Reading
can only draw 1-1 at home to Bury and we drop another place to
ninth in the table. For a brief match report, click here. The
promised "exciting announcement" proves to be a bending
of the rules to allow Phil Parkinson to have a testimonial, so
despite my cynicism yesterday perhaps things are changing.
The
Under-17s lost 2-1 at home to Leicester City in the FA Premier
Academy League but the Under-19 game in Leicester was called off
due to a waterlogged pitch. The updated league tables are here.
The
club are promising an "exciting announcement" from John
Madejski at 2.45pm tomorrow. In the past when Reading or other
clubs have trailed that sort of event, the announcement has
tended to be a new sponsorship deal or the launch of a lottery.
Possibly good things but not in any sense of the word "exciting".
We shall see whether we are in a new era or not.
Graeme
Murty is doubtful for the visit of Bury, tomorrow due to a
swollen ankle. The quote I've seen about this says that initially
there were fears it was broken - well, in that case why on earth
was he allowed to play on in the game on Tuesday after getting
the injury?
Today's
reserve league results mean that Reading drop two places to sixth
in the table.
In the
first round proper of the FA Youth Cup, Reading have been drawn
at home to Abingdon United or Woking, who should meet in their
third qualifying round tie before Saturday, 7th October. Our game
has to take place before Saturday, 27th October and will be on a
midweek evening. The competition is for Under-18s - you can see
which of our Academy players qualify by visiting the Academy squads page.
Reading's
reserves play a behind-closed-doors friendly against Crystal
Palace, and win 4-1. The side includes a French trialist, Antoine
Preget, who has previously played Scottish football and so is
unlikely to be up to the required standard. Click here
for match details.
Two
teams of apparently non-league quality produce a dire game with
Reading losing 1-0. We slip to eighth in the table - for a match
report, click here.
Reading
beat Wycombe Wanderers 2-0 to move up to fifth in the table. For
match details (report to follow), click here.
Ipswich's
Under-19 side beat Reading 3-0 in the FA Premier Academy League,
but we beat them 2-1 in the Under-17 game. For updated league
tables, click here.
After
all the rumours, counter-rumous and denials, the date and time of
our visit to Colchester United have eventually changed. The game
is now on Friday, 5th October at 7.45pm in order to avoid a clash
with the England v Greece World Cup qualifier the next day. Also,
as I predicted when it was first rearranged, the Wrexham game set
for Tuesday, 2nd October has again been postponed due to
international call-ups for Wrexham players, this time until
Tuesday, 6th November.
For
the second season in a row, we have a bye in the first round of
the LDV Vans Trophy. The first round draw not featuring Reading
is on Radio 5 Live tonight between 7pm and 10pm with games taking
place in the week beginning Monday, 15th October. The competition
features the 48 teams from Nationwide Divisions 2 and 3 plus 8
Nationwide Conference clubs.
Reading's
reserve side lose their 100% record by losing 1-0 away to
Southend United - click here for
match details . We also drop to fourth place in the reserve
league table.
Reading
beat Cambridge United 1-0 and move up to sixth place in the table
- for match details (report to follow), click here
Some
good news from Swansea (yes, it really is possible!) - instead of
suffering a cruciate ligament injury, Nathan Tyson instead had
nothing more than a swollen knee. It's nice when it works out
that way round once in a while.
Queens
Park Rangers's reserve team won tonight, which takes them to the
top of the Avon Insurance Combination League table and pushes Reading down
to second. If we win our game at Southend United on Wednesday, we
will definitely overtake QPR and almost certainly go back into
first place.
The
official site reports that Adam Lockwood has joined Yeovil Town
on a one month loan deal.
The
date of the Worthington Cup trip to Aston Villa has been fixed
for Wednesday, 10th October. Villa have no game the previous
weekend because of international fixtures, but some of their
players will of course be taking part in those internationals. In
particular, Juan Pablo Angel is due to play in Bogota on Sunday
evening.
Reading
Academy defender Declan O'Hara has been named in the 18-man
Northern Ireland Under-19 squad to take part in a three-team
international warm-up series in two week's time. The series
includes games against Denmark and Scotland on successive days so
Declan is almost certain to make his debut at this age-group,
having previously played for the Under-17 side.
The friendlies are in preparation for the qualifying group for the UEFA Under-19 European Championship, which is played as a tournament in Leichenstein in mid-October. They are drawn with Bosnia-Herzegovina and Slovakia as well as the home side Leichenstein. For details of both sets of matches, see the internationals page.
Stoke
City take advantage of another sluggish Reading performance to
defeat us 2-0. Click here for match
details (report to follow) - the result drops us to 10th place in
the table.
In the
Worthington Cup 3rd round, we are drawn away to Aston Villa. The
game is due to take place in the week commencing Monday, 8th
October and it seems highly unlikely to be televised so that
should mean on the Tuesday.
Both
our sides lose to Watford in the FA Premier Academy League - the
Under-19s go down 1-0 at home and the Under-17s are defeated by 3-1
away. For updated league tables, click here.
