03/02/07: City 0 Reading 2Updated: October 3rd, 2007
An awful result - but was this performance any worse than in the games we’ve won?
The match stats further down this page probably tell the story of the game. City forced six saves to Reading’s one, and had ten other goal attempts to Reading’s six. Tellingly, only five of our 16 goal attempts were from our strikers. Yesterday’s goalless display means Samaras, Corradi, Vassell and Dickov have now scored seven league goal between them in 5,124 minutes of football this season, which averages out at a goal every 12hrs and 20mins.
All of which makes Pearce’s post-match comments that he had “watched Lita four times when he was at Bristol City” but “wasn’t sure whether he was good enough to step up to this level” all the more frustrating. Coppell clearly thought otherwise, paid £1m for him in July 2005 and now has a player worth several times that.
But for all the uncertainty over Pearce’s abilities, the mood still appears to be to stick with him.
A poll today at Wookie’s Lair asked the question: ‘Pearce out?’. So far 66% of posters say ‘no’, 15% say ‘yes’ and 19% are unsure.
~ Pearce’s post-match interview
~ Rtfract photos; Getty Images
~ Latest Premiership table.
No day to give up smoking
There’s been plenty of debate about the club’s decision to ban smoking for the Reading game (official announcement here).
But this is what I feel the club were really trying to say:
“From next season, following government legislation, the City of Manchester Stadium will become an enjoyment-free stadium, as will all areas of SportCity.
This will include spiral stairwells, concourses, seats and all hospitality areas including atriums.
As a ‘trial run’ at this Saturday’s home game against Reading, supporters are asked to refrain from enjoying themselves anywhere in the Stadium.
Anyone requiring help or information on how to stop enjoying themselves should visit this site, or look out for one of the leaflets - Sit Down & Shut Up: a guide to acceptable behaviour at CoMS - being distributed outside the Stadium at Saturday’s game.”
Problems with IE 7.0
Apologies to anyone experiencing problems using Internet Explorer 7.0 to view this site.
I’ve been working on the problem for a while now - and quite frankly it is driving me nuts. The guy who designed the site did something very clever to trick IE 6.0 into reading the menu bar horizontally. Unfortunately, it was so clever others haven’t worked yet worked out how to repeat the trick for 7.0.
The site works fine in Firefox, which can be downloaded for free here:
Firefox can be used alongside IE and is generally regarded to be a superior browser, as it blocks out more spyware, pop-ups etc and is less vulnerable to viruses than IE.
Match stats
The stats (below) are compiled from the live commentary.
Match reports
City 0 Reading 2 (Simon Stone)
City slumped to defeat against in-form Reading as the Blues’ chronic lack of firepower let them down again at Eastlands.
Lethal Lita shakes City to foundations (Jon Culley)
“It will be nice to work with a striker with some confidence,” Pearce observed ruefully, having watched his own front men, Darius Vassell and Georgios Samaras, make it perfectly clear that neither is in a state of mind remotely approaching that.
Lita feasts on double helpings from Pearce’s flawed menu (Ian Whittell)
Stuart Pearce will probably relish the opportunity to disappear from Manchester City on England coaching duty this week after Leroy Lita’s two excellently taken goals added to the growing malaise at his club.
Lita’s double moves City fans closer to mutiny (Daniel Taylor)
Manchester City have dropped into the bottom six and they may carry on falling unless their strikers come to recognise the difference between a net and a barn door.
Two Litas swamp lacklustre City (Derrick Allsop)
Pearce and his players retreated to the dressing room accompanied by boos from those who had bothered to stay, and the manager knows that every defeat will raise the question of his dual role. He said: “If people want to raise the England issue every time, fine. My workload with the Under-21s starts tomorrow and ends on Tuesday evening until the summer. We weren’t beaten because I’ve been appointed England Under-21 manager.
Two-Lita performace satisfies Reading (Oliver Brown)
Listening to Manchester City’s long-suffering supporters groan at Georgios Samaras’ ungainly runs or despair at Darius Vassell’s dubious poise, Stuart Pearce was quietly looking forward to his first training session today with England’s Under-21s, and a chance to study double Reading goalscorer Leroy Lita in more detail. “At least,” he reflected, “I’ve got a player with a bit of confidence coming to join.”
Lita shows up rivals (James Ducker)
While Lita’s two goals served principally to highlight his own budding talent, they also helped to expose the failings of Darius Vassell and Georgios Samaras, who, together with Pearce’s other misfiring forwards, may well prove to be the reason why City end the season in a relegation dogfight.
