Trinidad & Tobago lost 2-1 to Jamaica in their latest World Cup qualifier. T&T's chances of qualifying for the 2002 finals are not quite mathematically over, but realistically they have no chance. Anthony Rougier played the whole game, but can now concentrate on his ankle operation scheduled for next Tuesday. You can see the current group standings and remaining T&T fixtures by visiting the Reading FC internationals page of this website.
The contracts of the following eight players expire today and they therefore leave Reading: Darren Caskey, Scott Howie, Jim McIntyre, John Polston, Lee Hodges, Andy Gurney, Alex Haddow and Chris Smith. We already know that Caskey is headed for Notts County and Gurney for Swindon Town, whilst Polston has retired through injury. As far as I know, none of the others have yet found clubs. Other players whose contracts expire today, but who have already agreed new deals are Phil Parkinson, Ricky Newman and Nathan Tyson. I'm not sure that the new contracts for those three players have been officially announced yet, but Tyson is expected to get a one-year deal, whilst Parkinson and Newman will sign up for a further two seasons.
The contract of Kevin Dillon (reserve team manager and Assistant Academy Director for Scholars) also expires this summer - I don't know if management contracts run to 30th June like those of the players, but it seems likely. Dillon has yet to announce his plans for the future, but there have certainly been rumours that he will move on into a more senior role at another club. I also think that Chief Scout Brian McDermott's contract might expire this summer, but no-one seems to have said anything about that!
According to the Reading Chronicle, Chief Executive Nigel Howe has confirmed Reading's interest in Ben Thornley (released by Huddersfield Town) and Peter Beagrie (released by Wigan Athletic) by stating that they will both play for us on trial during the pre-season fixtures. This is in addition to Paul Mortimer, released by Bristol City, who had already been marked down for a trial.
Wigan Athletic's Falkirk-born Stuart Balmer has said that he has turned down "a big money move to Reading" because he's had enough of England and wants to return to Scotland. (Translation: he's not good enough to play in England but can be a star in Scotland.) Quite why we should offer big money to another centre-back, and one who Wigan fans no longer rate highly is beyond me. I suspect he just thought that no-one in England would pick up on his remarks in the Scottish press, and decided to use Reading's name to try to increase whatever wages he can get in Scotland. Incidentally, the cheating diving Spaniard Roberto Martinez (also released by Wigan) said that one Division 2 club had offered him a place for next season, but he turned it down. So we won't be seeing him next year.
Reading have definitely entered the Avon Insurance League Cup for reserve sides this season, as we're playing away to Cardiff City in the first group fixture. I know no further details yet about the competition this season.
The ITV Sports Channel have announced some more live fixtures, including one in Division 2, but again none feature Reading. Also, some ITV regions have started announcing live terrestrial games, but obviously that doesn't include Meridian.
As reported earlier today, the date of the away fixture with Brighton & Hove Albion has moved to the preceding Friday evening, 14th December with a 7.45pm kick-off. Also, as expected, the Summer Bank Holiday home game with Wrexham is now set for Tuesday, 28th August, also with a 7.45pm kick-off. However, this second fixture is still far from certain because the later date means that it is within the five-day period for call-ups to international fixtures the following weekend, Wrexham being a team who regularly postpone fixtures for that reason.
The new ITV Sports Channel (the one that will apparently be available only via ITV Digital) has announced its first batch of 18 live Nationwide League fixtures for the new season, taking them up until the end of October. None of the games feature Reading, and they have in fact only chosen three outside Division 1. ITV have the rights to show 15 live League games outside Division 1, so even at this early stage it rather looks as if they are not planning to take up the full allocation. ITV also confirm that weekday live games (normally on Thursdays) will kick-off at 7.45pm whilst weekend live games (normally on Sundays) begin at 6:15pm.
The Avon Insurance Combination League have announced draft fixtures for the coming season. The League will again consist of 25 teams playing each other once, with new entrants Cardiff City replacing Fulham (who have presumably decided that they are too good for this level of competition). Barnet have decided to remain in the League, but this will be their last season unless they can regain automatic promotion to the Football League. There is again a reserve League Cup competition this season, although I don't yet know which teams have entered. After last season's almost triumphant run, losing only in a penalty shootou in the final, I am sure that we will have entered.
The Brighton Argus has said that Brighton & Hove Albion are trying to sign Neil Smith, who was with the current Brighton manager Micky Adams at Fulham. Adams says that he is only interested if Smith is available on a free transfer, though. Kidderminster Harriers have also shown interest, although not as publicly.
