Reading (A) match thread - Jan 13th

[ValeGez]

There were plenty of police and stewards there , they did nothing , it could have spilled over into something a lot worse .
Anyone who thinks over 800 of us genuinely bought tickets, arranged transport and spent a day out knowing this was going to happen is deluded and as usual weren’t there but know all about everything !
The situation was a shambles no one took charge , pathetic announcements , it took Andy Crosby to come out and let us know the game had been abandoned , it was obvious that this call had been made way before but not announced as he was ready to leave .

Coming out of the ground most genuine Reading fans were apologetic and pretty much embarrassed and they have my sympathy, the rest were just the usual young idiots  there for what they thought was a good laugh , they couldn’t care less and probably had no idea what it was about !
Unfortunately for them their actions probably mean it’s going to get a lot worse before there’s any chance it gets any better .

The EFL have a lot to answer for but no doubt won’t and any decisions on this will be made by some clueless ‘officials ‘ referring to some pointless ‘rule book’ - what a sad state of affairs for genuine football fans 

UTV 
 

[ian foster]

8 minutes ago, ValeGez said:

There were plenty of police and stewards there , they did nothing , it could have spilled over into something a lot worse .
Anyone who thinks over 800 of us genuinely bought tickets, arranged transport and spent a day out knowing this was going to happen is deluded and as usual weren’t there but know all about everything !
The situation was a shambles no one took charge , pathetic announcements , it took Andy Crosby to come out and let us know the game had been abandoned , it was obvious that this call had been made way before but not announced as he was ready to leave .

Coming out of the ground most genuine Reading fans were apologetic and pretty much embarrassed and they have my sympathy, the rest were just the usual young idiots  there for what they thought was a good laugh , they couldn’t care less and probably had no idea what it was about !
Unfortunately for them their actions probably mean it’s going to get a lot worse before there’s any chance it gets any better .

The EFL have a lot to answer for but no doubt won’t and any decisions on this will be made by some clueless ‘officials ‘ referring to some pointless ‘rule book’ - what a sad state of affairs for genuine football fans 

UTV 
 

Spot on great post

[Biddulph_PV]

So I agree with Reading fans plight. And I think that football clubs above a certain level now need to have some sort of special designated ‘community asset’ status that prevents this sort of mismanagement / asset stripping. Happening too many times now (us, Bury, Reading, Charlton, Shef We’d etc). Won’t happen mind.

However the thing that really boils my p!ss about the whole sorry episode yesterday is that how many times have we heard in the past about what a ‘naughty group of supporters’ we are by the ‘power brokers’ sat in their Ivory Towers, leading to ridiculous OTT police presence / bills often for sub-5,000 gates when most of the time it’s relatively trivial stuff (not condoning btw) of a couple of over-exciting kn0bheads briefly entering the pitch to celebrate scoring. 

We have turned up in good faith to play the game and through no fault of ours - and yes I do believe it is Readings fault this as there are umpteen things they could have done beforehand to prevent this - the fixture can’t be fulfilled. The default position should therefore be us being awarded the game and points and we move onto the next one, with separate sanctions (like playing the next game behind closed doors) following. Otherwise what’s to stop this happening over and over again???

[Packmoor_vale]

2 minutes ago, Biddulph_PV said:

So I agree with Reading fans plight. And I think that football clubs above a certain level now need to have some sort of special designated ‘community asset’ status that prevents this sort of mismanagement / asset stripping. Happening too many times now (us, Bury, Reading, Charlton, Shef We’d etc). Won’t happen mind.

However the thing that really boils my p!ss about the whole sorry episode yesterday is that how many times have we heard in the past about what a ‘naughty group of supporters’ we are by the ‘power brokers’ sat in their Ivory Towers, leading to ridiculous OTT police presence / bills often for sub-5,000 gates when most of the time it’s relatively trivial stuff (not condoning btw) of a couple of over-exciting kn0bheads briefly entering the pitch to celebrate scoring. 

We have turned up in good faith to play the game and through no fault of ours - and yes I do believe it is Readings fault this as there are umpteen things they could have done beforehand to prevent this - the fixture can’t be fulfilled. The default position should therefore be us being awarded the game and points and we move onto the next one, with separate sanctions (like playing the next game behind closed doors) following. Otherwise what’s to stop this happening over and over again???

