Well, there's nothing on the pitch to write about this weekend, so let's have a wander around the subject of games called off. Last Friday night, Reading should have been away to Brighton but the game was postponed due to a frozen pitch. Only two other League games failed to take place this weekend, those at Swindon Town and Bristol Rovers. And to be fair to Brighton, at least they handled the situation rather better than either of those two clubs, getting a local official in to make early inspections so that they were therefore able to call the game off five hours before kick-off.
In a standard case of bolting the stable door long after the horse has disappeared into the distance, Brighton are now considering covering their pitch in future. For whatever reason, they say that the pitch temperature tends to be several degrees cooler than the surrounding area, and feel that now is the appropriate time to do something about it. Wrong! The correct time to do something about it was when they moved into the stadium, something which would of course have involved the use of foresight and planning.
It's not as if Reading haven't been on the receiving end of such Mickey Mouse antics in the recent past from other clubs. Last season Luton Town failed to cover their pitch and consequently our game away to them in January was the only match in the country to fall victim to the weather on that particular weekend. Luton's crime was far worse than Brighton's because they did possess covers and had used them on previous weekends - it was not coincidence the game called off was one when the home side had a number of players out injured. Relegation at the end of the season demonstrated that cheats never prosper.
Another bunch of cheats are those at Bournemouth. They had to actually water their own pitch on the morning of our scheduled game at Dean Court last November. That's why the pitch was only unplayable "in places" - the places were those in front of the main stand where the hosepipes were located at 11am on the morning of the match. Bournemouth wanted the game off because they had several players (including their only decent one, Jermain Defoe) out injured. Ironically, they would have stood more chance of getting points against Reading in November 2000 when our form was poor, than they would have done on the dates of the rearranged games. (The game in February was also called off very late on due to a waterlogged pitch but this time it was because Bournemouth were desperate to play the game, and only gave up trying to get the pitch fit at the last moment.) Again, justice was done when Reading took the three points when the match finally took place, points that would have been enough for Bournemouth to make the play-offs last season.
With this track record you have to wonder whether Brighton & Hove Albion had any ulterior motive in getting this week's game postponed. They did have some injury doubts in positions where they are weak, but on the other hand Reading would have been fielding a goalkeeper who only met his team-mates the day before the game. On that basis I'd have to say that the failure of the game to take place is more likely to be due to Brighton's incompetence than any conspiracy on their part.
They've already had some measure of punishment in losing their position at the top of the table following the games on Saturday, although of course had we won on Friday night that would have happened anyway. There's also the possibility that between now and the date of the rearranged game, Brighton might have sold their star forward whilst Reading can expect to have several more players available after injury and hopefully match-fit. On balance, it probably wasn't such a bad decision from the Reading point of view.
I think that there has probably been some sort of Football League directive that rearranged games should be played at the earliest possible date because of the shortened season this year. Looking at the fixture lists of both Reading and Brighton the two most likely dates for the rearranged game are Tuesday, 8th January or Tuesday, 29th January. Brighton also have to find a date for their game against Tranmere Rovers (which will be called off as it is due to take place on the date of the FA Cup 3rd round) so the chances are that their two games will be scheduled for those two dates.
[Later note: Brighton's league game from 2nd February has been moved forward to Thursday, 31st January, so the second of the dates listed above as possbile for our rearranged game is out. Tuesday, 5th February might be an option but that is the week scheduled for FA Cup Round 4 replays which might conceivably affect Brighton.]
And let's hope by then that they've learnt how to cover the pitch successfully.
Home . Columns Index . The Cube's Corner Index
News . First Team . Opposition . Reserves . Academy . Where Are They Now? . Kingsley . MadStad . Interactive . Links . Site Map