Reading
put in a solid performance to dispose of Wrexham 2-0 away. James
Harper goes off injured, which might be the only bad point about
the day (later news - Harper has an ankle injury that might keep
him out for a month). For a match report, click here. Only one
other side in the top seven at the start of the day managed to
win, but we remain in fifth place in the table.
Andy Hughes came on as the substitute for Harper. This means that today was Hughes' 20th game for Reading in all competitions. That might have cost Reading £25,000 because part of his transfer fee to Notts County was that that sum became payable after he had played 20 games. However, I suspect that the fee only includes League games, of which he has now played 17, including appearances as a substitute.
I've
now seen the goals from the Cardiff City game on television. One
point worth noting is that for Cardiff's second goal, Paul
Brayson chipped the ball over Marcus Hahnemann towards the goal
before Robert Earnshaw tapped the ball into the unguarded net.
You can imagine my delight (but not surprise) that the TV
pictures clearly show that the Brayson chip was going wide.
Paul Brayson's record for Reading - 48 games as a striker, 1 goal.
The
away game against Brighton & Hove Albion has been rearranged
for Tuesday, 12th February (7.45pm).
A much
better performance from Reading leads to a 2-2 draw away to
Cardiff City. For a match report, click here. Not one
of the top nine sides in the League table at the start of the day
managed to win and Reading stay in fifth place.
This game was the 23rd of our League season and so marked the halfway point. We have played every team once, except for Cardiff City (twice) and Brighton & Hove Albion (not at all). 40 points from the first half of the season means that there will need to be an improvement should we hope to get promotion.
More
dross served up by Reading, this time in front of the biggest
home crowd of the season, which was swelled by the Kid for a Quid
offer. Not one of them will be begging to come back as the game
against Wigan Athletic finishes in a 1-1 draw, with Nicky Forster
having an exceptionally poor penalty saved by the Wigan keeper.
For a match report, click here. Reading
stay in fifth place in the table.
No
Academy games today, because the League is on a short break.
However, both our Under-19s and Under-17s featured on Channel 5's
"The Academy" show this morning. The programme is a fly-on-the-wall
documentary following Southampton's Academy, and this week that
included their games against Reading last October. Unfortunately
the two games covered were probably not those we would have
selected for broadcast on national television, although they did
show Under-17 goalkeeper Jamie Young saving a penalty. The
programme is part of a series on at 11.30am every Saturday, so we
may be on it again if it runs to the end of the season.
There's
a book out at the moment called "Friends, Royals, Nutters"
which is a tale of supporting Reading over a period of over 30
years. The author, Peter Eley, has asked me to publicise the fact
that it is available in Reading at Blackwells in King Street, and
at both branches of Waterstones (Broad Street and The Oracle).
You can also get one from Squirrel Press Ltd, PO Box 606,
Taunton, TA1 2WE at a cost of £9.99 + £1.50 for postage, with
cheques payable to Squirrel Press Ltd. I haven't yet seen the
book myself, so this isn't a recommendation, but be aware that it
comes with a parental advisory warning.
Nicky
Shorey has signed a one-year extension to his contract, taking up
to the summer of 2005.
It's
taken a while, but following the departure of Martin Allen in
October Reading have finally confirmed the appointments of the
management team beneath Alan Pardew. It's all pretty much as
expected, with a succession of promotions (mostly by people who
were already acting in the various roles anyway):
Kevin Dillon from reserve team manager and under-19 coach to
First Team Coach,
Brian McDermott from under-17 coach to Reserve Team Manager (whilst
remaining Chief Scout),
Brendan Rodgers from assisting the under-17 coach to Under-19
Manager, and
Naseem Bashir returning to the club from non-league football as
Under-17 Manager.
Although we all think about the Academy as a vehicle for providing new young players, it's clear from this that is also a good way of providing coaching experience. I rather like the idea of a management dynasty cascading (?) up through the ranks, but of course it only works if they're all up to the job. Some time in the future, I think this might even give us a chance of moving away from the predictable clamour for a "big name" appointment when the manager's job comes available, and instead allow us to call for someone with coaching experience.
