10.30am Saturday morning and I'm already in a sports induced slump

It’s 10.30 on Saturday morning, and I’m already in a sports induced semi-slump. The magician’s away this weekend birthdaying with her folks, so I was planning on watching Andy Murray‘s Madrid Masters semi final with Federer, which meant waking up at the ridiculous time of 4.30. I mean 4.30’s not even morning it’s still yesterday.

Still, I’m a big fan of all things British in sports, and I actually managed to get myself propped up in bed, the cat woke up too, checked out what was going on, flashed me a look to remind me how pitiful I was, then went back to sleep.

I was desperately tired, with a slight hang over making it worse, but I managed to stay awake to see Federer win a boring first set, and right through to the point where Murray broke Fed back to go 4-2 up in the second. Unlike me, as I fatigued Murray began to wake up, and started playing some decent tennis, it looked like it was gonna go to three sets, so I followed the cat’s lead and went back to sleep, so I could give myself a fighting chance of getting up again at 7 in time for the Reading/Preston game.

Just before the 7 o’clock alarm the cat woke me up licking my face with her sandpaper tongue, she has breakfast at 6 (ish) when the magician’s in town. I dragged myself outta bed made the cat her breakfast, and sat down to check on the Murray result….he’d won it! then I logged onto the BBC to watch 2 minute text updates on the Reading match, an excruciating way of following a sporting event...

32:45 - Hunt crosses to Doyle, hooked shot, wide left.

35:21 - Attacking throw in Doyle

37:16 - Defending throw in Armstrong

38:56 - GOAL - Hunt headed center goal from 6 yards (Ass. Rosenior)

40:45 - Defending throw in Armstrong

...I’m not kidding.

Anyway, I don’t wanna dwell on it, we lost 2-1, after leading and hitting the woodwork half a dozen times, and totally dominating, disaster.

So, it’s not even 11am and I feel (half )crap, a tennis final doesn’t quite offset a Reading loss, still I guess there’s always Tuesday night for Reading to get back on track. C’mon Andy!

Reading beat Burnley making it three wins on the run!

Over the weekend the Royals took on Burnley, a team just below us in the league who were on a nine game unbeaten run. Burnley weren’t mugs, they’re the best team I’ve seen us play at the Mad stad so far this season, and offered some stubborn resistance. Reading looked a little sluggish, and took a little time to get going, but because things seem to be going our way at the moment, they still managed to get to half-time a goal up. Coppell then worked some magic in the dressing room, and his charges came out a much stronger side in the second half, in the end winning the game quite comfortably 3-1.

The end result could’ve been better if Kebe hadn’t picked up a head injury (our second of the match) forcing him off with ten minutes still to play. Coppell had used all his subs so we had to play out with just ten players on the pitch.

The result means we go into the international break having won our last three on the bounce, which is tight.

Just in case you were wondering -- the picture of the kid wearing the blue and white Reading scarf with old glory draped in front of him, was taken this Saturday during our home win (3-1) against Burnley. Why the US flag? well, Bobby Convey and Marcus Hahnemann are both from the US and have played for us for years now, and both have made major contributions to the club’s success. As well as seeing old glory draped around the stadium at home games, there are also regular chants of U...S...A in admiration of our long serving first team goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann....Now you know.

BTW Reading as in the football team is not pronounced READ-ING as in that thing some people do with books and stuff, but RED-ING….Now you know that too.

I told you I'd be quiet if we lost Wolves 0 - 3 Reading!

…and it’s super Reading, super Reading FC…Oh Yes, the boys did it again, we took top of the table Wolves apart in their own back yard! Now they can take a comprehensive 3-0 victory back to the Mad stad for the first time this season. Such an emphatic win will send a clear message to the rest of the league that Reading are the team to beat. Though I'm not sure that will help our cause.

Other than a 15 minute period towards the end of the first half Reading dominated throughout, great movement, and a total team effort. It's hard to single anyone out, but after Wolves front line have been scoring so freely this season, and as the brilliant Bikey put away his fourth of the season, I have to give a special nod to our back four: Liam Rosenior, Andre Bikey, Ivar Ingimarsson and Chris Armstrong.

