Reading FC 2-1 Bolton Wanderers: The Alternative View

With his stay/go saga well and truly taking up everyone’s Twitter timelines on Thursday, it did seem that we were destined to be managerless come 3pm on Saturday. However, in a u-turn that put Didi Hamman signing for Bolton for half a day before moving to Man City in the shade, it transpired that our illustrious manager never actually considered leaving us and that he went there for a "professional chat".

That topic is no doubt one that will be debated long and hard over the coming months, but what it did do is give Bolton the impetus in a very sombre Madjeski stadium and if it hadn’t been for some heroics from Al Habsi then we could easily have been at least 2, maybe 3 down after 15 minutes.

Looking at the Twitter feed from the Trotters' fans it does seem that they have resigned themselves to relegation, have no hope, a manager that looks like he has lost the trust of the fans and a financial situation that makes the Zingarevich era look like a small overdraft. You can’t blame them for thinking this, however this is football and we all know that strange things happen, so #BWFC - keep believing!

On to the social scene and it’s dominated by the owners, the manager and Al Habsi. Here's the best below...

Social

Well at least Lennon has some support

Read the Reading fans posts on Twitter. They know they were lucky. We played well. If you judge Lennon as a mgr on this you are thick #BWFC

— BWFC Fan (@BWFC_Fan_) November 21, 2015

Fans will forgive many things but not a lack of effort!

I lost count yesterday on the amount of times players backed out of challenges. No fight at all. #LeagueOne #bwfc

— Kieron Wilson. (@wilsonbwfc) November 22, 2015

What can Lennon do about a CB that can't control and clear a ball, and our best player giving the ball away in midfield? #BWFC

— ⚫️⚪️ (@samjames1401) November 22, 2015

Losing the faith (or the will)

Sad to see your football club slowly die . #BWFC

— Scott Cullen (@scottybwfc) November 21, 2015

#BWFC _ Despite off-field problems, desperately difficult remaining upbeat when you can't see where the next point is coming from! #helpless

— Chris Chapman (@blackheath99) November 21, 2015

I think I prefer International breaks. At least I know that #BWFC won't lose.

— Kasey Smith (@TheKaseySmith) November 21, 2015

Anyone believes Bolton can stave off relegation must believe in Santa Clause #bwfc

— Beer Swiller (@dennpoet) November 21, 2015

However there’s always a positive

One bright point is we already have league 1 footballers in the squad #bwfc

— Pete O'Neill (@Leigh_Wigan) November 21, 2015

How many live corpses do you see………?

I'm seen more fight in a bunch of dead corpses #bwfc

— Markus (@MarkusBWFC) November 21, 2015

The last word with the man of the moment….

Three things certain in life: death, taxes & Al Habsi having a worldy against us #bwfc

— Jordan Mason (@jordanmason19) November 21, 2015

Media

Given the nature surrounding Clarke’s position, you would have expected there to be a fair bit of news headlines surrounding the Trotters game. However, this wasn’t the case with most reports containing references to Hector’s supposed recall to Chelsea (There are more than a few fans who would welcome this!).

The pick of what was around on Sunday’s roundup of the games were as usual Sky Sports who have their usual video highlights package as well as a fair write-up about us. However, saying that they weren’t exactly complimentary towards Reading, calling us "unorganised" which is probably a nice way of saying the first 28 minutes were awful.

The Beeb follow this up with a similar report, saying that our Omani international made three crucial saves, and that Bolton had good spirit and we were patient. Patience isn’t a word I would use to describe our performance on Saturday -  I can think of many, many others.

As usual Danny Williams scoring a screamer from outside the box is always going to get the attention of our friends over the pond, and this week is no different. The Bleacher Report gives Danny five lines saying he caught the ball outside the box and scored the eventual winner. You have to love American reporting of football. For example on MLS Soccer – in part of Danny’s write up, the "Man of the Match also connected on 43 of 49 passes while piling up six interceptions and four tackles on the defensive end." Interceptions? Defensive end?

Back to the UK and the Guardian have us only in their roundup of the Championship section. However, the Sun give us a full article, but reckon that Bolton threw everything at us, with Al Habsi being our saviour.

ESPN FC and Sport.co.uk as usual carry SkySports' report, stating that we were unconvincing. Sportsmole say that Bolton dominated and were a little unlucky, whereas Eurosport lead with the Clarke angle but also point to us being barely in contention until Piazon's goal.

Football League World's three things we learned about the teams is a little strange with the focus on Clarke, Bolton’s defence and Garath McCleary being back to his best. The first two I can understand, but GMac has a little more convincing to do before we can say that he is back on form.

Looking at the local outlets and the Bolton Evening News is a little like its football team in regards to reporting (I will let you make your mind up) with the match report a link to the BBC site. However, GetReading do their normal sterling job and this week I can’t help but think they have been a little bit lenient with the team. That said, for the latest warts and all, don’t forget to check out The Tilehurst End.

That's it for this week and I will be back after the Forest game, hopefully getting the news & views following another Royals win!