Michael O'Neill

[RobRoyal]

Former Reading loanee Michael O'Neill looks likely to be offered the Northern Ireland managerial job. Brings back fond memories of my first season supporting the club (plastic). This classic hobnob match report stuck with me, from PA Jones (home win over Stoke towards the end of the 97/98 season):

What is this strange sensation? Goals? A victory over P*ss-poor opposition? And all this with a patched up defence? I think it's called hope.

The game started ominously reminiscent of the Vale game. Disjointed scrappy play and the surprisingly quiet and disctracted. The soggy pitch took its toll on attempts to pass the ball on the ground. Reading seemed to be standing off Stoke, and letting them have the ball in the middle of the park, as long as it went nowhere near their toothless attack.

O'Shite's goal was a beauty. Lambert's crap corner had gone straight back to him, and he lifted a looping cross into the box. O'Shite seemed to rise several feet above those around him and headed the ball firmly past Stoke's strangely familiar keeper(I'm sure that I've seen him somewhere). All the frustration of recent games dissipated, and the South Bank got down to what it does best- some serious gloating!

It got better early in the second half. McIntyre, who'd spent the afternoon having the back of his legs kicked, received the ball and knocked it off to O'Quitegood, who played a lovely ball through to Meaker. He took it to one side of the defender immediately in front of him, and slammed it low into the net. Cue hysteria, and stacks more gloating.

Really we should have had at least another one: Meaker rounded Stoke's "big-boned" last line of defence with a Gazza-style flick and then rolled the ball at the unguarded net, only for a defender to slide in and block it; O'Prettygood had a fierce drive well saved after a nifty interchange with Lambert; and someone(couldn't see who) was so shocked to receive the ball three yards out in front of a gaping net after good work on the left, that they froze. Still no need to be greedy now.

Overall, it's hard to choose between Lambert, Meaker, and O'Bloodygood for Man of the Match. I'd probably give it to the the last of the three, due to how well he played above my lowly expectations. Lambert took the p*ss out of Stoke's defence all game, and actually got some excellent crosses in. Meaker was his usual self- some defences he doesn't get a look in with, but some he can make a real nuisance of himself- and it was a cracking goal. Caskey made some good passess, and he's looking even slimmer than I remembered him to be(or was that just because he was standing near Stoke's "husky" keeper?). McIntrye battled away, but his main role seemed to be to distract the Stoke defence to allow the midfield players more space to run into. This was very effective, and he's certainlky more suited to this role than Asaba! Speaking of whom, Asaba came on for Meaker with a few minutes to go, and was playing in his more natural position, out wide, and, although he didn't get many touches, he showed some flashes of skill that made me hope to see him in this role in the future. Primus played very well in defence, and so luckily Parky wasn't put under any pressure. Gray looked competent. Howie was impressive in the little that he had to do. I didn't notice Crawford that much.

To sum up, we didn't play as consistently well as against Huddersfield, but we have definitely got self-belief back, and we scored, and looked like we believed that we were going to win - and did! The real tests are now to come. Let's hope that Kelly's back for the Easter games, and let's get four points from the next two games!

[Barry the bird boggler]

It was really quite a turn around for O'Neill. After weeks of looking bloody awful he was a stand out player that day. Now to my mind that change clearly points at the loss of Terry Bullivant and the arrival of Tommy Burns...