The reserve team lose 1-0 away to Brentford (although this may count officially as a home match because it was originally planned for Farnborough), but stay fourth in the table. Belgian trialist Adraian Bakalli played for Reading in this game.
Teletext is reporting that defender Ken Monkou (currently at Huddersfield) has turned down a loan to Reading.
Jamie Cureton has been charged with misconduct following his goal celebration in the home game against Bristol Rovers (a goal that helped Bristol Rovers manager Ian Holloway to lose his job, incidentally). Now this is of course an absolute disgrace - all Jamie did was to stand there with his hands held up to his head (whether cupping his ears or covering his mouth is not quite clear). Just because the away fans who had been hurling abuse at his direction chose to react to this cannot possibly meant that the player has brought the game into disrepute. In fact there are two groups that should be charged - Bristol Rovers fans (for obvious reasons) and Reading's stewards, for failing to stop that abuse dead in its tracks.
It is vital that we as Reading fans organise a campaign against this. We need to gather similar incidents that have gone unpunished, either from past Reading games (Eric Cantona in the FA Cup at Elm Park obviously springs to mind) or from other recent matches (for example, the scorer of Rotherham's equaliser live on Sky away to Walsall the other week). Given that the incident was mentioned in the referee's report, it may well be that FA regulations forced them to charge Cureton (i.e. they weren't allowed to just ignore what was in the report even if they thought it was stupid). We should still be confident that he will be cleared if there is a fair investigation.
The trip to Luton Town has been rearranged for Tuesday, 3rd April with a 7.45pm kick-off. Perhaps Luton will have learnt how to look after their pitch by then. Also, the home game with Bristol City has been moved forward to Friday, 23rd March in order to avoid a clash with the England-Finland game. Kick-off is at 7.45pm.
After another very poor performance, Reading lose 1-0 at Swansea City and so go out of our last cup competition this season. For match details (report to follow), click here. Had we reached the final of this competition, there would have been a maximum of two midweeks without a game between now and the end of the season, which might just have been at the forefront of either the players' or management team's minds.
Tomorrow sees Reading visit Swansea City for an LDV Vans Trophy Southern Section quarter-final game. Given that the first team didn't get a run-out on Saturday, Alan Pardew is likely to field the same team as he would have done at Luton, perhaps with Scott Howie replacing Phil Whitehead as he did for the 2nd round game at Hereford. The question then is who would have partnered Jamie Cureton on Saturday, and I think it would have been Tony Rougier.
I'm not sure yet whether either club will treat this game that seriously. Swansea are very used to playing meaningless midweek matches because they take part in the FA of Wales Intermediate Cup, a tournament that gets tiny attendances (although it does also get live local television coverage). This may also be why tickets are so cheap - Swansea have learnt from experience that it is the only way to get fans to attend. Given that we have another trip to Swansea very soon, I can't see too many Reading fans making the trip, though.
After last Saturday most Reading fans will have an eye on the weather. The good news is that Swansea's ground is very near the coast and consequently does not suffer badly from frost. Overnight temperatures are forecast to be low, but should not put the game in jeopardy.
The time and venue for Wednesday's reserve match against Brentford have changed. It's now 7pm at Griffin Park, presumably because the Farnborough Town pitch is yet again unfit for duty.
Martin Allen has confirmed that we are looking for a player on loan to cover the left-back position whilst Matt Robinson is out injured. The only name he mentioned was 27-year-old Anthony Barness currently at Bolton Wanderers. Barness is on the fringe of the Bolton first team, although he is playing at the moment. He started his career at Charlton Athletic, just before Alan Pardew joined them, so it's no secret as to how we have found out about him.
I'm not sure if I can keep up with the "Cureton goal celebration" issue. The Thames Valley police said that they had received no complaints on the matter, but I have seen the text of one letter sent in by a Bristol Rovers fan which would definitely count as a complaint. The referee Graham Poll said that he had included the matter in his report, but the FA said it wasn't mentioned. Then today the FA apologised for that statement and said that Poll really had described the incident in his report, and they would now be considering the matter. Meanwhile, watching "Goals on Sunday" on Sky Sports yesterday, I counted 13 incidents that were of a similar nature to Cureton's celebration, not one of which has apparently led to any further action at all.
