Pre-season friendlies 2014

[JakeTheRoyal]

Federici, McCarthy, Gunter, Kelly, Cummings, Obita, Pearce, Morrison, Hector, Akpan, Taylor,Edwards, Blackman, Pogrebynak; Robson-Kanu. That's all we've got

[Sutekh]

Guthrie might be involved for the Stevenage game.

[Lower West]

Bout time we had Swindon away, again, for a pre-season friendly.

If you think Reading have problems. Then Swindons are even worse. Wage bill is to be capped at 1.2 million for whole squad this season. So not worth the bother.

[blueroyals]

Did the Boreham Wood friendly get cancelled or something?

[Elmer Park]

Did the Boreham Wood friendly get cancelled or something?

It definitely went ahead and I think it was 0-0 but neither club bothered to report anything on Twitter. Pierce Sweeney did tweet that he played an hour and was looking forward to Wycombe so I assume he will be on the bench.

[marlowuk]

Did the Boreham Wood friendly get cancelled or something?

No - it went ahead. Since when have Reading and Borehamwood been linked? I've lived in Borehamwood for 19 years 11 months and 10 days and never knew we are linked. I'm now moving in 3 weeks!!!

Anyway - I went to the game and saw no goals! We had the ball in the net twice, both times ruled out for offside. It was basically an U21 side v a pretty physical Borehamwood side. I've seen a fair number of U21 games but not enough to be familiar with all the players and the programme was useless as the names on the team sheets did not tally with those on the pitch.

For the first 30 mins play was rarely out of the Borehamwood half but few clear-cut chances were made. Borehamwood came into it more as the half closed. I was impressed with the team though. Kuhl ran the show and elicited some admiring comments from the locals around me. Fosu was causing them plenty of trouble down the right and they played it round the back with more confidence than Pearce and Co. We over-elaborated (I thought) when in or close to their box and Borehamwood were defending stoutly and in numbers.

Second half we started well again but midway through the half subbed 7 or 8 of our players, including Kuhl, and some of the cohesion we had showed went missing. BW also subbed around half their team but not all at once! Samuel played the full 90 minutes and showed some very nice touches but was too easily bullied off the ball by the big BW defenders. However, we still looked the more likely to score with Lincoln untroubled in our goal. Either he looks very confident with the ball at his feet or I've watched too much AM! We came closest to a goal when their keeper failed to stop a shot cleanly and it nearly went over the line but he made up for that with a fine save low to his left in the dying minutes.

Both NA and NH were in attendance but it was a small crowd - maybe 200-300?

[Royal Ginger]

Listening to the game on the Wycombe website, and the commentary is pretty decent.

[winchester_royal]

1-0 up at HT. Sounds like we've been pretty dominant.

[winchester_royal]

840 Reading fans there today

[windermere_royal]

1-0 up at HT. Sounds like we've been pretty dominant.

Who scored?

[Hendo]

The Pog

[Royal Ginger]

2nd half Blackman has hit the woodwork and Taylor has goal.

Wycombe commentators saying Edwards should be MOTM.

[shaka's shorts]

Good win against a poor Wycombe side. 2-0. Pog and Taylor scored. Edwards MoM.

Fed 7 nothing much to do, distributed well. One dodgy pass out but otherwise solid
Gunter 7 got forward, passed well, some decent crosses
Obita 6 left back first half, CM second half. Did ok. Crossed for Pogs goal
Morro and Pearce 6 each - easy day for both, looked solid

Akpan 7 - got better as game went on, more composed than usual
Hector 7 - excellent first half, always looking for the penetrating pass. Subbed at half time. Not sure if injured
Taylor 7 - creative and got into great positions. Took goal calmly but missed 4 other good chances

HRK 5 - I like him, but he was poor today
Edwards 8 - man of the match, very composed, skilful and loads of penetrating creative passes, created great chances for the strikers and good assist for 2nd goal

Pog 7 - took goal well with back post header, held it up and linked well with Edwards and Taylor. Seemed short of pace but nothing new there

Subs - Cummings 6 - left back on at half time, did ok, one lovely left footed first time cross
Blackman 7 - hit bar from 30 yards, made Wyc keeper make another top save, did more in 20 mins than HRK did in70


Team for last 15 mins
Fed
Long, Cooper, Sweeney, Cummings
Stacey, Tshibola, Kuhl, Griffin
Blackman, Tanner

Tanner played some great balls and dribbled well to create chances for others. Midfield looked very comfortable

[St. Brynjar]

Edwards awesome. Very unselfish, excellent creative play. Blackman also a positive, deserved a goal or two. Defence looks good.

[Norfolk Royal]

Very encouraging about Edwards. Could solve a few problems if he continues to improve.

[JakeTheRoyal]

Did Edwards play in the hole or ouy wide ?

[sandman]

Have always liked Edwards whenever I've seen him so hopefully he can keep going and take it into the season.

Some players just kick on out of nowhere. Look at his fellow countryman Bozanic, let go by us and now he's in the Aussie squad and looked quite impressive in his cameo at the WC.

[ZacNaloen]

Bozanic got Ill at the wrong time and basically ran out of time to prove himself. I'm not surprised he's turned out alright he always looked decent at the youth levels.

[Wycombe Royal]

Edwards and Taylor were the highlights for me today. Edwards looks an excellent prospect and is really playing well as an attacking midfielder. My only concern is that he is a bit lightweight and will struggle in more physical encounters, but in terms of work rate, skill, passing, movement, etc he is a joy to watch at times and is something that our midfield has been lacking for a while.

Also I would like to give Blackman some praise. His 45 minute performance was very good and was unlucky not to score on a couple of occasions.

All in all in was an enjoyable and definitely worth the ticket price.

[tidus_mi2]

I'm definitely interested to see how Edwards does this season, he always seemed like one of those players who was never going to be good enough so it's definitely a surprise to hear such high praise for him, especially since when it came to the youth players last season, no one was talking about him, it was all about players like Kuhl, Cooper, Tanner, Cardwell and Kelly.