Barry
Hunter's loan move to Rushden & Diamonds for a month has now
gone through. Hunter was already training with the
Northamptonshire club.
Simon
Cox has been in the Czech Republic this week with the Republic of
Ireland Under-18 side taking part in an invitational tournament.
He played in their first game on Tuesday against Ukraine, and
apparently did well although his side lost 2-0. That was his
first international match at this age group, and the first that
wasn't a one-off friendly. In the second game Simon did not play
and the Republic of Ireland side lost 4-0 to the Czech Republic.
The two defeats means that they cannot progress to the final or third-place play-off. For this reason, it was agreed that Simon would fly home and play for Reading's Under-19s on Saturday, rather than take part in the third group match against Slovenia on Friday (not against Estonia as previously stated). However, whether it will be possible for him to get a flight remains to be seen.
Reading's
League trip to Colchester United is on Saturday, 6th October at 3pm,
the same date and apparently the same time as England take on
Greece at Old Trafford in the last World Cup qualifier.
Colchester have spoken to Reading to try to get our game moved to
Friday night or earlier in the day on Saturday (there is some
restriction against playing games at Layer Road on Sundays) but
Reading have refused. It is said that the person responsible for
refusing to allow a change is Alan Pardew, who doesn't want an
early Saturday kick-off because of the knock-on effect on team
preparation, and doesn't want a Friday night game because of the
drastic effect it would probably have on the number of Reading
fans attending.
However, the real culprits are the Football League for arranging fixture clashes in the first place.
Now
that the Worthington Cup second round is almost complete, we have
some idea of who we might face in the next round. The seven
Premiership clubs who qualified for Europe this season join the
competition in the third round, along with the 25 winners from
the second round. The second round was completely seeded, and of
the 24 ties that have taken place so far only five unseeded teams
have won through, including Reading of course.
The draw takes place on Saturday, 15th September during the On The Ball programme, which runs from 1.25pm to 2.15pm on ITV1. Round 3 is scheduled for the week beginning Monday, 8th October but the game involving Manchester United will have to be moved as that is now the week they will play their postponed Champions League game against Olympiakos.
Reading's
reserve side beat Colchester United 1-0 in the first home game at
AFC Newbury's Faraday Road Stadium. For a match report, click here.
Reading stay top of the Avon Insurance Combination League table.
Nathan
Tyson, on loan at Swansea City, suffered an injury on Tuesday
night during their 3-1 defeat away to Plymouth Argyle. The
Swansea physio suggests that he has damaged his cruciate
ligaments and may be out for eight or nine months, although there
is no confirmation of this yet and it may be nothing like as bad
as that.
The
Evening Post state that Barry Hunter is about to go to Rushden
& Diamonds on a month's loan but Reading say that the deal is
not confirmed yet.
It's
another magical Madejski Stadium night as Reading knock West Ham
United out of the Worthington Cup and progress to Round 3. The
game ends 0-0 after extra time, but Adi Viveash stroked the ball
home from the spot to secure a 6-5 win on penalties - click here for match
details (report to follow).
FC
Copenhagen have appointed Hans Backe as their new manager, which
will presumably end the rumours about Alan Pardew going there.
According
to the club's official site, two Trinidad & Tobago
internationals will be training with us this week - goalkeeper
Kelvin Jack and midfielder Angus Eve. Eve is currently with a
Trinidad side called CL Financial San Juan Jabloteh whilst Jack
appears to be playing for Vibe CT 105 W Connection FC (try
working either of those names into a chant!). Eve has already
played (and failed) in the Football League with Chester City.
Reading
decide to pull out one of those games where they are absolute
rubbish and so manage to lose 2-1 to Cardiff City - click here for a
match report. We drop to seventh in the table.
Neither
the Under-19s nor Under-17s had a fixture in the FA Premier
Academy League today - I suspect that this is the day when we
were meant to be playing against Peterborough United who resigned
from the League at a fairly late stage. [Note added 13/9/2001 - I
was right. We were supposed to be playing against Peterborough on
this date.]
Well,
it took me completely by surprise but in the absence of a reserve
League fixture, Reading arranged a behind-closed-door friendly
away to Luton Town and won 3-0 - click here for match
details.
Five
Reading fans spent the day in Manchester to take part in filming
two shows of ITV Sport's football quiz called "Do I Not Know
That". Obviously I'm not supposed to give away the result,
and at this stage I can't even tell you when the shows are to be
screened. I'll put up the dates of the shows when I know them,
and there will be a longer article on this website once the two
shows have been on air.
The
result of the one Division 2 game played today means that Reading
drop one place to fourth.
Jamie
Cureton makes his first start of the season and scores both goals
as Reading comfortably win 2-0 away to Port Vale. We move up to
third in the League table - for a match report, click here.
Reading's
Under-19s lose 2-0 at home to Sheffield Wednesday - click here
for a match report. The Under-17s drew 1-1 away to Sheffield
Wednesday.
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