Reading Football Club (/ˈrɛdɪŋ/ (About this sound listen) RED-ing) is a professional association football club based in Reading, Berkshire, England. The team play in the Championship, the second tier of English football. Reading are nicknamed The Royals, due to Reading's location in the Royal County of Berkshire, though they were previously known as The Biscuitmen, due to the town's association with Huntley and Palmers. Established in 1871, the club is one of the oldest teams in England, but did not join The Football League until 1920, and had never played in the top tier of English football league system before the 2006–07 season. The club competed in the 2012–13 Premier League season, having gained promotion at the end of the 2011–12 season after winning the Championship, but were relegated after just one season back in the top flight. The club played at Elm Park for 102 years between 1896 and 1998. In 1998 the club moved to the new Madejski Stadium, which is named after the club's co-chairman Sir John Madejski. The club holds the record for the number of successive league wins at the start of a season, with a total of 13 wins at the start of the 1985–86 Third Division campaign and also the record for the number of points gained in the professional league season with 106 points in the 2005–06 Football League Championship campaign. Reading then finished eighth in the 2006–07 Premier League, their first ever season as a top flight club. Six to go as we head to the Madjeski to play the Royals who have had a season to forget, having reached the play off finals last season they have scuttled around the lower reaches of the Championship this season and at one time looked like they were destined for the drop. They decided just before Easter that a change in management was required out went Stam and in came Paul Clement. He won his first game against QPR hanging on with 10 men after Kermorgant getting sent off, Rangers also missed a penalty. On Tuesday at Villa again down to 10 with Dave Edwards going for an early shower. Although they got to the play offs last season thought they were bang average and were not much better when we won 1-0 at the start of the season. They have some decent players Aluko, Swift and on loan Chris Martin and have a bit of pace in the side and will be scrapping for points although think they will be safe given the bottom three are now cast adrift. Think in the past we beat this lot 18-0 a repeat of that scoreline highly unlikely but would not go amiss. Who plays in goal for us personally would go with Rudd, would like to see Harrop play also think we've stuck with the same side or therebaouts in the last couple of matches time to get some fresh legs in. Long day out match blog maybe Saturday night or Sunday afternoon. Time to have a go nowt to lose. Stat Attack: Reading @pnefc We travel to the Royal County of Berkshire for the 27th time in the league, looking to improve on our record in Reading. please log in to view this image Our hosts have four times as many victories in this fixture as we do (16 to four) whilst only six games have finished all square. Although we lost the opening game of last season at the Madejski Stadium, we had recorded our first win in Reading for 34 years just four months previously. Jermaine Beckford had given us the lead, only for North End to be pegged back in the 86th minute but then Daniel Johnson popped up with the winner in the second minute of injury time. Our previous triumph, by 3-2 at Elm Park in 1982, was our third in five matches against the Royals at their previous home, but these were spread over a 52 year period. Having recorded our biggest win to date by a 4-1 scoreline in 1930, we did not meet again until 1971 and then there was to be only two further meetings until that 1982 win for the Lilywhites. Goals are a regular feature of this fixture, but unfortunately we tend to be on the receiving end. Our 4-1 defeat in 2010 was only the second time we had conceded four times, but prior to that we lost 5-1 in 2003 and our heaviest defeat came in 1990. Les Chapman’s side found themselves 4-0 down at half-time, but stemmed the flow slightly in the second half to restrict the final scoreline to 6-0. Not the best way to mark his first game in charge of the club for Les, but he did enough in the remainder of the season to secure our place in the third division. One of Les Chapman’s successors in the manager’s office at Deepdale began his playing career with Reading and later returned for a second spell at Elm Park. Gary Peters joined North End as assistant to John Beck in 1992 and took over the reins when John left the club in 1994. Gary was of course in charge of our promotion side in 1996 having spent a long career as both a full back and defensive midfielder for various clubs in the south of England. He was a trainee with Aldershot but did not appear for them before eventually finding his way to Reading. He made his debut in 1975 and was a regular for the next four seasons before joining Fulham. After three years at Craven Cottage, he joined the Crazy Game at Wimbledon and after a short spell back at Aldershot, he returned to for another four seasons. In all, he made 294 appearances for the Royals, scoring 12 goals and was North End manager for 102 matches. On This Date Bob Kelly made his last appearance for North End on April 7th 1934, having joined us from Huddersfield Town two years previously. An inside forward, Bob had made his debut for Burnley in 1913 and is notable for being one of our oldest debutants ever, being three months short of his 39th birthday when he played in a 3-2 home defeat to Bradford Park Avenue. Despite his advanced years, Bob spent two years at