by Snowball »
20 Feb 2012 10:51
Here's a copy of the article.
BURNLEY’S loss at Reading was only the second time (out of two times) this season
that the Clarets have suffered home and away league defeats to a ruthlessly-efficient
Reading side, but Eddie Howe classed it as a “moral victory”.
The 24-year-old took positives from seeing his side dominate possession with an
incredibly high 53% by playing the ball around at the back instead of getting it
into the opponent's last third.
What's more said the 14-year-old Howe, Burnley totally dominated on half-and-quarter chances too,
shooting wildly from 20-40 yards out to up the stats, so much so that Federici made one whole save
of any note. Meanwhile it is totally unreasonable to note that Reading had 6 ON TARGET shots
to Burnley's 4. These are mere details. Burnley had the nicer-looking kit and huffed better.
The 4 year-old Howe added, "Did you see us carving the Royals’ defence open hundreds of times (3)
with our incredible Barcelona-style passing football, but without the (irrelevant) goals to show for it.
Reading didn't have a chance all game. They didn't nearly score from a Harte free-kick, didn't almost score
from the Roberts follow-up, didn't almost score from Hunt, but for an incredibly brave stoppage by Mee.
Nor was our keeper beaten by a clever header from the very poor loose-socked winger Kebe, but a defender
got back to clear. This did not happen.
What also did not happen were the two close-in shots in quick succession from one yard out by Gorkss, that
QPR reject and Leigertwood (another player not wanted by QPR) and there wasn't actually a goal-mouth scramble,
it was just a heated discussion between various players about Shane Long's guitar skills.
And with ten minutes to go, it simply did not happen that Adam Le Fondre got goalside of the Burnley
defence and was fouled sufficiently that if he had gone down a penalty was highly likely. If you look
carefully at the Sky footage you can see that this is Le Fondre playing for Rotherham versus Milton Keynes
and the incident has been doctored and spliced into the footage.
The moments where Hunt is clear and misses an easy set up for the loose-socked winger, again, look carefully,
this is clearly ASTON VILLA not Burnley. Reading had no chances.
Lastly, obviously the Roberts goal was clearly offside, and he had fouled three players and our
keeper was injured at the time. Frankly, referees and "bungs" come to mind here.
Howe nevertheless remains encouraged by his players’ continued improvement this term. "To lose 1-0 at home
and then ONLY lose 1-0 away is clearly an improvement," the 2-year old added. "We are going for automatic
at the very least, and it's quite clear we will succeed provided other teams don't score against us."
“I’ve said all season we’re getting better with every game and I firmly believe in God, Fairies and UFOs
although we will have the odd dip now and then, we’re progressing really well as a team, we lost 2-0
and then 1-0, so we could get 0-0 next game” he said.
“The lads are beginning to really start believing in themselves and Roswell,
so that’s a real positive. The result at Reading only technically went against
us by virtue of them scoring a goal and us missing, but I think it was a clear
moral victory in terms of how we played and I have written to the Football League
to have the result expunged.
“The real positive is, you can count the games off where we’ve performed well against all the top sides.
"Why does everyone harp on about NINE DEFEATS against the top sides, including losing twice
to Reading FC and that useless Leeds?"
H 0-2 Middlesbrough
H 0-1 Reading
A 0-1 Cardiff (League Cup)
H 1-2 Leeds
H 1-3 Leicester
A 1-2 Birmingham
A 1-2 Leeds
A 0-2 Southampton
A 0-1 Reading
H 1-1 Cardiff
H 1-1 Southampton
H 3-1 Blackpool
A 3-2 Hull City
A 2-1 West Ham
H 1-0 Hull
A 2-0 Middlesbrough
“That was one that’s gone against us but long-term if we continue to perform like that we’ve got a
great chance of losing yet more games this season and finishing maybe 8th if we get lucky.
“There are still a lot of points to play for, but not the six we gave to Reading.”
But Howe was disappointed to come away from the Madejski Stadium with nothing.
“We created enough chances in both halves to get something out of the game,” he said
"Three chances against an incredible defensive machine is a triumph, even if the first
chance was from a total mistake by an otherwise impeccable right back. Sorry, correction,
useless right-back QPR reject."
“Let's talk about us beating a mid-table side at home instead.
We did really well against Barnsley in terms of retaining the ball
and keeping it and moving it from side to side and making the
possession stats look good but Friday was a progression from that
where we sliced Reading open at times. Obviously, winning 2-0
is far inferior to losing 1-0."
“It was just in and around the box where we felt perhaps our quality wasn’t up to its usual standard.
We hit the woodwork twice, their keeper’s made a couple of great saves but we only mention the
one in our own match report out of courtesy to Reading..
“To come to a tough place like this and create the 3 whole real chances that we did, we’re disappointed to lose
and shame on Reading for actually putting the ball in the net. Whatever happened to the Corinthian spirit?
“To be fair to Reading they defended the lead very well in the second half, broke the game up
and slowed everything down, which was incredibly frustrating for us. It's really horrible and
unfair when other teams play better than us. You want the game as quick as it can be so we can
gain an advantage, but they killed the game almost by choosing to play to their strengths.”