It's worth noting that Kevin Dillon is First Team Coach rather than Assistant Manager, but I'm not sure what difference that will actually make.
The
news about Adrian Whitbread's injury yesterday is not at all good.
Physio Jon Fearn says that he's going to be out for three or four
weeks, but this appears to be just rest in order to see if that
solves the problem. In my experience there are very few occasions
when this really does work and I am starting to wonder how long
it will be before he can return to the side.
Reading's
reserve side had an emphatic 5-0 win over Leyton Orient in
Newbury this afternoon. Click here for a
match report. That's eleven goals without reply in the last three
reserve games, and the eight scored in the last two games all
came in the second half! Reading climb to fifth in the reserve
league table.
Adrian
Whitbread suffered an injury in training this morning. Presumably
this was a reoccurrence of one of the leg injuries that has kept
him out recently. It was serious enough for John Mackie to be
pulled out of this afternoon's reserve game, and I think (emphasise
think) that Whitbread will be seeing a specialist tomorrow.
A bit
late with this one, but on Saturday, 8th December former Reading
player Naseem Bashir resigned as joint manager of Yeading in
order to become an Assistant Academy Director at Reading, where
he would become the Under-17 coach. The move also means that he
will leave his job as Football in the Community Officer at
Wycombe Wanderers. As far as I know, his appointment has yet to
be officially announced at the Reading end.
As
expected, the arrival of Marcus Hahnemann has meant the departure
of Tony Malessa. His Reading career therefore stands at three
unused substitute appearances plus a clean sheet in a reserve
game. Does that make him the only keeper in our history never to
concede a goal? (Russell Marlin has since pointed out to me that
Trevor Senior played parts of four games for Reading as a keeper
without conceding a goal.)
Reading
stay in fifth place after today's Division 2 games. One event in
those games that affects us is that Wrexham striker Lee Trundle
was sent off against Brentford - that means his suspension will
start on 29th December and he will therefore be unable to play
against Reading.
Next
week's reserve game at home to Leyton Orient has been moved from
Wednesday to Tuesday. It still kicks off at 2pm at Faraday Road
in Newbury.
Reading's
games in the FA Premier Academy League, both against Bristol
City, were postponed due to frozen pitches.
Tonight's
game against Brighton and Hove Albion is OFF due to a frozen
pitch. The Withdean Stadium pitch had an inspection at 1pm this
afternoon, the results of which were said to be "not
encouraging". There was another one at 2.30pm which sealed
the fate of the game.
Reading
have signed Fulham goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann on a month's loan
in time for tomorrow's game against Brighton. He played four
times for Fulham last season but also had a one month loan spell
at Rochdale earlier this season. Unfortunately he is most famous
for letting a Sheffield Wednesday goal go in straight from a
corner last April on his League debut. Previously he has played
with Colorado Rapids in the inaugural season of Major League
Soccer in the USA, and Seattle Sounders in the A-League. He's
also had trials with Sheffield Wednesday and Aston Villa in the
past, as well as having gained three full international caps with
USA. Conveniently he has dual German / American nationality so
there are no work permit problems.
There is no way that Hahnemann has arrived at Reading to sit on the bench behind Jamie Ashdown, so he is certain to go straight into the starting line-up at Brighton. Presumably this also means that Tony Malessa will shortly leave Reading and return to Salisbury City.
In the
FA Youth Cup, Reading beat Halifax Town 2-1 after extra time. We
now face Barnsley at home in the fourth round, a tie which should
be played on a midweek evening at Madejski Stadium before
Saturday, 26th January. Click here to read
TWO match reports.
Reading's
reserve side secure a fine 3-0 win over Gillingham at Priestfield
Stadium this afternoon. Adrian Whitbread and Neil Smith both play
for just over an hour with no apparent ill-effects in their
return from injury, whilst Phil Parkinson plays for the full game.
Tony Malessa makes his first actual appearance for Reading and
will be pleased to have kept a clean sheet. For a match report,
click here.
The win lifts Reading to seventh in the Avon Insurance
Combination League table.
