A John
Salako goal is enough to give Reading victory at Brighton and
Hove Albion this afternoon. For a match report, click here. We
stay fifth in the table.A John
Salako goal is enough to give Reading victory at Brighton and
Hove Albion this afternoon. For a match report, click here. We
stay fifth in the table.
Like January 2002 (except with one less game), November 2002 has been a perfect month. Five games, five wins, five clean sheets. The only way that Alan Pardew does not get the Manager of the Month award is if the panel show the same level of criminal incompetence as the referee at today's game.
Our
time spent in 24th place in the pyramid was short-lived as a
result tonight pushes us back down to 25th (or fifth in Division
One).
Reading's
reserve side lost 1-0 away to Bristol Rovers this evening.
Perhaps
not too surprisingly, the Royals find life at Palace much to our
liking, and a Nicky Forster goal means that we come away with a 1-0
victory. Click here
for match details. That's now five consecutive wins without
conceding a goal, and we move up to fourth place in the table.
Fourth place in Division 1 means that we are currently 24th in the pyramid of English football. Although in the 1994/95 season, we were often in 2nd place in Division 1 there were at that time 22 teams in the Premiership. This means that our highest ever position in the League pyramid is in fact 24th place. In other words, this is our equal best ever position!
Should
our Under-18 side defeat Sheffield Wednesday at home in Monday
night's FA Youth Cup third round tie, then we will be away to
either Newcastle United or Manchester United in the following
round. They play their round three game on Wednesday, 4th
December, at Newcastle.
Arsenal
will soon be short of centre-backs due to injury and suspension
and are considering recalling Matthew Upson. As with any loan (except
a season-long one), a player can be recalled by his club after 28
days. Even if Arsenal do decide that they want him back, we might
still see Upson for two more games because part of their problems
is a suspension starting on Saturday, 7th December. It does
however seem likely that Upson will not be available for the
Reading v Portsmouth game on that date. As long as Arsene Wenger
doesn't take Marcus Hahnemann off our hands, then I think we'll
cope!
Italian tour part 6 - This series has been
moved to the features section.
Reading
beat Watford 1-0 at home after Marcus Hahnemann saved a penalty.
For match details click here.
Although we overtake Watford, we stay in seventh place due to
Sheffield United improving their goal difference more than we
did, so that they sneak ahead of us on goals scored.
The
Under-19 side lost 2-1 away to Fulham in the FA Premier Academy
League. The Under-17s had no game.
Italian tour part 5 - This series has been
moved to the features section.
Italian tour part 4 - This series has been
moved to the features section.
Wales
beat Azerbaijan 2-0 in a European Championship qualifier this
afternoon. Adie Williams was an unused substitute. Adie will
arrive back in Wales at 1.30 on Thursday morning.
Reading's
reserve side won 2-1 away to Barnet this afternoon. Click here for
match details.
Italian tour part 3 - This series has been
moved to the features section.
Adie
Williams is in the Wales squad for their game against Azerbaijan
in Baku tomorrow. The game is live on BBC2 Wales, with the
programme starting at 2.30pm and kick-off at 3pm. Anyone in
England with a Sky digibox should be able to receive BBC2 Wales
on channel 961. Although in the past, it's not been unknown for
channels to go off air just when a football match starts (for
copyright reasons), this has not applied for the Wales European
Championship qualifiers so far this season. It should therefore
be possible to watch the game elsewhere in the UK, hopefully
including an injury-free performance from Adie.
Italian tour part 2 - This series has been
moved to the features section.
Italian tour part 1 - This series has been
moved to the features section.
Adie
Williams has received a call-up to the Wales squad for their
World Cup qualifier in Azerbaijan next Wednesday. Adie's last
international appearance was in June 1999.
Some
Academy results - our sides were all taking on Bristol City this
weekend. Yesterday the Under-19s won 4-0, which is their third
victory without conceding a goal on the trot. The Under17s
managed their first win of the season, by +2-1. Meanwhile, the
Under-11s won 5-3 today. No other schoolboy scores known at the
moment.
