Reading FC

New signing: Pavel Pogrebnyak had a fine debut for Reading FC despite their 2-0 defeat by Sheffield Wednesday
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Pavel Pogrebnyak impresses as Reading FC lose to Sheffield Wednesday

By Jonny Fordham
July 25, 2012

Pavel Pogrebnyak was unable to save Reading from a 2-0 defeat on his debut for the club against Sheffield Wednesday last night.

The imposing Russia striker was given a 45-minute run-out alongside Adam Le Fondre – but neither could carve out a concrete opening in the Estadio Municipal de Albufeira.

And Wednesday clinched victory thanks to a Mike Jones strike on the stroke of half-time and a late goal by Chris O’Grady.

Royals boss Brian McDermott experimented with a new-look formation in the first half with Jason Roberts the furthest forward, supported by Noel Hunt on the left, Garath McCleary through the middle and Simon Church on the right.

Deep-lying midfielders Jay Tabb and Mikele Leigertwood covered plenty of turf as they looked to disrupt Wednesday and spring attacks.

But Reading took time to adapt to their new shape and suffered a few early scares when Nejc Pecnik caught them sleeping at the back.

Royals’ best chance came on 39 minutes when McCleary drilled the ball across the face of goal, but it somehow evaded Church and then drifted past Hunt at the far post.

Jones struck with the last kick of the half when he cut in from the right-wing before drilling the ball low and hard past goalkeeper Mikkel Andersen from 20 yards.

Ten changes at half-time and a change of tactics failed to see McDermott’s Premier League newboys get the upperhand.

Midfielder Danny Guthrie showed his quality with some close control under pressure in midfield and in-demand winger Michail Antonio managed to thread a number of dangerous crosses into the Wednesday box.

Antonio’s protracted move to Hillsborough continues to drag on as Dave Jones’ side contemplate meeting Reading’s £700,000-plus asking price.

With just 20 minutes to go, Jobi McAnuff had a chance to level when he side-footed a shot from inside the box, only for Wednesday keeper Stephen Bywater to block with an outstretched leg on the line.

Marlon Harewood then put Sean Morrison under extreme pressure at the back before wrestling the ball off him.

And O’Grady slotted in the rebound after Andersen had denied Harewood.

Although defeat to a Championship club will come as a disappointment, the game was a chance for McDermott to test a number of his players out of their regular positions.

Royals now face Portuguese Primeira Liga side Sporting Clube Olhanense on Friday (8pm kick-off) with goalkeeper Adam Federici likely to play.

But Chris Gunter (ankle), Alex McCarthy (quad), and Jem Karacan, who is returning from breaking an ankle last season, are all doubts.

Reading first half (4-2-3-1): Andersen, Cummings, Mariappa, Gorkss (c), Shorey, McCleary, Tabb, Leigertwood, Hunt, Church, Roberts.

Reading second half (4-4-2): Andersen; Gunnarsson, Harte, Morrison, Pearce; Guthrie, McAnuff (c), Antonio, Robson-Kanu; Le Fondre, Pogrebnyak.

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Doyle got 13 in the first season - If any of the strikers can emulate that we will be OK.

By the way I think we would be much more likely to get the likes of Doyle than Defoe?

Looking forward to the new season.

Robsy , Reading
26/07/2012 at 16:16

Think some need to acknowledge the way the modern game has gone! Talk of a proven goalscorer needed getting 25-30 goals is laughable as that just does not happen anymore in the PL, unless your Rooney, RVP or Aguero! Teams in our part of the league need to share the goals around with maybe one striker getting 15, being brillaint! Poru comments calling the league we just won = laughbale and not got a clue. Think he has been in the sun too long on Bournemouth beach

Reading1987
26/07/2012 at 15:20

Lester Crinklesack. I once again tip me hat to you sir!!!