Reading's match at Luton Town is called off due to snow and ice. It's the only game in the entire country postponed for weather-related reasons. However, although this appears strange, there is no doubt at all that it was the correct decision. I managed to get all the way to Kenilworth Road, and at 2:30pm even the streets around the ground were still covered with ice. Incredibly the conditions just 30 miles away were perfect (if cold), and it seems that the bad weather affected only the immediate Luton area. Having said all that, you do wonder exactly what attempts Luton Town made to get the game on, given that they are in a terrible run of form and have several players out injured.
The Under-17 team must wish that their FA Premier Academy League trip to Arsenal had also been called off, as they lost 8-0. The Under-19s also lost, but it was a bit closer - 4-5 at home to Bristol City. Unfortunately, these results mean that our teams drop into last place in their respective Academy groups, although we do have games in hand. You can see the updated tables here.
The Women's Academy Under-14 match at home to Southampton was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.
Tomorrow sees Reading visit Luton Town. This is an ideal opportunity for a fourth away win of the year, as Luton are struggling at the foot of the table, have managed no wins and one draw in their last six games, and have the second worst home record in the division (behind Bristol Rovers, of course!). We also know from our 4-1 win against them in December that they have absolutely no clue about defending, and have a keeper who has difficulty holding on to the ball. Unfortunately they're likely to select their other goalkeeper, but even so I would not rate a hard-fought draw in this game as a good result.
I think Alan Pardew will play the same team as in the last two games - I think I might recall Martin Butler but I can't see Pardew doing so for this game (especially as he can start him at Swansea in the LDV Vans Trophy on Tuesday and allow him a chance to reclaim his starting position then). We have now gone 220 minutes without conceding a League goal, and the way to extend that run is via stability.
Luton are likely to have two members of The Hate List playing for them - Mark Stein has just returned from injury and played last week, and Matthew Spring plays most games. Stein will rightly get an enormous amount of stick, but it would be nice to see Spring get some attention as well. Stein is one booking short of a suspension - let's help him on his way. Also, Lee Nogan scored in the game at Madejski Stadium (by climbing all over one of our defenders to get his head to the ball first) but hasn't scored in the six subsequent games, so we will need to watch out for him.
Although the away end at Luton is all-seater, the stewards have traditionally allowed fans to stand up. I think this is to avoid their club getting claims for "economy class syndrome" - if you've not been there yet, you'll find out what I mean when you do. I've stood up for the whole of our last two trips to this extremely poor ground.
After today's Avon Insurance Combination League fixtures, Reading stay in fourth place in the table. To be fair, this is at least partly because the only team who could overtake us were Swindon Town and their game was postponed. In fact, six of today's nine scheduled games were postponed due to waterlogged pitches, and one of the remaining three only went ahead because the teams switched venue.
In tonight's Division 2 games, Walsall and Rotherham draw, which is probably the best result from our point of view. Also, Bournemouth's Wade Elliott was sent off which means he will be suspended for our trip there on 6th February.
Bristol Rovers' online fans have voted Michael Meaker as their man of the match for last Saturday. What - not our Jamie?
Last week's trialist Drewe Broughton has signed for Kidderminster Harriers in a five-week loan deal. He had been expected to join Kidderminster last week after turning down offers from several non-league clubs, but decided to try his luck at Madejski Stadium first. Clearly just a wasted week for young Drewe.
Darius Henderson is currently training with Charlton Athletic in order to make him envious of players in the Premiership (at least, I think that's how to interpret Alan Pardew's comments on the matter). A few years ago all that he might have learnt was a quick way to get an FA suspension and perhaps a jail sentence, but maybe things at The Valley have changed since those days.
Trinidad & Tobago have arranged a friendly match against Stevenage Borough on Tuesday, 20th February, as shown on the International Dates page of this website. Stevenage have stated that T&T are expected to field all of their stars except for Dwight Yorke - if this is true, it means that Tony Rougier would miss Reading's trip to Oldham on the same evening. However, T&T do not have first call on Rougier for a friendly match and can not invoke FIFA's five-day rule because their next cometitive international is not until Wednesday, 28th February. If Rougier does play for T&T rather than Reading, then it will presumably be only because of some deal that we have done with the national federation.
