Anthony Rougier today played for Trinidad & Tobago in
their 1-0 defeat away to Jamaica in the first game of the final
round of the CONCACAF World Cup qualifying process. Rougier
played the full 90 minutes on the left side of midfield. The game
temperature was 88 degrees Fahrenheit and the crowd about 40,000
- that's in a stadium where the capacity is 35,000, by the way.
The following link will soon have the entire match commentary
including build-up and review:
Jamaica v Trinidad & Tobago - 28th February,
2001 commentary
Rochdale reserves were due to play away to Scarborough in the Avon Insurance League Division 2 this afternoon but the game was postponed. This was the match in which Alex Haddow was expected to play for Rochdale, so he has obviously missed a chance to impress them in a game situation. When Haddow went on trial to Rochdale, Reading said that he might stay for a second week - today's postponement must make that more likely.
This afternoon Reading's reserve team beat Swindon 2-0 away with goals from John Mackie and Joey Alcott to stay third in the league table. James Harper made his debut in the game, and was involved in both goals, whilst John Polston was also in the line-up after recovering from his latest injury. Click here for match details.
The 11am press conference has happened and the news is that we have signed midfielder James Harper from Arsenal for "a substantial six-figure fee". Rumours of the fee range between £750,000 and £350,000. Harper is 20 years old and never played for the Arsenal first team - however he did have a spell on loan with Cardiff City last month where he played three games and got sent off once when retaliating after being fouled. Cardiff agreed a reported £250,000 deal to sign him but that fell through, apparently because Harper did not want to move so far away from his family in London. He had previously said that he would not return to reserve team football at Arsenal and obviously his signing today for Reading has proved that to be true. Cardiff City fans generally have good things to say about him, although it appears that his temperament may be suspect.
Wycombe Wanderers have announced that they are looking for a forward to take on loan for a month who is not cup-tied. In a completely unrelated piece of news, Keith Scott is now back in training and may be fit for this weekend.
The Nationwide Division 2 Manager of the Month award for February is likely to be announced in the very near future now that all the division's games in the month have finished. Alan Pardew has to be in with a shout as Reading have taken thirteen points from five games (with three of those games away from home). However, Rotherham have won all four of their matches this month (all at home!) and Millwall have fourteen points from six games (including four away from home). Throw Joe Kinnear's twelve points from five games at Luton into the mix, and it looks unlikely that the award will be heading to Reading this time.
According to the club's official website, there will be a press conference at 11 o' clock on Wednesday when we are expected to announce a new signing. There have been a few rumours in the last few days about players we are interested in, but none of them really sounded that likely to join imminently. Another possibility is that the conference is for one of our existing players signing a new deal, although the club had previously stated that negotiations would not commence until the end of the season. The exception to that rule might be Adrian Whitbread, whose loan move was intended to be with a view to a permanent signing and whose performances so far have certainly suggested that he is up to the mark. Finally of course, there's always the old club marketing trick to get everyone thinking about a new player, and then announce a new marketing manager, or something like that!
One player who we were linked with on Monday was Steve Claridge who announced earlier today that it would be at least the end of the week before his future became clear. So unless that statement was a red herring, tomorrow's press conference is not about him. However, although there have been believable rumours that he will be taking over as manager of Cambridge United, Claridge himself said on Tuesday night that he should NOT be linked with Cambridge. He also said that he didn't know what he was going to do yet.
According to the FA, Simieon Howell now has two England caps (both as starts), so he clearly played in either the draw against Spain or the defeat against Germany in last week's Walkers Crisps Under-15 International Tournament. [Footnote added 2/3/2001: Simieon played in the 2-0 defeat to Germany.]
Alex Haddow has joined Rochdale on a week's trial and is expected to play for their reserves this week. Although Rochdale are in the play-off places in Division 3, they lost 7-1 at home to Shrewsbury on Saturday, picking up some injuries along the way, so they are obviously looking to add some new blood to their squad. Haddow's contract with Reading is up at the end of the season and the purchase of Nicky Shorey made it pretty obvious that we did not intend to keep Haddow on. At Rochdale he will rejoin ex-Royal Phil Hadland, of course.
Anthony Rougier played the first half today for Trinidad & Tobago in their practice match against the Cayman Islands (which T&T won 3-0), as did almost all of their other star players.You may have noticed that Trinidad & Tobago allowed Dwight Yorke to play for Manchester United today, despite requiring all their other English-based players (including Rougier) to be at their training camp in the Cayman Islands. Now I accept that T&T have the absolute right to invoke FIFA's five-day rule before an important World Cup qualifier, but I do not understand how they can abuse that right by allowing one player to remain. You could even argue that Manchester United's game today was not particularly important because they have obviously already won their League. On the other hand teams like Reading, Burnley and Bristol Rovers have lost players, despite having had to play important games this weekend. Bristol Rovers have put in a protest to the FA asking them to take the matter up with FIFA and the T&T Football Federation.
