Brentford Fans Verdict: Bowen Suffers First Defeat As Manager

Coming off the back of four very good results, including three brilliant home wins, the Royals would’ve been full of confidence going into their final ever game at Griffin Park - well, they should’ve been anyway.

It was by far and away the worst performance and result of Bowen’s time in charge so far. Everything between our goal and the final third was done pretty well for the most part - apart from the Brentford goal obviously - but Reading were nowhere near their best in the final third.

It was a weird game in that I can only recall us creating one guilt edged chance - which Puscas will know he should’ve buried - but they players and Bowen will feel we still should’ve and could’ve walked away from Brentford with all three points. The players just seemed scared to pull the trigger at times.

Hopefully this result is just a blip and hasn’t stalled the progression we have been making since Bowen took charge - but only time will tell that. Here’s how the fans reacted to some of the big talking points...

George Puscas

The whole team has been guilty of lacking killer edge and missing some big chances this season, but arguably none more so than Romanian international George Puscas.

The lad is clearly a top centre forward, otherwise he wouldn’t be his national team’s number 9 at the age of 23 and be costing us a reported £8 million - but some for some reason it just isn’t quite going for Puscas at the minute.

He missed another big chance in the first half on Saturday which you would really expect him to score and was an epitome of a striker severely lacking in confidence. It’s a hard problem to deal with and Bowen will have difficult decisions facing him regarding this.

The fans were certainly left frustrated and upset by the Romanian’s performance, and not for the first time this campaign...

Substitutions

If you told me two months ago that Baldock going off injured would be a serious catalyst to why we lost a game of football, I’d have told you you were crazy - but on Saturday, I seriously believe that happened.

The performance of all three subs when they came on was pretty poor - certainly Garath McCleary and Yakou Meite. When you are chasing a game in that manner, you need your subs to come on and offer something different and add a spark to the game, but that failed to happen on Saturday.

The fans were left angered by their performances after the game on Saturday - as was Bowen in his post match media duties. But here’s what the fans had to say on Twitter...

First loss under Bowen

You could say that the honeymoon is now over. Bowen’s strong start to life as manager of Reading came to an end in a pretty toothless fashion, as previously mentioned.

Football is game of cliches, but it’s all about the reaction now on Tuesday night as good ol’ Leeds United roll into town. Hopefully, it’s just a blip and the players can turn it around midweek - they will still be confident and in a buoyant mood (I hope).

Bowen will know the hard work begins now (another cliche) and the players have shown in a small amount of time under him that they will fight until the very end and there seems to be a change in mentality since he came in - hopefully they prove that again on Tuesday.

However, Saturday’s loss certainly upset the fans and left them deflated - as you would expect after any defeat, but one that ruins a good run of form is even worse...

Conclusion

A bitter pill to swallow, and a huge game on Tuesday night coming up now. Leeds are a top, top team so it’ll be a very difficult match - but a match we are more than capable of playing a big part in.

Get down to the Mad Stad, and get behind the lads!

URZ