Opposition fans back from the game

[JedMaxwell]

Bizarre Stevenage responses, particularly about our style. I thought we mixed it up fairly well, with a few miscues in there as to be expected from young lads.

I thought they were incredibly one-dimensional though, although not helped by the red card. That number 22 was a psycho and made multiple incredibly poor challenges.

Ultimately they were outdone by the better side and we won it comfortably in the end.

[Sutekh]

Bizarre Stevenage responses, particularly about our style. I thought we mixed it up fairly well, with a few miscues in there as to be expected from young lads.

I thought they were incredibly one-dimensional though, although not helped by the red card. That number 22 was a psycho and made multiple incredibly poor challenges.

Ultimately they were outdone by the better side and we won it comfortably in the end.

I thought their no.7 was Steve Evans until I clocked the name on the back of his shirt.

[Silver Fox]

We looked up his career during the game, he couldn't be more of a journeyman if his name was Steve Perry

[rabidbee]

Nothing noteworthy about any of those comments. Just the sort of banal stuff you'll find on any team's forum after any defeat against any club in the world.

Think about how stupid the average football supporter is - and then remember that they're the average, so 50% of them are more stupid than that.

Cheltenham we’re pretty reasonable, similar size club.

The average Cheltonian has a bit more class.

[CountryRoyal]

Nothing noteworthy about any of those comments. Just the sort of banal stuff you'll find on any team's forum after any defeat against any club in the world.

Think about how stupid the average football supporter is - and then remember that they're the average, so 50% of them are more stupid than that.

Cheltenham we’re pretty reasonable, similar size club.

The average Cheltonian has a bit more class.

True.

[JedMaxwell]

Bizarre Stevenage responses, particularly about our style. I thought we mixed it up fairly well, with a few miscues in there as to be expected from young lads.

I thought they were incredibly one-dimensional though, although not helped by the red card. That number 22 was a psycho and made multiple incredibly poor challenges.

Ultimately they were outdone by the better side and we won it comfortably in the end.

I thought their no.7 was Steve Evans until I clocked the name on the back of his shirt.

He was a right little chode wasn't he.

[traff]

I thought their #5 had been plucked straight from the spanish archery squad.

[skipper]

Need to be winning games like this. Reading were awful

Reading players throwing themselves to the ground at every opportunity

Reading were really poor. They just had a nippy winger & that lump of a striker

Frustrating today as that was one of the more winnable games on paper...

the other frustrating thing Reading kept doing and that was vaining injury, it was like a sniper in the crowd, taking pot shots of them, this stiffled any plan we had cos the game kept stopping

If that is the type of football Reading fans want to see, g"d help us, let them have it

Bent Ref and diving Reading players

Can't believe Reading think we're local rivals, this is a mickey mouse game for us

This can't be real. They can't seriously believe any of that. They can watch the highlights again if it helps....

[Royal_jimmy]

Typical case of sour grapes from them

[Dave the rave]

I thought their #5 had been plucked straight from the spanish archery squad.

El Bow?

[paultheroyal]

Comments before the game - help to set the scene...

So what are we singing tonight?

Going Down?

Going Bust?

You can stick your ****ing tennis balls / biscuits up your wotsit?

What else?

To all those saying Reading doesn't matter much - it does to those of us who grew up in South Oxfordshire and had to watch our towns get overrun with plastics, strolling in and out of Waitrose with Waitrose on the front of their shirts.

Personally all I want is to beat them and sing about never playing them again as their sad little tennis balls bounce onto the pitch like modern day tumble weed, revenge and a fitting epitaph of the fall from plastic grace they are suffering.

Much bigger than Rovers or Pompey , think this will be very eye opening this evening

I think the "problem" is theres a whole generation of fans who've grown up never seeing us play the plastics... tonight will change that. it will be "tasty".

I am a quietly spoken middle aged man with a family and responsible job whose first thought on waking this morning was "Reading away, let's make them cry". Who and how we do it is, for this game, incidental. It's been too long.

Despise them nearly as much as the scum.
I get to feel their pain close up tonight!!

If we fail to win tonight I fear it could turn sour.

I have moved the other side of Reading on the Hampshire/Berkshire/Surrey borders and although Reading is only 12 miles away we don't even use it for shopping, go to Basingstoke or even Bracknell, London for a day out, wouldn't even come into our minds to go to Reading. Only time I go there is to change trains to get to Oxford, just a commuter town, bigger version of High Wycombe.

This definitely matters. It matters to those of us who saw them goading and taunting us at The Manor. As plenty have referenced, if you were there that day you won’t forget those scenes. I was only a young teenager and I can still remember it now. And I remember walking out with my (now departed) dad and he just commented with a wry grin ‘it’ll be fun when we get them again on their way back down’. And so it bloody will.

It also matters to those of us who have spent most of the last 20 years living in Reading and having their fans look down their noses at you, watching on as we slid into the non-league and they romped into the PL picking up hoards of plastic fans along the way, hoovering up the best young talent in the area.

I cannot wait for tonight! Desperately hope the lads turn up and give us a proper performance!

Due to not playing them for so many years I’ve built a bigger hatred towards Swindon but this season, now we are in the same league is has reignited my hatred towards them!

