I've
now set up the league tables for our two FA Premier Academy
League teams, and they're well worth a look! Click here to see more.I've
now set up the league tables for our two FA Premier Academy
League teams, and they're well worth a look! Click here to see more.
Just a
stroll in the park as Reading comfortably saw off Wimbledon this
afternoon, the final score being 3-0. Click here for
match details. We are now in second place in the League table and
more surprisingly the top scorers in the division! Shaun Goater
scored two goals today which gives him four in total and means
that he is the joint highest scorer of League goals in Division 1
(joint third highest among all Division 1 players for goals in
all competitions).
In the
FA Premier Academy League, the Under-19s kept their 100% record
with a 1-0 win away to Sheffield Wednesday, but the Under-17 side
crashed 5-0 at Middlesbrough.
Martin
Butler has agreed terms with Rotherham United and should sign for
them next Monday. Once we had made extra payments for staying up
in 1999/2000 and gaining promotion in 2001/02, Butler was our
record signing costing a total of £850,000. We will now receive
a fee which Rotherham are saying is about £150,000 and is
therefore a good deal for a player in the last year of his
contract. It will also be the first transfer money that Reading
have received for well over three years, since the move of Shaun
Allaway to Leeds United.
In the
first group game of the Football Combination League Cup, the
reserves beat Wycombe Wanderers 4-2 this afternoon. Click here for
match details.
After
tonight's Division 1 results, Reading stay in third place in the
league table.
A
disappointing game as Reading drew 0-0 at home to Rotherham
United - for match details, click here. We
dropped to third place in the table once the remainder of the
programme today had taken place.
Reading
go top of the Football League! Well, that should be tonight's
headline and it would have been if Brian Curson knew anything
about being a referee and we had therefore taken all three points
against Ipswich Town. Instead a 3-2 win away to Derby County this
afternoon puts us up into second place - click here for a
match report. In any event, Reading are now in 22nd place in the
English pyramid which is our highest ever position, beating the
23rd position achieved in February last season. As our game
against Rotherham United is the next match to kick-off in the
division, we will go top of the division if we win.
In the
first games of this season's FA Premier Academy League, both
Reading's teams got off to a winning start. The Under-19s beat
Newcastle 2-0 at our home ground of Bisham Abbey, whilst the
Under-17s won 4-1 away to Coventry City. Due to time pressure, I
have not yet set up the Academy section of the site for this
season but will do so shortly.
Omar
Daley is in the Jamaica squad for their game against Australia at
Madejski Stadium on Sunday, 7th September. It remains to be seen
whether this means he will be unable to take part in our game
against Walsall the previous day.
Adie
Williams was an unused substitute as Wales lost 1-0 to Serbia
& Montenegro in Belgrade. Just when will these international
managers learn, I wonder? (Later news on 21st August) Adie is in
the squad for the next Wales qualifying game, away to Italy on
Saturday, 6th September. This means he will miss our home game
against Walsall scheduled for the same date.
Reading's
reserve side had their biggest win for a long time as they beat
Northampton Town 7-0 this afternoon. This is particularly
impressive as Northampton had quite a number of first team
players starting the game. Martin Butler scored five goals but
the headlines will probably go to Omar Daley, who made his first
appearance in a Reading shirt. Click here
for match details. Despite some other big wins today, we are of
course now top of the Football Combination Central and East
Division - see the table.
Steve
Sidwell came on as a second-half substitute this evening as
England Under-21s lost 3-0 at home to Croatia, the game being
played at West Ham United's ground.
England
Under-21 manager David Platt has announced the England Under-21
line-up for tomorrow night's game, and it does not include Steve
Sidwell. He has yet to name his subs.
Steve
Sidwell is in the England Under-21 squad to take on Croatia at
West Ham United's ground this Tuesday.
In the
second round of the League Cup, Reading will travel to Division 3
side Oxford United. It will be our first visit to their new
Kassam Stadium. The game is set for Wednesday, 24th September.
Oxford have a 100% record so far this season, but they haven't
had to endure a game refereed by Brian Curson.
Reading
beat Nottingham Forest 3-0 at home with a fine performance. Steve
Sidwell scored a goal from a corner kick routine (the first time
Reading have managed this since March 2002!), whilst Scott Murray
and Shaun Goater both scored their first goal for the club. Nicky
Shorey missed a penalty - click here
for a match report.
Andre
Boucaud scored his first League goal today - for Peterborough
United whilst on loan.
Jamaican
Omar Daley has received his work permit and is now free to play
for Reading. There's a good chance his first game will the be the
home reserve clash with Northampton Town this Wednesday. He's
going to take shirt number 30.
Incredibly,
Nicky Shorey's appeal against the completely unjustified red card
he received at Ipswich Town has been turned down. The referee is
clearly unable to admit to his mistakes, even when given a
chance, and so Shorey will miss next week's visit to Derby County.