Tilidie, Reading
26/07/2012 at 14:29

Nobody thinks the PL is going to be easy....it's gonna require a lot of graft, a bit of quality and a load of luck. I'm convinced that the graft is there (in abundance) and the players we've added want to do it in the Prem...they meet the "right fit" for RFC.

Defoe on the other hand....hmmmmn....no ta, big wages, ego, bling etc etc...I don't think he'll put the graft in and in all honesty has only proved himself to be a quality sub in the Prem (in recent years). So when it comes to the "likes of Defoe", that's a no.

Other clubs with more clout & cash than RFC will be able to get the "proven striker" you're after, but there's not many out there....or shall we go for RVP? ....TBH I'm still massively impressed that we got Pog and reckon there's plenty of quality in the new additions, let alone the players who got us promoted. I might be in cloud cuckoo land too...but I think we can compete.

"Tenacity, Spirit, Flair"? I propose a new motto...."Graft, a bit of Quality, Luck".

Lester Crinklesack
26/07/2012 at 12:25

Poru - You should come to Cloud Cuckoo Land ...weathers great..

Robsy , Reading
26/07/2012 at 10:11

Royals 1871. I agree up to a point. But we do have Alf and Roberts who will score. For me I worry about creating enough chances to score enough goals. Our defense was great in the Chumpionship but in the prem they will not be able to keep out the class we will come up against on a similar regular basis. We have too many good chumpionship players for my liking. We have a great new owner but have we really made significant signings apart from Pog? We will have to wait and see. Any Reading fan that thinks we will finish higher than the bottom six (based on our current crop) then I feel you are in cloud cuckoo land!

poru, Bournemouth
25/07/2012 at 23:13

If we are to stay in the PL we need a proven goal scorer of the likes of Defoe. Church and Hunt are not going to score more than 10 to 12 goals between them. Pog is a great signing but he needs support.

Royals1871
25/07/2012 at 19:16

I am worried mostly about the midfield. I do not think we have the creativity to break down defenses with our current crop. Therefore we will not create much which will mean pressure on Pog, Hunt, LeFondre and Roberts to bang in the goals with the small scraps they will get.. Really think we need another creative midfielder in the middle. Out wide we are ok and up front ok.. What do you think?

poru, Bournemouth
25/07/2012 at 17:03

That's 2 games and only 1 goal scored! Anyone one else worried? What about Defoe? Come on Reading sign a proven striker, Hunt and Church are not up to it and Roberts lacks pace.

Tilehurst Ender, Spencers wood
25/07/2012 at 16:52

@ Tilidie. I agree with your sentiments levelled at the club's ability to develop and improve players, but the fact his Church and Hunt have been at RFC for a number of years now and have seldom improved. Hunt hasn't had a better season since his first back when Coppell bought him. I'd actually argue that unless the way we play changes and it somehow suites them better, they won't improve with the previous seasons in the Championship showing that clearly if we don't change our style, they'll be less effective than they already were. I'd like to be proved wrong, but as they say, you can predict the future by studying the past... and their pasts aren't prolific.

You rarely hear of strikers who haven't exactly lit up the Championship suddenly becoming goal-machines in the PL do you? If Church and Hunt had been "Up to it" then why the need to buy Alf, Sheppard, Roberts, Afobe on loan etc. I'm not saying lets go and spend £££ on big names etc, I'm saying lets maybe give a chance to players that are showing potential and could make it, over players that didn't really show it at the level below anyway. Doyle, Kits, Lita and Long all cost us less than Gunter has, but given the form they showed in our promotion, they earnt their chance in the PL. You can't say Church and Hunt have ever led the charge before eh?