Television viewing of the Swansea City penalty claim after about fifteen minutes of yesterday's game shows that the referee got it absolutely right when he waved play on. After a mix-up between Phil Whitehead and Adi Viveash, a Swansea forward went sprawling in the area - he in fact ran straight into Viveash who wasn't even looking in his direction. It wasn't a penalty and it wasn't a dive by the Swansea player, either.
Both Phil Parkinson and Adi Viveash are in Sport First's Team of the Day.
England Under-15s lost 2-1 against Germany Under-15s in the Walkers Crisps Under-15 International Tournament at Southend United's ground, Roots Hall in front of a crowd of 12,500. However I haven't yet found out whether Reading's Simieon Howell played in the England team. [Footnote added 2/3/2001: He did.]
Reading beat Swansea City 1-0 with a goal just before half-time from Jamie Cureton. We stay in fifth place in the League but five of the top eight teams lost today so we have gained ground. For a match report, click here. This means that we have won three away games on the trot - surprisingly the last time that happened was less than a year ago when we beat Wrexham, Bristol Rovers and Notts County in April 2000.
In the FA Premier Academy League, the Under-19s beat Chelsea 2-1 at home - this is an excellent result against one of the higher placed teams, and moves us up to eighth in our Group of ten teams. Meanwhile the Under-17s lost 2-1 away to Southampton.
According to the Evening Post, Anthony Rougier has been suffering from an ankle injury ever since the Walsall game on 4th November, and will need an operation over the summer. They also state that he will miss the upcoming games against Wrexham (17th March), Bristol City (23rd March), Oxford United (17th April) and Walsall (21st April) because of World Cup qualifiers, but that Rougier is considering not playing for Trinidad & Tobago again if his country fail to qualify for the 2002 World Cup.
I see all sorts of problems with this story due to lack of proper research by the journalist - firstly, T&T have three World Cup qualifying games in June (the last of which is on 30th June) - therefore any operation will presumably have to wait until July, which will put him out for Reading's pre-season training. Secondly, T&T will indeed be able to invoke the FIFA 5-day rule for the Bristol City and Walsall games, but Reading have first claim on Rougier's services for the Wrexham and Oxford games. (In fact, the other game at risk is the Swindon Town game on 27th March, just two days after T&T play at home to Costa Rica.) And finally, if Rougier does stop playing for his country he won't be able to get a work permit in the future because one of the rules is that a player must have played 75% of his country's games over the previous two years.
The rationale behind the Avon Insurance Combination League Cup Final venue is explained - the League officials flipped a coin to decide the venue after both Reading and Norwich City agreed the game should be a one-off. Personally, I'm rather looking forward to a trip to Carrow Road.
I know that England Under-15s drew 0-0 with Holland at Crawley Town last night, but so far I've been unable to find out whether Simieon Howell won his second England cap in the game. I appreciate that no-one wants to hear this, but Germany have won the tournament by winning their first two games. England's final game is against Germany at Southend United on Saturday at 8pm. For details of the tournament, click here. [Footnote added 2/3/2001: Simieon did not play in the Holland game.]
Tomorrow sees Reading visit Swansea for the second time in a few weeks. In the LDV Vans Trophy match, it was clear that Swansea wanted to win whilst the Reading players were not interested. Despite that Swansea were still a bit fortunate to beat us, so in a League game we must have every chance of continuing our recent good run. In late September, we played Swansea at Madejski Stadium when they had only conceded three goals all season, and beat them 5-1. Since then they have spiralled downwards to second last place in the division (not even Swansea have managed to drop below Oxford United!) and have not won a League game since Boxing Day. This compares with Reading's four wins in five games including the last two away.
After the performance at Oldham, Alan Pardew would probably liked to have fielded an unchanged line-up but he will be unable to do so because of Ricky Newman's latest suspension. The obvious replacement is a return to the starting eleven for Matthew Robinson - he played as substitute in our last two league games and for 60 minutes in the reserve friendly on Wednesday. Even if Adi Viveash is fit, I expect Barry Hunter to retain his place, perhaps with Viveash taking Robinson's place on the bench. We will also be without Anthony Rougier, who is on international duty, so another substitute will be needed. I think that Andy Gurney might be the obvious person, even after Thursday's news that he has gone on the transfer list. One concern I do have is that the extremely heavy pitch at Oldham may have taken a lot out of our team, so we might see some of them tiring towards the end of the game.
Five of our players (Martin Butler, Barry Hunter, Jim McIntyre, John Mackie and Darius Henderson) are one yellow card away from picking up a suspension. Henderson is injured and Mackie is unlikely to be on show but the other three need to be careful. If they can get to the end of February without getting another yellow card, then they will avoid a suspension this season and instead only get a warning.
