Reading (A) match thread - Jan 13th

[Wrex]

Seeing as they obviously won't count 16 minutes as enough of the game to count as complete, then the match will be replayed or continued from 16 minutes, as per regulations.

[Powerline]

20 minutes ago, Guppys left peg said:

It’s pissing into the wind talking about having the game awarded to us. It had only been on for 16 minutes (less if you include the tennis ball stoppages). There is no circumstance they could reasonably award the game to us and quite frankly I wouldn’t want us to “win” like that. It’s cheap and beneath us.

Saw today a group of fans in Reading doing whatever it takes to try and save their club. Wish them nothing but the best in doing that. It shouldn’t really have taken them to force an abandonment to get eyes on their plight but that’s the world any of us outside the PL live in.

Sod that I’m not too proud to take the 3 points if it keeps us up.

[Powerline]

32 minutes ago, JoeB2 said:

In 2019, I spoke quite a bit to Mr Norman Smurthwaite. He was fairly clear that under no circumstances would he sell Port Vale. He enjoyed being a football club chairman too much. He was the sole shareholder. He would stay as long as he wanted to - even if that meant PVFC in non-league.

Then, a determined group of fans made things less comfortable for him. National press attention, open hostility at home games - the man started to buckle under the pressure. He didn't like it. He started looking for an out.

At this point, Mr Smurthwaite stated he'd quite happily let the club fold. He'd simply stop funding the club until it failed to repay its debts, then make the selling process extremely difficult, which would have very easily ended in a Bury situation. We were really close to being on the brink.

No Port Vale. Vale Park in the hands of Smurthwaite. AFC Burslem Vale playing Northwest Counties in a groundshare with Leek Town. The 150 year history of Port Vale, the club of our grandparents and hopefully our grandkids, stolen by one bloke.

Thankfully, the group of fans did enough to make him amenable to selling to Carol Shanahan, who we should be thanking God for every single day, whatever her flaws may be.

Reading FC are in that position. Yongge will finish them off. No Saturday pints. No seeing your mates at the game. No family bond. No history. Nowt.

They did what they had to do today. Will it make a difference? No idea. They've got national attention on their fight and, let me tell you, it makes a massive difference. Getting the game abandoned makes a far bigger splash than going back to your seats after the PA tells you to. Everyone in the country knows about this now. It's national news.

The Vale fans on here carping about £29 and one game of football should really think back to 2019. We were lucky enough that we had a saviour waiting in the wings, so didn't need to go as far as match abandonments. Reading are being held hostage - £70m is being demanded. Picture your Saturdays without Vale. That's what Reading fans are facing.

It's not the fans fault they overspent. It's not the fans fault they're in this position. They're doing whatever they can to protect the football club from going bump, as we so very nearly did.

Some stuff is bigger than your day out. You're not the main characters of life, lads. This is thousands of people's football clubs.

Can't believe I'm reading Vale fans moan about it. Some absolutely disgusting comments. I don't think folks clock how lucky they are to even attend professional games of football to moan about.

£70m?!?!?!?! 😳

[JoeB2]

The abandonment today has been covered by:

Evening Standard, Daily Mail, ABC (America), Talksport, The i, BBC, Sky News, The Telegraph, Yahoo, Guardian, The Times, The Mirror, The Sun, FourFourTwo, The Athletic.

Were all of these national and international outlets reporting on the tennis balls on the pitch?

National/international pressure on a chairman can have a massive effect. Yongge has businesses. He has shareholders and stakeholders. The EFL will face questions they weren't facing from the press on Saturday morning. 95% of football fans in the country now know there's something amiss at Reading.

I'm sorry, I know we all go about our lives wanting what's best for ourselves, but a Saturday afternoon and £29 wasted is well worth it if today contributes to young kids still having a football club to attend with the families next season.

[Trumpingtonvale]

41 minutes ago, Wrex said:

Dunno why you're arguing about FA rules. The EFL run League One. FA rules don't enter into it.

Standard operating procedure would be for the match to be re-arranged, even if we were "winning" 0-0 after 16 minutes. The cause of the abandonment is irrelevant.

I do remember some South American game got abandoned on something like 85 minutes and the authorities there ordered that the two teams return a few days later to play the remaining 5 minutes. So really anything could happen, but the standard procedure would be to rearrange the game. Behind closed doors would be prudent. Perhaps only away fans could be permitted entry, though maybe most wouldn't fancy making the trip anyway with it being quite out of the way from a Staffordshire perspective.

I was guilty of commenting on the rules posted earlier in the thread assuming they were the EFL  not FA ones, so have deleted an earlier post.  Lesson learned - check my source’s sources before waisting half an hour of my life!🤓

[Wrex]

26 minutes ago, Powerline said:

£70m?!?!?!?! 😳

He agreed a sale for £50 million late last year, but changed his mind and said he wanted more. Not sure if it was an extra £20 million he wanted.