Deepdale, scoring 19 goals in 84 appearances, but still he wasn’t done, as he went on to play for Carlisle for two seasons before turning his hand to management with the Cumbrian club and later Stockport County. Michael Robinson made his North End debut as an 18-year-old striker in a 1-0 defeat at Cardiff City on this date. He made a further substitute appearance that season and over the next three years played 54 games in all, scoring 17 times before attracting the attention of Manchester City. He later played in the FA Cup Final for Brighton and wore the red of Liverpool with distinction before moving to Osasuna in Spain. Long settled in that country, he has established himself as the leading football pundit on television in his adopted land. Last Five Games At The Madejski Stadium Reading 1 (Swift) Preston North End 0, 6th August 2016 Reading 1 (Quinn) Preston North End 2 (Beckford and Johnson), 30th April 2016 Reading 2 (Kebe, Robson-Kanu) Preston North End 1 (McCarthy, og), 5th April 2011 Reading 4 (Kebe, McAnuff, Sigurdsson, Church) Preston North End 1 (Wallace), 2nd May 2010 Reading 0 Preston North End 0, 7th February 2009 Ref Watch: Reading please log in to view this image For the third time this season and for the second time versus Reading, Andy Madley will be the match referee for the Lilywhites’ fixture. Having taken charge of the 1-0 win over the Royals at Deepdale back in August, there has been a bit of a gap since his last game, when we played Ipswich Town at the beginning of November. He is one of the most familiar faces in terms of match officials for North End fans, as not only did he take charge of five of our games last season, but he also refereed the Play-Off Final win at Wembley in 2015 and our last encounter with local rivals Blackpool – when Tom Clarke wrote his name in PNE folklore. Last season he was the referee away at Queens Park Rangers, in both games we played at St James’ Park, Newcastle, the away game at Aston Villa in January and the 5-0 home thrashing of Bristol City in April. He also had the whistle for three PNE games in 2014/15, including the win at Wembley, having been the referee in the first league win of the season, the 4-0 triumph at Scunthorpe United back in August of 2014 and then the live TV game against Fleetwood Town at Highbury in March 2015. Mr Madley, as mentioned, was also in charge of our now memorable League Cup win over Blackpool in 2013/14 and then at Port Vale when North End won 2-0 with ten men. This year he has so far officiated 37 games, issuing 112 cautions and just one red card. This is his fourth game in the middle for the Royals this season – as well as the game at Deepdale, he took charge of their loss at Millwall and draw at Bolton Wanderers. He will be assisted on Saturday by Neil Davies and Lee Venamore and the fourth official will be John Busby. Our home games are massive!” please log in to view this image Back on home turf this weekend, the Royals will be aiming to put a bit of daylight between themselves and the drop-zone when Preston North End visit. And for manager Paul Clement, these are the games which are particularly important. On our own patch, he hopes for an atmosphere which replicates the QPR meeting last weekend... and a result to match! “We move forward quickly – we’ll recover from Aston Villa and move on to Preston,” Clement said. “We want to play well, get the fans behind us again and get the right result. “The home games are massive. You have the advantage of your fans getting right behind you, and it’s familiar territory for the players. So we need to take advantage of that. “The next game comes around very fast. It’s a winnable game for us. “My confidence hasn’t been damaged, and I’ll make sure that transmits to the players. The players have got to focus on the right performance on Saturday now. “I really hope that the fans turn up again in numbers and get behind the team, because they really helped in the last game against QPR. We’ll need that help again on Saturday.” Make sure you’re here for a vital match against the Lilywhites – hit the banner below for ticket information. please log in to view this image
Reading 1 Burrow Preston North End 0 Reading: Mannone, Gunter, Ilori, Moore, Richards (Clement 46), Bacuna, Kelly (Evans 85), Swift, Barrow, Bodvarsson (Martin 71), Aluko. Subs (not used): Ven Den Berg, Kermorgant, Jaakkola, Holmes. PNE: Rudd, Fisher, Huntington, Davies (Clarke 46), Cunningham, Pearson, Browne, Bodin, Robinson (Harrop 79), Barkhuizen, Moult (Maguire 46). Subs (used): Gallagher, Horgan, Earl, Maxwell. Referee: Andy Madley (West Yorkshire) Attendance: 15,501 (704 PNE) As with Monday one effort on target one goal was enough to beat North End as we stumble towards the finishing line against a Reading side fighting to avoid the drop. As seems to be the norm we cannot seem to break down sides who sit on leads. We created chances but are not clinical enough otherwise would have been even higher in the table. Defensively we were poor in the first half gave aware several free kicks in an around the area the second of which led to the goal. Reading were dangerous down the right hand side Aluko causing us all sorts of problems he was brought down outside the box by Davies from the free kick a flicked header found Burrow in space, he headed home. North End were a shade unlucky not to be level when Moult's free kick hit the outside of the post. Bodin for North End was causing problems for the home side one shot was saved by Mannone straight to Moult but to be fair to the striker the ball arrived at a rate of knots leaving him little time to react. We got into good positions but final ball was often poor. Barkhuizen had an effort from distance