Cheltenham
Town reach the Division 3 play-off final, but Nathan Tyson does
not make the 16 for their second leg tonight against Hartlepool
United.Cheltenham
Town reach the Division 3 play-off final, but Nathan Tyson does
not make the 16 for their second leg tonight against Hartlepool
United.
Reading
have announced that Alex Smith and Ricky Allaway, both of whom
have a year left to run on their contracts, are available on free
transfers. At the same time, the club stated that they needed to
sell before any other players could be bought, although it
remains to be seen whether this is merely a negotiation tactic.
Nathan
Tyson was an unused substitute in the Division 3 play-off semi-final
first leg between Cheltenham Town and Hartlepool United.
John
Salako presented a feature on BBC1's Football Focus where he
visited the grounds of all four Division 2 play-off clubs, whilst
previewing the matches tomorrow. Bet he enjoyed that, and it
looked like he got out alive!
After
yesterday's results in the Avon Insurance Combination League, we
now know that Reading's reserve team will finish ninth in the table.
Clubs
don't have retained lists as such any more, but Reading have
today announced the fate of the four professionals whose
contracts expire at the end of the season. As was already well
known, Neil Smith and Keith Jones will leave, as will Matt
Robinson. The fourth player, Sammy Igoe, will be offered a deal
and discussions are continuing.
A very
young Reading reserve team lost 3-0 away to Queens Park Rangers
this afternoon in the last game of the season. Click here for a match
report. With all our games completed, Reading are ninth in the table but could yet drop one
further place.
(Earlier news) The reserve team are playing away to Queens
Park Rangers this afternoon, kick-off 2pm. QPR are one of three
clubs who provide live commentary on their reserve home games,
and you can get to the commentary via this link
QPR official site
(opens in a new window)
On the basis that clubs receive money per hit received on their
websites, make sure that you also click on the following link
regularly whilst listening to the game:
A Division 1 club's official
site
Nathan
Tyson was at the Promotion Party yesterday, but for him the
season is very much not over. Cheltenham Town have extended his
loan deal to the end of their season, allowing him a chance to
take part in the Division 3 play-offs. Cheltenham play away to
Hartlepool United on Saturday, at home to them on Tuesday 30th
April, and potentially in the play-off final at 3pm on Monday, 6th
May.
The
cost of promotion - at least £150,000. The transfers of Graeme
Murty, Martin Butler and John Salako all included a £50,000
payment to their old clubs if Reading got promoted from Division
2, based on information released by the selling clubs at the time
of the transfer. This also means that Butler has so far cost £850,000
in total and so he is clearly our record signing, ahead of the £800,000
wasted on As*ba. Butler's transfer deal leaves us with two more
potential payments to come (£50,000 when we get promoted to the
Premiership and another £50,000 when he plays for England).
Furthermore, the reports of Kevin Watson's transfer deal stated that we would have to make a further payment when he had played 30 Division 1 games for us rather than the more usual specified number of League appearances, so that counter has started ticking as well. And finally, the Brentford game was Andy Hughes' 40th League appearance for Reading, so that's another £25,000 to Notts County, making his total transfer fee £300,000.
This
afternoon sees an open-top bus ride through Reading starting
somewhere in the vicinity of the Town Hall at around 3.15pm and
arriving at Madejski Stadium after 4pm. Entry to the stadium is
free. The Division 2 runners-up get some crappy little shield, so
if the Rotherham thugs didn't break it last season, we might get
to see it today.
Later news: There were large crowds both at the start of the route in Friar Street and at Madejski Stadium to see the players. Not sure about inbetween because I took a more direct route than the bus from the former to the latter! At the stadium, the players were introduced one at a time, followed by management staff and chairman. There were speeches from several (Phil Parkinson: "What a waste of money that Jamie Cureton was!"), a semi-lap of honour, and then players signed autographs until the cows had come home, had their dinner and gone to bed. An hour later there were still pockets of fans outside the stadium and in the hotel, with occasional appearances from players.
And
about bloody time too! Yet another draw, 1-1 at Brentford, is
enough to send Reading back into Division 1. Jamie Cureton is the
headline hero with the fairly late equaliser, but the whole team
played well today. Bas Savage came on as an injury-time
substitute to make his League debut. Click here for a
match report.
(Added
Sunday, 21st April) Rather lost among other matters this weekend
was the last game of the season for our Under-19 side. They lost
2-1 away to Birmingham in a fixture that was abandoned at the
first attempt to play it back in March due to exceptionally high
winds.
Reading's
reserve side drew 2-2 away to Bristol Rovers. Michael Branch
played the first half - click here
for a match report.
Joe
Gamble was on the bench for the Republic of Ireland's friendly
Under-21 international in Austria tonight. It finished 3-3 and
Joe did not score any of the goals so I don't know if he got on
the pitch. (Later news: He did not get on - as the Republic of
Ireland threw away a three-goal lead in the last 30 minutes,
presumably the manager will have learnt his lesson for next time.)