Reading's
Under-15s played Manchester United at Bisham Abbey this morning.
This is looking like an annual fixture as the northern side
spends a few days at Bisham on a training camp and then ends with
a game. Reading lost the game 3-1 but fielded a number of
trialists and showed progress compared to the same fixture last
year (which obviously was with a different set of youngsters. A
very sketchy report will appear by Friday.
We
have been named as one of the seeds in the draw for the second
round of the League Cup. As far as I can tell there is no further
regionalisation, which means that we will play one out of
Blackpool, Brighton & Hove Albion, Bristol City, Cardiff
City, Colchester United, Crewe Alexandra, Darlington, Doncaster
Rovers, Hartlepool United, Huddersfield Town, Luton Town,
Northampton Town, Notts County, Oxford United, Queens Park
Rangers, Scunthorpe United, Stockport County, Stoke City /
Rochdale, Swindon Town, Tranmere Rovers, Walsall, Wigan Athletic
or Wycombe Wanderers.
Sky
have announced some more televised Nationwide League games,
including our trip to Sheffield United, which will now be played
on Friday, 24th October.
Reading
reach Round 2 of the League Cup with a 3-1 win away to Boston
United. For match details, click here. Graeme
Murty missed the match, apparently with stomach and ankle
problems. The draw for the next round is at 5.30pm this Saturday,
and will include the 12 Premiership clubs who are not in European
competition this season.
Darius
Henderson did not play for Brighton & Hove Albion in their
League Cup game last night, because Reading wanted him eligible
for us in later rounds. Presumably Andre Boucaud will also have
to sit out the Peterborough United game this evening. (Later news:
Boucaud did in fact play for Peterborough, and so will not be
able to take part in Reading's extended League Cup campaign.)
Simieon
Howell has been named in a Jamaica squad taking part in an Under-19
tournament in Germany this weekend. Simieon has played for
England at Under-15 level and been involved with England squads
up to the Under-18s but is not yet tied to any one country, and
is presumably eligible for Jamaica through parents or
grandparents. The tournament features group games against Qatar
and club sides Freiburg (Germany) and Botafogo (Brazil). More
details on the international
dates page.
I missed it at the time, but Simieon was also one of the 32 players selected for a Jamaica Under-23 training camp in June preparing for their Olympic qualifiers in September.
Reading
have said that we will appeal against Nicky Shorey's sending-off
on Saturday. This seems to confirm that if he is suspended, the
game he will miss will be the trip to Derby County on Saturday
week.
With
the signing of Omar Daley yesterday being subject to him gaining
a work permit, it's time to set out what that means. Essentially
if you're not a citizen of the European Economic Area (the EU
plus Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein) and haven't lived here
for ten years or made an appropriate marriage (!), then to get a
work permit for any occupation you have to demonstrate that you
can provide some ability that most others don't have. For a
football transfer, the Government uses various measures. One is
that the player has to be among the top earners at the club
trying to sign him. However, the rule that causes most problems
relates to international appearances. To get a work permit, a
player has to have appeared in 75% of his country's games for
which he was eligible in the last two years, and his country has
to be ranked in the top 70 in the world. When applications are
refused it's sometimes possible to get them overturned on appeal
by providing extra information about games missed through injury,
or something similar.
So, looking at Omar Daley and Jamaica, the first thing is that FIFA currently rank Jamaica at number 46 so even though they may have moved up and down a bit in the last couple of years, there will certainly be no problems there. In the last two years (since August 2001), Jamaica have played 25 internationals and Omar has appeared in 20 of them. That seems OK but it's only competitive games that count - in that case, Jamaica have played 12 and Omar has appeared in nine of them. So that's exactly 75% and as far as I can see he should get the permit. (A complete list of his appearances for the full Jamaica side is on the international dates page.)
If we were to sign him permanently for next season, we would have to apply for another permit. In this case, we would also have to demonstrate that he had played in 75% of our games when available. So if he looks like a decent player, and comes on as a very late substitute on a few occasions, you know why!
Reading
have signed Jamaican international midfielder Omar Daley on a
season-long loan from Jamaican club Portmore United (the recently-renamed
Hazard United who were champions last season). He will need a
work permit to play for us, something he failed to secure a year
ago when Charlton Athletic attempted to sign him. Since then he
has made more international appearances and it seems that Reading
are confident there will not be a problem this time. Presumably
he will also need international clearance, although that is
usually a lot quicker and may have happened already.
Our
Under-19s beat Nottingham Forest 1-0 away on Saturday whilst the
Under-17s lost 3-2.
Opening
day of the season and what do we find? Referees are still
incompetent. Nicky Shorey is incorrectly sent off and Ipswich
Town score a late equaliser from an incorrectly awarded penalty
to make the final score 1-1 at Portman Road. Scott Murray and
Shaun Goater both made competent first team debuts for Reading.