But the owner does seem a bit of a Norman. Not willing to sell until an inflated offer comes in that covers the cost of his moronic half-arsed financial mismanagement.

The infrastructure at Reading is supposedly Premier League standard, not that that is anything to do with the current owner.

[JRC]

8 hours ago, CAVALIER said:

Rules say replay of draw. Worth a google.

I have no idea if he will, or if he will sell in the end. If he acts as a rational business man then the floor price for any sale is the value of the land.

[Powerline]

44 minutes ago, Wrex said:

He agreed a sale for £50 million late last year, but changed his mind and said he wanted more. Not sure if it was an extra £20 million he wanted.

But the owner does seem a bit of a Norman. Not willing to sell until an inflated offer comes in that covers the cost of his moronic half-arsed financial mismanagement.

The infrastructure at Reading is supposedly Premier League standard, not that that is anything to do with the current owner.

I assume they own their own ground at least. Otherwise how on earth did he get an offer so high 

[RayWalkers40yarder]

On 11/01/2024 at 12:43, Valiiant said:

 

Even if we lose tomorrow, I've decided there'll be no more manager out shouts from me until the end of the season. I don't like some of his ways, which I've made clear, but I'm happy to give him the benefit of the doubt based on the fact that he clearly wants to do well for the club, and anybody would be a numpty to not want him to do well if you're a Vale fan. He's learning as he goes along and hopefully we can have a more consistent second half of the season where we put a decent run or two together.

We still have a pretty strong looking best 11 if we can get everyone fit. Much better on paper than in previous years. As long as we see progress bit by bit, and we're also entertained as that's what football should be, that's all anyone can ask from a manager and a club that obviously doesn't have pots full of cash.

i totally agree. today has put things into perspective. we have an owner that is a million times apart from the shower reading have and im willing to let it go now. ive said my piece over this i guess weve just got to trust the process ( even if we have a stoke fan as CEO )

 

[Brian Johnson]

13 hours ago, JRC said:

There has never been a deliberate,  orchestrated attempt to get a game abandoned.  The only incident in any way a precedent was an end of season game involving Blackpool about 10 years ago. For that game there was no replay and I think the FA ruled that Blackpool lost 1 0 as that was the time of the abandonment.  That one wasn't arranged in advance, it was spontaneous. 

The FA gave Blackpool a suspended 3 points deduction and Oldham have done it too

[Brian Johnson]

13 hours ago, efsb said:

You would think that the EFL would take into consideration the lack of security/policing when making a sanctions decision, given the fact that every man and his dog knew exactly what was planned, at least a couple of days in advance.

Obviously, per usual, I'm going to get a lot of hatred for my view. 

I'm sure that Carol etc will see what they can do in regards to sorting out some form of compensation but apart from the match ticket & those that used the official club coaches, I'm not sure that will happen.

The fact that "every man and his dog knew exactly was planned" (me included) then Vale fan's can not really be screaming for compensation for petrol, hotels etc because you took the risk of attending when you were warned that this was going to happen

[valeparklife]

Vale fans may have wasted one day out following their football club, but we will still have a football club under the ownership of Carol.

Reading fans might not even have a club to support in the near future.

Their efforts to save their club are worth a trillion times more than our wasted day.

Differing opinions are great in football, but if you don't agree with what I've just said then you aren't a football fan.

[dazzerjames]

23 minutes ago, Brian Johnson said:

Obviously, per usual, I'm going to get a lot of hatred for my view. 

I'm sure that Carol etc will see what they can do in regards to sorting out some form of compensation but apart from the match ticket & those that used the official club coaches, I'm not sure that will happen.

The fact that "every man and his dog knew exactly was planned" (me included) then Vale fan's can not really be screaming for compensation for petrol, hotels etc because you took the risk of attending when you were warned that this was going to happen

Bit better than ‘Crosby out’ I guess 😉

[Guest]

Abandoned because of a fire fair enough like Shrewsbury all them years ago but yesterday abandoned because they hate there owner and want him out well that's totally different so I feel we should be awarded the 3 points .

My nephew and many others I believe 800 plus have wasted there day and money .

Yes I understand that they have very good reason do what they did but even if with all what storming did to us we never got games abandoned .

Let's hope our supporters get refunded all the money to go see nothing 

UTV 

[Brian Johnson]

1 minute ago, Devine intervention said:

Abandoned because of a fire fair enough like Shrewsbury all them years ago but yesterday abandoned because they hate there owner and want him out well that's totally different so I feel we should be awarded the 3 points .

My nephew and many others I believe 800 plus have wasted there day and money .

Yes I understand that they have very good reason do what they did but even if with all what storming did to us we never got games abandoned .

Let's hope our supporters get refunded all the money to go see nothing 

UTV 

The thing is Phil, everyone knew what was going to happen yesterday but you still took the risk of going to the game. You cant moan to be compensated  after knowing the risks.