If you're travelling to the game by car, then you have to pay a toll for the privilege of getting across the Severn Bridge. What most people don't know is that if you get a receipt from the toll you can then get a half price pot of tea or a free cake (depending on the offer at the time) at Magor services nine miles further down the road. It's not much but it might reduce the pain of having to pay to get into Wales.
Reading's Under-19 team beat Bristol City 3-1 away this afternoon. This moves us off the bottom of the table.
Andy Gurney has gone on the transfer list at his own request. Gurney was signed from Torquay United by Tommy Burns for £100,000 in January 1999 and his contract expires at the end of this season. He is obviously not happy about the lack of first team oportunities that he has had recently, particularly I am sure because he lost his place in the first team when he was playing well.
England's Under-15s take on Holland tonight in the Walkers Crisps Under-15 International Tournament at Broadfield Stadium, the home of Crawley Town FC. Simieon Howell, from the Reading Academy, is in the squad and will be hoping to get his second England cap. Kick-off is at 8pm, but this tournament is played as double-headers, so that there is also a match between Germany and Spain kicking off at 6pm. Tickets are free for under-16s accompanied by adults, free for senior citizens, £3 for unaccompanied under-16s, and £3 for adults. The stand is already sold out, but there are terrace places available and I'm sure Simieon would appreciate the support. The final games of the tournament are on Saturday, 24th February at Southend United's ground, Roots Hall, with the same kick-off times. On that date, England play Germany at 8pm.
The dates for Reading's reserve cup ties are announced - the quarter-final of the Berks & Bucks Senior Cup away to Maidenhead United will be on Wednesday, 7th March (7.30pm) whilst the Avon Insurance Combination League Cup final against Norwich City will be played at Carrow Road on Wednesday, 18th April (7.30pm).
Whilst Anthony Rougier was sitting on the bench at Oldham last night, Trinidad & Tobago were playing the last match of their short tour, beating Stevenage Borough 1-0. The T&T squad trained in England today, presumably including Rougier, and will leave these shores tomorrow headed for Grand Cayman Island. They will then go to Kingston in Jamaica on Monday for their first World Cup qualifier in the CONCACAF final group on Wednesday. This all means that Rougier will be missing for our trip to Swansea, of course.
Reading's Under-17s took on Arsenal this afternoon and lost 1-0. For a brief match report, click here. The Under-19s game with Bristol City has been moved to tomorrow (Thursday 22nd February), kick off 1pm at Bristol City's Clifton College training ground. Meanwhile a Reading reserve side lost 2-1 today in a friendly at Southampton - for match details, click here.
Reading beat Oldham 2-0 on a truly atrocious pitch with goals from Martin Butler and Jamie Cureton. That's our third double this season, with more to come! Unbelievably, we are now also the form team in the division for away matches!!! For a match report, click here. Some of the other results in the division tonight go our way and so we move up to fifth place in the League table, ahead of Stoke City on goal difference. We lost fifth place back on 30th December through no fault of our own when the game at Swindon was postponed. In tonight's game Barry Hunter replaced Adi Viveash, who had failed to recover from the knee injury he suffered on Saturday. This means that in Barry's last four games we have kept a clean sheet, whilst in the two matches he missed we conceded one goal each time. Something to think about.
Maidenhead United beat Slough Town 2-0 in Round 3 of the Berks and Bucks Senior Cup, and so earn the right to host Reading in the quarter-finals.
Teamtalk (and anyone who is gullible enough to believe it and then regurgitate it on their own website) state that Adi Viveash will get a three-game ban for his sending-off on Saturday. In fact, his red card was given for two yellows, and that means that he will only get a one game ban. He will miss the Rotherham home game on Saturday, 3rd March.
Reading make the long trip to Oldham tomorrow, looking to make up for dropping two points last Saturday. Apparently, both Adi Viveash and Adrian Whitbread picked up slight injuries against Peterborough, but it seems likely that they will both be fit to play. Therefore it could well be the same starting line-up, who did of course do pretty well for the first 45 minutes. Neil Smith will be available again after suspension, although it's unlikely that he will be in the named sixteen players.
Oldham on the other hand did not play on Saturday, so should be relatively well rested. However, that didn't do us any good against Northampton on 1st January, so let's hope Oldham get a bit complacent about it as well. Oldham have lost one player who suffered bad injuries in a town centre brawl last week. There's also currently an investigation surrounding the passport of another of their players, Carlo Corazzin, so hopefully he will have been deported before the game gets underway. Or better still, during it.
The pitch is likely to be heavy, because Oldham typically suffers the worst weather of any Football League team and also groundshare with the local rugby league team. That's not going to suit our game at all, and will allow some justifiable use of Alan Pardew's long ball tactics. We've also had a bit of a lucky escape because Oldham are going to try to give away 3,000 tickets to children for their next Saturday home game - I'm quite relieved that we won't have to listen to them shrieking all game (or at least to the 50% of those with free tickets who will actually bother to turn up, because in Oldham they can't even give them away!).