Really can’t stand them and their plastic fan base and I hope we batter them.

lots of tickets seem to be changing hands on social media tonight and a good number seem to be in the home end !!!
Up the Manor

I don’t care about the performance tomorrow, just to beat the biscuit men to put another nail in their coffin would be nice.

Karma is a bitch and I’m loving their latest downfall.

A shame that the crowd looks to be so poor, but it gives our team even more of a chance ( the Reading fans will surely be totally drowned out by the Oxford fans)

Having worked in Reading for years, with many Reading "fans" (many of which had never been to Elm Park) I despise them, and thorough enjoy their current plight.
Swindon are the bigger rivals and those games mean far more, but I'd love nothing more than to absolutely stuff them tomorrow, see them go down and suffer more financial issues.

and they can shove their tennis balls and biscuits up their a**e.

I hated seeing Reading shirts popping up in Abingdon and Oxford. I was only a kid when I last saw this fixture, but I can’t stand them.



Let’s get into those biscuit-munching royal plastic w***ers!

[WestYorksRoyal]

Meh. Their high point is overlapping with our low point. Let them have their moment in the sun; once we get new owners the natural order will be restored fairly quickly.

[Snowflake Royal]

Bless.

If they make it to the Championship I hope they enjoy getting smashed weekly.

And to think of how a fair few of our cast offs have gone to help them. The ingrates.

If we actually survive as a club, we'll be back above them soon enough. Restoring the natural order. Let them enjoy their delusions of grandeur.

[WestYorksRoyal]

Reminds me of when I went to 6th form in Essex surrounded by West Ham fans shortly after Pardew left. We were good, and better than them at times over the years. But even when we were better, even when we won the league a few years later in 2012 ahead of them, they never took us seriously.

I think I understand it from their perspective now. Oxford are a smaller club them us. They're better than us now but in the long term they're not a serious rival in terms of league position, and anyone who thinks otherwise is stuck about 20 years in the past. Obviously, I still hate them and would love our worst team in 25 years to beat their best.

[From Despair To Where?]

Meh. Their high point is overlapping with our low point. Let them have their moment in the sun; once we get new owners the natural order will be restored fairly quickly.

Eh? Wtf are you on?. So 3 seasons in the top flight and a League Cup win whilst being managed by Maurice Evans wasn't their high point?

I hate Oxford as much as the next Reading fan but let's not show ourselves up as plastic idiots.

[WestYorksRoyal]

Meh. Their high point is overlapping with our low point. Let them have their moment in the sun; once we get new owners the natural order will be restored fairly quickly.

Eh? Wtf are you on?. So 3 seasons in the top flight and a League Cup win whilst being managed by Maurice Evans wasn't their high point?

I hate Oxford as much as the next Reading fan but let's not show ourselves up as plastic idiots.

Fair. But before I was born and a totally different landscape - I wasn't even aware they had done that.

[From Despair To Where?]

You do realise that I, and many others no doubt, will from now on regard your every utterance as the deranged ramblings of a clueless fcukwit.

Just be thankful it's not an Oxford fan calling you out on such idiocy.

[tidus_mi2]

Meh. Their high point is overlapping with our low point. Let them have their moment in the sun; once we get new owners the natural order will be restored fairly quickly.

Exactly, it's literally taken an absolutely shit owner, multiple embargos and points deductions for them to "surpass" us. If we can get our house in order, the proper standings will be restored.

[Clyde1998]

Comments before the game - help to set the scene...

lots of tickets seem to be changing hands on social media tonight and a good number seem to be in the home end !!!
Up the Manor

I imagine those people won't have a great night. Will be similar to the Portsmouth game - as soon as people work out they're Oxford fans, they'll receive multiple punches and get ejected by the stewards/police. Same thing happened during the Arsenal U21 game in the BDSM Trophy ffs - a game you wouldn't expect anyone to give enough of a fvck about to start fighting people. I imagine anything like that tonight would be on a different level.

There was a very sizable police presence outside the ground after the Barnsley game - no doubt planning for tonight. The police cannot mess up their operation as much as they did against Swindon.

A shame that the crowd looks to be so poor, but it gives our team even more of a chance ( the Reading fans will surely be totally drowned out by the Oxford fans)

The crowd looks fine - around 14,000-14,500 tickets sold (and have increased by around 300-400; could be over 15,000 sold by kick-off). As I said in the match thread, our midweek attendances are significantly lower than weekends for various reasons. It's the equivalent of between 16,000-17,500 for a weekend game based on the typical drop off.

Having worked in Reading for years, with many Reading "fans" (many of which had never been to Elm Park) I despise them, and thorough enjoy their current plight.
Swindon are the bigger rivals and those games mean far more, but I'd love nothing more than to absolutely stuff them tomorrow, see them go down and suffer more financial issues.

and they can shove their tennis balls and biscuits up their a**e.

I think some people need reminding we moved into the current stadium over 25 years ago now. That's an entire generation of people who weren't born when we moved and around another generation who weren't adults when we moved. Using never going to Elm Park as some sort of argument basically suggests anyone who wasn't born cannot support Reading; those who weren't adults yet would've been largely dependant on family and/or friends to be able to go games when we were at Elm Park. You'd have to be 43 to have been an adult when we left Elm Park...

[windermereROYAL]

They seem like a decent bunch, been living in our shadow for a quarter of a century and now giving it the Johnny big bollocks now they are above us for the first time in maybe 30 years.
Hope we smash em.