MATCHWATCH : Cardiff City (h) sponsored by Jason Bowen

[SCIAG]

Remember the songs that Cardiff fans used to sing about Michael Duberry?

If they don’t want people to think that there’s a significant nasty streak in the fan base then they only have themselves to blame.

As a fanbase we’re not perfect either (it’s a shame Arsenal didn’t do an announcement over the Al Habsi chants) but ordinary Cardiff fans are in no position to complain. Some, I’m sure, are good people.

PS I don’t have a problem with Cardiff singing the sheepshagger songs, but I do think English fans should be arrested if they sing them. Parallels with Spurs and Brighton embracing and reclaiming the racist/homophobic shit that they get.

[SCIAG]

Big shades of the Luis Suarez t shirts here. Remember every Liverpool fan under the sun defending Suarez calling Evra “blackie” a dozen times?

[Nameless]

STatement from the club seems pretty well phrased.
Confirms stuff happened and clarifies it was ‘isolated’ rather than the mass anti English/ Welsh nonsense
Confirms police took it seriously enough to take further action
Gives Cardiff enough of an apology for them to step back and calm down without reducing the impact of the incident
Restates that discrimination is not ok and ties Cardiff in to that.

Matter should be closed.

[muirinho]

Obviously from a business side you have to take promotion opportunity every time, but I believe that there should be room for us to think about what is actually important in football. What are your good memories as a Reading fan? What are your favourite games? What really matters?

Oh yes. Agree with that.

But no point going all out for it until the latter stages as the chances are so slim no matter what you do.

Finishing 8th is far more likely than an FA Cup Semi, so that's got to be the priority as it's the greater reward (IMO) and more likely outcome.

Is there a concrete benefit from finishing 8th that i'm not aware off - if the league place money that much?

Or are we really talking about the importance of building up confidence and winning mentality at the club ready for next season? Which I do completely agree with - but I think that winning FA cup games would add more to that then winning league games.

On the other hand, if we get knocked out of the cup, and then get safe in the league, without being able to challenge for play-off places, you could see a case where effort falls, players are mentally on the beach, and there's a general air of lethargy in the last few games of the season. Because we've had seasons end like this before. Apart from maybe being able to try out U23 players in league games rather than cup, I don't see much benefit to this at all.

So i'd rather keep fighting on as many fronts as possible for as long as possible

[Stranded]

Oh yes. Agree with that.

But no point going all out for it until the latter stages as the chances are so slim no matter what you do.

Finishing 8th is far more likely than an FA Cup Semi, so that's got to be the priority as it's the greater reward (IMO) and more likely outcome.

Is there a concrete benefit from finishing 8th that i'm not aware off - if the league place money that much?

Or are we really talking about the importance of building up confidence and winning mentality at the club ready for next season? Which I do completely agree with - but I think that winning FA cup games would add more to that then winning league games.

On the other hand, if we get knocked out of the cup, and then get safe in the league, without being able to challenge for play-off places, you could see a case where effort falls, players are mentally on the beach, and there's a general air of lethargy in the last few games of the season. Because we've had seasons end like this before. Apart from maybe being able to try out U23 players in league games rather than cup, I don't see much benefit to this at all.

So i'd rather keep fighting on as many fronts as possible for as long as possible

Ah the heady days of 2015/16 - essentially safe at about the 34 game mark and definitely safe after the 39th game - we finished that season with W2 D3 L8 and played some truly mindnumbingly poor stuff - we can alway argue how poorly McDermott was treated that summer but that run-in really didn't help his cause as a likely top half finish (we were 11th after 34 games) turned into 17th.

[Snowflake Royal]

IMO, just as a fan.

FA Cup Final > Play Off Place

and

Winning FA CUP > Promotion

Obviously from a business side you have to take promotion opportunity every time, but I believe that there should be room for us to think about what is actually important in football. What are your good memories as a Reading fan? What are your favourite games? What really matters?

Oh yes. Agree with that.

But no point going all out for it until the latter stages as the chances are so slim no matter what you do.

Finishing 8th is far more likely than an FA Cup Semi, so that's got to be the priority as it's the greater reward (IMO) and more likely outcome.

Is there a concrete benefit from finishing 8th that i'm not aware off - if the league place money that much?

Or are we really talking about the importance of building up confidence and winning mentality at the club ready for next season? Which I do completely agree with - but I think that winning FA cup games would add more to that then winning league games.

Obviously it's a balancing act - and if the fixtures are crazy (which, tbf, they are at the moment) we do have to consider resting players. But I also believe that playing a regular team is extremely important, especially when you're in the earlish stages of team development like we are.

Definitely balancing act. I feel a good league finish (and there's nothing distinct about 8th, just felt the highest realistic finish) has a greater chance of leading to a bigger improvement in fortunes than a good cup run. Short of a Final... maybe. But a Final brings it's own benefits entirely separately. "Merely" equalling another semi or doing another QF holds much less attraction as one off events.

At the end of the day, it's all about effective resource management, risk-reward analysis and probabilities.

And I think Bowen's on the right lines and better at this than any of us right now. Even though I think he veered a little far with his bench.