Adam Campion is in an FA Youth XI playing against England South West Counties at Taunton tonight. Let's hope that it's the springboard for further representative honours.
For the first time since November, our women's Academy teams actually got a game on Saturday. The Under-14s beat Chelsea 9-2 - for match details, click here. I believe that the Under-12s won by the same score, also against Chelsea.
Trinidad & Tobago play their latest friendly on Tuesday at Stevenage. However, Anthony Rougier has been released so that he is available for our League game at Oldham.
A website announcement - I have had enough of the club's refusal to rename the East Stand in accordance with the fans' wishes, particularly given the fact that Oxford United have, to their credit and our shame, stepped forward and announced that they will name a stand of their new ground after the great man. Therefore this sentence is the last time that you will find a reference on this site to the "East Stand". From now on it is the "Maurice Evans Stand" at all times. I encourage everyone else to adopt the same policy, including when you ring the club asking for match tickets. Sooner or later, we will get our way by adopting such action. (And while we're on the topic of being ignored, none of us in the Maurice Evans Stand want to hear music played over the tannoy after Reading score goals, even if Alan Pardew does think it's a good idea.)
Graeme Murty makes the Sport First "Team of the Day" for Division 2.
Reading draw 1-1 with Peterborough United but do move back up to sixth in the table. With no other top team winning today, the result represents a very real lost chance to make progress and to get up to fourth place. Jamie Cureton gets the goal, Adrian Whitbread makes his home debut, and Matthew Robinson returns from injury, but Adi Viveash is sent off for two yellow card offences (or to be more precise, one yellow card offence and one dive). For a match report, click here.
In the FA Premier Academy League, the Under-19s lost 3-1 away to Fulham. The Under-17s beat Crystal Palace 1-0 at home.
Trinidad & Tobago played the second friendly match of their short tour against Millwall on Thursday - it was a 3-3 draw and Anthony Rougier did not play in the game. Ex-Royal Michael Gilkes did however get the first Millwall goal. They had been scheduled to play against West Ham United but the Premiership club pulled out at short notice.
Some quite staggering news - according to the club's official site, Wednesday's reserve victory over Portsmouth will count for both the League and League Cup. This means that Reading move up to third in the Avon Insurance Combination League table. Playing a match for two different comeptitions is one of those things that fans often talk about (especially during seasons with lots of postponements), but it's something that never seems to happen in practice - this could well be a first for Reading.
That win over Portsmouth took us through to the final of the League Cup against Norwich City - the final will take place at the home ground of one of the two finallists, with the date and venue to be decided by the Avon Insurance Combination League Management Committee.
Peterborough visit Madejski Stadium tomorrow, and have apparently managed to keep hold of their most recently signed goalkeeper - an England Under-21 international from Arsenal. They have also today signed from Havant & Waterlooville Gary McDonald, who played on trial for Reading in our reserve game on Wednesday. The Peterborough squad also features ex-Royal Martin Williams, who has been playing for the side recently. Peterborough have won only one of their last ten games in all competitions, and that was only a home game against Oxford.
After last Saturday's team performance at Brentford, the Reading line-up is likely to be unchanged. However, with Matthew Robinson playing in that reserve game on Wednesday it is only a matter of time before he returns to the left-back spot. I expect, however, that tomorrow is too soon, and Alan Pardew may instead wait until Ricky Newman's next suspension starts next Saturday. For the Peterborough game Neil Smith is suspended, although he was highly unlikely to feature in the squad anyway.
Off-field distractions tomorrow will be provided by the filming of a commercial for a well-known soft drink. The drink itself is so disgusting that I'm not planning on giving them any more free advertising by mentioning it by name. The filming will apparently take place during 15 minutes of the match - I think that this is quite a dangerous step. There's no doubt that it will distract the fans, and quite possibly also the players and officials. What is important about tomorrow is that we get three points, and not that the club can make a few extra pounds from commercial activity. If we lose the game we'll stay seventh in the table, a draw will move us up to sixth and a win will put us fifth or possibly even fourth.
If you can't get to the stadium, you may be able to get live
commentary of the game provided by BBC Radio Cambridgeshire by
following this link:
Peterborough
United official site
However, this service is still experimental, so do not get your
hopes too high.
Sean Evers has turned down a loan move to Plymouth Argyle. Personally, I think this is a good thing. The bottom of the English third division represents a huge step up in class from the Scottish League where he played on loan recently. If he can continue to move in the correct direction he might even get up to the standard of the rest of our club.
Reading's Academy goalkeeper Simon Cox played the last 17 minutes for the Republic of Ireland Under-16s in their 1-0 friendly win over Norway last night. The game was played at United Park in Drogheda.