Referee
George Cain
deems that the pitch at Bramall Lane is waterlogged and postpones
our away game with Sheffield United at about 2.10pm after a
second pitch inspection. Other games do take place and we drop
one place in the League table, to seventh. On the plus side, this
gives Matthew Upson and Graeme Murty a further week to get back
to full fitness. Ricky Newman will now have to serve his one game
suspension against Watford next Saturday.
James
Harper is the latest Reading player to get into the Nationwide
Team of the Week for Division 1.
Far
too long ago, I wrote this:
"Monday,
7th January - Today is one of the greatest
days in the history of Reading Football Club. Unfortunately I
can't tell you why yet, although all will become clear in the
next few months. I will say that it relates to a rediscovery.
"
My plan was to produce a pamphlet detailing the things I had discovered that had led me to make the above statement, and my intention was to publish it in March 2002! Realistically, I can't see that I'm going to get it into print, so instead the information will be revealed on this website, over the course of the next week [This series has subsequently been moved to the features section.] For now, if you want to start guessing, look at the quote on the front page and see if you can guess which newspaper it comes from! Answer and part one of the saga on Monday or Tuesday of next week.
Adi
Viveash's loan spell at Oxford United was due to end this
Saturday. However, Reading have refused permission for him to
play in the FA Cup 1st round and he has therefore already
returned to Reading. Oxford have said a lot about wanting to sign
him but have so far failed to back up any of their words with
action.
Adrian
Whitbread made a return from injury in this afternoon's reserve
game against Brentford. Whitbread played 45 minutes before a
scheduled half-time substitution, but Reading lost 2-1. For match
details (report to follow), click here.
There's
a change to this week's reserve game. Wycombe Wanderers have
pulled out of the scheduled match because they have a Berks & Bucks
Senior Cup game on Tuesday night. Instead Reading have
arranged to play a League game at home to Brentford on Wednesday.
However, because Brentford have an LDV Vans Trophy match away to
Plymouth Argyle on Tuesday night, they have asked that the game
start at 3pm.
Reading
win 1-0 away to Gillingham to move up to sixth in the table.
That's a play-off position and apart from 1994/95 the best in our
entire 131-year history! Click here for
match details (report to follow).
Both
Academy sides played away to Coventry City - the Under-19s had
their second successive 3-0 victory whilst the Under-17s drew 1-1.
In the
FA Youth Cup round 3, Reading have been given a home tie against
Sheffield Wednesday. The last date for the round to be complete
is Saturday, 7th December but competition rules state that under
normal circumstances the match should be played on a midweek
evening at Madejski Stadium. The competition is for Under-18
teams - currently, Sheffield Wednesday's Under-17 and Under-19
sides are last in their respective groups of the FA Premier
Academy League.
The
main game on Meridian's Soccer Sunday this week will be
Gillingham against Reading. The programme starts at 2pm, and
obviously is on Sunday. As our matches on three of the next five
Saturdays are against other teams from the region it is likely
that Soccer Sunday will give us reasonable coverage for a short
while before they get on with what they see is their real job of
covering South Coast sides only.
A
Reading reserve side beat Oxford United 4-1 this afternoon in a
friendly played at the home of Didcot Town. Click here for a
match report.
Reading's
reserve side are playing against Oxford United at Didcot Town's
ground tomorrow afternoon. Kick-off is at 2pm and spectators are
welcome. Originally this game was supposed to be against
Brentford - I have no idea whether it is a rearranged Avon
Insurance Combination game or just a friendly. Neither do I know
why it is being played at Didcot on a Monday.
A 2-0
home win over Millwall lifts Reading to 7th place in the league
table. For match details (report to follow), click here.
Although we might drop one or two places when games later in the day take place, let's just think about our league position. Reading have had three previous spells in this division - the highest place we achieved during the second spell was seventh, early in the 1986/87 season, and at the time this was described as the highest the club had ever been. In our third spell we were in second place for much of the 1994/95 season but never got as high as seventh in any of the other three seasons. So at the time of writing, we are in a League position that equals our second best ever.
(Later news: Thanks to a late goal by Coventry City we are in eighth place at the end of the day, but it was nice while it lasted!)
The
Under-17 side couldn't emulate the first team, suffering a 3-1
defeat at home to Millwall. However, the Under-19s had a fine 3-0
away victory over Crystal Palace, thus securing their first
victory of the season.
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