I don’t agree with u very often but on this I do 😳

We should get the points to make fans think before they do it again 

[Birches Head Fred]

100% Joe

Still waiting for your match report Brian, you did say you were going didn't you ?

[Hot Rat]

In case no-one else has noticed the i-follow video link to highlights of yesterdays abandoned match remains live for the replay which suggests the replay will be free to all. 

[philpvfc]

15 minutes ago, Birches Head Fred said:

1 hour ago, Brian Johnson said:

100% Joe

Still waiting for your match report Brian, you did say you were going didn't you ?

He says “the ref, was  biased towards the Vale, we were 10 yards offside with our goal, we were lucky the game was called off as we were going to lose by 2 or 3 and Crosby got his tennis ball tactics totally wrong”.

[Powerline]

I’m getting a bit annoyed now with reading fans tbh. What do they expect? Keep seeing them complaining about asset stripping where they’re selling their best players.

Well firstly, they shouldn’t have had them in the first place as they clearly couldn’t afford them to begin with.

And secondly, they’re in a financial black hole, of course they need to sell their players to try and get some money in. It’s a bit different to us under smurthwaite when we flogged our players and rather than the money going into the club to keep it afloat, he pocketed it. Just like with the hugill money.

[philpvfc]

1 hour ago, Brian Johnson said:

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

Have you?

[Wrex]

1 hour ago, Jacko51 said:

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!!

Pretty much sums them up. Multi-million pound facilities, but no bog roll

[smithie]

1 hour ago, Brian Johnson said:

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

No, but if I was in that role I'd imagine my thinking would be along the lines of "Where might the stewards best be deployed to be effective?". 

If you'd been there you'd have seen what a total lack of preparation and organisation looks like. 

[valeparklife]

2 hours ago, smithie said:

The "I stand with you, Reading" posturing was laughable and most likely done for social media purposes. I'm just waiting for a commemorative 50/50 scarf to be produced. 

Very very poor take this.

Do you not remember what it was like under Smurthwaite? We nearly went the same way as Bury/Macc.

That is what Reading are being faced with.

[philpvfc]

7 minutes ago, Powerline said:

I’m getting a bit annoyed now with reading fans tbh. What do they expect? Keep seeing them complaining about asset stripping where they’re selling their best players.

Well firstly, they shouldn’t have had them in the first place as they clearly couldn’t afford them to begin with.

And secondly, they’re in a financial black hole, of course they need to sell their players to try and get some money in. It’s a bit different to us under smurthwaite when we flogged our players and rather than the money going into the club to keep it afloat, he pocketed it. Just like with the hugill money.

Correct….their plight is very different to our time under Smurf, they have money ploughed in to the club, overspending on trying to get in to the Premiership, failed and now in a lower division, turned on their owner who put his money in to the club in the first place and now the fans are angry he has turned his back in the club and refusing to put any more money in to the club. He isn’t asset stripping like Smurf did, he hasn’t taken the ground from the club, the club is up for sale and as far as I’m aware, there has not been any firm offers. 
Smurf would have folded the club, he hated us, never put any substantial amounts of his own money in to the club, bought us on the cheap, then sold us for a lot more when we were in a much worse position.

[Birches Head Fred]

14 minutes ago, philpvfc said:

He says “the ref, was  biased towards the Vale, we were 10 yards offside with our goal, we were lucky the game was called off as we were going to lose by 2 or 3 and Crosby got his tennis ball tactics totally wrong”.

Strangely enough even though there were only 16minutes maximum to choose from, the EFL Programme last night on TV couldn't find any highlights to show, it would have been nice to at least see the disallowed goal and perhaps their penalty appeal.

[pete vale]

Just now, valeparklife said:

Very very poor take this.

Do you not remember what it was like under Smurthwaite? We nearly went the same way as Bury/Macc.

That is what Reading are being faced with.

I remember only too well all the demo's and coffin marches I attended often on occasion being met with vitriol from a small section of our own fans. I remember the hard-hitting West Midlands Police with their dogs, riot vans of coppers being aggressive whilst coining in the overtime. I remember x6 of us outside the ground v Crawley whilst many others sought media attention before and after the game. I remember it all too well and do sympathize with Reading fans but have no time for the way the EFL and Reading FC handled things yesterday. I particularly feel for all those souls (my daughter and partner being two) who wasted their time and money yesterday. The EFL and FA have a lot to answer for. "The game's gone" as they say.