John Madejski has repeated calls for a billionaire to come and buy Reading but is making all the right noises about only selling for the right reasons and will not cut and run.
I did predict that football would go the way of the super-rich some time ago and what I don’t want to happen is for Reading to be left behind in that process. We have a fantastic club here and it would suit a benevolent billionaire from somewhere.
“I can understand the manager’s reservations. But as chairman, I’m allowed to say, ‘let’s give it a go and let’s get into Europe.’”
Meanwhile, Europe is casting a few glances at Reading. uefa.com a site that usually concentrates on the Champions League and internations has a piece on Reading called Reading on the rise. It notes Steve Coppell’s reticence for European competition but is very complementary. It has an interesting quote from Irish international Kevin Doyle when he stated that he’d “never scored a goal as important as that” referring to an Intertoto Cup goal for Cork.
What a comeback to take 3 points off Bolton. Doyle got 2 (one penalty) to get back on the goalscoring trail after injury. Hunt got his 4th of the season while Nicky Shorey was the unfortunate recipient of an o.g.
Another nail in the bad memories of that playoff final as we move to within 3 points of Bolton and into 7th place. Mr. Coppell might be getting worried about the UEFA cup place again. Maybe, he’ll rest Sidwell again.
Last game again on Match of the Day (justified I suppose) and more meaningless comments from the in-experts. If they can’t think of anything interesting to say apart from “good season from Reading” and “Doyle having a good season” don’t say anything. If you have Sky watch more of the game on Football First and then watch Goals on Sunday. Of course, this only applies to away games. Wish I could go, but my wife might kill me. Although I’m working on my son putting his thoughts into the mix. Go Sky and shun the BBC.
Next home game is Newcastle, and Sky have scuppered my boy’s birthday celebration day as they moved the game to Monday at 8. I can’t take a 5 year old to a late kickoff. Gaa, I hate Sky. Shun Sky and only watch BBC matches, the match moving idiots. And what about the poor Newcastle fans having to make that long trip late on a Monday night?
Both Reading and Sheffield United have been fined over the fight following the sending off of Keith Gillespie at the Madejski earlier this season. Reading were fined £5000 whilst Sheffield got stuffed for twice as much.
Having had a ring side seat and saw the incident, I’d say the cost was well worth the entertainment it provided. If the FA actually wanted to deter it happening in future they should fine the clubs much more.
Of course, they don’t want to do this. They will do the minimum necessary to cover their backs so that they are not seen to condone such incidents whilst not upsetting the clubs involved too much.
Wally Downes was personally fined £2000 and got a one game ban. If, in the future, Wally would like to go that step further, maybe the FA can agree the price before the game, and Reading fans could chip in, maybe in a sort of Blue Peter appeal sort of way.
Kingsley follows the Reading boys down the line and shakes hands with the Fulham players. Coming to the last player (Routledge I think) he does the classic pretend to shake then make rude gesture with fingers on nose (I don’t know what it is called; I got this description from HobNobAnyone? ). We had a good view and my son thought it was the best thing about the match.
Kingsley is starting to find his feet in the Premiership, but not been up to last seasons standards.
No video of this, but here is one of Kingsley doing some Soccer AM move that only 7 year olds will find funny.
I found a video of Lita making a fool out of Jens Lehmann as discussed previously.
Best thing is that he didn’t realise that it was on purpose. For this act alone, Lita should have the violent conduct charge dropped. That was a travesty.
After a comfortable first half, Reading made hard work of finishing the game off and in the end hung onto the victory as the relegation strugglers hit the bar.
There was a very relaxed atmosphere at the Madejski Stadium as Reading were comfortable midtabling with very little to play for. Fulham on the other hand were clearly nervous and for the first 15 minutes this showed. Reading pressed and passed well, Fulham gave the ball away and when given a good chance put it well over the bar from close range.
The pressing and passing ended with a goal. Good work from Seol on the wing led to a cross which the Fulham defender dealt with. However instead of clearing, he dwelt on the ball and Kitson stole the ball off him. He fed Seol who put a ball into the alert Doyle, who turned and passed across the 6 yard line for Hunt to kill from close range.
However, this was it was as good as it got for Reading. Leading 1-0 they became too comfortable and let Fulham back into the match. They scored but it was discounted for off-side but threatened far more in the 2nd half. Coppell made changes and brought on Oster and Long to liven it up. It partially worked and Reading had a goal disallowed for offside. At the death, Fulham hit the bar and nearly got a deserved point.
Special praise for the Fulham fans who out sung us. Of course, they were desperate and we were coasting. As I said there was a real relaxed atmosphere and the Reading fans kind of sat back. In actually I think this passed to the players who ended up sitting back as well.
Sidwell had been dropped so that Gunnarsson could get some playtime alongside Harper and whether this caused the sitting back, I don’t know. Gunnarsson played well and had a shot well saved by Neimi, who looks to be a very good keeper.
I think Fulham will stay up. There are a big physical team who will pick up points. The only problem they have is that they have a lot of hard games to play, but they are better than both Charlton and West Ham.
Final word to the grey hard linesman nearest the the South Stand. You are rubbish or blind or both. It isn’t bias, because he was equally wrong to both teams. Both Shorey and Helguson were booked because they lost their temper with him. Quite understandably as I counted 7 mistakes on easy decisions in the first half. Sometimes, you just shouldn’t be in football.
