I hate this game - back from Wembley

[PEARCEY]

...we will only remember this season now for an absolutely embarassing first 45 minutes today...

Speak for yourself.

I blame Nick Clegg.

[RoyalBlue]

So I now have footage of two halves at seperate Wembley Playoff finals that I can watch!

The first half of 95/95 and the second half of 10/11.

What's more both games have very clear and real 'if only' moments.

94/95 - if only Archie had buried that penalty or the second chance Micky Gooding gave him!
10/11 - if only Jem's shot had gone in instead of hitting the inside of the post or Hunt's follow up hadn't been blocked!

The other outcome to those 'if onlys' and I am convinced we would have been in the PL on both occasions.

[Dave the rave]

Dissapointed but expected to be.
Enjoyed the day bar 60 minutes of football and a group of 'lads' in the concourse at half time singing "Our support is fecking sh!t".
Seriously?
First time I've felt like shoeing a fellow fan.

Haven't seen replays and from up in 545 the ref seemed to be favouring Swansea whilst at the same time not allowing the game to flow.
Penalties looked like dives but will bow to more learned views and that of my cousin who is a Villa fan watching on TV.
His take on it was the first pen was nailed on and Kish was lucky to still be on the pitch. Noted that the ref was giving everything to Swansea. Griffin was nowhere near the ball and was a stupid challenge for the second pen. Fair enough.

We defended shockingly and attack was our only form of defence. Shame we only managed 20 minutes of it.
Too many easy takes for their keeper too.
Harte was too exposed. I've never seen someone show a winger inside so readily.
"I'm too slow for you old chap - in you go!"
Kebe was ok. Same with Mcanuff. Mills was the only defender to come out of that with any respect due.

Other points of note:

Good work from the staff inside and outside the ground. (bar/stewards etc).
Good banter with opposition supporters.
Good day out despite the result.
2nd visit to the new Wembley and it still has the wow factor. Probably having 40k fellow fans (the aforementioned excepted) helps.

Proud. Dissapointed but proud.

[loyalroyal4life]

Thought Rodgers was quite humble post match and i think the win proves he is a quality manager given the chance!

He may not be everyone's cup of tea but i for one have always said to keep him on would have been a risk but a worthwhile risk. Right Manager, Wrong time

Good luck to him in the Premiership.

Mcdermott for me though is a class manager in the way he carries himself, always mentions the fans and how much winning is for us and i think he has made the team work for each other really well.

Question is how many of the team will be willing to work for each other again but in the championship next season, looking at his post match interview he not only looked understandably dejected and hurt but sure he is wondering where to go from here in terms of preparing to be able to actually challenge for promotion next season!

In Mcdermott We Believe

[West Stand Man]

Football really is a funny old game when we have so many people saying that the first 45 was woeful/ dreadful / awful etc.

Yes, Swansea scored 3 goals but even they knew that they weren't that much better than us. For the first 20 mins or so we ran the game and they were looking worried. Even Robbie Savage commented that Leigertwood and Karacan had the midfield battle tied up and that Reading were totally in control; and then the wheels came off for a few bizarre minutes and we conceded 3 goals. That doesn't, however, make the first 45 woeful/ awful etc. It makes the outcome pretty dire - but that is not quite the same thing.

ps, to the Ipswich fans who commented that Leigertwood didn't look up to much I refer you to the above. Neutral and knowledgable pundits disagree.

[skipper]

Thought Rodgers was quite humble post match and i think the win proves he is a quality manager given the chance!

Yeah his "Reading weren't ready for a passing, attacking style of football" sound-bite was ever so humbling!

He is a good manager, with the right environment. He didn't work out here. His is still a sound-bite loving, modern glitzy club style manager.

That, or he pushed my buttons

[Norfolk Royal]

Swansea were already playing the passing game when he went there courtesy of Martinez though.

[holsgrove breaks a leg]

Not even had the motivation to look at the 'highlights' from yesterdays game, but our failure to gain promotion through the playoffs continues owing to a series of irrating mistakes/misplaced passes that led to swansea punishing us in the most severe fashion. I wonder whether Reading will ever rise to the big occaision, even the game against Brentford to win promotion we could only draw. I have absolutely no qualms about where we finished in the league and ultimately it was an impressive season for Mcdermott, but it appears that we can only ever involve ourselves in a 'classic' playoff final for the wrong reasons. As mentioned earlier the individual errors cost us, with Khiz,Kebe, Harte and Griff all error prone in the run up to the goals. What Reading do have is a big heart and fair play to them in the 2nd half, Mcdermott clearly worked some magic there and Rodgers was clearly panicking at 3-2.

