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Wolves & Newcastle Away - The Alternative View

Dave brings you the reaction to Reading's two defeats on the trot, at Wolverhampton Wanderers and Newcastle United.

By davemc_exile
Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

As the song goes, "what a difference a game makes" (well slight artistic license there!), after dominating Preston and Plymouth, Reading FC faced two tricky away ties, one at Molineux and St James Park. The most ardent of Reading fan, in their heart of hearts would have felt that anything we got from these two games would have been a bonus.

However it wasn’t to be and Reading returned from the North with nothing to show from their endeavors. Against Wolves it was a poor display, a 2-0 battering with not many players showing their true values (hopefully). The Geordies were a different kettle of fish, tipped by nearly everyone to go up as Champions, despite their surprising two defeats to open the campaign.

A 4-1 beating was actually an improvement on the Wolves game, but does show the class that the Geordies have in their side.

So queue meltdown from the Reading fans, happy Wolves and Geordies. Here's what the twittersphere and media outlets made of it.

Social - Wolves

Yep you got proved wrong alright.

Fans always moan about clubs not trying things, then when they do....

Not everyone agrees with Stams tactics

1901 at a guess.....

The Zenga bus is coming........

Still on the song theme

We have played 2 games.....

Ouch

Double ouch

Could have a point......

Media

Yep so it was the start of the Premier League on Saturday, and boy you can tell. Championship coverage was at an all-time low, and there wasn’t a huge amount of coverage by the National press.

So looking at what we have to offer. Those that are brave enough check out SkySports version of the game. It’s predictable that the report is all about Wolves and 1 shot on goal is a pretty poor return from the Royals team. For the masochists there’s 1 min 26 for you to sit through, warn you though - it’s not pretty watching!

Over at the BBC and they follow a similar theme to Sky, however their stats make pretty grim reading. 66% possession and 9 shots 1 on target, not good from that possession percentage by any stretch.

Looking at the local papers and understandably The Express and Star are happy little cubs….. The most telling point from their report is the continual pointing out the Ikeme in the Wolves goal was "redundant" all afternoon.

Down at GetReading and it’s a different story. A despondent Charles Watts video coverage reckons that Wolves could have scored more, and that Stams playing out from the back and passing style has  a time and a place, maybe not every time and place tho.

Social - Newcastle

There's something about Premier League clubs when they get relegated, that irks. Maybe they should realise that the Championship is probably one of the hardest leagues to win - before passing comment.

You hope so after spending £24m.....

Teams like Reading? Who gives you a divine right?

Let's not get carried away eh!

4-1 win at home and you get 4.5 out of 10?

Where did you finish last year?

Welcome to the Championship

106, 106, we got the record 106

Media

Well, well, well. So we now know who the darlings of the media are. After zero coverage on Saturday the media come out in force to comment on the Newcastle V Reading game.

Nationals

The Daily Star, aren’t too critical of Reading FC, say we got overwhelmed at first but got into the game, Beerens was unlucky and had someone been in place following Williams shot it could have been different.

Similarly at the Guardian, they comment that we made Newcastle’s evening "uncomfortable" whilst the comments regarding the disallowed goal, is one of the finest lines descriptions of Stam you are likely to see this season. (6th para down love it!)

The Mirror say Reading were a threat on the break, and apart from that are all about Gayle’s goal.

Now the Express have a different slant on it, saying Reading played a full part in the game and the score line flattered Newcastle.

Online

Sky as usual have the coverage from the game, all 2 min 53 of it and whilst it’s a better than Saturdays game against Wolves still a lesson in how not to defend, similar to the Express they say that Reading played a full part in the game.

The BBC have their usual factual report, the stats on it make better reading this game though compared to the Wolves one.

Overseas.

Given that Newcastle are a relegated Premiership side then they get a mention on NBC showing how little they understand the game calling it a convincing win and getting the score wrong!

Local

Onto the Local papers and the Newcastle Chronicle are all smiles and happiness, calling it a comfortable win whereas Charles Watts at GetReading seems a happier chap than he did against Wolves. Seems that the turning point was the penalty against Gunter which sucked the life out of Reading. For Charles who normally is brutally honest to say it was a 50/50 does leave questions over the award of it.

Summary

Firstly there’s no need for a meltdown, two very tricky away fixtures backed up with top of the table Brighton, always going to be a difficult ask.  Yes we do need reinforcements and maybe a swap in the backline won’t hurt, but the team is learning and we are looking for progress and have to keep the faith. Newcastle away is a ground where more than most will lose this season, just hope they get 105 points, and Wolves probably won't be far behind them!

Onto Saturday and Brighton visit the MadStad, wouldn’t 3 points be a welcome return, but more importantly we need a morale boosting performance. A draw will suffice!

I will be back after the weekend and until then - cmon Urzzzzzz

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