Here's what Coppell had this to say...

"Their three-pronged attack which has been very effective gave us a little bit more freedom to go forward and score more goals.

"We had to try and have a go at Wolves. If you sit back they can maul you. It was a very conscious point of ours to 'have a go' as much as possible. But you don't just win games by running around - you have to try to be composed in possession when you can. It was a solid performance all around....psychologically I think a good performance was important. If you come to places like this, play a team who are playing ever so well, and don't perform, then it's a reflection on what you are about. So it was important that we played and I felt as if we were always trying to play. It wasn't just a backs to the wall rear-guard...it was important that we had a go at them."

'Have a go' Yes Sir Stevie! Let's be doing that a bit more often.

It's so good to see my team, a team that are more than capable of walking this league, start to perform to their ability. Tonight's result was a major step for us, and it'll help shake off the remnants of that horribly depressing relegation last season. Results like this, will get our players enjoying their football again, and if that happens, Reading will be back in the premiership next summer.

The victory is all the sweeter when you start reading what the Wolves fans are saying about it. Here are a couple of reactions from Wolves fans on the BBC's 606 boards.

superFlameWolf (U10874375) says...
"well went to the game expecting a good performance but afraid the same problems occurred, and we was totally outclassed by a superior team. it could of been like 6 or 7 if we are all honest."

while Buddhawolf (U8757790) concludes...
"...My view is that Reading will prove to be head and shoulders above this league and we will be left with a clutch of other clubs to fight for second spot. We got done by a sharper side and a more tactically astute manager."

and jackiegallagher (U13171373) reckons...
"We will not play another team with the quality of Reading with the exception of Birmingham maybe. Let's not get carried away here, we are still a good side.
Half that Reading team could hold their own in the Premier league, so to lose to them is no disgrace.
Let's keep things in perspective here boys."

We have another important game at the Mad stad on Saturday, we play Burnley the team just below us in the league. Our boys love playing at home, and if they keep up their level of performance, and play like they have for the last couple of games, they'll be too much for the team placed fourth. Now that would really send a message to the league.

C'mon URZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

Big game tonight, Reading travel to Wolves

OK, so it's 10am, which means the lucky few Reading fans are well into their 2-3 hour journey to the midlands to watch the Reading vs Wolves match, for those that don't know Wolves are based in Birmingham.

Wolves are storming the Championship this season and are undefeated so far, they've only dropped two points since the opening day. At home they have an even more imposing record, their defense have only let in 2 goals in 4 matches, while their front line have scored 13.

Now my lot - After a slow start, especially away from home, the team seem to finally be shaking off the cloud that's hung over their heads since being relegated from the Premiership last season. They're improving with each game away from home, but are still looking to register their first win. At home we don't have any such problems having scored a stunning 10 goals over the last two games while not having a single goal scored against us.

There's not doubt this is gonna be one of the hardest games we'll play this season, whether Wolves can keep up their impressive run or not, they'll still be right near the top come the end of the season.

For impartial football fans the two teams couldn't be playing each other at a better time, Wolves are in cracking form scoring goals for fun, and as I've pointed out above their defense is tighter than a gnats chuff at home. And Reading are coming off another stunning win at the weekend having totally dominated Swansea, our forwards seem to be free scoring too at the moment, Doyle having recovered his form, Noel Hunt settling in well and Steve Hunt playing sublime football at the moment.

In a weird way I feel that my lot may by playing Wolves at the right time. Wolves' record has to be broken at some point, and so has Reading's inability to win away from home. There's no question we have a quality team, and as a result they'll go into most games this season as favorites to win, but that brings it's own pressure as expectations are high. Tonight however is probably the first game we've gone into where we can't be considered favorites, and I'm hoping that'll work to our advantage.

Having said all that on paper it's gonna be one of the toughest tests Wolves will face this season too, and there's nothing like beating a team that was in the Prem last season, and prove you're Premiership quality yourselves. Whoever wins I'm sure it'll be a hard fought game, if you read nothing more about this game on this blog it'll be a pretty good indicator that we lost, if we win I'll be crowing for a couple of days.