Ultimately though we were the masters of our own downfall and failed to really test the clumbersome Tate and Monk before we pressed the self destruct button. Dyer gave Harte a predictable run around and i think that a younger left back is required though i still think Harte is ok in the champ in some games. I still think Griff has what it takes to perform in the championship next year irrespect of his performance. Khiz gave undoubtedly his worst performance in a Reading shirt and clearly wobbled after the 1st pen. I am a big fan of his but i do wonder if there is a future for him here with his prem wages and no real announcement re any deal. I guess that we'll probably see the last of feds,Kebe and Long now though Mcarthy is a worthy replacment. Id like to see us try and keep one of Kebe/Long for a season more but as Longs contract is up next year and Kebe bound to have his head turned by his agent i cant see it. Its important to keep Mills otherwise our central defence is looking inexperienced. Good to see Rodgers keeping up his mantra by claiming that our two goals were basically part of the plan to kick his team on, he really cant resist it can he!. Cant stand the man but i think its time to just forget and to be honest i think Swansea will struggle defensivly next season. Will be interesting to see the level at which Reading goes in replacing departing players, we clearly need to find players with goals in them if Kebe and Long depart. Heres to the fixture list in 3 weeks, see you in August away to Cov.

[holsgrove breaks a leg]

I don't feel as bad as after '95 or '01. In '95 we blew the chance to be 3-0 up and it looked like we would never go up after we lost. In '01 we were the 'bigger' club and were coasting towards victory before the Rouge moment.......

Anyway today was a weird day. Our game plan depended on us not going behind early on. Kish's chest on Borini was silly, he had no need to get involved like that. this seemed to rattle him. The same thing had happened to Griffin a few mins earlier with that sliding challenge. Then all of a sudden we were 2-0 down, then 3-0. At half time I feared a pasting. I joked about us doing an 'Istanbul'.........and we were the width of the post away from it. We were superb for 20 mins of the second half. Everything changed again when Pratley came on. He calmed the Swans down and shored up their midfield. Brian didn't seem to do anything about this change. They began to take full control again and despite a few corners we failed to create much in the final 15 mins. Part of that was obviously because we went 4-2 down! Despite our comeback, unlike the previous two finals, once Swansea went 1-0 up I felt we just wouldn't be able to come from behind. Maybe this is why I don't feel so upset. Cardiff '01 remains the worst feeling ever!!

Our fans were magnificent today. We sung much more than the Swansea fans did in that first 20 mins after half time and it felt like we were in the lead. I was also really pleased with the amount of people who hung around to clap the team off. There were many of us singing in the train queue too!! I admit it didn't last long, but it was nice to hear. We overachieved this year......next year I think we should be there or there abouts IF we keep most of this squad together. If we lose more than 2 or 3....we'll be mid to lower table and could even be fighting the drop!!

agree

[URZZ]

I wasn't there at Bolton, but I can imagine for those who were, it's easily the worst of the 3. To have a potential 3-0 lead, I don't even wanna imagine how you all felt at FT.

Walsall however didn't hurt as much as yesterday, despite us actually being the bigger team in '01, more fans on the day and having a generally better game. We were outplayed yesterday for 45 minutes, and the 3rd goal especially well and truly dented us. I knew it was over when the 3rd went in, it's very rare you come back.

I can't even explain what hurts specifically, I wasn't suggesting being outplayed hurt me, but losing the game in general. I really was full of hope yesterday before KO, despite knowing Swansea are a pretty passing, pacey team. I genuinely thought we were gonna do it.

Football; it's the hope that gets you, not the disappointment.

[Ian Royal]

Was genuinely thinking you can't write off a BMcD team and we've still got a great chance up until they got their third goal, which I thought was against the run of play. We still came really close doing better than I thought after the third went in, but 3 goals to overturn in 45 minutes was always going to be a bit too much.

We so nearly did it, but just couldn't quite make it.

[Franchise FC]

And fwiw I thought the fans of both clubs were fantastic, incredible sound coming from both ends, both from Reading when we were behind, and Swansea as they willed their team on when we threatened to come back. The acoustics in Wembley are fantastic - didn't noticed the noise so much being in it when Reading scored, but for each Swansea goal it was the stadium was exploding.