Another story from Brighton is that our trip to Withdean Stadium, scheduled for Saturday, 15th December, will apparently be moved to the preceding Friday night for Christmas shopping reasons.
Notts County have announced that Darren Caskey has signed a three-year contract for them. They also described Caskey as "fit and lean" which does rather call into question whether they have the right person. Apparently their interest really started when Harry Redknapp rang the Notts County deputy chairman Peter Storrie about Caskey - the connection is that Storrie spent nine years at West Ham, and was Managing Director when he left in 1999. His time there obviously coincided with part of Redknapp's managerial reign. Storrie also knew Caskey's agent Eric Hall, because of he also represented some West Ham players.
One slighly odd thing about this transfer is that Notts County are saying Caskey has already signed for them. Given that his contract with Reading presumably does not expire until 30th June, does that mean we can claim a transfer fee? It may well be that County were happy to come to some sort of arrangement in order to make sure that no-one else jumped in.
At the same press conference, County confirmed that Andy Hughes would be leaving the club, but didn't say for certain where he would eventually sign. Of course, it would now be a major shock if it was anyone other than Reading, but you never know until these things are signed and sealed.
Trinidad & Tobago beat Bermuda 5-0 in a friendly on Saturday evening - Anthony Rougier played the first half of the game.
The identity of one of the trialists that Alan Pardew has said he will be looking at in our pre-season games is known. He is midfielder Paul Mortimer, most recently at Bristol City, but in the past a team-mate of Pardew at Charlton.
The Blackpool Gazette has today stated that West Bromwich manager Gary Megson is after a striker should Lee Hughes leave the club. As well as Blackpool's John Murply, the two players mentioned in the article are Scott Dobie of Carlisle United and of course Jamie Cureton. There really is no way to kill these stories, is there?
From the mouth of his agent Eric Hall - there are ten (!) clubs in the running to sign Darren Caskey, including Millwall, Wimbledon, Bristol City, Grimsby Town, Notts County and Wigan Athletic. Darren is to make a decision on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning this week.
Club physio Paul Turner has left the club to concentrate on his private practice and to spend more time with his family. The Evening Post say that his likely replacement is John Fearn, formerly with West Ham United.
Bournemouth have announced today that they will be using Dorchester Town's ground for the first six to eight weeks of the season. (Previously they had made confident statements about not having to use Dorchester, but instead to be in place at the rebuilt Dean Court by August.) Our away game against them is in the ninth week of the season - I expect that their building work will be further put back and that our game will therefore either take place in Dorchester or be switched with our home fixture later in the season. On local radio this morning, however, Bournemouth say that they have asked for their home games against us and Swindon Town to be moved to later in the season in order to avoid any security issues.
Yes! Another one. Darren Caskey has been spotted in Nottingham today with his agent, discussing terms with Notts County. They seem extremely confident of signing him. I have to say that this sounds a bit strange, though. It's not really near his home, it's not a step up to a higher division, and it's difficult to see how they could afford his wages.
According to the Reading Chronicle, Portsmouth have made an approach regarding Jamie Cureton, and Reading have said he is not for sale at any price.
The provisional fixture list for next season is now out, although there will undoubtedly be changes to the dates announced today in order to allow for television coverage, clashes with international fixtures, police requirements and possibly even construction work. Reading begin the campaign with a trip to Blackpool (so my Blackpool correspondent who said we were to start against Bury has just been sacked!). However, Blackpool are currently rebuilding their entire ground, so this match might be in doubt. Each of our first three fixtures is against a team not in this division last season.
Other highlights are a Boxing Day trip to Cardiff City and an Easter Monday away game at Bristol City, with the last game of the season away to Brentford. The away game with Bournemouth is scheduled for 25th September, which is likely to be well before their new ground is fully open. This means either a trip to Dorchester, a very small capacity, or a switch with our home game against them. (The official Bournemouth website has already started talking about a switch.) At least our away games at Wycombe Wanderers, Chesterfield and Cambridge United are not until later in the season by which time those clubs will presumably have completed the work on their grounds (in all cases, affecting the away ends).
Trinidad & Tobago lost 2-0 to the USA in their World Cup qualifier last night, with Anthony Rougier sitting out the match through suspension. The quality of the T&T defence was so poor that Rougier should have no difficulty at all in regaining selection for the next game, at home to Jamaica on Saturday, 30th June. The significance to Reading of last night's result is that it is now very difficult for T&T to qualify for the World Cup, and Rougier has previously said that should they fail to make it he will retire from international football. You can see the current standings and remaining T&T fixtures by visiting the Reading FC internationals page of this website.
