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GAMEDAY – Reading Away
Blues travel south to take on Brian McDermott’s Reading knowing that a playoff place is all but mathematically gone. Following two consecutive 2-1 defeats Gary Rowett may experiment somewhat with his line up with one eye on the future.
Reading
The Royals lie four places and seven points behind Blues and come into the game on the back of two wins against Nottingham Forest and Bolton. Although they did lose to Crystal Palace at the Madejski Stadium last month in the FA Cup they haven’t lost a league home game in 2016 with their last reverse being against Brentford on December 28.
McDermott is hoping Deniss Rakels and Garath McCleary are fit for the game but Welsh winger Hal Robson-Kanu is still out injured.
Blues
Blues have a clean bill of health barring Neal Eardley who remains sidelined for this campaign and as such may experiment with their line up. One of those in line to come back into the squad is Viv Solomon-Otabor while Charlee Adams was a noticeable absentee from the u21 squad that played against Millwall on Thursday. Kyle Lafferty may well continue in the strikers role in place of Clayton Donaldson.
Ref
Nigel Miller takes charge of this game, his 28th of the season. In his preceding 27 games he’s shown 66 yellows and 3 reds. His last Blues game was also against Reading – the 6-1 win in December 2014 which featured Demarai Gray scoring a hat-trick. That game saw two cautions but both were for the away team.
Suspension Watch
One red card (three match suspension served): James Vaughan
9 Yellow Cards: Maikel Kieftenbeld
8 Yellow Cards: Stephen Gleeson
7 Yellow Cards: Jonathan Grounds
6 Yellow Cards: Diego Fabbrini, David Davis and Paul Caddis
5 Yellow Cards: Jon Toral
4 Yellow Cards: Michael Morrison and Paul Robinson
3 Yellow Cards: David Cotterill, Clayton Donaldson and James Vaughan
2 Yellow Cards: Jonathan Spector and Neal Eardley
1 Yellow Card: Tomasz Kuszczak
The cutoff date for 5 yellow cards to attract a suspension was November 30, 2015
The cutoff date for 10 yellow cards to attract a suspension was March 13, 2016
Tags: Kyle Lafferty, Reading, Viv Solomon-Otabor
89 Responses to “GAMEDAY – Reading Away”
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Good. Look like Adams for Gleeson and VSO for Cotterill
it might not work straight away but the fringe/youth players need proper game time imo
That’s how the rest of the season should be used. Will tell us if they could be first XI material
blues will either steal a draw or reading home win, stats say nothing between them…..
7 players have more yellow cards than PR bloody hell hes improved lol
Yeah, 4 yellows in 19 games is a big improvement.
Might as well get some payback for our loan money. Also, I’d play Davis to keep an eye on Adams. I wouldn’t trust Gleeson or Kieftenbeld to do that job.
Kuszczak
Caddis Morrison Shotton Grounds
Adams Davis
Buckley Toral Maghoma
Lafferty
SUBS: Legzdins, Spector, Gleeson, V S-O, Cotterill, Donaldson, Jones
Good call StaffsBlue with regards to team selection.
V S-O and Jones to be given some game time, what have we to lose.
Do we all think GR will release the likes of Vaughan, Shotten and Buckley at end of season?
Who would come through the door in the close season?
KRO
With Shotton, Buckley and Vaughan, I suppose it depends on what happens in the last 7 games. If they play and do well, it’s worth considering. If they don’t get much of a chance, I don’t see a reason to keep them tbh.
As for coming in, I’d love to see Lee Tomlin, maybe on a season’s loan. He’d make a huge difference to our attacking play. Also, someone like Kyle Bartley, (surprisingly, he’s still only 24) or any big beast of a centre back, someone hard to beat in the air.
Vaughan has already agreed a contract for next season, the other two will be released. Buckley is an enigma, his debut was one of the best I’ve seen for a long time, since then nothing!
After not playing all season, Buckley has had 5 starts and a few minutes here and there as sub. Not much of a chance to build up any form tbh. Since he came back, Cotterill has had 6 starts.. and he’s hardly tearing the place up. Wingers need games to find form.. look at Maghoma, people thought he was hopeless, until he got a run of games. He then became our most dangerous player for a while.
Maghoma hasn’t warranted a place for some time now. He flatters to deceive. If he’s out of contract then i’d let him go. Like to see Buckley get some proper game time before a decision is made. He was doing ok but seemed to lose favour.
Re: Vaughan – I hope it hasn’t been signed.
He’s agreed a 1 yr deal with an option of another year.
Just leaving and a great day for it!! KRO!!