which was easily saved by Mannone. On the stroke of half time Reading could have doubled their lead by Rudd and the post ensured Burrow didn't double his tally. Clarke and Maguire on for the second half, Bodin unlucky when ball to him at the far post didn't drop right and a Maguire header against the bar from a Bodin post showed our intent however once the initial burst faded away Reading defended well against all we could throw at them with Moore being impressive at the back. Cannot fault the team for effort but our inability to put the ball in the net is a major failing at the moment. Reading rarely looked like scoring and like all sides wasted time although only three minutes extra time was shown which was a surprise Still in with a shout but the obese warbler is heading towards the stage. Alex Neil bemoaned North End’s slow start this afternoon after conceding within the first 15 minutes dur today's 1-0 defeat away to Reading. The gaffer was far from happy with the first 45 minutes which saw Mo Barrow head in after just 12 minutes on the referee’s stop watch - and also felt the fact that Reading drew first blood in the game was instrumental in the Lilywhites’ defeat at the Madejski. “We’ve come unstuck recently because we’ve conceded that first goal,” analysed the manager after the game. "Teams have scored and then resorted to sitting behind the ball which makes it hard for us to break them down. We’ve created chances today like we did in the last game, but we just couldn’t find that little bit of magic to put the ball in the back of the net. “We did not perform well enough in that first half. The second half we stepped up our games and the lads who came on contributed and did well but we’re at the business end of the season and points are more important that performances right now.” North End fought back in the second half with the manager making two substitutions at half-time which saw Tom Clarke and Sean Maguire come on for Ben Davies and Louis Moult, and despite creating a number of chances to win the game, they couldn’t find that elusive equaliser. "We hit the post twice and we had two or three really good opportunities which we’re hoping we can do a bit better with,” continued a frustrated Neil post-match. I thought second half, we made a couple of changes and got a lot better which is the one thing I will say. “The way we’ve played all year, we need to perform well enough to win - we’re not a stuffy team that sits behind the ball; We go out to win the game but that first goal’s been crucial. “We had enough opportunities to get that goal and I think if you do get that goal, the next goal’s the winner because they’re just going to burst out to get that winner because they needed the win. We didn’t start well, they get the first goal and they win the game and I think in recent weeks when he have been chasing the game, it’s not been our strongest suit.” The manager also felt that North End were lacking a real target man today, and having coped relatively well without Jordan Hugill since his deadline day move in January, Neil spoke about missing his presence in the last couple of games. The manager continued: “I think for the last two weeks, I’ve not mentioned Jordan since he’s left but we’ve probably struggled without a target man in terms of when we do get balls in the box. "Because of the stature of a target man like Jordan, people get attracted towards them which gives space for others and I think Jordan’s presence has been lacked in the last couple of games because teams sit that deep; we had a target man to attack that ball and to have that cleverness to move and get in front of people and we unfortunately without that, we've struggled to break teams down recently.” Reading view "That's what it is all about...getting the results," manager Paul Clement said after a 1-0 home win over Preston. "That's the stage we're at. We've got five games to go now and a win was important - especially with Barnsley getting that late winner which pushed them two behind us. "We had to respond. It wasn't pretty at times but we did enough to get over the line. "It wasn't dissimilar to the QPR win here on Good Firday, where we got ahead early on and then they had more of the ball, getting a lot of balls into the box. "But the way we're defending, particularly our penalty area, has been really good. "When you stay compact, you're more together and you're getting in the right positions - if the opposition get shots in from range, you're getting blocks in, if they're getting crosses into the box, you've got players in the right positions to head the ball away. "They came close on a couple of occasions, hit the post from the free kick and then had that big chance with the header. But it went our way and we got there in the end...with the help of the fans. "What I hope everyone can see is the players are giving their best effort. They're trying to close people down, they're determined, they're aggressive - we saw it against QPR and we saw it here this afternoon. "And you need that in a relegation battle...you need men, people who are going to take responsibility and these players are doing that. "Of course we'd like to have more of the ball and create more chances, and that's something to look at moving ahead in the medium to long-term. But right now it's about winning football matches. "We've got five games to go now and we've got to believe we can get points in all of those games if we prepare right and our mentality is strong. "We've got a big game up next - Fulham away - they're flying at the moment, hunting down second place, so we know it's going to be a difficult game. But it's the next oppportunity for us to add points to our tally."