The trailers for the ITV Sport Channel include footage of Martin Butler celebrating a goal, presumably the second in the play-off final.
The date of the Worthington Cup tie at home to Luton has been confirmed as Tuesday, 21st August. I doubt if anyone really expected it to be selected for television on the Wednesday, anyway.
The new season's League fixtures come out at 10am tomorrow. First news will definitely NOT be on this site, as I shall still be asleep! However, there have been rumours about a couple of fixtures - although it is completely pointless not to wait a few more hours, I have heard that we will open the season away to Bury and play Brighton & Hove Albion at home on Boxing Day. My sources for this come from Blackpool and Brighton respectively - I have no idea (yet) how reliable they are.
Also in the rumour stakes, the next destination of Darren Caskey is still proving popular with script-writers. His agent Eric Hall (a man who we all trust not even as far as we could throw him) claims that both Millwall and Grimsby have held talks with Caskey. For some time Millwall have been favourites to sign him up, but the entry of Grimsby Town into the race is quite impressive, because I think they're just about the only higher division club not to have been after him in the last few years! Meanwhile Scott Howie has been linked with Chesterfield and Wrexham, whilst Jim McIntyre is in talks with the thugs at Rotherham. Both these Scottish players have also had interest shown in them by clubs in Scotland.
Trinidad & Tobago take on the USA tonight in Foxboro
Stadium, Massachusetts in their next World Cup qualifier. Kick-off
is 12.30am Thursday morning (7.30pm local time). Unfortunately,
Anthony Rougier is suspended, having received yellow cards in
each of the last two games. The lack of direct Reading connection
is a great pity, because you can follow this game very easily.
Sky Sports 1 is showing it live at 12.30am - there are also
repeats at 12noon and 7pm Thursday on Sky Sports 2 and 1
respectively (although those programmes will have extended
highlights rather than the whole game). Alternatively, you can
hear live commentary by following this link to a Trinidad radio
station:
Power 102FM
live commentary - page down once to get to the "Listen
Live" button
Power 102FM
live commentary - an alternative to the above link, which
should work directly
You can also hear match build-up from 11.30pm BST as well as post-match
reaction and interviews (but apparently not commentary) by
following this link to an American internet football site:
Internetsoccer.com Radio Show - also available
in recorded form a few hours after it has gone out live
You can see the current group standings and remaining T&T
fixtures by visiting the Reading FC internationals page
of this website. Rougier's suspension will be completed tonight,
and so he is eligible for T&T's next game, at home to Jamaica
on Saturday, 30th June.
In the Worthington Cup first round, Reading are drawn at home to Luton Town. For the 2001/02 season the first and second rounds are played over one leg only, and there will be no replays. Our first round tie will be played in the week commencing Monday, 20th August (in practice, almost certainly on Tuesday, 21st August).
Dates for all FA Cup and Worthington Cup rounds up to the end of the year can now be found on the results page (which of course has no actual results on it yet.....)
Not really Reading news, but the Cambridge United manager John Beck has been charged with disrepute by the FA following our draw at the Abbey Stadium in April. The key incident in the game was when Matthew Robinson was shown a second yellow card, following a challenge just in front of the home team dugout. After the game, Alan Pardew said, "John Beck and his assistant were out of their box on the pitch and looked as though they were trying to affect the referee's decision. It was the worst sort of gamesmanship." According to Ceefax, Beck had to be restrained by the police (which I don't remember at all). Beck has asked for 843 separate offences to be taken into account.
The Football League had announced that the Worthington Cup draw will take place tomorrow morning and be made public at 10am. However, there are now reports that it might be tomorrow at 11am or even Wednesday at 10am. In any event, the first round will feature all Nationwide League clubs except Coventry City and Manchester City, with ties being played over one match only. The 70 first round entrants will produce 35 clubs for the second round (which will also be played over one game), who will be joined by Coventry City, Manchester City and the 13 Premiership clubs not involved in European competition. This makes 50 second round teams, producing 25 winners for Round 3 to join the seven remaining Premiership clubs.
