Bradford City & Brighton: Media Roundup

Bradford City vs Reading FC (FA Cup)

The game against Bradford was one of attrition. Pre-game the build up seemed to predominately favour the hosts and the "pitch", however post game was it the same?

The lovely thing about the FA Cup is that you can get reports from the most outlandish of areas. So with out further ado I will start with the South China Morning Post, who say that a full bloodied conflict ensued and that we seemed to have a charmed life, so the first report still goes with the romance that the media are putting up.

Looking even more overseas USAToday have an FA Cup wrap and give us six lines halfway down the page. The Irish Times say that we were barely in the game, although they do have a lengthy report.

Over in Australia and Sportsfan.au have a comfortable media wrap, again playing the home side and have a short interview with Phil Parkinson, and Malta Today who basically copy some of the earlier reports.

Okay so enough of the fun sites and onto the serious reports, Skysports say that it was a high tempo but low quality affair with Bradford shading it, although we could have nicked it in the last moments, The BBC for once give us a fair shout saying that it was a scrappy affair and we had a few chances to nick the game, they also have a highlights package.

We also get a mention on the FA website but again the report slightly favours the home team, however they also say that Norwood's cross at the end of the game caused "mayhem" in the Bradford box.

Now I know you might struggle with this but TalkSport actually give us a write up! They call the game a "physical stalemate."

Looking at the local news outlets GetReading's Charles Watts gives his normal warts and all report, and does come across fair and to the point, and you have to give credit to the Bradford Telegraph who are one on a few reports to actually give us any credit!

and on to Brighton...

Reading FC vs Brighton & Hove Albion

I suppose that this could have been seen as a little after the lord mayor's parade after the game on Saturday with it being on a cold Tuesday night, but unlike previous weeks we actually won! Seeing how many people believed we would win when the team was announced would have been an interesting poll.

It's with no great shock that one player will dominate these reports: Jamie Mackie had a storming night and followed up the good work he did on Saturday with a stunning performance against the Seagulls.

Skysports run with that as the lead and call it a comfortable win, and also point out (thanks!) that Mackie's goal was the first by a Reading player for 344 minutes.

Danny Williams also gets a mention by the MLS Soccer website for his contribution to the game, saying he put in a big defensive shift.

The BBC also run with Mackie's goals but also give creditable mentions to Hal Robson-Kanu and Jake Cooper.

Ready for this - Talksport follow up the Bradford game with ANOTHER report from last night, can they make it a hat-trick on Saturday?

Mackie also takes the headlines on the Express website, who say that we have rediscovered our scoring form to set up a date with Arsenal, bit premature for my liking but I do agree that I hope Mackie keeps the form he is in at the moment.

Looking at the local media then the Sussex Argus are very critical of the Brighton saying that they created "nothing", whilst Getreading say that a "stunning" Jamie Mackie double put Albion to the sword.

That's it for this week. Next week will be another double header with the Watford and Bradford games. Three points and an FA Cup semi please!