With the weather problems of the last few months, it is no surprise that the games in the Berks & Bucks Senior Cup have been falling by the wayside. Reading are exempt to the quarter-finals (which is Round 4) and we have been drawn against Maidenhead United or Slough Town. The quarter-final round is supposed to be played in the week commencing 5th March, but the Maidenhead - Slough game has already been postponed several times, with the next attempt scheduled for 7.30pm on Tuesday, 20th February. Incidentally, Wycombe Wanderers were exempt to Round 3, but after their tie against Windsor & Eton was called off three times, Wycombe have withdrawn from the competition. They rightly received a hefty fine for doing so (well, it was £50 which is a lot of money for a pub outfit like them).
Reading came from behind to beat beat Portsmouth 2-1 in the Avon Insurance Combination League Cup, meaning that we have won Group B of the competition and go through to the final against Norwich City. The game was moved to Palmer Park because the Farnborough pitch was yet again unplayable. Matthew Robinson made his comeback from injury.
The Peterborough goalkeeper plot thickens. As previously mentioned, their first choice keeper is out injured for eight weeks and their reserve keeper is suspended for three games, including this Saturday's game with Reading at Madejski Stadium. Earlier in the week they signed Ian Feuer on loan from Wimbledon, but that deal has collapsed with Wimbledon's insistence on being able to recall him. So today they have taken Stuart Taylor on loan from Arsenal. Let's wait to see if he lasts until Saturday!
Havant & Waterlooville central defender Gary McDonald held talks with Reading earlier this week. He's 21 and was their Player of the Year last season. He was previously at Portsmouth so it's not too difficult to see where the connection to Reading comes from. Ironically another club interested in McDonald are Peterborough United - in fact Peterborough are keen to sign him before Saturday's game to help out with their current injury crisis. This is all a bit reminscent of the fight for Martin Butler between us and Preston North End just before the game at Deepdale last season (and we won that particular financial muscle contest!).
Anthony Rougier played the first half of Trinidad & Tobago's 3-0 defeat against a Charlton Athletic reserve side at The Valley tonight. The score at half-time was 1-0, and hopefully Rougier only went off for tactical or squad rotation reasons.
Not too surprisingly, Bristol City won their home game tonight, so Reading drop to seventh place in the League table. However, on Saturday the roles are reversed - Bristol City are playing in the FA Cup so that a draw in our game against Peterborough will put us back ahead of them. Also, Rotherham don't have a game this weekend so a win will put us ahead of them as well.
Simon Cox, previously on standby for the Republic of Ireland Under-16 friendly against Norway tomorrow night, has now travelled to Drogheda and is expected to play at least one half of the match. The other goalkeeper in the squad is Morgan Cranley of Grimsby Town.
Reading's official site has been very smart to spot that Peterborough were without a goalkeeper for this Saturday's game against us. Peterborough's first choice keeper was injured last Saturday against Stoke and their reserve keeper is suspended for the next three games. They have filled the gap by signing American Ian Feuer from Wimbledon on loan, but he is playing for Wimbledon's reserves tonight so there's still plenty of opportunity for the curse to hit him as well! (NB Wimbledon lost the game 3-0, so I hope he did play.)
Tickets for the trip to Wycombe on Tuesday, 6th March have gone on sale today to season ticket holders, priced £15 for the side stand and £14 for the end stand, with various different rates of concession for seniors, juniors, or places in the family area. Any remaining go on general sale Monday, 19th February.
The Trinidad & Tobago training camp (in preparation for their World Cup qualifier on Wednesday, 28th February) has got underway. On Monday, they trained at Arsenal's training ground, and Anthony Rougier was expected to join them. On Monday evening, the whole squad was due to watch the West Ham - Coventry match and then this evening they have a friendly against Charlton Athletic at The Valley. Now this is all well and good from a T&T perspective, but how does it affect Reading's preparation for our home game with Peterborough on Saturday? However, based on last Saturday's line-up and performance at Brentford, it seems unlikely that Rougier would make the starting eleven next Saturday.
I made a mistake regarding Ricky Newman's forthcoming suspension. Unless Reading have successfully made an appeal that they haven't told anyone about, Ricky has been booked ten times this season (nine times for the first team and once for the reserves), including each of the last four first team games. However, because he has picked up those bookings before the second Sunday in April, he will be suspended for TWO games. That means he'll miss the trip to Swansea City on Saturday, 24th February and the home game against Rotherham on Saturday, 3rd March.
Incidentally we have a few players who are getting close to their fifth yellow card of the season. If they can avoid reaching that mark before the end of February, then they avoid a suspension and are only warned as to their future conduct. On the other hand, if Ricky Newman gets to 15 yellow cards before the end of the season, he will then get a three match ban.
Reading secure our second double of the season (I said there would be more!) by beating Brentford 2-1, but still stay in sixth place in the table. The goals come from Phil Parkinson and Sammy Igoe, whilst Adrian Whitbread makes his debut for the Royals. Ricky Newman gets booked - that's his tenth of the season which means another one game ban [but see news on 12th February above]. He will miss the match away to Swansea on Saturday, 24th February. For a match report, click here.