Lita touch sinks City (Ken Lawrence)
Barton huffed and puffed. Indeed at times his work rate was breathless. Yet when real guile or Frank Lampard-style finishing was required, Barton didn’t have it.
Manchester City 0 Reading 2
After bad-mouthing Steve Gerrard, Frank Lampard and a variety of others, Barton finally got the call on Friday. And he “celebrated” by missing two glorious chances that would have put City in a position to win the game. Just before the break, Barton responded quickly after Reading keeper Marcus Hahnemann spilled George Samaras’ long-range blast but struck the rebound against the American’s legs.
Player ratings
Ratings come from (in order): Moonchesteri (Mancityfans), Spindash (Bluemoon), Sunday Mirror, Richard Tucker (rtfract), The People, Sky and Sky Your Rating.
Weaver (Isaksson 35): 6, 6, 5, 6, 5, 6, 5.8 (av: 5.7)
Didn’t have too much to do. Rushed stupidly out (again!) in the situation he hurt himself. (Moonchesteri)
Hardly had anything to do until he went off. (Spindash)
Richards: - , - , 5, 6.5, 6, 6, 6.5 (av: 6.0)
Kept Hunt quiet, some good forays down the wing as well. (Spindash)
Dunne: - , 7, 7, 7.5, 8, 6, 6.2 (av: 7.0)
Why he was over ten metres lower than Distin when they counterattacked? If he had hold the line with Distin both of them would’ve been offsides. (Moonchesteri)
Did well against Lita for most of the game but probably should have got a little tighter for the first goal. (Spindash)
Distin: 7, 7, 6, 6.5, 6, 6, 6.7 (av: 6.5)
Solid. (Moonchesteri)
Same as Dunne, solid. (Spindash)
Trabelsi: 5, 5, 5, 6, 4, 6, 5.4 (av: 5.2)
Utter crap during first half. Improved a bit for the second during which he gave a couple of good crosses. (Moonchesteri)
Not good. Some poor crossing and very slow. (Spindash)
Beasley: 6, 6, 6, 5, 4, 6, 7.2 (av: 5.7)
Tried to go past players. Once or twice did it stupidly in our own half and it once almost led to a goal! Left wing back is not his position. (Moonchesteri)
Quiet, but got back well. (Spindash)
Dabo (Hamann 48): 6, 7, 6, 5, 4, 6, 5.6 (av: 5.7)
He was okay. Broke up their play well at times and usually passed the ball to another blue. (Moonchesteri)
Good breaking up of the play and distribution. (Spindash)
Barton: 5, 7, 6, 7, 6, 7, 6.5 (av: 6.4)
Missed a sitter (again) and had another two chances which he couldn’t convert. Not as good as usual. (Moonchesteri)
Missed two golden opportunities but was all-action as usual. (Spindash)
Ireland: 8, 8, 7, 6.5, 7, 6, 7.4 (av: 7.1)
Fantastic passing! How many chances did he create? Faded a bit in the beginning of second half but our best player imo. (Moonchesteri)
Everything good came from him. Fantastic first half, a bit quieter in the second. (Spindash)
Samaras (Sturridge 74): 4, 6, 3, 5.5, 4, 6, 4.7 (av: 4.7)
Lacks confidence badly and I’m really getting worried we will not get value for our money. One good shot which led to Sir Joseph’s chance. Not good enough. (Moonchesteri)
Tried hard and put himself about a bit, but he doesn’t show any confidence in front of goal. (Spindash)
Vassell: 5, 7, 5, 6.5, 7, 7, 6.0 (av: 6.2)
Can this man score? At least not from one-on-ones.. Worked hard though. (Moonchesteri)
Good linking between midfield and attack, but he desperately needs to work on his one on ones. (Spindash)
Subs:
Isaksson (Weaver 35): 6, 6, 5, 6, 5, 6, 5.5 (av: 5.6)
Didn’t impress. Difficult match for him and could do nothing for their goals. (Moonchesteri)
Good handling, couldn’t really do anything about the goals. (Spindash)
Hamann (Dabo 48): 5, 6, 6, 5.5, 5, 6, 5.0 (av: 5.5)
He’s way past it. He’s got no feet at all anymore. Spectator. (Moonchesteri)
Did a decent job when he came on with some good tackles, but the second goal was down to him surrendering possession to Sidwell. Just too slow. (Spindash)
Sturridge (Samaras 74): 6, 6, 5, 6.5, 6, 6, 6.7 (av: 6.0)
Didn’t touch the ball too many times but wasn’t worse than Samaras. (Moonchesteri)
Good movement and looked confident on the ball. Promising. (Spindash)
Subs not used:
Sun Jihai, Corradi.