Staying with football, I discovered this great blog, written by a professional footballer who plys his trade in the lower leagues of English football. His name is Gavin Strachan, and at 29 years old he's reaching the end of his career.

People's perception of professional footballers is that they're over paid prima donas, ala billion dollar Beckham, and it's true many of them are, but many, many more are not. Gordon's one of them, and his blog offers us a look at the flip side of the same coin. Gordon's career didn't bend like Beckham's, he hasn't been able to earn enough during his career not to worry about money when he retires, so he's worrying about money when he retires. He's married with kids and so the pressure is on, he's playing out his last couple of years, and going to night school at the same time studying for a media degree, in the hope that it'll help him find work when it all comes to its inevitable end.

I can't think of seeing anything like this in the past, I mean maybe the odd article, but nothing as deep. It's all pretty abnormal when you think about it, I mean it's strange that a young man should have to face the end of his career at the point in life when most others are just beginning. All credit to the BBC for giving space to Gordon to write about his woes, although the mere fact that he's writing this blog will almost certainly end up impacting his life in some way, hopefully in a positive way. Perhaps he'll discover opportunities that may have otherwise evaded him, but good luck to him if he does.

This great insight into the not so glamorous side of professional football is called Gordon Strachan's Blog and is updated weekly.

Talk about a week being a long time in politics, what about a day!

I'll go into the mess left in Washington courtesy of Johnny McCrappyShit later, but right now there's something far more important happening on the other side of the cold pond.

A couple of days ago a mediation panel announced it's findings after hearing details of a long standing dispute between West Ham Utd and Sheff Utd. I can't go into all the details cuz it'll use up all the server's memory, but below I've given an abbreviated version, the squabble stems from West Ham breaking league rules when signing Carlos Tevez (pic below) from Argentina....

Tevez was only at West Ham for a short period towards the end of the 2006/2007 season, but had an almost immediate impact on the team's results. Until Tevez' arrival, West Ham had been rooted in the bottom three of the table, and were facing certain relegation. But, led by Tevez the club completed a miraculous turnaround, winning something like 8 of their last 10 matches, including beating Man Utd at Old Trafford on the last day of the season to ensure their survival, with Sheffield Utd being relegated in their place. In that match only one goal was scored, and who else but, Carlos Tevez scored it. West Ham had survived by a single point.

Shortly after the end of the season, and with the entire football world watching and wanting to sign the previously unknown Argentinian, the predatorial Man Utd determined to get their man quickly set about cutting throats, bludgeoning heads, and crossing palms.

Within a fairly short period of time Man Utd had beaten off all other interested clubs, and despite West Ham's reluctance to sell Tevez managed to lure their player away with promises of gold and glory. Finally, an announcement of Man Utd's successful signing was made, and that's when the claims and counter claims about the player’s 'ownership' began to surface.

As it turned out West Ham had an agreement with the player's 'owners' that he would not be sold without their consent. Someone else owned his contract. This practice of third party ownership of player's contracts is widely practiced internationally, but illegal in the English leagues. Big problems lay ahead.

I won't go into the court mess that was the actual agreement, but of course Man Utd got their player and were happy, and West Ham were still in the Prem and were happy. But, with relegation from the premiership estimated at costing a club at least $120 Million/season in lost income, Sheff Utd who had been relegated in West Ham's place were not at all happy, and they went to court.

Sheff Utd initially tried (unsuccessfully) to get themselves reinstated to the Prem on the basis that West Ham had broken the rules, and the player they broke the rules for was key to their survival. The court cases came and went as Sheff Utd continued their fight, and to cut a very long story short(er), ultimately the new seasons began and Sheff Utd began plying their trade in the Championship. Still, having been so badly wronged Sheff Utd were determined to get some form of justice. Finally, after a year or so of court wrangling both clubs agreed to go to mediation with both agreeing not to appeal the outcome, Sheff Utd won and are about to be awarded a very large sum of money, but it doesn't stop there.