In the FA Premier Academy League, the Under-17s lose 1-0 away to Wimbledon. The Under-19s were due to play at home to Queens Park Rangers but the game was postponed.
The Women's Academy Under-12 and Under-14 teams are supposed to be away to Barnet but both games are postponed due to waterlogged pitches.
I realise that this is hardly a big shock, but Anthony Rougier is named in the Trinidad & Tobago squad for their forthcoming World Cup qualifier against Jamaica on Wednesday, 28th February. If T&T invoke the FIFA 5-day rule, he will miss the away League game against Swansea on Saturday, 24th February (assuming that Swansea are able to provide a playable pitch on that date). T&T also want him for friendlies they are playing on the 13th, 15th and 20th February. This would obviously clash with our games against Peterborough on the 17th and at Oldham on the 20th. I am sure discussions are ongoing as to which team he will play for during this period.
For tomorrow's trip to Brentford, Adrian Whitbread is in the Reading squad, but today's signing Nicky Storey is ineligible. Whitbread must have a chance of starting alongside Adi Viveash, but I think he might only get as far as the bench. Graeme Murty is fit again and may well take over at right-back with Ricky Newman switching to left. The alternatives are to play Stuart Gray at left back, or Andy Gurney as either full-back. However, Gurney might not be fit, which would be a shame after his excellent goal at Griffin Park last season. Up front, I think Martin Butler will start - personally I'd drop Anthony Rougier to the bench and leave Jim McIntyre wide on the left.
This is one of a series of away games against poor sides that Reading need to be taking three points from, rather than one or none (assuming that the clubs concerned are actually capable of providing a playable pitch, of course). In League games we haven't conceded a goal for 310 minutes, and with Brentford's scoring problems there should be a good chance of extending that run. Earlier in the season we comfortably beat Brentford 4-0 at Madejski Stadium.
The game at Bournemouth has been rearranged for Tuesday, 10th April with a 7.45pm kick-off. The match is now all-ticket for home fans, although Bournemouth do not say whether this applies to us as well. Tickets for either of the previous attempts to play the game will be valid of course, but you only have until Friday, 30th March to get a refund if you can't make the revised date. The long-term weather forecast is for bright sunny days leading up to the planned date, and a short shower at 6:30pm meaning that it will have to be called off again. If you get to the ground and have difficulty in finding your way to the away end, then that will probably be because the sign that used to point out the direction is currently in my garage. (And before anyone complains about that, I merely tidied up some rubbish I found in a Bournemouth street and did not personally liberate the sign from its previous home.)
Chief Executive Nigel Howe has confirmed that Reading really are attempting to sign former England international Geoff Thomas, currently at Barnsley. However, we are not the only club interested and the chances of him arriving must be small.
Well ITV may have jumped the gun a bit yesterday when they said that we'd signed four new players, but they did get one of them right. One of the four trialists from Wednesday's reserve game, Nicky Shorey from Leyton Orient, has indeed signed for Reading today. The fee is an initial £25,000 plus further payments based on appearances. He's a left-back who is very nearly 20 years old. Nicky (properly Nicholas) didn't feature in the Worthington Cup games against Reading earlier this season but has played for the Leyon Orient first team nine times this season.
Two signings in two days surely indicates that we are making a push to step up a level in our promotion bid. I have thought for some while that part of the reason why we have fallen back to sixth place is that other clubs have moved forward since the earlier part of the season whilst we have at best stood still. Two new signings (so far) and the return of some key players for injury may give the team the sort of kick-start needed to make sure that momentum is once again on our side.
According to the ITV football website, Reading have signed all four of the trialists who played for the reserves on Wednesday. Sounds like total rubbish to me!
However, we really have signed Portsmouth central defender Adrian Whitbread on a three month loan deal, which of course means to the end of the campaign (excluding play-offs). He's already been to Madejski Stadium once this season, as he played for the Luton team that we comfortably beat 4-1 on 23rd December. Hopefully it was the rest of Luton's defence that was so poor, rather than Whitbread. His strengths are quite similar to those of Adie Williams, as he is considered a good leader and communicator, as well as being strong in the air and a good man-marker. We'll just have to wait to see if our latest central defender called Adrian has a nickname that is pronounced the same as Adie and Adi, but spelt differently.
There is already some talk that this will become a permanent move - Whitbread's contract with Portsmouth expires at the end of this season, and in November they stated that he was available on a free transfer (principally because he underwent knee surgery last summer). Since then he has played on loan with Luton Town for two months - Luton wanted to sign him, but could not agree personal terms. There was a rumour at the time that he only failed to make a deal there because there was another club interested, so today's announcement and the rumours reported recently suggest that Reading were the club in question. Whilst he was on loan at Luton, Portsmouth were still paying part of his wages - it's unclear whether Reading have the same arrangement.
