Reading (A) match thread - Jan 13th

[Brian Johnson]

22 minutes ago, smithie said:

This wasn't a pitch invasion by thousands and could easily have been prevented. Only Thames Valley police and the Head of Stewarding at Reading can explain why they didn't do so. 

The Reading fans executed their threat.

Reading owners are also pleading poverty, hence what happened yesterday, which means the club were never going to pay for a police presence or deploy more stewards

[Hitcher]

I've missed this in amongst all the pitch invasion discourse but how well were we playing in those 16 minutes?

Obviously goodluck to Reading Fans and fair play to all Vale fans who went

[Bimbleabout]

A poorly run club is a poorly run club. I should imagine the reading supporters were totally behind being 90 mins from the premiership and ignored their financial issues and implications that this could become the outcome for them if they failed. They were most likely behind high profile and expensive signings
I don't support their owners or whatever, but they have pumped 20 mill minimum into the club to keep them afloat for a number of seasons now. It sounds like the owners have spat their dummies out after they lost the play offs.
To say Vale supporters are out of order etc for questioning the money spent getting to the game etc is poor context imo. They have a right to question it and demand answers. It's not their fault Reading are in the poo poo.
Everybody understands the situation and it's a terrible one, with a clubs future severely threatened, but to say Vale supporters are out of order to question things that have affected them negatively because of the reading fans actions is not balanced or fair.
The situation is different in comparison to Norman and their owners.
Their owners have shown ambition but it's back fired massively and they have spent massively, since, to keep the club afloat, adding debt on debt to the tune of hundreds of millions.
When Norm spat his dummy out he didn't give a f about anything apart from himself and we would have been in a terrible position of it wasn't for Carol et all. Was Norm pumping money into keep us going or was he looking for a way out to maximise his financial position?
If I was earning minimum wage or just a bit over and had spent 2/300 getting down there I would be peeved and rightly so. That's a months food for our family.

[Guppys left peg]

2 minutes ago, Hitcher said:

I've missed this in amongst all the pitch invasion discourse but how well were we playing in those 16 minutes?

Obviously goodluck to Reading Fans and fair play to all Vale fans who went

We started really well. Impressed with Weir, looking forward to seeing more of him. Had a goal disallowed not sure whether it was right or not as down the other end but nobody seemed to argue it much, nice delivery by Chislett though. After that for about five minutes before the stoppage it was Reading on the front foot, had a shout for a penalty .

[Jacko51]

8 hours 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.

You didn’t go either did you, Joe?

We got rid of V2001 and Smurf without ever interfering with what went on on the pitch or hitting away fans in the pocket.

[smithie]

8 minutes ago, Brian Johnson said:

The Reading fans executed their threat.

Reading owners are also pleading poverty, hence what happened yesterday, which means the club were never going to pay for a police presence or deploy more stewards

Well we could issue a threat to do something against Wycmbe but no-one knows if we'll do it or not. So should people stay away just in case? 

Reading didn't need any more stewards, they just needed to deploy them in the right area. They didn't. 

[Hitcher]

I know a Reading fan at work who reckons they have a decent sell on percentage for Olise at Crystal Palace.

I wonder to what extent their owner is clinging on for that as Olise often gets linked with bigger teams.

[Jacko51]

7 hours ago, Wrex said:

.

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

Not in the upper away section it wasn’t. Three ladies toilets, two of which had no accessible toilet paper and the only one that did had no lock on the door.  More Northern Premier League!!

[Rampant Zebra]

Maybe Reading management realised that it was best to let the game be abandoned to avoid any accusations of overbearing action by the stewards and police and give them an excuse to play games behind closed doors. 

[Brian Johnson]

9 minutes ago, smithie said:

Well we could issue a threat to do something against Wycmbe but no-one knows if we'll do it or not. So should people stay away just in case? 

Reading didn't need any more stewards, they just needed to deploy them in the right area. They didn't. 

Have you got experience of deploying stewards at large scale live events?

[JoeB2]

17 minutes ago, Jacko51 said:

You didn’t go either did you, Joe?

We got rid of V2001 and Smurf without ever interfering with what went on on the pitch or hitting away fans in the pocket.

The idea that I'm only supportive of Reading fans as I wasn't there is incredibly disappointing from you, Jean. I'd have thought you'd know me a bit better than that.

I was busy yesterday but would have been 100% supportive if I'd been there - I'd have hoped the evidence from when I was a 15 year-old and getting spat and physically threatened at protests organised by yourself against V2001 would be sufficient evidence.

If I had made the trip, I'd have 100% backed Reading without question. We, more than anyone, know what it's like to feel your club is being torn away from you.

We were very fortunate that we had Carol Shanahan waiting in the wings and an owner demanding £5m, not £50m. Major disruption wasn't needed - but then again, thank God, as it appears perhaps the key figure behind B&G would have been against it.

[Hitcher]

7 minutes ago, Hitcher said:

I know a Reading fan at work who reckons they have a decent sell on percentage for Olise at Crystal Palace.

I wonder to what extent their owner is clinging on for that as Olise often gets linked with bigger teams.

Ignore this. Just read that their chief exec say that they didn't put a sell on clause. Amature stuff really

[Essex Boy]

Having more Police at the ground was never going to happen. The Police would have made Reading pay, not just for this game but all their remaining games.

As far as the abandonment is concerned, Reading are going to be relegated as all their best players are being sold in the next 2 weeks, so the fans thought they had nothing to lose, which is understandable.

 

[Brian Johnson]

2 minutes ago, JoeB2 said:

The idea that I'm only supportive of Reading fans as I wasn't there is incredibly disappointing from you, Jean.

I was busy yesterday but would have been 100% supportive if I'd been there - I'd have hoped the evidence from when I was a 15 year-old and getting spat and physically threatened at protests organised by yourself against V2001 would be sufficient evidence.

We were very fortunate that we had Carol Shanahan waiting in the wings and an owner demanding £5m, not £50m. Major disruption wasn't needed - but then again, thank God, as it appears perhaps the key figure behind B&G would have been against it.

100% Joe

[Brian Johnson]

1 minute ago, Hitcher said:

Ignore this. Just read that their chief exec say that they didn't put a sell on clause. Amature stuff really

Or the their Chief Exec is lying to the fans like he's done for the past 2 years so it does not look like the chairman would be pocketing it.