At Madejski Stadium on Saturday, there were a lot of pitchside photographers compared to normal home games. I assume that this was because there were so many matches off that some were sent to our game because it was certain to go ahead. However, there were also more TV cameras than usual. There was a camera at the back of each of the South and North Stands, and one in the western disabled area of the North Stand, as well as the usual ones at the back of the West Stand. Some of these were probably from "The West Match", which is HTV West's weekly regional football programme shown on Sundays, but also at the stadium were the crew from ITV's Nationwide Football League Extra. The results will be seen on ITV at 1:30am tonight (i.e. Tuesday morning), repeated at 3:15am tomorrow night (i.e. Wednesday morning).
Reading's reserve team win 3-0 away to Barnet - click here for match details. This moves us back up to fourth in the Avon Insurance Combination league table, although with all the other teams in the league playing later in the week, we might well drop back to fifth. Shavar Thomas, the Jamaican international sweeper, plays in the game, which also saw the return of Sean Evers (after a loan period at St. Johnstone) and Joe Gamble (after a period out with a knee injury).
There might yet be some fallout from Jamie Cureton's goal celebration on Saturday. It may be mentioned in the referees' report, in which case the FA might decide to take action. However, we've all seen much worse than that, and I can't see that Jamie has much to worry about. Also, it is definite that some Bristol Rovers fans have reported him to the police - in the past, I can remember a few rare occasions when Reading fans took similar action against players and in not one case did anything ever come of it.
Reading get back to wining ways by beating Bristol Rovers 1-0. The goalscorer, against his old club, was Jamie Cureton - what a bargain! We stay sixth in the League table but close some of the gaps to clubs above us. For a match report, click here.
In the FA Premier Academy League it is no great surprise that both the Under-19s match away to Chelsea and the Under-17s at home to Fulham fall foul of the weather.
Reading take on Bristol Rovers tomorrow in Division 2. After the decent performance and clean sheet at Stoke last week, I think we can expect to see the same team on duty as for that game, unless Martin Butler returns in place of either Tony Rougier or Jim McIntyre. Jamie Cureton (what a bargain!) managed his 100th career goal in the last seconds of the Millwall game, and will be looking for numbers 101, 102 (and so on) against his old club. However, he didn't really perform in the game on Boxing Day - hopefully this one will be different.
Bristol Rovers on the other hand have been trying this week to buy a striker. After their manager went all the way to Manchester to watch Isaiah Rankin in a reserve match, Rankin was withdrawn from the game and promptly signed for someone else! A bit drastic, but then would you want to play for Bristol Rovers? Instead they're hoping to complete the signing of a reserve player from West Brom in time for Saturday's game. Bristol Rovers have also made some further attempts to get Mark McKeever in recently - let's hope that if they do, it's not for a couple of days.
In recent matches, Michael Meaker has been playing for the Rovers first team, and has been getting some grudging good comments from their supporters. After his first few games with them (when he played well), he settled down to the sort of mediocrity that we saw for most of his time at Reading. Now that his contract is nearly up, he's regained some interest in putting in some effort. If he gets the chance, I am sure that he will want to put on a good display against Reading, and that might not be good news for us because we all know that he does have some ability.
Because Bristol Rovers have been playing so poorly this season (and still haven't won at home in the League), they are not going to bring the large following that they have in the last two seasons - instead they're predicting ticket sales of about 2,000 by Saturday with no tickets on sale to away fans on the day of the game.
According to soccerbase (who have not been terribly reliable just recently) the referee for the game will be Graham Poll of Tring. Of course, Poll used to be based in Tilehurst and is best remembered for refereeing our FA Cup win over Southampton in January 1997. Although he sent off two players from the away side, neither decision was particularly contentious, and the main reason Southampton were annoyed at him was for letting the match go ahead in the first place. It was cold but the pitch wasn't frozen, so I never really understood why they were bleating so much - well, except for the fact that they were just another bunch of overpaid, Premiership tossers who needed their egos massaging on a frequent basis.
You might have notice that the Live Score Updates links on this website had stopped working - or to be precise, were stuck in time on a particular date. I apologise for that, but they should be fixed now. You can use them to get the latest Reading score if you're not actually at the game.
Although some news agencies have reported that Jamaican Shavar Thomas has already arrived in Reading, he is in fact today playing for Jamaica in a match against a St Elizabeth Invitational team at Goshen, St Elizabeth in Jamaica. Kick-off is 3pm local time (8pm GMT). As I type this, you've got 35 minutes to get to the ground! [Footnote added 21st January: Jamaica won 4-1 and Thomas did not get any of the goals.]