The Round 1 draw is split into North and South regions, and also seeded - Reading will surely be in the South region, which will contain 36 teams. The 18 seeds are based on League position from last season, so we should be one of those. This means that the team we will play either finished last season in the lower reaches of Division 2, was in Division 3 or is Rushden & Diamonds. The draws for subsequent rounds will not be regionalised or seeded. [Note added Tuesday, 19th June: The South region actually had 34 teams. Reading were indeed one of the seeds in the South Region, but amazingly Rushden & Diamonds were one of the 36 in the North Region so it was impossible for us to be drawn against them. ]
Trinidad & Tobago lost 4-2 at home to Honduras in their World Cup qualifier today - Anthony Rougier started the game at right-back but was substituted at half-time and also managed to pick up a yellow card. This means he will be suspended for the next match against USA, as he also received a yellow card in the last game against Mexico in April. The radio commentators said that he should not have started the game as he was clearly not match-fit. Whether this was due to the ankle injury he has been playing with since November, or due to the problems suffered in Trinidad earlier this week, remains to be seen.
T&T stay bottom of the six-team group, but with three teams to qualify for the World Cup it is still possible for them to make it. You can see the current standings and remaining T&T fixtures by visiting the Reading FC internationals page of this website. Former Reading manager Ian Porterfield may well very soon also be the former Trinidad & Tobago manager, though.
The next T&T World Cup match is away to USA on Wednesday evening. The game is at the Foxboro Stadium in Massachusetts and kicks off at 7.30pm local time (12.30am BST). I know of two live radio feeds for this match and will post the links on this page on Wednesday. However, the game is also being televised in England on Sky Sports 1. The programme starts at 12.30am Wednesday night (Thursday morning, really) - Sky describe it as delayed coverage but it must be live at that time! There is a repeat programme lasting 90 minutes on Sky Sports 2 on Thursday, 21st June at 12 noon. It is of course absolutely typical that the one chance to see a Reading player live in an international game coincides with him getting a suspension.
Earlier news - With a simple U-turn, Trinidad & Tobago announce that Anthony Rougier is in the squad for today's World Cup qualifier against Honduras. Rougier trained with the team on Friday, and the announcement was made at a 2pm press conference on Friday afternoon (7pm in the evening in England). Technical director René Simoes said: "Jesus says we love the sinner but not the sin." Rougier's preparation for the game has hardly been the best, but he has been named in the starting eleven.
Kingsley Royal is one of the mascots invited to help end the "Slap Bang with Ant and Dec" programme this evening. Announced as "It's time for our traditional massive goodbye, so please welcome the football mascots", Kingsley's sole involvement is to run on the stage and "dance" to the song "Tiger Feet". What's more he clearly felt faint, as he was holding his head when on camera.
I may have been a bit quick off the mark with yesterday's comments that Anthony Rougier was still training with the Trinidad & Tobago squad despite being left out of the team for tomorrow's match with Honduras. Apparently, Rougier trained on Wednesday, but missed the Thursday training session. His agent at first refused to comment and later claimed that it was only due to a mix-up over times. With three other players suffering various levels of disciplinary procedures in the T&T camp, I would be staggered if all these problems do not soon result in some major bust-up. Rougier has already hinted that he might retire from international football, and it sounds to me as though his heart is not in it.
The Football League have confirmed that the draw for the first round of the Worthington Cup will be made next Tuesday morning, 19th June.
More details of the Division 2 coverage on ITVDigital (formerly ONDigital) next season are emerging. This will be on a channel called ITV Sports which launches on 11th August, and will apparently only be available to ITVDigital subscribers (although I have heard rumours that it might become available via Sky by about Christmas if takeup is poor). They intend to show 15 live games during the season chosen from Divisions 2 and 3 - these matches will take place on Thursday evenings or Sunday evenings. There will also be a Division 2 highlights programme each Sunday morning. Supposedly, terrestrial ITV regions will each show five Nationwide League games on Sunday afternoons during the season, but the chances of Meridian doing that must be virtually nil.
Anthony Rougier appealed against the Trinidad & Tobago decision to drop him from the squad for Saturday's World Cup qualifying match. Rougier claimed to have had permission from manager Ian Porterfield to miss the two friendly games played in Panama in order to celebrate his wedding anniversary. However, the T&T Football Federation has stuck to their decision (although they did say that it was possible for Porterfield to recall Rougier if he so decided). There is clearly no great rift between Rougier and his country, because he trained with the rest of the squad today with a view to regaining selection for the next two games later in the month.
Swindon Town had promised their fans a major announcement today. When it came late this afternoon, part of it was that they had signed Andy Gurney from Reading - I assume that technically he will remain a Reading player until 30th June and then sign a contract with Swindon the next working day (which is Monday, 2nd July). Gurney is one of the eight Reading players whose contracts expire on 30th June, and who we decided not to offer new deals. He is the first of those to confirm a club for next season.