After hearing about the club's good news, the players, all of whom had to suffer 60% pay decreases, and long term damage to their careers felt that they had been wronged too, and on advice from lawyers ten of them are now going to sue West Ham for damages such as loss of earnings etc....just brilliant!

But, it get's even better, I had this thought to add to West Ham's nightmare.....

On the basis that the Sheff Utd have a legitimate claim, and their players have been advised that they do too, what's to stop players from other effected teams claiming damages as well?

Players whose teams were relegated after losing points to a team that shouldn't have been in the league in the first place.

Seems to me there's nothing to stop Reading players claiming as well. If West Ham hadn't broken the rules they would've been relegated, and if West Ham had been relegated then Reading wouldn't have lost points to them the following season, Reading were relegated by a single goal, one point would've kept us up. So West Ham's rule breaking can be blamed for our subsequent relegation.

That's another fine mess you've gotten me into Stanley.

A bit of good news from accross the pond...

Good old blighty! not only do I hear this morning that the Brits are slowly buying up the failing American investment banks, which will ensure you'll be indebted to the Queen and not some Chinese dude in a weird jumpsuit. But, I also get the news that Reading FC thumped Sheffield Wednesday 6-0 at the Mad stad last night.

As a special treat I've dropped in a picture taken last night at the Mad stad, now you know where all the beautiful people go on a tuesday night. Is that Ray Winston with his shirt off?

I can tell you it helped take my mind off the horror that is the US economy, and the thought that half of all Americans still believe that McBombit and the Bambi eating Bimbo can stear us a steady course out of it all.

Everyone played their part, a true team performance, Wednesday never had a look in. After failing to score a goal at the Madjeski stadium for nine months the Doyler popped in his second hatrick in two home games. But, that wasn't all, there were a couple of other major positives to come out of the match: Noel Hunt opened his account by slotting in two on his first full start, and Bikey came back, topping off a solid performace partnering our teenage Center Back sensation Alex Pearce by scoring a goal in grand superman style.

All in all it was a complete performance now if only they could do that every week I'd be able to watch them on Fox Sports again next season!

If you're not into football (soccer) this will be of absolutely no interest to you....

Ok so the transfer window is shut and I'm feeling alright about it....

So we signed a few unknown players, as is the way at Reading. Two of the players are strikers, which initially scared the crap out me because I assumed they were (p)replacements for either Doyle or Lita, fortunately we lost neither, now for the first time in as long as I can remember we enter a season with a five striker pool to pick from.

The two new front men are Noel Hunt (from Dundee 600K) and David Mooney (from Cork City 250K), both have prolific scoring records. Noel is Steve Hunt's brother, which initially led me to think that Steve was happy with us and settling in for the long term, that is until I read that he was displeased with Reading for not accepting a non-existent offer from Everton -- the press had falsely reported Everton as making a 3.5M offer for him, more on that in a bit, but first....

Our final new signing; Chris Armstrong a left back replacement for Shorey, and to act as a little competition for our quality home grown kid Golbourne. Armstrong came from Sheffield United for 500K (rising to 800K if we return to prem this season), he has plenty of Prem and Championship experience, and should be an easy slot in, he debuted in our 4-2 victory at home to Crystal Palace last weekend.

OK, back to Steve Hunt and the players that have left. Though I’m ecstatic that he’s still with us as are Doyle, Bikey, Harper et al I was really disappointed reading that rubbish from Hunt. Both Steve Coppell and David Moyes (Everton Manager) denied that any offer had been received/made for the player. Obviously feeling he had to respond to the incorrect press report, Coppell explained that Moyes had called him to inquire but took it no further. Of course transfer deadline-day press had jumped on their conversation and in a bid to sell their papers converted it into a much more interesting story and a solid 3.5M bid.

It was good to see David Moyes respond to the story, knowing that shit like that can unsettle players and leave them with a bad feeling toward their own club. I know many managers that would’ve left that to fester figuring that when the transfer window opens in Jan they’d have their target player desperate to leave and sitting perfectly for a low bid.

Although the story was untrue, there’s no way on earth Reading would’ve sold him for less than 5M. Hunt even has a clause in his contract stating that if a club offers over 5M he has the right to accept if he chooses. So to hear him whining about it whilst on tour with Doyle, Long and the rest of the Ireland squad is really pissing me off.