Surprisingly, the fake hoops of Queens Park Rangers manage to beat Luton Town at home in their FA Cup replay. This means that Reading's trip to Kenilworth Road on Saturday, 27th January will go ahead as originally planned.
The official Under-19 FA Premier League Academy table for this week has a small change in it. Reading are shown as scoring one more goal than expected, when compared with last week (and Wimbledon as conceding one more). This is due to the result of the game on 28th October, when Wimbledon beat us 2-1. That 2-1 result was reported in the Reading Evening Post (with Adam Lockwood getting our late consolation goal), and has also been in the Reading matchday programmes since the game was played. However, for some reason, the information sent to the FA Premier League's Academy department recorded the score as 2-0, and they therefore accepted that as the official scoreline. After spotting the discrepancy (and wondering for some time what to do about it), 1871 contacted the FA Premier League, who promised to look into the matter. This week, they have corrected the table as described above. Whether it will make any difference to the final standings will not become apparent until the end of the season, of course, but still it allows me to write: 1871 - the website that actually changes the League table!
We might see a radical change in FA Cup dates next season - the BBC have the contract and have announced that they will show live games on Sunday evenings. It's highly unlikely that this will have any impact on Reading for away games but it might just apply if we get a big draw at home to a Premiership club. It also casts doubt on whether we will have games played on the Tuesday of the following week.
Reading's reserve match today, away to Crystal Palace, has been called off due to a frozen pitch. The venue was to have been the Crystal Palace Sports Centre. Whilst we were clicking our heels, Swindon Town were winning their game and have gone above us in the table. Reading drop one place to fifth.
Some news from yesterday - Brentford announced that they were open to any ground-sharing suggestions following the impending sale of Griffin Park to developers. They had been most closely linked with Woking and Kingstonian (yes, the same Kingstonian who failed to get into the LDV Vans Trophy because their ground was not up to standard!), but it's not going to be too long before someone mentions Madejski Stadium as a temporary home.
Ex-Reading player Peter Grant, currently player-coach with Bournemouth, has announced that he will retire from playing at the end of this season (although I believe Bournemouth fans feel that he has already done so, judging by some of their comments about his performances!). This might well mean that his last ever game is at Madejski Stadium, given that we end the season at home to the cheats from the South Coast.
You may remember that Director of the Reading Academy, John Stephenson, left back in October, in order to take up a post with a local IT company. Well, I don't know what's happened since them but he has just been appointed Youth Development Officer at Preston North End. Perhaps he will be able to teach the youngsters at Deepdale not to whinge all the time (although I doubt it very much). He will be working alongside former Reading player Gary Peters, who is manager of Preston's Centre of Excellence. The Deepdale press release is not especially clear, but it looks as though Stephenson will be doing the same sort of set-up job for Preston as he did with the Academy at Reading.
Reading have taken Drewe Broughton on a week's trial. He's a 22-year-old striker currently with Peterborough. He has played first team football at London Road but not during this season. Instead he's been out on loan at Dagenham & Redbridge (including playing in their FA Cup win at Lincoln City) and more recently at Stevenage Borough. Peterborough bought him from Brentford for £100,000 just over two years ago. Earlier this season, Leyton Orient were watching Broughton but clearly decided that he was not good enough for them. Peterborough have obviously come to the same conclusion, so it would be a surprise if he gets a move to Reading.
Also, according to the official site, Jamaican international Shavar Thomas will be getting a trial next week. He's a sweeper, who will be 20 in a couple of weeks time, and is taking a year away from American university in order to see if he can make it as a professional footballer. He will play for Jamaica in their practice match against a St Elizabeth Invitational eleven on Thursday afternoon, a game that excludes Jamaica's European-based players. However, he won't be playing in their next World Cup qualifying game (against Tony Rougier's Trinidad & Tobago on 28th February) because he is also the captain of Jamaica's Under-20 team who between 26th February and 1st March will be taking part in the final CONCACAF qualifying round for the World Youth Cup .
Tickets for the away game against Luton, provisionally scheduled for Saturday, 27th January, are now on sale, priced £14 (£8 for concessions). Our fixture will only take place on that date if Luton lose their FA Cup 4th round replay away to Queens Park Rangers on Wednesday night.
The voting for player and goal of 2000 on the club's official website is over, and the results were announced today. Darren Caskey was the clear winner in the first category, and Nicky Forster's opener at Preston won in the second. Bearing in mind that Nicky's goal was seen by far fewer Reading fans than any of the many we have scored at home, it just shows what a good goal it was.