The
referee for Saturday's game at Brentford is Frazer
Stretton.
Jamie
Young has been called up to an England youth squad, presumably
the Under-17s. Jamie was born in Australia, but qualifies to play
for both England and Scotland through his parents.
Reading
can only draw 2-2 at home to Peterborough United and stay second
in the table - click here for
match details. As it turned out, other results meant that we
could not secure automatic promotion today, but the draw does
mean that a pub team (plus one player) have won the title, and
also ensures that this website will be calling for changes once
the season is over. A win or draw at Griffin Park next Saturday
will secure promotion - a defeat will mean another play-off
campaign.
Today's crowd of 22,151 was a ground record, and also means that we will finish the season with the highest average attendance of any Division 2 club.
My
player of the season John Mackie went off injured early in the
game and apparently has a broken bone in his leg. His replacement
Adie Williams went off at half-time, almost certainly also
through injury.
Phil
Parkinson's programme notes state that Graeme Murty was also in
the Division 2 PFA Select XI, and that he had been misinformed
when he was told that the only Reading player in the team was
Nicky Forster.
Reading's
reserve side beat Bournemouth 1-0 with a nicely taken goal from
Joe Gamble. Martin Butler played for just over an hour - click here for
a match report.
Madejski
Stadium will host a big screen on the afternoon of Saturday, 20th
April when there will be a live broadcast of the League match
away to Brentford. There are 4,000 North Stand seats available -
click here
for further details.
In an
unusually early move, Reading have announced the team for
tomorrow afternoon's reserve game, and it includes Martin Butler
as he continues his comeback from the injuries he suffered in
November. The match is against Bournemouth reserves at the home
of AFC Newbury and kicks off at 2pm. A match report will appear
on this site tomorrow night.
Yesterday's
Independent on Sunday included an article about Reading, mostly
about Alan Pardew. You can read it by following this link to the
Independent's website (not sure how long this will work for):
Independent
on Sunday article
In the article, the Reading manager is quoted as saying that next
season we would have 26 players whilst at the moment we had 24.
That suggests there are going to be a couple of signings over the
summer, although I can't really work out who's not being counted
when he says that we currently have 24 players.
Within an hour of me writing the above paragraph, Reading announce the signing of midfielder Steve Warren for next season. So that's one! Warren is ineligible to play for the first team this season as the signing is after the transfer deadline, but he can play for the reserves and is also young enough to appear for the Under-19s. He was previously at Crystal Palace, and has played in two of our last three reserve games whilst on trial.
Reading
come from two goals down to draw away to Tranmere Rovers. For
match details, click here.
The
official Liverpool website reports that their Under-17s have
crashed out of the Academy play-offs after a 0-0 draw at home to
Leicester City. This means that there must have been a winner of
the Sheffield United against Reading game this morning with that
team having won the group. The only problem is that I don't know
the result of that game. The team that progresses will be away to
either Tottenham Hotspur or Coventry City in the quarter-finals,
the game to be played away on Saturday, 20th April. (Later news
added 7th April: Unfortunately, our Under-17 team lost and so it
is Sheffield United who progress. Meanwhile Reading's Under-19s
lost 4-1 away to Fulham.)
Darius
Henderson has finally succumbed to the knee injury that he's had
for the last few months, and it's now unlikely that he will play
again this season. This probably brings to an close his
remarkable record of substitute appearances this season -
Henderson has played from the bench in 36 League games. I have no
firm evidence to back me up, but surely this must be a club
record if not a world record.
Henderson's absence, and the fact that Nathan Tyson is away on loan, means that Bas Savage is likely to come into the squad, and may well get onto the bench. (Begin conspiracy theory.) When Savage makes four League appearances for Reading, we have to pay Walton & Hersham a further £20,000. There are currently three League games left. (End conspiracy theory.)
Reading's
reserve team drew 1-1 away to Luton Town this afternoon. Click here for match
details.
John
Mackie won the official PFA Fans Division 2 Player of the Month
award for March. This also means that he is one of seven nominees
for the Player of the Season award. Voting closes very soon
because the PFA Annual Dinner this year is on 14th April, so
follow this link:
PFA
Player of the Season
and cast your vote for Mackie now.
Reading
can only draw 0-0 at home to Northampton Town this afternoon and
so after two-and-a-half months drop to a totally unacceptable
second place in the league. Due to the failings of other clubs we
are closer to automatic promotion than at the start of the day.
Also, not that it matters, other results mean we are now
guaranteed at least a play-off spot. For match details, click here.
Phil
Parkinson revealed in his programme notes today that Nicky
Forster is the only Reading player to make the PFA Select Team
for Division 2.
Before
the match, Under-17 midfielder Chris Davies received his Wales
international cap for an appearance against Germany in February -
you can read about that game here.
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