An
Andy Hughes brace is enough to see off Walsall, the final score
being 2-0 to Reading for our first away win this season. For a
match report, click here. We are
now up to equal tenth in the League table altohugh could drop two
place when Sunday's matches are played.
After
the Phil Whitehead news of yesterday, it's now official that Adi
Viveash can leave on a free transfer if he can agree terms with
another club. Even with Adrian Whitbread out injured, Viveash has
not appeared to be that close to the first team this season, and
the club's hunt for another centre-back has made his current
status rather obvious.
Southampton
chairman Rupert Lowe has formally denied that his club have any
interest in signing Jamie Cureton, and says that the rumour
probably started because of manager Gordon Strachan's attendance
at the Burnley game on Tuesday night. Well, no actually, Rupert,
the rumour has been around a bit longer than that - since at
least Strachan's visit for the Sheffield Wednesday game two weeks
ago. Lowe does say that Southampton are looking for new signings,
but doesn't hint at who (if anyone) Strachan was actually
watching on Tuesday.
Phil
Whitehead has apparently let Alan Pardew know that he wishes to
leave Reading now that he is no longer the first-choice keeper.
Although I am firmly in the camp of those who prefer Marcus
Hahnemann, it's not too difficult to sympathise with Whitehead's
reaction to a club where the official website runs a poll asking
if he should be dropped (even if it was taken down fairly quickly).
From Reading's perspective, we now have two keepers capable of
playing in Division 1, and it would be good to maintain that
level of backup. However, there must be plenty of clubs without a
keeper as good as Whitehead and it is hardly a surprise that he
wants first team football.
ESPN
are reporting that Bolton Wanderers' Colin Hendry has turned down
a move to Reading that would have lasted until the end of the
season. Last week Reading said that they were looking at a
Premiership defender and Chief Scout Brian McDermott was believed
to have attended the Bolton Wanderers against Liverpool reserve
game on the Monday. However, Hendry did not play in that game, so
he may have had a doubly wasted trip. Hendry's wife has been
seriously ill for some months, and there's a strong possibility
that his main concern was the distance between Reading and their
home.
Gordon
Strachan has attended both the League games that we have won this
season. The diminutive Southampton manager is clearly our lucky
mascot, and should be invited to lead out the team at future
games. He was also in Reading on Wednesday, 14th August when
there was no match on, and the obvious speculation is that he has
been watching Jamie Cureton. In any event, it seems a pretty safe
bet that he wouldn't have been interested in any of the Burnley
team on display last night.
Our
Under-13 team took part in a three-team tournament with Crystal
Palace and Queens Park Rangers today, and won both games. Click here for
basic details.
Reading's
reserve side lose 1-0 away to Colchester United. Click here for
match details.
As
usual, the inability of Thames Valley Police to cover both a
football match and the Reading Festival forces Reading to move
the August Bank Holiday game to the Tuesday night. With not one
single policeman in evidence either inside or outside the ground,
Reading beat Burnley 3-0. For a match report, click here. The
result moves us up to equal 14th in the table, whilst Jamie
Cureton's two goals tonight make him the clear leading goalscorer
in the whole country.
Jamie
Ashdown's loan spell at Bournemouth continues as he played the
whole game against Oxford United this evening, letting in one
goal which was undoubtedly a defensive error in front of him. (Dorset
police ban all Bank Holiday games, making them the only force in
the country worse than Thames Valley.) Ashdown had made two
previous League appearances for Reading.
Adrian
Williams has been named in the Football League's "Team of
the Week" for Division 1 (that was for the week ending last
Friday).
Reading
lose 2-1 away to Leicester City, with Jamie Cureton scoring
another goal from the penalty spot. For a match report, click here.
Reading are now 20th in the Division 1 table.
Jamie
Ashdown was an unused substitute in Bournemouth's Division 3
defeat today.
Both
the Under-19s and Under-17s lost on their trip to Manchester
United this morning.
A
mostly Under-15 side including a number of trialists lost 5-2 to
Manchester United at Bisham Abbey this morning. For a match
report, click here.
This
Saturday, Reading's Under-19 and Under-17 sides start their FA
Premier Academy League programme with a trip to Manchester United.
The games are at 11am and will be played at the Trafford Training
Centre in Carrington, which is about eight miles south-west of
Manchester City Centre. There is a 30-minute highlights programme
on MUTV featuring the two matches at 7.30pm on Monday, 27th
August (repeated at 5.30pm on Tuesday, 28th August).
Reading's
reserves beat Luton Town 2-1 at the new reserve game home venue
of Madejski Stadium. Nicky Forster scored both goals and Marcus
Hahnemann played his first game since re-signing with Reading,
saving a second-half penalty. Click here for a
match report.
Jamie
Ashdown is about to sign a one-month loan deal with Bournemouth,
and will play for their reserves this afternoon against Cardiff
City at Ninian Park. (Later news: Jamie played the whole game,
and Bournemouth's reserves won 3-2.)
I think this is a good time to consider Bournemouth's current state - at the start of this season, their first two fixtures were against Boston United and Kidderminster Harriers. If that wasn't enough of a wake-up call for their once-arrogant fans, then the fact that they still hadn't won a game after playing both those clubs should have been. That will teach them for daring to cheat against Reading.