Today's Sunday Times has an interview with Mark McGhee. Here are some highlights: "McGhee knows and accepts the reasons why he is in need of an image makeover. By his own admission, he played the disloyalty card once too often and got himself a reputation. When he left Reading for Leicester in 1994, there was acrimony, but, for the most part, it was confined to a local level. Yet within a year, McGhee repeated the trick." Note that he doesn't feel that he needs to change his character, just his image!
"From being flavour of the month as a manager in the middle of the 1990s, by its end he was greeted only by a widespread distaste. Clearly, people had believed what they had read about him." Well, it was true. That's why we believed it (and wrote it).
"McGhee says, 'At Millwall, the club anthem is "No-one likes us, we don't care". Maybe that applies to me.' Then again, maybe it doesn't at all. Make no mistake, McGhee does care about being disliked. He may even care too much." Ah, good, because that means that all the abuse we've sung in his direction has hit home.
"Last Saturday, he returned to Reading with Millwall, only to be the victim of more hostility. His team won the game 4-3 amid predictable abuse. 'I mean, come on,' complains McGhee, 'it was six years ago.' You know you're only hearing one side of the story, but are still convinced by what he says. Is it time for football as a whole to forgive and forget?" One side of the story? Yes. Convinced by it? Not in the slightest. Time to forgive and forget? Never.
Reading draw 0-0 with Stoke City and stay in sixth place in the table. It's Reading's first 0-0 draw for nearly a year (364 days!), the previous one being at home to Cambridge United, and the first clean sheet for nine games (since the home match with Cambridge United). Perhaps the point of most interest from the day was to see Nicky Forster joining in with the pre-match warm-up. His shooting and ball control looked pretty good, although not surprisingly he appeared to lack mobility. For a match report, click here.
Reading's Under-19s get a good result in the FA Premier Academy League with a 4-1 home win over Southampton which lifts us off the bottom of the table. Reading took the lead, Southampton equalised on the stroke of half-time, but Reading's youngsters pulled away in the second half with three more goals. The Under-17s didn't have a game today, but you can see both the updated League tables here.
In the 3rd round of the LDV Vans Trophy (or the Southern Section quarter-finals, if you think that sounds better!), Reading are drawn away to Swansea City. Swansea have already announced the confirmed date as Tuesday, 30th January, kick-off 7.45pm. This is just 25 days before we go to the Vetch Field for our League fixture.
Tomorrow Reading travel to Stoke, looking for the win that will take us back above Stoke in the table. Although we lost at the Britannia Stadium last season, we have been something of a bogey side to Stoke for a few years, something that hopefully will continue.
The team is likely to be closer to the one that played at Hereford on Tuesday than to the one that started last Saturday. Phil Whitehead will undoubtedly return in place of Scott Howie, but it's possible that goalkeeper might be the only change with the likes of Martin Butler and Ricky Newman having to settle for places on the bench. Players such as Jim McIntyre, Tony Rougier, Sammy Igoe and Graeme Murty have performed well enough in the last game and a half to feel that they should start against Stoke.
The scheduled referee is Stephen Lodge of Barnsley, last seen by us for the FA Cup games against Cardiff City in 1997/98. It's interesting that our last few games have seen several referees who normally officiate at Premiership matches. I wonder if this is anything to do with the protests that Reading undoubtedly made over the quality of certain refereeing performances earlier in the season, notably in the away games at Peterborough and Walsall.
The Under-17 Academy match away to West Ham United, originally scheduled for tomorrow, has been called off because West Ham are in Germany.
Some bad news, as it is discovered that Matthew Robinson has a broken rib from last Saturday's game. After initial reports suggested he might have a punctured lung, the results of X-rays earlier this week seemed to show only bruising, with suggestions that he might even be back for this Saturday's trip to Stoke. A further X-ray has revealed the fracture and it now looks like he will be out for a couple of months. Stuart Gray played at left-back on Tuesday, whilst Ricky Newman, Andy Gurney, Alex Haddow and even Graeme Murty have all played for the first team in that position at some point this season. The Evening Post states that Alan Pardew is now looking to bring in a left-back on loan.