Steve Sidwell scored the goal in his best performance for Reading
but had to be substituted as the referee was looking for an
excuse to send him off. The man who thought he had the right to
decide where the points were going was Brian Curson
of Leicester (and apparently also of Ipswich) - hopefully we will
never have to see him again. Click here for a
match report. For what it's worth at this stage, we're equal
tenth in the League table.
Alan Pardew has said he will appeal against Nicky Shorey's sending off if he is able to do so. The offence should result in a one-game ban. If the FA has adopted the FIFA directive that the first game ban arising from a sending-off is immediate and not subject to appeal, then Shorey will miss the Boston United League Cup game on Wednesday. If, as I think is likely, the FA have not made that change for this season, then there would be a possible appeal but Shorey would be at risk of missing the game at Derby County on 23rd August.
Darius
Henderson, Andre Boucaud and Joe Gamble all played the first game
in their loan spells at Brighton & Hove Albion, Peterborough
United and Barnet respectively. Henderson scored a goal from the
penalty spot and Boucaud received a yellow card, but both were
later substituted tactically. Gamble played the full 90 minutes.
Manchester
City are opening their new City of Manchester Stadium with a
friendly against Barcelona tomorrow and have invited Shaun Goater
to take part in the ceremonies. They'll just have to hope that he
doesn't get called in for special Sunday training by Alan Pardew!
Shaun
Goater was the special guest on talkSPORT radio this evening. I
don't think there were any major new revelations, but it was good
to hear an in-depth interview with a Reading player on national
radio.
There's
yet another attempt to stage a full international at Madejski
Stadium, but it looks as though this time it really will happen.
The game is Australia v Jamaica, scheduled for Sunday, 7th
September, and it is the Australians that have chosen Reading as
their quasi-home ground.
According
to the Evening Post, Alan Pardew went to watch a Champions League
game last night in his search for a centre-back. It was obviously
Djurgården against Partisan Belgrade although the paper doesn't
actually say so. Assuming that Pardew wants to pursue interest in
the player he was watching, then the fact that the Swedes were
knocked out presumably removes one obstacle to the signing.
Darius
Henderson is to join Brighton & Hove Albion on loan. I assume
that the deal will expire on Saturday, 6th September.
Adie
Williams is in the initial 27-man Wales squad for their European
Championships qualifier against Serbia & Montenegro on
Wednesday, 20th August. This game was originally scheduled for
March but postponed due to the assassination of the Serbian prime
minister. Adie should still be available for Reading's first home
game of the season against Nottingham Forest the previous
Saturday.
Madejski
Stadium hosted an open training session this morning, with
several hundred fans in attendance. All the first team squad were
present, and went through a fairly normal session, except that
there was no work on set-pieces. When it came to a trial game,
the team lined up in both 4-4-2 (Forster and Goater as forwards)
and 4-5-1 (Forster up front alone). After the training session
the players signed autographs on the pitch, and I took the
opportunity to walk on the hallowed turf. I learnt two things:
(a) The centre spot is not a spot at all, but a hash mark on the
half-way line.
(b) The penalty spot is in fact a small dot inside a larger
circle.
Reading
paid another slice of the Bas Savage transfer fee by playing a
friendly away to Walton & Hersham today. We won 1-0 with a
powerful free-kick goal from Martin Butler. Shortly afterwards,
Darius Henderson and Butler were forcibly substituted by the
referee. Click here for a
match report of sorts.
This means that the pre-season programme is now complete, with a record of P8 W4 D2 L2 F15 A9. The wins were over a Brentford XI (mostly reserves), Gefle IF (partly reserves), Didcot Town and Walton & Hersham. Results at this time of year are of course completely pointless, literally as well as figuratively, but I have to say that our performances did not really look up to scratch in four of the five games I've seen during pre-season.
In the
last first team friendly of the season, Reading lost 3-2 at home
to Southampton. Click here for
a match report - Shaun Goater was introduced to the crowd before
the game, but did not take part. Marc Edworthy was not on show at
all.
Alan Pardew has said that he is looking to send one of tonight's scorers, Darius Henderson, out on loan to a Division 2 club to gain experience. This will presumably only be a short-term loan as Pardew clearly believes that Henderson has a part to play at Reading this season.
Shaun
Goater has signed a three-year contract with Reading today after
passing a medical this morning. Ceefax report that the transfer
fee payable to Manchester City is £500,000, although the two
clubs say that it is undisclosed. Goater is 33, a Bermuda
international, and has consistently scored goals in his time in
English football. He was awarded the MBE earlier this year for
services to sport in Bermuda. Goater had cult hero status at his
last club and it seems pretty likely the same will be true at
Reading.
First Team . Opposition . Reserves . Academy . Where Are They Now? . Columns . Kingsley . MadStad . Interactive . Links . Site Map