Joe
Gamble was in the Republic of Ireland Under-21 squad for their
game against Finland in Helsinki today. Given the originally
small squad, plus several withdrawals and late call-ups, it is a
surprise that Joe did not start the game. His side won 1-0, with
a goal in injury time in the second half, but this time it was
not the Reading player that got the late winner. (Later news: Joe
played the last 30 minutes of the match after coming on as a
substitute.)
Despite
going a goal ahead, Reading lose 2-1 at home to Coventry City 2-1
- for a match report, click here. We're
15th in the table, with one late kick-off still to come that
could drop us another place. Marcus Hahnemann returns to the club
as an unused substitute.
Catching
me completely by surprise, the reserves drew 0-0 at Norwich City
this afternoon, in a game which had been quoted as a 7.30pm kick-off.
Ricky Newman played, and so has obviously got over his recent
injury. For basic match details, click here.
Not
exactly a shock, but goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann has today signed
a two-year deal with Reading. The USA international played six
games on loan last season, and impressed greatly with his
domination of the penalty area and kicking ablility. He's taken
the same number that he had for those games - 31.
Division
1 returns to Reading, and a classic Jamie Cureton double sees off
Sheffield Wednesday by 2-1. The second half performance was a
huge improvement on both Saturday, and the first half of this
game. For a match report, click here.
For what it's worth this early in the season, and with some other
clubs only having played one game, we're now eleventh in the
League table.
Adrian
Whitbread has picked up another knee injury and is set to be out
for several months. Centre-back looked like a possible weak area
before the season started, and clearly looks even worse right now.
If there's any squad strengthening going on, then (along with
goalkeeper) this has to be a priority, although a loan deal might
suffice.
Reading's
trip to Rotherham United on Saturday, 7th September has been
brought forward two hours to avoid a direct clash with the
England v Portugal friendly international on the same day.
The
season begins, and a very poor Reading performance sees a
comprehensive 3-0 defeat at Derby County. Only the fact that some
other teams put in even worse showings saves us from being bottom
of the first league table of the season. For a match report,
click here.
The
Home Office today published the annual report into football-related
offences. Last season there were 20 arrests of Reading fans at
football matches (compared to 25 in 2000/01). Only three of these
arrests were at home games, although there is no way to tell how
many away fans were arrested at Reading home games. 16 Reading
fans are currently subject to banning orders. I have said before,
and will undoubtedly have to say again, that it is totally wrong
that the report deals with the numbers of arrests as it should
instead deal with the number of convictions. However, the 20
arrests are split as follows:
Public disorder - 6
Throwing missiles - 1 (presumably the pie!)
Running onto pitch - 3
Alcohol offences - 9
Other - 1
Earlier
this week Walsall offered American goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann a
contract after he had been on trial with them. Today, Walsall
announced that he had rejected the deal and instead signed for
Reading. Reading said that it was true we were in discussions
with him, but that he hadn't yet signed.
It
seems that striker Bas Savage's knee injury is far, far worse
than expected and will rule him out for the season. Scans
indicate that he could have ruptured a anterior cruciate
ligament, rather than just suffering cartliage damage.
In a
game where neither defence seemed to care, Reading beat West Ham
United 5-4. That may sound like another penalty shoot-out result
but all goals were scored in normal time. Click here for a
match report.
Reading's
Under-12 side ended our participation in this year's Graham
Taylor International Festival of Football on Sunday. They had a
reasonable day, with two wins and two draws from their seven
games. Click here
for full results.
On
Saturday, a Reading Academy side beat Luton Town 1-0 - click here for a
very brief report.
Two
more of our age group teams played in the Graham Taylor
International Festival of Football near Watford today. The Under-13s
managed one win in their four games, whilst the Under-11s fared
rather better, losing only two of their six games, and one of
those to the eventual winners Arsenal. Click here
for details of the Under-13 games and here
for those of the Under-11s.
England
continued their winning ways in the Nordic International
Tournament yesterday with a 2-1 victory over Norway - Reading's
Darren Campbell started the game on the bench. Three wins from
three group games meant that England played Iceland in the final
this afternoon. We won 1-0 with the victory coming from a golden
goal. (Later news: Darren did play in the game.) For more details
of England's participation in this tournament, go to the Darren
Campbell section of the current internationals
page.
Reading
lose their unbeaten pre-season record, with a 4-3 defeat at home
to Charlton Athletic. For a match report, click here.
In the
second day at the Graham Taylor International Festival of
Football, Reading's Under-10s put in a stunning performance with
six wins out of six, conceding only two goals in the process. Of
course, that means that we also won the tournament, ahead of
teams from the Premiership Academies of Arsenal, Everton, West
Ham United, Charlton Athletic and Fulham. Well done to all
concerned. Click here
for all the results and tables.
The
Graham Taylor International Festival of Football began yesterday,
and Reading's Under-9s side took part in the opening day against
teams from other professional football clubs. A very encouraging
set of results saw Reading win three and draw one of the six
games. Click here for
details of the day's play.
England
have played two games so far in the Nordic International
Tournament being played in Sweden. They beat Faeroe Islands 4-0
on Tuesday and Sweden 5-3 on Wednesday. Reading's Darren Campbell
made his England debut in the first game and also played in the
second match. England's final group game is on Friday afternoon.
Meanwhile the club have announced that Scotland have invited Darren to training sessions this week with their Under-17 squad, which of course he will be unable to attend. However, Ahmet Rifat, one of our new scholars, was also invited and will go. At the same time, Russell Lucas will be at a similar event for Wales Under-17.
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