Just didn't get any luck. 22 shots, 108 completed passes in the final third, 19 key passes. Armstrong and Winnall both missed chances. Reading should have gone down to 9 men, Al Habsi got away with time wasting again and again. There's nothing from that game that makes me think we'll be anything less successful this season. Reading's 3-4-3 worked perfectly against us for the first 30 minutes, 3 at the back will often trump a 4-4-2. Their three centre halves were able to pass it round Armstrong and Winnall and whenever anyone else went to press them they neatly passed it round us and we were exposed. Once they got their lead and were down to 10 men they sat in and let us have the ball. We've never been great at breaking well organised teams down. That's not how we like to play, we're all about the quick counterattack with pacey wingers and strikers. It's the sort of game you need a creative number 10 to get in between the lines. I'm not too worried though as in the main teams will come at us - they expect to get three points from Barnsley and that works well for us. I hope White is fit for Brighton, I was a bit disappointed with Cole who looked poor positionally and a bit lazy at times. Dont want to judge too harshly after one game though. For me, Watkins has to start the next game, we were crying out for a bit of physicality up front second half. We got round the side and they let us have it in front of them but they won everything in the box. I'd have fancied Watkins to get on the end of one of our crosses. Very harsh that he's been dropped, I'd like to see him paired with Armstrong as I think there's the potential for a great partnership there. Armstrong's finish was another cracker.
I spend the entire second half of the match expected Watkins to come on at any moment, I just can't understand why he didn't feature. Yiadom looked excellent again, very happy with his performance but as you say, Cole looked very poor.