He's essentially saying that if he'd acted up, created trouble on the training ground, and generally become a sulk, the club would've let him go. He tells the reporter that he is a victim of his own professionalism, well what a wanker! Firstly he’s well paid to be professional, yet his very reaction to this non-news is totally unprofessional. I mean for fuck sake, this is a false story, whoever ran it is probably doing so to stir up a bit of discontent, and palpably it’s worked.

His remarks made really depressing reading, leading us to believe that he would've been quite happy (even prefered) to leave us and his brother, who he had a big influence on us signing, so he could take the easy way back to the prem. Well, now it looks like Mr Hunt will have to work for his Premiership ticket, just like everyone else, he'll need to earn his place in the prem, again.

The most unpalatable aspect about his outburst is that he was one of the senior players who went missing in the second half of last season. In fact he suffered a mysterious drop in form almost immediately after signing a new bumper contract with the club. Enough of our over-rated senior players went missing during that second half of last season that they ensured we'd be playing in the fucking Championship this season, and because of their failings they now want to leave, well fuck 'em.

We were expecting it from Shorey, and although it’s hard for me to defend him, at least (unlike Sidwell) he gave us as much warning as possible, asking for a transfer long before we were anywhere near being relegated. Then there's Kitson, who has served us well, working hard right to the end. He's an outstanding player in his late 20s (28) so he doesn’t have too many seasons left, he also pulled in 5M for us when we let him go to Stoke. I have no hard feelings about Kits.

Then there's Little! Much as I rate him -- we badly missed his invention on the right last season, due to injury. In fact I rate him so highly I believe had he been fit to play a full part last season we would have avoided relegation with ease. As it was he hardly played a game for us, and Oster was/is no Little. So, what happened? we send him for foreign surgery, get just about every expert we can find and pile money into his rehabilitation and pay him for the whole year, and at the end of the season we’re relegated and he refuses to sign another fucking deal with us! He chooses instead to warm the bench at Portsmouth, and left us on a FREE TRANSFER!!, we didn't receive a single penny for supporting him. Finally, there was the other moaner Sonko, we received 2.5 Million for him, and at that price I was glad to see him go. The man had become a liability in defense, and we have a plethora of quality Center Backs, most better than Sonks, so letting him go was a no-brainer, plus it would stop all his training ground moaning, good fucking riddance.

Finally, the first month's results....

Well, we started out well enough taking on ex-double Champions of Europe Nottingham Forest. Forest had been promoted from League 1 th season before so were gunning for us, especially as their players had been watching our players in the Prem last season, and this was their chance to compare themselves. It was always gonna be a tough match at their place but we came out with a decent enough 0-0, we had our chances but keeping a clean sheet is a neat start.

Next we was our first home match in the Championship against Plymouth who had got into the play-offs last season and were no mugs, they were also the only team to beat us at home in the Championship since 2005. We dominated and won easily 2-0, nice and two cleans sheets. Next up Charlton away, a true test of our squad and our resolve, they duffed us up 4-2, our defense (with Sonko) looking amateur. Took very little out of that match except a lingering fear that this was going to be a lot harder than it originally looked. Still, a mid-week cup game for our kids and an opportunity to put things right, which they did in grand style beating a league 2 outfit Luton 5-1, then at home again for the weekend and flipped the Charlton score to win 4-2 against Warnock’s previously fancied Crystal Palace.

So all-in-all I feel alright about things, we’ve kept the squad we need and have a couple of results. We’re gonna find a lot of teams this season having a real go at us, I guess we're like the Man Utd of the Championship this time around. It's our turn to come into most matches as hot favorites, it's a tough position to be in, and makes it all the more important to get off to a solid start. If we show a chink in our armor from the outset clubs will be fancying it against us all season, and make things very difficult. But, if we can get off to a good start, pick up some solid results in those first ten games and maintain it for a bit, it could work in our favor, and teams will come to us fearing defeat, and that's half the story.

UUUUUURRRRRRRZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