Reading 1-1 Stoke City
Reading made their return to the Premier League thanks to winning automatic promotion last year with best defensive record in the Championship. Their first game back in the top flight saw them taking on a Stoke City side that had struggled to score through out the previous season (scoring just 36 goals in 38 games), it was perhaps obvious that this wasn't going to be a goal fest, though both teams had invested in quality attackers with Stoke signing Michael Knightly whilst Reading managed to pick up Pavel Pogrebnyak.
It was Stoke's Michael Kightly that opened the scoring with a fair amount of help from Reading keeper Adam Federici who really should have stopped Kightly's shot in the 34th minute which seemed to go through the keeper. Whilst Reading tried to get back in to the match they really struggled. With the clock ticking down Dean Whitehead was shown his second yellow card after fouling Garath McCleary in the penalty area. Up stepped Adam Le Forde who managed to draw Reading level with just minutes to play.
With 10 men Stoke struggled to hold on with an Ian Harte free-kick being the nearest either team got to scoring a late winner before the referee finally blew the whistle to bring the match to an end at 1-1.
Reading's manager Brian McDermott should be proud of his team who showed determination and managed to get a well deserved point by refusing to give up. Whilst Federici's blunder certainly hurt Reading's chances in the match they showed enough to be proud of and Federici is usually a reliable keeper, so I'm happy to just out this down to being a one off. Pogrebnyak is an excellent signing though they fail to really provide him with the service he needs, however as the team gels he'll be a very influential player. If they cannot open up defenses however Reading will be in the same position Stoke where they were closer to the drop zone than they would have liked.
For Tony Pulis he may well view the match as 2 points lost and not 1 point earned however he needs to be pleased at the fact Michael Kightly looked excellent today and Robert Huth, who had been an injury worry looked to be fully fit with an excellent performance. After last season's lowly goal target the addition of Kightly looks to have been an excellent bit of business who should help Stoke bang them in with more regularity. If Stoke can score more whilst keeping the likes of Huth fit they should be a secure mid table team.
Showing posts with label Reading v Stoke. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reading v Stoke. Show all posts
Saturday, 18 August 2012
Premier League Week 1-Results (Saturday)
So the Premier League has finally kicked off and we've completed the first day of games with a number of surprises. For the sake of ordering the results I've listed them in order of goals scored below.
Fulham 5-0 Norwich City (Duff-26, Petric-41, 54, Kacanilik-66, Sidwell-87 Pen)
Queens Park Rangers 0-5 Swansea City (Michu-8,53, Dyer-63,71, Sinclair-81)
West Brom 3-0 Liverpool (Gera-43, Odemwinge-64 Pen, Lukaku-77), Agger Sent off 58
Newcastle United 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur (Ba-55, Ben Arfa-80: Defoe 76)
Reading 1-1 Stoke (Kitghly-34 : Fondre-89) Whitehead sent off 89
West Ham 1-0 Aston Villa (Nolan-40)
Arsenal 0-0 SunderlandAs you can see we've been treated to some real surprises (West Brom beating Liverpool being the stand out upset) as well as a huge number of goals (19 in total) and just a solitary 0-0 draw.
Below are the figures for the stat freaks, these will be done every weekend and hopefully add something for some fans:
Highest Scoring Games-5 Goals (Fulham v Norwich 5-0, QPR v Swansea 0-5)
Lowest Scoring Games-0 Goals (Arsenal v Sunderland, 0-0)
Top Scorer-2 Goals (Petric, Michu, Dyer)
Penalties-4:
Scored-3-(Odemwinge v Liverpool, Sidwell v Norwich, Ben Arfa v Tottenham Hotspur)
Missed-1-(Long v Liverpool)
Red Cards-2 (Agger, Whitehead)
Total Goals-19 (in 7 games so far)
Fulham 5-0 Norwich City (Duff-26, Petric-41, 54, Kacanilik-66, Sidwell-87 Pen)
Queens Park Rangers 0-5 Swansea City (Michu-8,53, Dyer-63,71, Sinclair-81)
West Brom 3-0 Liverpool (Gera-43, Odemwinge-64 Pen, Lukaku-77), Agger Sent off 58
Newcastle United 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur (Ba-55, Ben Arfa-80: Defoe 76)
Reading 1-1 Stoke (Kitghly-34 : Fondre-89) Whitehead sent off 89
West Ham 1-0 Aston Villa (Nolan-40)
Arsenal 0-0 SunderlandAs you can see we've been treated to some real surprises (West Brom beating Liverpool being the stand out upset) as well as a huge number of goals (19 in total) and just a solitary 0-0 draw.