The match away to Swindon, postponed in December, has been rearranged for Tuesday, March 27th, kick-off 7.45pm. This means that Tony Rougier should be available (Trinidad & Tobago have a World Cup qualifier on Saturday, 24th March but not one the following Wednesday). It also implies that should Reading's home match with Bristol City on 24th March be rearranged due to a clash with the England - Finland World Cup qualifier, then it will not be moved to the Sunday.
Tickets for the away game against Brentford, on Saturday, 10th February, are now on sale to season ticket holders. Any remaining go on general sale from 5pm on 20th January.
Reading's reserve side took on league leaders Queens Park Rangers at Farnborough this evening, and won 3-2. QPR's reserve team had only conceded five goals in their previous 13 games! Reading move up one place to fourth in the table (at the expense of Swindon Town).
The end-of-season trip to Oxford has been moved from Easter Monday afternoon to the following evening, Tuesday, April 17th, kick-off 7.45pm.
A much-changed Reading side beat Hereford 2-1 to move to the area quarter-final stage of the LDV Vans Trophy. Jamie Cureton and Jim McIntyre get the goals. For a match report, click here. The next round is scheduled for the week beginning 29th January, with the draw this Saturday at about 10am. It is live on Sky Sports' Soccer AM programme.
It's the last cup competition of the season tomorrow, as the Royals visit Hereford for an LDV Vans Trophy second round clash. Under normal circumstances, I would probably say that the result of this game was not that important, and that it might even be better to get knocked out to avoid interference with our promotion battle. However, after Saturday's fiasco, I now consider that it is vital that we get back to both winning ways and a decent standard of football as quickly as possible. Obviously losing away to a Conference club would do nothing for our promotion credentials or confidence.
If I was manager the Reading team would look very different from the one that started on Saturday. Alan Pardew did state that he intended to play Guilliaume Norbert, which suggested that he was considering an experimental line-up. However, today's announcement is that Norbert has left the club, so he will not get his big chance. I have no idea at all what the midfield will be, but I think I would play Jim McIntyre, Darren Caskey, Joe Gamble and Graeme Murty. On the other hand, it could be Lee Hodges, Neil Smith, Keith Jones and Caskey. What is certain is that Phil Parkinson is out through suspension.
We'll also need a replacement for Matthew Robinson, who has badly bruised ribs following Saturday's game. That could mean Alex Haddow, but it's more likely to be Andy Gurney. Adi Vivash will probably return in place of John Mackie, and Graeme Murty's performance on Saturday really should earn him a place in the starting eleven too, whether in midfield or at full-back.
It's our first game against Hereford for 12 years, the last meeting being in the same competition (although it was then called the Sherpa Van Trophy) when we lost at home in the 1st round.
If the game comes up to most people's extremely low expectations, then there might just be some alternative entertainment on offer in the heavens. There is a total eclipse of the moon on Tuesday night, with totality beginning just after kick-off and ending early in the second half. The moon will be more-or-less due east, which is to the right of the away terrace (or directly in front if you're in the stand down the side). All the predictions are that there should be clear skies and a spectacularly blood-red moon on view. But don't get too excited, because every single major astronomical event in this country is also accompanied by permanent cloud cover.
Reading lose 4-3 at home to Millwall and stay sixth in the table. Sammy Igoe, Darren Caskey (with a penalty) and Jamie Cureton get Reading's goals. Matthew Robinson was stretchered off, and his injury did not look good. For a match report, click here. But don't be fooled by the closeness of the final scoreline. Today was nowhere near good enough. If you see any of the starting line-up around this week, you have my permission to shoot them. Not one of them earned their money today, or even showed any comprehension of how important a game this was. This was not like the Manchester City game of two years ago - the players we put out on the pitch today should have been perfectly capable of getting a result, but failed to show the slightest passion or footballing intelligence.
According to Reading, the Under-17 Academy game against Crystal Palace, which was rearranged for today, was again called off. According to the Press Association, the game went ahead and Reading won 3-2! I know which of the two organisations I put more trust in, but I suspect that on this occasion it is Reading that are correct. [Footnote added on 20th January: the game really was postponed.]
Guilliaume Norbert's one month trial period ended today, but Reading have extended it for two weeks. He is expected to make a start in the LDV Vans Trophy 2nd round game at Hereford on Tuesday.
The referee for the Millwall game on Saturday is Mike Dean of Wirral. He's normally a Premiership referee, but then so is Clive Wilkes so that obviously proves nothing. He does at least have experience unlike the one we had to put up with away to Walsall. I think the last Reading game Dean refereed was the 1-0 win at Northampton just over two years ago - the game where we had the ball for about 40 minutes of the first half and still didn't manage to look threatening up front.