News reaches me that our Academy goalkeeper Simon Cox, who has been playing for the Under-19s recently, is on standby for the Republic of Ireland Under-16 squad, who play against Norway next Wednesday. For details of all Reading's current international players and when they might be representing their country, follow this link.
Manchester United and baseball's New York Yankees announce a deal linking the two organisations for commercial purposes. Well, I'm a big baseball fan and I'm delighted to say that I've always hated the Yankees! The way forward for Reading is clear - get in touch with the Kansas City Royals NOW, and set up a similar deal. Kansas City are deemed a small-market team by US standards, but there's clearly better scope for joint marketing between the two sets of Royals (something which the Manchester / New York deal cannot manage without one of the teams changing their name or nickname).
Reading's reserve team beat Bristol City 2-0 at Palmer Park with Joe Gamble and trialist Craig Etherington (West Ham) getting the goals. For an eye-witness match report, click here. Three other trialists played in this game - Anthony Allman (Charlton), Nicky Shorey (Leyton Orient) and Kemal Izzet (Charlton).
Reading's match against Bournemouth is again called off due to a waterlogged pitch. I arrived in Bournemouth at 3:30pm and it was obvious then that the game was not going to go ahead. In fact, I rang a friend at 4pm and said as much to him. I went to the ground at 4:30pm (where I could see that the Reading team coach had already arrived) and was told that a pitch inspection was going ahead. At that time there was very heavy rain, but this stopped at about 4:40pm. The game was finally called off at 5:25pm. Incidentally, there was some very light rain until about 5pm, but between then and 10pm it was bone-dry, so yet again had the match been able to go ahead we would not have got wet whilst standing on the open terrace.
Firstly, it was clear that the ground conditions in Bournemouth were far, far worse than back in November. That certainly increases the evidence for the first game only being called off because of underhand methods used by the Bournemouth groundstaff (see news for 5th February). Secondly, I firmly believe that this second game could have quite safely been called off on Monday - it is difficult to complain when Bournemouth were clearly trying to get the game on, but I can see no reason why it should have taken until 5:30pm to make the decision.
Tomorrow it's off to Bournemouth again for another attempt to play our League fixture there. It has been raining a lot in Bournemouth this week, but for this game the home side do not have several key players (including Defoe) out injured so it is unlikely that they will be trying to get the game called off. In case you think that's a bit cynical, remember first that the match scheduled for 25th November was postponed because of a waterlogged pitch. Then consider the following:
(a) a Bournemouth fan stated that he was at the ground at 11am
on the day of the postponed game, and the ground staff were
watering the pitch in front of the main stand!
(b) Only parts of the pitch were deemed unplayable, including the
section in front of the main stand. This is despite the fact that
there is no reason for this area to receive more rain than
anywhere else (if anything it should get slightly less as the
prevailing wind direction is from the south-west and the stand
should provide some shelter for that portion of the pitch).
(c) The match was called off at 1:07 pm - by 1:15pm there were
posters up stating that the game had been postponed (I realise
that it is really easy for most people to run off a few posters
quickly but we're talking about a football club here).
(d) I tried to buy a programme in the club shop at 1:20pm and was
told that they hadn't arrived. It's more than a little suspicious
that the programme producers knew not to take them to the ground,
as normally you'd expect them to be available from about noon.
(e) If the pitch had looked dubious there could have been an
early morning pitch inspection, but no local referee was called
in to do this (see point (a) above).
(f) All local football in the Bournemouth area that weekend went
ahead as scheduled.
(g) There was not one drop of rain in Bournemouth between 1:15pm
and 5pm.
Having said that, there are comments from people based in Bournemouth that Tuesday's game might be in doubt because of all the recent rain, so try to check before travelling.
Reading are unlikely to make too many changes to the team that played against Port Vale, although I would expect to see Martin Butler start instead of Tony Rougier. Andy Gurney got a calf injury on Saturday - although he might be fit by tomorrow night, it's more likely that Stuart Gray will retain his place. Graeme Murty also has a slight injury and may be fit by Tuesday night, but I can't see him getting further than a place on the bench. If we win the game, we go up to fourth place, draw and we stay in sixth, whilst a defeat will drop us to seventh as our goal difference will then be worse than that of Bristol City.
Bournemouth's centre-forward Steve Fletcher (easily noticeable as the lumbering ox type) has scored two goals in his last 22 games, and the home fans consider this an appalling statistic. Have they never heard of Paul Brayson? How we dreamed of seeing him score two goals in such a "short" space of time. Reading reject Peter Grant is unlikely to get a game, although as player-coach he will be in evidence. He was injured for a while but has now recovered.
One change to Dean Court since our last visit is that the home end (the South Stand) has been closed for demolition, although they've not made much progress yet. For most remaining fixtures this season, the home fans will take what has traditionally been the away end (the Brighton Beach End), but because they had already sold a large number of tickets for our visit we will be standing in the normal place. It's an uncovered end and the weather forecast is for light rain.