Already here mate , enjoy KRO
Why the generous Vaughan deal with Huddersfield? There has to be a very good reason for this. Vaughan was not rated nor wanted by them.Bolton at the time showed an interest but ‘missed’ out to GR. Surely no sensible manager would remotely consider such a ludicrous deal for a player who is not rated,doesn’t score goals and continually injured. Perhaps GR is buying for future potential. This manager at times baffles me. Alex Jones would imo been a better bet to put your trust in and a few goals.
Huddersfield fans loved him. It was due to injuries that he was let go. Where are we gonna get money from to buy a goalscorer? We were desperate for a striker and he was all we could afford. Get used to it because until the ownership changes,things aren’t going to change. You’re talking about kids that are scoring in U21 games. It doesn’t mean they’re ready for the championshp.
Steve. If it was due to injuries then why come to us. I don’t buy this ‘get used to it- we can only afford this and that. Yes we are on the breadline but believe me our manager has got through some dough mainly on Buckley wages,Farcical signings of Brock and Fabrinni ,not to mention Shotton wages. We had enough cover for all those players when a decent CH was all that we needed which would have enabled a few 1-0 wins with a solid twin centre halves. However we look forward to today’s games and hopefully a couple of the young fringe players taking in some decent minutes.
Why do people persist in arguing our defence is poor and is the key area to strengthen? I’d have decent midfielders and proven goalscorers ahead of a Centre Half. We currently have the 8th best defence in the league and only behind 3rd by about 5 goals. If we were more creative from midfield and scored more up front we would be chasing automatic never mind play offs.
Huddersfield are less discerning than us so easily pleased.
Lafferty as one in one , keeps that up and he’s a legend if he stays . KRO
Don’t think he’ll be cheap Dave. He’s on Prem wages and Norwich will probably want a fee.
Again good call StaffsBlue,Looking at all potential / possible players for next season,
Lee Tonkin
Kyle Barkley
Seb Larson
Kyle Lafferty – pull out all stops to get him.
Just to name your.
Who else.
KRO
Wouldn’t be surprised to see Rowett have another punt at Robert Teshe. He might fancy teaming him up with Fabbrini again.
dominating midfield that was. any forwards after that would struggle not to score a few more goals than we’ve managed this year.
Larsson won’t come; Lafferty to expensive; Barkley we’ll missed out to Chelsea
All you’ve got brum.no mercy ……KRO….
No surrendering you mean . KRO
Legzdins in. Kuszczak on the bench. Shotton at centre back. Kief, Glees and Davis in. Lafferty and the Don up front.
Probablty Donaldson out wide again. Waste of time if he is.
mmm :-)
We did that last week Dave ……..He who dares brum
Dissapointing no Jones in the line up. Kro
Disappointed no Adams and VSO. Shotton must gr being eyed up as next season’s centre half
I don’t think it is possible to bring Denny Johnston back from Morton, since we agreed a season long loan with them but surely we must give him an opportunity to show what he can do for us next season. He has scored 15 goals for them this season so he knows where the goal is and he is still young enough to improve. Why do we agree for other teams to have a release clause in the loan agreements with us, but we never insist on the same for us?
Keep right on blues to the end …
Sheffield we’d 3-0 dwn
Can’t believe the 3 teams above us all lost today. A win against Leeds on Tuesday will move us above Cardiff and 6 points from the play-offs again lol.
* Actually, a win will put us 1 point behind Cardiff, but still 6 from the POs.
It’s OVER…stop putting yourself through the hope crusher!
Yes sir. Whatever you say sir!
3 points. Vile down. Not a bad day. All ok today Mr Mann? Come on me Blues.
Ssshhhhhhh don’t tell anyone but blues are back in it & I still think it will go to the last day of the season, it wouldn’t be us otherwise. And my horse came second in the national.lol
We’ve all got to play each other so you never know. Unlikely,but you get some strange results at this time of the season. Time to fill St Andrews for the three games this week.
same old blues…
Great that Shotton was put in. Didnt expect him to be another striker.
Overall we played pretty well without ever threatening to run away with the game. We were sound defensively although Reading were no great shakes, with a lot of collective hard work to deny them clear cut chances. Legzdins made a couple of good saves although almost let one shot squirm under his body. Standout players were Cotterill (assists for both goals), Grounds and Davis. Lafferty and Shotton both gave solid performances and Viv S-O created a couple of opportunities when he came on. Can we build on this for Leeds?
I think GR did the right thing leaving the young players out till there is no chance of the playoffs , although I wanted a couple to play , I wouldn’t expect him next game to change things either , KRO
Just one question for Dave Mann. Is Shotton the answer for Morrison partner next season.