Tomorrow sees the eagerly awaited visit of Millwall to Madejski Stadium. I think that Reading will field the same team as against Northampton, except that John Mackie will come in for the suspended Adi Viveash. Our performance against Northampton was characterised by a large number of unsuccessful diagonal crosses dealt with comfortably by the tall Northampton central defenders. Apparently Millwall have problems with such crosses, so we no doubt will not see one all game!
In the fixture at The New Den in August, Reading put out a shadow team (I mean, can you imagine Keith Scott getting a game now?) and were comfortably beaten. One surprising highlight of the day was Ricky Newman's best performance in a Reading shirt. Even more surprising is that he has continued to play at that level ever since. Hopefully this next game against his old club, whilst getting a lot of stick from the away fans, will see another good performance from him. On the other hand, Matthew Robinson played quite poorly in that opening game and both goals came from attacks down his flank. He wasn't fully fit at the time, but will need to play better defensively than he has done recently.
The game will see the division's top scorer playing so that means a good opportunity for Martin Butler and Jamie Cureton to get back into the groove and prove that they're better. Cureton's still looking for his 100th career goal, and I don't particularly want to have to type that again!
Whilst it is unlikely that he would have featured in the game anyway, Jim McIntyre is presumably suspended, as Reading have made no further announcements about the planned appeal against his red card in a reserve match two weeks ago.
On the Millwall side, there is the return of Mark McGhee (spit), Michael Gilkes and Paul Moody. Gilkesy is unlikely to play, however. Moody was pretty average in his few games for Reading, but has sometimes played well against us since. He has played in Millwall's recent matches.
Some non-football predictions: (a) a large number of the Millwall fans will behave like thugs, (b) the Thames Valley Police will more-or-less manage to stop the same problems as occurred last season, but (c) the Thames Valley Police will completely fail to adapt to any new "tactics" adopted by the thugs from Millwall. After the game, the Millwall fans will blame the Reading fans, and the police will state that they were extremely happy with the way they handled the day.
The Millennium Stadium in Cardiff is confirmed as the venue for the play-off finals for this season and the following two. It will also stage the next three FA Cup Finals, Worthington Cup Finals and Charity Shields (and it wouldn't surprise me if it was still being used for some time after that). The delay in the announcement was due to concerns over the state of the pitch. Because of the amount of egg-chasing inflicted on the stadium, and because of some very strange rules that mean that the ground cannot be correctly prepared for proper football matches, the surface for Wales matches has been nothing short of atrocious. Hopefully this problem will be completely solved before this wonderful stadium stages future important football games.
According to Ceefax, theMillennium Stadium will also stage the LDV Vans Trophy Final - the previous favourite suggestion had been Villa Park because the final will be between one team from the Northern Section and one team from the Southern Section.
Sticking with Cardiff, Reading have turned down a bid from Cardiff City to buy Scott Howie. They apparently bid £50,000 but there was no chance of us taking the deal given that at the moment our third choice keeper, Jamie Ashdown, is injured. To be honest, I don't think Alan Pardew would really have been tempted to sell Howie anyway. Cardiff will not be coming back with a higher bid, as they have solved their goalkeeping problem by going elsewhere. Earlier in the season, Charlton tried to take Howie on loan as cover for their first-choice keeper, but Reading refused that as well for the same reason.
Reading's reserve team continue their winning ways by beating Bristol City 2-1 at Ashton Gate in the Avon Insurance League Cup. Graeme Murty and Darius Henderson get the goals - for match details, click here. The three points put Reading top of League Cup Group B. The game was originally scheduled for Farnborough, but was switched due to the Cherrywood Road pitch being unfit for play (big shock there). The odd thing was that Reading were originally scheduled for three home games and one away in the group stage, with Bristol City getting only one home game and three away, so there may have been some justice at work here! (I assume that the discrepancy was due to one team pulling out of the League Cup comeptition at the last moment.)
Meanwhile, the reserves slip a place to fifth in the Avon Insurance Combination League table, due to Fulham's 5-0 win at Cheltenham this afternoon.
Reading throw two more points away as we can only draw at home to Northampton. Darren Caskey gets our late equaliser with a fantastic free-kick. The Royals stay in sixth place in the table. For match details (report to follow), click here.
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