Heather Reflects on Another Shite Free Kick
Reading away at the John Madejski Ego Trip Stadium. Apparently we won here last time we played here with two goals from one of my all-time most hated Saints players, Bollocks Wright-Phillips. Oddly enough I’d forgotten that one but remembered Cup trips to Elm Park when we were in the Prem when we invariably played shite and lost and I invariably got soaked, watching from the open terrace. It’s a tough one today as Reading started the season poorly but are on a 6 match unbeaten run and they have some decent players. As well as the decent players they have Joseph Heather Mills, so called because he’s completely one footed. They signed Heather from us in the close season and to be fair, I thought he got a bit of a raw deal from us and found it a bit odd that Nigel Adkins had him on loan at Scunthorpe, then as soon as he got here it was obvious that Mills face didn’t fit. Here’s hoping he has a shocker and proves Nigel right.
Our win against West Ham has made everyone sit up and take notice, even the media and there have been a lot of decent articles on us and Nigel in the past 3 days. All good stuff but it’s odd that it took the beating of the divisions glamour London team to do that. I mean, look at the League Table guys. The positive press and the law of sod means that we are more likely to fall on our faces today and Nigel has made just the one change from Tuesday with Jack Cork coming back in for Morgan who drops to the bench.
Today I am attempting to watch a stream of the game on the Internet and am hoping that my shite broadband speed, ironically provided by Sky (1MB when they advertised 4MB) will do the business. A double click here, installing a bit of software there and winning 4 ipads later… and I’m in, dismayed to find that Peter Beagrie is a studio ‘expert’ along with my favourite Saints pie man of all time, Graeme Murty.
Saints start well with Chappers coming off the left wing with intent and linking up well with Connolly, whose return ball is just a bit too far in front of him and the ball ends up with the keeper as Chappers slides in. It’s all a bit frenetic for the first 10 minutes with us struggling to get going against a clearly fired up Reading side.
There’s a talking point on the quarter hour as a ball forward bounces up and Fonte sticks a hand up in basketball fashion. Was I the only one who saw the blatant shove in the back as he went up for it… I mean, I saw it in real time and it should have been our free kick. However, the ref gives Reading a free kick and Jose gets booked with much studio debate as to whether he should have been sent off or not. Personally, I have no idea why he was waving his hand at it but it was a foul the other way, end of. Heather fancies writing a headline but his free kick flicks off the wall for a corner.
He’s a good player with a silly name and Jobi McAnuff breaks down our right with Frazer in full Golac mode on the right wing. He works his way along the line and somehow squirts the ball across despite the attentions of Fonte and Superkelv but Fox gets back to clear from in front of our goal. We’ve stopped playing altogether and now it’s like the fucking Alamo with Superkelv standing between us and a right Royal Shafting. First he saves a low shot from Church following an intercepted pass from Bald Psycho and then superbly tips over Leigertwood’s shot from 30 yards after a poorish clearance from Big Jos. Le Fondre is next in line for a shot but Superkelv is out to block again.
The best we can manage is to win a corner which is cleared back to the Gulyman who crosses about 2 yards behind Sir Rickie, whose over head kick is not the best. Cue commentators saying that Lambert should have done better from there. How exactly? Fucking ball was miles behind him and six feet off the ground.
Thank God for half time and the chance for Nigel to work some magic to improve what was a pretty lacklustre performance. Peter Beagrie at half time was making me pine for Merringtitus – he was that bad. What the fuck has he got to do with Saints and Reading?
Aaron Martin is on for Fonte at the start of the second half which is apparently down to a tight hamstring and nothing to do with being generally shaky and on a yellow card. His introduction does nothing to turn the tide of the game which is inexorably heading towards our goal. Firstly, Alex Pearce, a former loanee of ours, has a header deflected wide and when the next corner comes in, Superkelv gets a bit lucky as he punches the ball backwards and over his own bar.
We take a bit of time out from continually giving the ball away to win a free kick on the right as a decent Chappers pass puts Frazer Golac away down the right and as he cuts infield past the last defender (and into the ‘what the fuck do I do now’ position) when the defenders arm come across him and down he goes. Fox’s free kick is cleared back to him and a perfect cross back in is met by the totally free Aaron Martin about 6 yards out. We needed a Ron Davies header but instead we got a Johnno Pace one as it kind of slid off his head and the keeper saved at the near post. Bugger.