Don't agree - when we got the two goals the Swansea fans went very, very quiet. And that's from one of their own who admitted that they'd been petrified of being on the end of an Istanbul.

It was only when they scored the 4th that they woke up again.

[Ian Royal]

And fwiw I thought the fans of both clubs were fantastic, incredible sound coming from both ends, both from Reading when we were behind, and Swansea as they willed their team on when we threatened to come back. The acoustics in Wembley are fantastic - didn't noticed the noise so much being in it when Reading scored, but for each Swansea goal it was the stadium was exploding.

Don't agree - when we got the two goals the Swansea fans went very, very quiet. And that's from one of their own who admitted that they'd been petrified of being on the end of an Istanbul.

It was only when they scored the 4th that they woke up again.

I thought they were near silent for the second half pretty much until they got number 4. They looked to be shitting it to me before our second went in.

I'm not surprised seeing as we'd come back to at least 3-3 at least twice in the season already

[Franchise FC]

And fwiw I thought the fans of both clubs were fantastic, incredible sound coming from both ends, both from Reading when we were behind, and Swansea as they willed their team on when we threatened to come back. The acoustics in Wembley are fantastic - didn't noticed the noise so much being in it when Reading scored, but for each Swansea goal it was the stadium was exploding.

Don't agree - when we got the two goals the Swansea fans went very, very quiet. And that's from one of their own who admitted that they'd been petrified of being on the end of an Istanbul.

It was only when they scored the 4th that they woke up again.

I thought they were near silent for the second half pretty much until they got number 4. They looked to be shitting it to me before our second went in.

The email I've had from a number of Swansea fans today says exactly that. They were full of praise for our 'near' comeback and were genuinely concerned that they were going to throw it away.

[loyalroyal4life]

Thought Rodgers was quite humble post match and i think the win proves he is a quality manager given the chance!

Yeah his "Reading weren't ready for a passing, attacking style of football" sound-bite was ever so humbling!

He is a good manager, with the right environment. He didn't work out here. His is still a sound-bite loving, modern glitzy club style manager.

That, or he pushed my buttons

Oh i didnt hear him say that, i take it back

[Ian Royal]

He's right though. His problem is he only realised it six weeks after he was sacked.

[Para Handy]

Haven't seen replays and from up in 545 the ref seemed to be favouring Swansea whilst at the same time not allowing the game to flow.

Good work from the staff inside and outside the ground. (bar/stewards etc).
Good banter with opposition supporters.

I guess if you were up in 545 you saw the Swansea fans in what I think was 544? I wouldn't call that good banter or good work from the stewards. I think that the old bint wearing a sort of cowboy hat who was dancing around giving it out to the Reading fans after they scored and the shirtless fecker in the row below eventually got moved out with several others. Took a while though.

[RobRoyal]

:| He's right though. His problem is he only realised it six weeks after he was sacked.

Reading under McDermott have played attacking football with tactical discipline. He might prefer the possession-based game he tried to instill with us, but it doesn't make his style innately superior. What he said was akin to "Reading just didn't have the quality for my game plan". Well, managers worth their salt can adapt their blueprint to get results. It's risible to imply that you're blameless if you can't be bothered, or consider it beneath you, or whatever bollocks is going on in that head.

[Royal Rother]

He'd already started to change tack / style before he got the shove.

[Dave the rave]

Haven't seen replays and from up in 545 the ref seemed to be favouring Swansea whilst at the same time not allowing the game to flow.

Good work from the staff inside and outside the ground. (bar/stewards etc).
Good banter with opposition supporters.

I guess if you were up in 545 you saw the Swansea fans in what I think was 544? I wouldn't call that good banter or good work from the stewards. I think that the old bint wearing a sort of cowboy hat who was dancing around giving it out to the Reading fans after they scored and the shirtless fecker in the row below eventually got moved out with several others. Took a while though.

Didn't see 'em. 544 would have been further right into the Reading section but possible they could have got tickets in our end.
Anyhow, I would expect that sort of behaviour from some more vociferous fans. It's part and parcel isn't it?
I meant banter outside the ground tbf.
Still, everyone has a slightly different view of proceedings. Unfortunately we all can be sure of the final result.