The only areas for home fans are the New Stand (the covered terrace down the side) which holds 2,400 and the bulk of the Main Stand. Bournemouth have been trying to encourage home fans to buy their tickets in advance, as they expect the New Stand to be full, because the Main Stand is more expensive and also because you have to queue at a ticket window to buy a ticket for the Main Stand. The game is not all-ticket for either home or away fans, so anyone doing some simple calculations can see that there are likely to be some home fans locked of the home terrace who will then no doubt consider entry to the away end, either to save money, cause trouble or just to get in before kick-off.
Obviously the fact that there are Reading fans behind one goal and no-one behind the other, plus the fact that home fans are still sorting out where they should group together for games, should give us a slight advantage in terms of making noise and influencing the referee.
There is a fairly ancient tramp who always used to stand with his dog in the away end at the back on the left hand side for all games at Bournemouth, even though he was based in Bournemouth (& District!) - I always assumed that the stewards let him in for nothing. You'll be delighted to know that this character is still going in the away end. I remember a Tuesday night game between Bournemouth and Rotherham about 15 years ago when him, his dog, me and a load of police were the only occupants of the away end (all four travelling Rotherham fans having chosen to go into the seats). I stood as far away from the stench as I could get. This story has a happy ending, because Rotherham won 2-1.
If you're not travelling to the game, don't forget that you
should be able to listen to commentary (provided by BBC Radio
Solent, I think) at:
AFC Bournemouth
official site
If you follow that link, it says that commentary will be
available from 3pm - it's just a suggestion but I'd wait until 7.45pm
if you want to hear anything interesting.
Note that the reserves game against Bristol City on Wednesday is to be played at Farnborough Town with a 2pm kick-off, and not as originally stated in Bristol. (Or to be more precise, the Bristol City team are travelling to Farnborough so it's definitely not going to go ahead anywhere else!) This whole paragraph is "weather permitting", of course.
The Port Vale manager was quoted on North-West teletext as sayng that he was very disappointed with the result on Saturday, and that he thought the visitors were the better side and deserved to have won! I have no idea which game he went to, but it obviously wasn't the same one that I was at.
From tomorrow, the official websites of most Nationwide League clubs are participating in a two-month monitoring exercise. As I understand it, this is to measure hit counts which will be used to determine future payments. I don't know if Reading are one of the clubs involved but if so, I think we can expect to see a dramatic increase in the amount of information added to the official site during this period. Who knows, they might even update the Academy results from those games played over the last two months.
The Sport First so-called Team of the Week for Division 2 includes both Adi Viveash and Ricky Newman. Newman is included in the team as a midfielder despite having played at full-back in both of our matches in the last seven days! I've said it before and I'll say it again - this Team of the Week is really just a joke and they obviously have no good way to select the correct players. I assume that they're operating some sort of rotation system to make sure there is a good spread of different clubs and players throughout the season.
Reading complete their first double of the season (the first of many!) by grinding out a 1-0 victory over Port Vale. Martin Butler comes on as a substitute and gets the winning goal. We stay sixth in the table. For a match report, click here.
Reading's number 37 appears to have changed his name. Up until last week, our Trinidad & Tobago international was always referred to as "Tony" Rougier by anyone at Reading (although at international level, he was always called "Anthony" Rougier). Someone has since put a crackdown on, and all references to him in the programme now read "Anthony" Rougier. Before today's game with Port Vale, Rougier even approached the guy with the microphone reading out the team sheets - I wonder if he was just making sure that the new regime was being properly followed. Such changes may all appear a bit Stalinist but this website will endeavour to keep up with the names that our players choose.
In the FA Premier Academy League, the Under-19s travelled to Tottenham Hotspur and lost 4-0, whilst the Under-17s lost 4-3 at home to Bristol City. The Under-17 match was dominated by a very strong wind, and we were 4-0 down at half-time. [If you'd seen this website earlier when it said that the Under-19s won 4-0, then I apologise for the mistake but that was the score given out by the Press Association.]
Struggling Port Vale visit Madejski Stadium tomorrow, with Reading looking for another home win. Of all the sides we've seen this season I think Port Vale were the worst, and only three points will be an acceptable return from this match. According to the club, Darren Caskey, Graeme Murty, Phil Whitehead and Stuart Gray all have slight injuries, but none sound particularly threatening. The disappointing show at Swansea on Tuesday night could mean some team changes though, with Martin Butler the most likely to get a starting place, perhaps at the expense of Jim McIntyre. This would allow Tony Rougier to switch to the wing against his old club.
The last meeting between the clubs was our 1-0 win at Vale Park back in September, which was our first away win of the season. Jamie Cureton got the goal, and Joe Gamble came on as a substitute to make his League debut - incredibly he has yet to play his second game.
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