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Reading FC 1 - 2 Everton FC (Capital One Cup): The Alternative View

The Royals met Premiership opposition in this year's Capital One Cup, and once again a combination of our Tuesday night hoodoo and a goalkeeper error ended this year's run.

By davemc_exile
Ben Hoskins/Getty Images

So after a resounding win in the league against Bristol, Reading FC entertained an Everton side with just one defeat all season. There is no doubt that the Royals put up a tremendous effort against the Toffees, and it was a Reading side that showed eight changes from our last outing.

Wolfgang Schädler once made the statement "Victory isn’t defined by wins or losses. It is defined by effort. If you can truthfully say, ‘I did the best I could, I gave everything I had,’ then you’re a winner." That, I think, epitomises Tuesday night.

Unfortunately, effort sometimes isn’t enough, and I will put it down to bad luck that Al Habsi missed a couple of fairly routine saves, however this one is open to debate as will be seen from the Everton FC Tweets coming up.

Once again we will turn to Twitter and the media outlets to see what the Everton fans thought of the game as well as the national media.

Social

As always it’s interesting to get the opposing fans' views and this week was no different, being a premiership team there was a fair amount on Twitter below are a selection

I’m going to start this week on the views they had on the performances…

It seems that the Everton faithful, weren't over enamored with their efforts last night.

However a more honest appraisal would be…
However the love for Barkley seems to be a key theme…
But with Barry it’s a little more difficult…
And we can put this up against this fans verdict.
Once again the manager comes in for a bit of stick, which surprising seeing as they have lost ONE game this season.

That’s a little harsh!

It’s always good for opposing fans to praise our players.
However I couldn’t leave that without the comments on Al Habsi, it seems that Ady Williams may not be the only person to doubt him.
I just love "err" moments.
Finally I saw these two tweets and for me it was a timely reminder why we actually go to football games and the joy it brings.

I will leave the Social Scene there and let’s look at the Media.

Media

As you can imagine a Premiership team down at the Mad Stad generates a fair bit of press coverage.

I will start this week with the Daily Mail who give us a glowing write up and say that the result was harsh and that Everton put in a mediocre performance, they also say that we deserved to win!

SkySports carry their usual video package, and if you like watching Reading having shooting practice then it’s worth a watch, again if only for the desire that Blackman shows for his goal and the woeful attempts by Al Habsi.

The Mirror call us Cup Specialists(!) and their player ratings are interesting with Al Habsi again prominent and gets a 7 even though he had two shots on target, both of which where goals.

"Everton’s Barkley and Deulofeu drag victory from confusion at Reading" is probably the most bizarre headline of the day, not sure where that’s coming from, however the Guardian go on to gush praise all over the Reading FC side. They put the loss down to Al Habsi (anyone spotting a trend here?) and the fact that this team hadn’t either played much together or indeed had much game time. Both of which are fair points.

The Independent (ain’t it amazing how much coverage you get when you play a Premiership side?) lead with Nick Blackman, calling him "impressive", which if I was being honest and also a vast number of other Reading fans, is a word that you wouldn’t have associated with him prior to this season!

The Daily Star buck the trend by not giving us many column inches and follow the same story as most of the others, and Footymad also carry the same stories as the previous outlets, as usual Clubcall carry the Sky report.

Finally looking at the local media outlets the Liverpool Echo, although the match report is light at best they do have a full and comprehensive roundup from the Everton viewpoint. Matching this obviously we have GetReading, who again have a full roundup, with special praise for Tish, and Charles Watts video summary is always worth a view and he makes the valid point that the Burnley game is probably more important to us than the Capital One Cup.

I will be back on Sunday with the write up of the Burnley game.

And breathe…

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