Good result today but to little to late.kro
Well listening to Broady on the Blues Player he still insists we can still do it. He thinks winning our remainīng games would probably be enough. After all it was pointed out we won our last 5 games of last season. Like Broady says any result can happen with any game in this league. Nobody would have seen that Bristol result over Wednesday.
We’ll know by next Wednesday atko. Massive few days coming up with 3 home games. Players and fans need to be up for it. I think the club are doing 3 games for the price of 2.
Good day yesterday , we won , my horse won, I won the card on the coach and the vile are all but relegated so yes Lich everything is ok mate , as for shotton he scored a good goal and looked good along side Morrison so why it’s took so long i don’t know …the half time entertainment on behalf of the vile result was trully memorable and brought tears to my eyes and the biggest goose bumps I’ve ever had . :-) KRO
I want Leicester to win the league but Sunderland beat them today and the vile are down officially .KRO
Mate I was in front of my computer following the game yesterday but with an eye on the Vile.Even at 30 degrees I got goose bumps.It must have been magic at Reading KRO
Hi Dave, How do you work that out please? Is it to do will teams playing each other?
Got it. N v S or S v N.
Norwich v Sunderland next Saturday .. Sunderland win today the vile are relegated .. Got it know ? KRO
Got it three minutes earlier
It was an all round good day Jonny and your name is spelt the same as my late great boxing champion dad Jonny Mann. KRO
Dave…..Your dad was a remarkable boxer…..91 bouts, 54 wins, 24 losses and 13 draws.
Yes cheers Richard , he won more proffessional fights than Mohammed Ali and Floyd Mayweather so quite impressive one thinks . KRO
Did he train Johnny Prescott? Not the MP. :)
Yes Steve , good information mate . KRO
Did you ever do a bit Dave ?
Yes mate so no worries looking after myself on away days , my dad showed me all the moves so it’s there and available when needed … Didn’t have the dedication to do it proffessionaly but it’s there and it’s lovely to have . KRO
I wondered where you got your swagger from Dave , yes I want leicester to win I hate all the Midlands clubs being also rans , it’s not good for buying top players to stay at the top , the Midlands was buzzing when we and Stoke won cups and were in Europe , let’s have more I say …
I love to see the midlands clubs do well , bar one ofcourse . KRO
And Wolves,hate Wolves.
Yes sorry Steve , the dingles to . KRO
I agree with that Dave ..
why o why does he not listen to us fans we would have had a great chance of the play-off…this should have been sorted maybe five or 10 games ago imo….a big well done to lads coming into the side probably one of the best 90 mins display for along time. players got stuck in grounds had one of his better games, shotton what breath of fresh air and scored. We looked solid at the back. Now back to back results hopefully brush leeds aside where zigic when you want him lol
Big man for big occasion big space left. kRO
I had to laugh at the Villa fan having a go at Robbie Savage after he said that they where the worst team in EPL history. Robbie told her that Blues were a bigger club. The 5 LIVE host added that he could see them going down again next season…. hilarious. The Vile haven’t got a leg to stand on. Bang bottom of the league and unlike the likes of Norwich and Sunderland whos fans can at least be proud that their players have given everything, the Vile fans have a team that are rubbish and couldn’t care less about the fans. I normally dont give a toss what the villa are doing, but like I said you have to laugh.
i had ante post that vilers and Sunderland will go down ones almost there cracking at around odds 7-1 each…. tbh if sunderland and its possible newcastle great fan bases coming to the stans. next season…… should definately help the tickets sales
mindless piece of information but i thought i would forward it anyway averages in line up age for leicester players Leicester 28 years…average height 5 11 weight 12st…..not a very tall team, but blessed, power, paced and good footballing brains…..kro
not forgetting a very a good manager the tinkerman……
Hasent tinkered to much this season though as he Mark. KRO
No dave even when he lossed wilson..
Wasn’t that Bournemouth ?
my correction Schlupp
If you can avoid injuries thats helpful aswell dave
ofcorse it is , and winning games helps aswell . KRO
Come on blues don’t leave all the glory to the foxes , Get in there ….
William.just watched Leicester and cannot help being impressed at what Gray is now doing as a total team member. Shows what a pro.outfit they are with top coaches and able to bring out the best of not so great names such as Drinkwater,Albrighton,Morgan and Huth.These players previously not wanted by their last clubs. Gives us a bit of hope as to what could be achieved by a decent ownership.
For god sake he only had 10 mins & then he looked light weight!!
Kirkus. I am referring to his overall input from his first game at Spurs when he played 45mins. He is a different player with professional coaching-that’s my point . Not just based on today’s part appearance.
Your right mitchell a few new players of the right sort can change an average side I hope we sign the likes of Tesche / shotton / jokic / Henry / Bradshaw / or Clough KRO…..