Hopeful Hoops, Reading
25/07/2012 at 15:48

Lester Crinklesack. You are so very right sir and even though you wrote fewer words than Hopeful Hoops, you talk far more sense. RFC fans, be very aware of our club reaching for the next level. IMO extreme caution is required here and I believe we have the right backroom staff and experience to make gradual progress in acquiring better players. For a forward to score 10 or more goals in one season in the Premier usually costs a pretty penny and I would rather see us continue to spend wisely and develop players. We do appear to do this rather better than other clubs. Change is needed indeed but changes are usually best when you change a little at a time. I'm also a little fearful in the fact it may well take a number of games for our new additions to jell, let alone bringing in more players. Since Anton bought in to our club he appears to be moving in the direction most of our fans would like to see. Lets hope we don't mirror the down fall of Portsmouth though i.e. a Russian son owning our club who has a very rich Daddy. Tread very carefully and be aware of what you wish for. It takes money to buy success but love and dedication to properly maintain it.

Tilidie, Reading
25/07/2012 at 14:59

Meh....not fussed about the result at all, it means nothing.....and not overly worried about our striking options either, we've got some quality in attack (...even Churchie plays better in the Prem) and I expect the goals to be shared across the team (Kebe/McCleary/McAnuff/Harte etc).

If you're going to compare us against last season you have to look at our defensive record in conjunction, you can't ignore the 'team effort' that's put in to our gameplay (plus the overiding fact that we were champions).

Anyhooo.....glad to hear Morrisson/Guthire/Pog/McCleary all looked good.

Lester Crinklesack
25/07/2012 at 12:46

Having only played a dozen games in the PL, Pav looks good... But this will be his first full season in the PL.

Alf once again has to step-up another level. Great as he was last term, there was one thing that seemed to effect his scoring. He only ever seemed to do it coming off the bench. So is he good enough to start?

Since 2006 Roberts has only been able to score on average, around half a dozen goals a season at PL level.

Hunt has never played PL and given the side seem to have had the form of their lives the last two seasons, out of all our strikers he started the most games by far, it's taken him two seasons to score the same number of goals Doyle did in his first for the club!

Church has been employed as our "super sub" for the past three seasons. With around 100 league appearances to his name he's only scored 21 and in that time still hasn't mastered the offside rule. Surely the fact Alf (a player having never played in the Championship) took that role off him says all you need to know?

It also says a lot that if Alf's not on the pitch, none of our strikers seem able to take a decent penalty. For a pretty average striker, Andy Johnson made a career out of being able to just do that...

I'm not often this cynical, but seriously, lets get real here. We need to say "Thanks, good bye and good luck" to the players that have stuck with us and "Hello" to those who can actually stick it in the back of the net. Given that we came down on GD last time round surely we need to make sure we have the quality in place to stop that happening again, whether they come for free or not. A sign of a decent striker can also been seen in clubs at our level or above sniffing about in the transfer window. Have we ever had to worry about losing Church or Hunt? I think not.

Hopeful Hoops, Reading
25/07/2012 at 12:39

We need to seriously look at our ability at Pav's end of the pitch. Lets take sentiment out of the equation and be honest. Even for a promoted team we were poor upfront last season! Yes we won games, but look at the stats. There were teams last season who didn't even make the play-offs and scored more goals than us. Apart from Cardiff, every team in the play-off spots upwards scored around or at least ten more goals than we did. Most promoted teams would at least have one striker in the league's top-scoring bracket, we didn't.

Alf didn't even make the Championship's top ten scorers. In fact he only scored one more goal than Lita did when we got promoted back in 2006. Bear in mind Lita lost his place through injury that season and both Doyle and Kits bagged 18 each and even Sidwell made double figures! 2005/06 was an exceptional season for sure, but lets look at other recently promoted teams.

Although not all of the top scorers from the 2010/11 Championship season were with their current clubs then, all three promoted teams from that season have stayed up, all of whom bought from that season's top ten scorers that weren't with promoted sides. QPR had two, Swansea two and Norwich three. We currently have none in terms of top scorers from the previous season. What about the likes of McCormack, Austin, Fryatt, Nugent, Henderson might fancy a return, even Phillips getting near 40 seems to know where the net is still! If McCleary makes our only real chance in a game this season, we need strikers who can actually make the most of it.