A late
Jamie Cureton goal gives Reading a 2-1 home win over Derby County.
For match details click here. The
three points put us back up into sixth place.A late
Jamie Cureton goal gives Reading a 2-1 home win over Derby County.
For match details click here. The
three points put us back up into sixth place.
Coventry
City become the third successive team to beat Reading 2-0 today.
Click here
for match details. Coventry overtake Reading as we slip to
seventh in the League. Steve Brown made his debut at centre-back
- it also appears that he was the back-up goalkeeper as we named
five outfield players on the bench. Not to be outdone, Marcus
Hahanemann managed Reading's only shot on goal in the game, when
he came up for a later corner.
Conveniently
at this point of the season, Reading have played every other team
in our division once. We have 39 points from those 23 games, and
a similar second half to the season will almost certainly leave
us in a play-off place. Of the other teams in the division, only
Norwich City, Sheffield United and Nottingham Forest have looked
impressive, with ten to twelve teams looking worse than average
sides in Division 2. I don't know what significance it might have
but the two most worrying performances were those in the first
and last games of the season so far, both very poor performances
in front of large Midlands crowds at once great clubs. We can
forget any real progress as a club until we learn to play against
teams rather than reputations.
I don't think that I documented it anywhere (unfortunately) but at the start of the season I reckoned that we had the squad to finish eighth in Division 1. Since then we have brought in a couple of players, whilst certain other clubs have revealed themselves to be not as good as expected. On that basis, I think we really should be looking for a top six finish - after that, of course anything could happen but I would be surprised if next season we were in a different division.
Reading
lost 2-0 away to Nottingham Forest but we stay sixth in the
league. For match details, click here.
New signing Steve Brown is not one of the 16 players named for
the game.
There
are no games in the FA Premier Academy League or for our younger
age groups this weekend. All youth teams restart matches on the
weekend of 11th and 12th January, 2003. (Later news: Some of the
schoolboy teams have friendly games arranged for the first week
of January.)
Late
notice, I'm afraid, but Football Night on Channel 5 TONIGHT is
expected to include a feature on Reading as a TV crew from the
show were filming at training on Wednesday. The programme is from
12.30am to 1.10am. Expect a few minutes of footage plus an
interview with Alan Pardew followed by some patronising comments
by people in the studio who have obviously never heard of us.
It's
been rumoured for a very long time, but Steve Brown has finally
joined Reading from Charlton Athletic on a free transfer. The
defender will take the squad number 29 vacated by Matthew Upson
and is available for selection for Saturday's visit to Nottingham
Forest. However, Brown has only played three times in the
Premiership for Charlton this season and all those were as
substitute, so it's likely that he will not be in the starting
line-up. Alan Pardew has described 30-year-old Brown as the new
Parky, but if he's still playing for us in ten years' time then I
think we'll be in trouble.....
Following
yesterday's allegations by Sheffield United, centre-back John
Mackie has apologised for whatever he said after the game on
Saturday and has volunteered to receive a fine of two weeks'
wages. John Salako, who was named as a witness by the visiting
club, has said that he felt the whole incident was blown up out
of proportion. As Sheffield United have not yet forwarded their
report to the FA or PFA, it seems that Reading are hoping that
they may now choose not to do so. This would seem unlikely,
though.
John
Mackie is to be reported to the FA and PFA by Sheffield United
for alleged racial abuse aimed at Carl Asaba on Saturday.
Hopefully what Mackie actually said was the entirely accurate,
"You're a useless waste of space."
Sheffield
United spoil the Royals Christmas Party with a 2-0 win at
Madejski Stadium. Marcus Hahnemann's run of not conceding a goal
ends at 757 minutes. For match details, click here.
Reading's
Under-19s had a good 2-0 win away to Chelsea this morning, whilst
the Under-17s lost 2-1 at home to Crystal Palace. These are the
last games in the FA Premier Academy League until Saturday, 11th
January.
Alex
Smith has signed on loan at Division 3 side Shrewsbury Town. The
loan probably expires on Saturday, 11th January. Shrewsbury have
an FA Cup Round 3 tie at home to Smith's old club, Everton, and
it would seem likely that Reading will allow him to take part in
that. The Shrewsbury manager Kevin Ratcliffe was at Everton for a
long time, which is probably the connection.
Ahmet
Rifat made his England debut tonight as England Under-17s beat
France 2-0 at Glanford Park in Scunthorpe. He was one of the
starting centre-backs. Alongside Simieon Howell, Jamie Young and
Darren Campbell (who subsequently chose to play for Scotland),
this means we now have four England internationals in our Academy.
Reading's
reserve side lost 4-0 away to Cheltenham Town this afternoon.
Darius Henderson played the first half of the game on his return
from a knee injury. Click here for
match details. We drop to fifth in the table.
The FA
Cup round 3 draw pairs Reading with Walsall. The tie will be away
on Saturday, 4th January. It is safe to assume that the game will
not be moved for TV coverage. Since our visit in the League,
Walsall have finished one phase of their rebuilding work and so
the location or number of available away seats may have changed.
In
front of a new stadium record crowd, Reading and Portsmouth draw
0-0. We stay fifth in the table - for match details, click here.
Sky TV
have condescended to show another Reading live game, and so our
home match with Gillingham has been switched from its original
Saturday to Monday, 10th February. Kick-off will be the standard
Sky time of 7.45pm rather than the standard Reading evening time
of 8pm. A week or so before the match, this website will list
where else in the world you will be able to obtain coverage of
the game, whether live or delayed.
The FA
Cup Round 3 draw takes place on Sunday at about 3pm after the
Oxford United v Swindon Town game. The draw is live on BBC1 and
Radio 5 Live - Reading will be ball number 31.
Reading's
reserve team beat Southend United 4-0 this afternoon in a League
game played at the home of Didcot Town. Joe Gamble was
stretchered off with an injury but not taken to hospital. For
match details (report to follow), click here.
Nicky
Forster has won the official PFA Fans Division 1 Player of the
Month award for November. He's only the second Reading player to
win such an award, following John Mackie's victory last March.
Assuming that the same format applies as last season, Forster
will be one of seven or eight nominees for the PFA Fans Player of
the Season award.
The December 2002 voting has begun, with Marcus Hahnemann the
top Reading player so far. Vote for him by clicking on the
following link:
PFA
Fans' Player Awards
Note that after you think that you have cast your vote, you will
be sent an e-mail with a further URL and a password to actually
cast it.
Reading
are cheated out of this year's FA Youth Cup by an incompetent
linesman. The record books will show that Sheffield Wednesday
beat us 2-1 at home after extra time, and in truth we should have
scored sufficient goals not to have been affected by poor
officiating. For match details (report to follow), click here.
A
second award in two days for Alan Pardew as he also takes the
Nationwide League Manager of the Month award for November 2002.
Last season, he won the Division 2 award in January 2002 and
November 2001.
The
sixth annual BBC South Sports awards are being held this evening.
Alan Pardew has won the Manager of the Year award.
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