The club's official report that Ricky Newman's ligament operation has taken place and was a success. He is expected back in six months time.
Trinidad & Tobago have decided not to select Anthony Rougier for their World Cup qualifier at home to Honduras on Saturday. This follows him missing their two-game tour of Panama last weekend with what was described as a "slight injury". However, he might still get selected for the next two World Cup games later this month away to the USA and at home to Jamaica.
The Evening Post today says that Reading have a behind-closed-doors friendly against Charlton Athletic on either 17th or 19th July. According to Charlton this game is a home friendly for their reserve side and will take place on Thursday, 19th July with a noon kick-off. Given that Reading reserves already have a match the previous evening, it seems likely that this game is for our first team. It may well take place at Charlton's training ground, which would allow access to all.
The FA announce that the Under-21 friendly with Holland on Tuesday, 14th August will take place at Madejski Stadium.
The Worthington Cup draw is scheduled for Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. As reported previously, the first round will be played over only one leg this season. The game will take place in the week commencing Monday, 20th August.
Another decision at the Football League meeting over the weekend was that the number of relegated clubs from Divisions 2 to Division 3 should remain at four. There was a proposal that it be reduced to three in line with the number relegated from the Premiership and from Division 1. This may well have been an attempted snub at those Division 3 chairmen who helped to reject the two-up / two-down proposal between Division 3 and the Conference.
Bad news for Oxford United - the Football League has rejected plans for two-up / two-down promotion between Division 2 and the Nationwide Conference. That will make it all the more difficult for Oxford to regain their league status in the 2002/03 season.
The three MPs who I know to be Reading fans have all comfortably held their seats in yesterday's General Election (although I think it's safe to assume that one of them didn't flaunt his support in his election leaflets!). The legislation to remove Clive Wilkes from the referees' list can surely not be too far away.
The Trinidad & Tobago squad has flown to Panama to play two warm-up matches before their three June World Cup qualifiers, the first of which is at home to Honduras on 16th June. However, Anthony Rougier is not in the 20-man squad named by the T&T Football Federation. If you're in the area and want to know what's happened to Rougier, the team is staying at the Granada Hotel in Panama City until Monday.
More reserve league news - so far, one club has left the Avon Insurance Combination League for next season. I assume that it is Fulham. Barnet are still to decide whether to take part - they are allowed to do so for one season following their relegation from the Football League. If they decided to continue their membership, there will again be 25 teams following the election of Cardiff City earlier this week. A more significant change from the Reading perspective is that next season yellow and red cards shown in reserve games will NOT count for determining when players are suspended for first team games. The only exception to this rule is for dismissals due to violent conduct, and at the moment it's unclear to me exactly how the new rules will apply. One more change is that next season five substitutes can be named instead of three for last season.
The Nationwide League fixture list for 2001/02 will be announced on Thursday, 21st June. The information will be released at 10am on that day. (Premiership fixtures will be released at the same time, but the Nationwide Conference will be two weeks later.) The draw for the first round of the Worthington Cup cannot take place until it is certain which teams will be involved in European competition for next season, but it is hoped to be as soon as possible after the League fixtures.
One trip that will be a little different next season will be the one to Wycombe Wanderers. They have removed the roof from their away end and are currently building a second tier so that the stand will have a 2,000 capacity. This will also mean that there will be no seats for away fans in the side stand next season (well, not officially anyway). The away end toilets now include an anti-vandalism device after repeated damage by visiting fans - I have no idea what this means, but it sounds potentially very painful.
Cardiff City have been voted into the Avon Insurance Combination for the 2000/01 season. Last season, the League was competed for by 25 reserve teams (including Reading of course), although it may well be that Fulham and Barnet will leave now that they are no longer in the Nationwide League. However, the same meeting rejected the applications from Plymouth Argyle, Torquay United, Exeter City and Swansea City for geographical reasons.
Well, now that the media can't start a different rumour every day about selling Caskey, they've had to turn their attention elsewhere. Despite the statement from Reading last week that we had no need to sell either Jamie Cureton or Martin Butler, teletext today reports that Cureton is considering a move to West Bromwich Albion. However, on reading the words more closely, it's absolutely clear that there is no substance behind the story at all. West Brom have also categorically denied any interest.
Although there are no rumours about us selling Caskey, there are of course still plenty of stories about which club he might sign up for. So far today (and it's currently 2.30pm), I have seen rumours that he is to sign for Bristol City, Cardiff City, Wigan Athletic and Sheffield United.
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