David Connolly has been somewhat anonymous and it’s no surprise to see him hooked on the hour and Steve de Ridder comes on, just in time to see The Gulyman give away his usual stupid free kick for the game. Luckily for us, Heather is still on dead ball patrol for Reading and his delivery is shite.
The change has definitely improved things for Saints as de Ridder is worrying Mills at the other end and after a mazy across the pitch, he lays one off to Sir Rickie who plays in the overlapping Fox who is tackled as he’s about to shoot. Typically, we’re having our best spell and Reading get away again and Leigertwood is clumsily fouled by Deano on the edge of the box. It’s not a bad foul but it’s in the D which is probably why the yellow card comes out.
As McAnuff lines up the free kick, you get that shot on the TV where the goal looks fucking huge and so close. Bad vibes all around as McAnuff strikes it against the right hand post but the reprieve is short lived as Leigertwood reacts first and lashes the rebound past Chappers on the line who attempts a kind of sliding ninja drop kick to try and keep it out. One nil down, bollocks.
Twenty minutes to go and it goes from bad to worse when the Gulyman underhits a ball infield and Leigertwood picks it up, just before Deano, the intended recipient, comes sliding in and hoofs him up in the air. There is no point in even debating this one and to be fair, no one does as the inevitable 2nd yellow comes out. As Deano reaches the touchline, the channel on the stream changes and I am suddenly looking at a fat Spanish waiter in a Rafa Benitez fancy dress costume. This is a bit surreal. I am then looking at Spanish football on TV so I guess that’s it. Unperturbed, I try and find another stream of the game, win a couple of iPhone 4s and about 10 minutes later, I get a still frame of the action and the top left hand corner quite clearly says ‘REA 1 SOU 1’ – Get in!!!!!
What I missed was a throw in for Saints, taken by Richardson into the Gulyman who made up for his Hammond pass by dissecting the defence with a first time ball and putting de Ridder through on the right, from where he cuts inside the centre back and lashes a left footed shot in off the bar. It’s a brilliant goal.
Morgan comes on the for the Gulyman straight after the goal and there is one more alarm as Superkelv comes racing out and meets the Reading sub but mercifully he got the ball before clattering him. ‘Penalty’ said the optimistic Reading fans…. ‘Bollocks’ says I and the game end as Heather lashes a shot hopelessly wide from about 45 yards.
Boy did we get out of jail there. Outfought and outplayed for the vast majority of the game, one nil and a man down and we still got a point thanks to a great performance by de Ridder. Well done Schteve, as Schteve McLaren would say. Having implied that Reading were by far the better side (they were better to be fair), we had a few decent chances and Reading were not as threatening as the commentary on Sky would have you believe. Watching a steam on the internet is a bit of a lottery and I feel it kind of serves me right that it conked out just before we scored. Despite the de Ridder heroics, man of the match though was Superkelv who made one superb save and several solid ones to ensure we still had something to play for when de Ridder came on.
Nigal admitted that we weren’t at the races today and didn’t get going at all. I do think that a lot of that was down to the workrate of the Reading side and not many sides are going to be able to do that against us this season. Nigel has a decision to make for the next league game with de Ridder making a very strong case to get Connolly’s starting shirt. Also, any injury to Fonte is a bit of a problem as if he’s out, we only have two fit centre halves, Martin and Big Jos. The bottom line is that we've had two difficult away fixtures at Derby and Reading and got a point in each. The win against West Ham and a win next week at home to Middlesbrough (please!!!) will mean a decent return for the four matches.
Next up though is Crystal Palace in the Carling Cup and aside from the aforementioned centre backs, I think the team will be completely different with players such as Bart, Lee Holmes, Ryan Dickson, Johnno Pace and of course, Steve de Ridder, starting the game. We’re in the last 16 of this competition so it would be nice to progress but I just can’t see us playing many recognized first teamers.
In Nigel we trust.
No comments:
Post a Comment