion player ahead of him, he returned the careless give-away favour by sending the ball in the opposite direction to which that one red-shirted player had made his run.

On 23 mins, Sandro's "clearence" from the right-back area went straight up in the air and ended with McShane shooting just wide.

As the half wore on, the commentary team also mentioned the lack of any five-minute period when one side could be said to be on top but more worryingly for me, Efan Okoku, who said that he played under Pulis 25 years ago, seemed to know exactly where our corners were going to go, although our players waiting in the box clearly didn't.

Okoku went on to suggest that Pulis is a good coach when it comes to defining what players do in defence and in midfield but, when it comes to play "in the final third, he let's people get on with it".

So that's who we brought in then: a manager with 25 years experience of letting his attackers "get on with it", which presumably is why, on 20 minutes, Billy Big Knobs had no idea which way Rondon was going to run. Still, at least Pulis has made us a threat from set pieces and solid at the back.

On 43 mins Rondon seemed to want to play a one-two with Billy Big Knobs inside the area but, not only had the latter strayed offside, but Rondon's pass, over three yards, didn't find it's intended anyway and rolled through to the keeper, albeit then registering as a "shot on target". On such small victories are reputations forged I guess.

If you had to look for positives at half time, other than the clean sheet of course, it'd be Sessengon's constant probing that rarely came to much because of a lack of options ahead of him and, the 11-minute free-kick aside, Brunt's crossing - a couple of good ones early on - and his corner kick deliveries.

The opening goal seemed to come out of nothing. Albion's players were still hanging around upfield after a Sessengon free-kick cross had been cleared into our half, five minutes or so into the second half, and, as first Sessengon and then Rondon moved the ball forwards, the latter pulled it back for Fletcher, who, completely unchallenged, took a touch inside the box, then took another and fired back across the keeper into the net.

The Pulis Plan had been played out perfectly and all we had to do now was do what Pulis has made us really good at - holding on to what we have: so game over, surely?

On 58 minutes the game changed. Ex-Albion player Cox went off to be replaced by ex-Albion player Vydra whilst Reading lined up a free-kick wide out on the left and, whilst that change didn't play a part, of itself, in the goal, it was yet another ex-Albion man, McShane, who made a mockery of our defensive prowess as he got onto the end of a delivery that our defenders were watching for all of the 25 to 30 yards of its flight. Oh the irony of it all.

On 70 minutes our centre-backs were found wanting again. Chester made another centre-back's challenge in the right-back region, as a much nimbler player ran at him and, from the resulting free-kick, a similar delivery to the leveller, travelling a few yards less than its predecessor, made a mockery of Olsson as he got caught under the flight of the ball and another Reading defender stole in behind him to head home.

Our manger's response, no doubt honed over his 25 years of letting his forward players get on with it, was to throw on another forward player whilst taking off McClean who, along with Sessengon, had seemed the most likely player to be able to create anything for the front two, whilst also having a couple of attempts himself.

Seemed an odd choice but presumably, with three forwards now on, all the rest of them would be told to do was lump it forwards and let the trio get on with it?

If McLean could feel a bit miffed at being replaced then it was equally hard to tell what Sandro had done wrong when he was replaced by Pritchard, although it was just as hard to tell what, if anything, Sandro had done right when he was replaced, because he seemed to have done so little.

Within the 84th minute came the two chances that might have seen us drag our sorry Cup story into yet another sorry performance in a sorry replay, as first, Billy Big Knobs, three yards out and central, managed to direct a header parallel to the goal line rather than towards it and then Fletcher, whose flick-on had given our top striker the chance to fluff his one big moment, arrived onto a great ball played back in, by Pritchard, following the clearance, but, with just the keeper to beat from six yards, the captain could only add to the shots on target column as his weak effort went straight into the keeper's arms.

The final nail in the coffin, sadly that of our Cup campaign and not our manager's, came after Pulis, using all of his 25 years of experience, decided that he probably did have more idea of what a defender would do up front than a striker, and so chose to ask Olsson to put himself about for a bit rather than use the skills that Lambert brought to the club.

With our most experienced centre-back now suffering the same fate as most of his colleagues have, in being played out of position (I believe that this leaves McAuley as the only one who's not been played "elsewhere"), Albion's remaining defenders first found themselves facing a quick break out, at the end of which Robson-Kanu failed to deliver the coup de grace, and then, with the ESPN commentary team expecting Vydra to fall back on his time at the Albion and hold the ball in the corner, he instead chose to exploit the absence of Olsson and make the most of a four-on-three counter attack and presented the just-on Piazon with a clear shot at goal from the edge of the six-yard box.

As I said at the start: probably just one "Cup Final" too many for the Albion really but at least we can say we won two of them after replays, and that's surely a record someone who takes the competition as seriously as our current manager tells anyone who will listen he does, to be proud of. Job done then.

PS: As someone who's often not seen what all the fuss is about with him, especially since he stopped being our first choice left winger, I'd like to go on record as saying how much admiration I have for Chris Brunt, after he chose to carry on and give his shirt to the kid in the crowd after some pond life in his own fan's end from that same crowd had thrown a coin at him.

BilneyBoinger:

Some context needs to be drawn.

No one expected Saido to be completely useless this season and surely some credit should be given for us being on 32 points with so few goals going in. We are still a smell club and we can not take Premier league status for granted. Pulis is a negative manager, yes, but with options limited, he makes the most of what we have. Loss of Morrison is critical. Both Rondon and Saido would not be in the team if there was an option. Sick Vic is not an option. Both are playing like the ball will not stick at their feet. Hence, when we do get the ball, it comes back. Marc Antoine Fortune would never have released the balls they are bouncing back to opponent defence or midfield. So we have been badly hit by freedom that players have in the game. That other clubs can come in and tempt them. Hence the big clubs are always the ones favoured. In Pulis we will build a better from a sound back line. Imagine if we had managed to get Matt Philips?

Saturday we conceded two very un-Albion goals with free kicks conceded by our reserve "centre back". On most days, neither would have gone in. If it was a league match, I expect they would not have gone in. At this rate the "fans" will drive Pulis out of the club, be careful what you wish for. Look at Palace. No more points than we have and only a few weeks ago everyone was calling for their manager to be given a knighthood. One league win this year. Every team has ups and downs. All we need is two or three better in possession, such as a forward like Andy Hunt or Jason Roberts (post West Brom era!) and we could be flying. Hold the ball and feed McClean or Sess for another approach. At the moment this never happens and they never get to run past the full back. Get Saido out of the team and put in Pritchard! At the moment they are trying to save their £25M promise for dear life!