Below are the figures for the stat freaks, these will be done every weekend and hopefully add something for some fans:
Highest Scoring Games-5 Goals (Fulham v Norwich 5-0, QPR v Swansea 0-5)
Lowest Scoring Games-0 Goals (Arsenal v Sunderland, 0-0)
Top Scorer-2 Goals (Petric, Michu, Dyer)
Penalties-4:
Scored-3-(Odemwinge v Liverpool, Sidwell v Norwich, Ben Arfa v Tottenham Hotspur)
Missed-1-(Long v Liverpool)
Red Cards-2 (Agger, Whitehead)
Total Goals-19 (in 7 games so far)
Premier League Week 1-Predictions (Saturday)
Saturday 18th August
Arsenal V Sunderland (15:00)-Arsenal, playing for the first time since the transfer of Robin Van Persie to Manchester United may be expected to win here with relative ease, especially considering the transfer of players like Podolski however I can't help but think we may see a bit a shock here. I'll be betting on the draw here.
1-1
Fulham V Norwich (15:00)-Despite Fulham playing at home I'm going to favour the away win here. The signings of Snodgrass and Turner will really bulk up the Norwich line up. Whilst Fulham have added the very good Hugo Rodellaga I expect he will take several weeks to get into the full swing of things.
1-2
QPR V Swansea (15:00)-Swansea have lost not only their manager but also their talisman in Joe Allen, they have however managed to acquire an extremely talented player in Michu. Sadly for Swansea however I can't see them getting anything from this one. The QPR squad has been strengthened massively since the end of last season and with this in mind I'll be backing QPR.
2-0
Reading V Stoke (15:00)-Going into this bout it could, genuinely a very close match, however with Pogrebnyak now amongst the Reading squad it's almost impossible to bet against Reading. Stoke are never an easy team to beat though they are a flawed tea.
2-1
West Brom V Liverpool (15:00)-Liverpool have arguably the most frustrating team for any fans in recent years as their team repeatedly fall short of expectation. With Bredan Rodgers in charge I know some people are massively excited, sadly however Rodgers seems to have done the same thing Kenny Dalglish did, he's over paid for players. Thankfully for Liverpool here West Brom haven't really improved their squad over Summer and I think Liverpool's players will get up for Rodger's first Premier League game in charge.
0-2
West Ham V Aston Villa (15:00)-West Ham's return to the Premier League seems to have been met by a lot of people predicting them to go down. Whilst they have improved their squad with Modibo Maïga and the re-signing of James Collins they may not have improved quite enough. Villa, a team I'd have predicted to struggle have added some brilliant players and I whilst they may not click straight away they will be a very good team when they start to click.
1-1
Newcastle V Tottenham (17:30)-The late kick off sees last years 4th placed team playing the 5th placed team in what promising to be a very interesting match up. Going into this match up you have to have a lot of questions-how will Spurs do with Harry and how will they do with Villas-Boas? How does Anita fit into Newcastle? This is by far the stand out match of the day and I expect it to live up to expectation
2-3
Arsenal V Sunderland (15:00)-Arsenal, playing for the first time since the transfer of Robin Van Persie to Manchester United may be expected to win here with relative ease, especially considering the transfer of players like Podolski however I can't help but think we may see a bit a shock here. I'll be betting on the draw here.
1-1
Fulham V Norwich (15:00)-Despite Fulham playing at home I'm going to favour the away win here. The signings of Snodgrass and Turner will really bulk up the Norwich line up. Whilst Fulham have added the very good Hugo Rodellaga I expect he will take several weeks to get into the full swing of things.
1-2
QPR V Swansea (15:00)-Swansea have lost not only their manager but also their talisman in Joe Allen, they have however managed to acquire an extremely talented player in Michu. Sadly for Swansea however I can't see them getting anything from this one. The QPR squad has been strengthened massively since the end of last season and with this in mind I'll be backing QPR.
2-0
Reading V Stoke (15:00)-Going into this bout it could, genuinely a very close match, however with Pogrebnyak now amongst the Reading squad it's almost impossible to bet against Reading. Stoke are never an easy team to beat though they are a flawed tea.
2-1
West Brom V Liverpool (15:00)-Liverpool have arguably the most frustrating team for any fans in recent years as their team repeatedly fall short of expectation. With Bredan Rodgers in charge I know some people are massively excited, sadly however Rodgers seems to have done the same thing Kenny Dalglish did, he's over paid for players. Thankfully for Liverpool here West Brom haven't really improved their squad over Summer and I think Liverpool's players will get up for Rodger's first Premier League game in charge.
0-2
West Ham V Aston Villa (15:00)-West Ham's return to the Premier League seems to have been met by a lot of people predicting them to go down. Whilst they have improved their squad with Modibo Maïga and the re-signing of James Collins they may not have improved quite enough. Villa, a team I'd have predicted to struggle have added some brilliant players and I whilst they may not click straight away they will be a very good team when they start to click.
1-1
Newcastle V Tottenham (17:30)-The late kick off sees last years 4th placed team playing the 5th placed team in what promising to be a very interesting match up. Going into this match up you have to have a lot of questions-how will Spurs do with Harry and how will they do with Villas-Boas? How does Anita fit into Newcastle? This is by far the stand out match of the day and I expect it to live up to expectation
2-3
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