For
the second season in succession, Reading go out of the FA Cup in
Round 2 to York City, this time managing to do so without the
need for a replay. The result from Bootham Crescent was 0-2. For
a match report, click here. Adi Viveash
went off injured with a torn groin.
The
result of the one Division 2 game played today means that Reading
drop one place to fifth in the league table.
And to
complete a depressing day of news, there was no encouragement
from the FA Premier Academy League in the morning as both our
sides lost to Tottenham Hotspur. The Under-19s went down 7-0
whilst the Under-17s lost 3-0. Click here for a
brief match report from the Under-19 game and here for
an equally brief report on the Under-17s.
Our FA
Youth Cup Round 3 tie against Halifax Town has been set for
Wednesday, 12th December at 7pm at Shay Stadium.
Next
week's reserve game away to Gillingham has been moved from
Wednesday to Tuesday. The game will still kick off at 2pm at
Priestfield Stadium.
The
draw for the 4th round of the FA Youth Cup has taken place.
Should we get past Halifax Town we will be at home to Barnsley.
The tie is to be played before Saturday, 26th January, but should
be on a midweek evening and at Madejski Stadium assuming that we
get through. According to the Evening Post, the Halifax tie may
be played next Thursday, 13th December.
Details
of the FA Cup 3rd round draw, assuming that we have an interest
after Saturday's trip to York City. The draw will take place on
Sunday, 9th December at about 2.55pm following the Canvey Island
v Northampton Town game. It will be live on BBC1, Radio 5 Live,
and (I think) one of the Sky Sports channels. Most games will be
on Saturday, 5th January but there will be four live games in the
3rd round, all of which will be on Sunday, 6th January - at 1pm
and 7pm on BBC1, plus at 11.30am and 4pm on Sky Sports.
Reading's tie was the seventh out of the hat (or funny box-shaped thing) for round 2, so we should be ball number 51 in this draw (because the Premiership and Division 1 clubs take ball numbers 1 to 44 in the 3rd round draw).
Reading's
scheduled reserve game today at home to Cardiff City was called
off due to fixture congestion some time ago (and reported here at
the time). Of the other 11 Avon Insurance Combination League
fixtures this week, two more were called off for the same reason
as our game, six fell by the wayside due to waterlogged or unfit
pitches, whilst Luton Town's flu and injury crisis has meant they
had to call off their game. That left just two taking place, and
the end result is that Reading drop one further place in the
league table, to ninth.
Last season, the league table was only completed by the artificial trick of declaring that all games not played by a certain date were 0-0 draws - bearing in mind that the weather this autumn has not been too bad, the number of games called off so far suggest that it is likely that the same will happen this year.
According
to Ceefax, we have put in a bid of £150,000 for Kevin Watson
that has been turned down. Other reports say that the amount
offered was £100,000.
Former
Football League referee Gurnam Singh has won his tribunal case
against the Football League for racial discrimination. As
reported on this site on Wednesday, 6th
September 2000, part of Singh's claim was that he should have
been awarded the Division 1 play-off final in 1994/95 because he
finished top of the referees' merit list for that season. The
tribunal decision could have huge ramifications, as I am sure it
means that the game will have to be replayed with the correct man
in charge.........
Tonight's
FA Youth Cup game away to Halifax Town has been called off due to
a waterlogged pitch. Congratulations to Halifax for making an
early decision (because I found about about half an hour before I
was going to leave!).
Reading
lose out to Barnet at the area quarter-final stage of the LDV
Vans Trophy. Darius Henderson is sent off and the match ends 4-1
in favour of the home side. For match details (report to follow),
click here.
As
predicted here (OK, and just about everywhere else!), Alan Pardew
has taken the Nationwide Division 2 Manager of the Month award
for November.
Despite
having practically all of the play, Reading lose 1-0 at home to
Chesterfield. We failed to create enough chances, and didn't take
the few that we did manage. For match details, click here.
In the
FA Premier Academy League, Reading's Under-19 game away to
Leicester City was again postponed, and again due to a
waterlogged pitch. The Under-17s had no game this weekend.
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