Ups & Downs 25/26

[Sutekh]

Tonda Eckert authorised some of the spying in spygate as the commission found it was a plan from the top down at Southampton, and said they behaved deplorably towards junior staff

Investigation report…..

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/arti ... epxek43gyo

[Dirk Gently]

[quote}The day after the club had sent a spy to Middlesbrough, Southampton "provided inaccurate information, suggesting that the conduct was not part of SFC's culture and that no video footage was captured, transmitted, shared or analysed, when in fact the opposite was the case".

In addition, the independent disciplinary commission said it was "unimpressed" that Southampton tried to claim members of staff did not know about regulation 127, which states a team must not try to observe an opponent in training within 72 hours of a fixture.

It noted: "The respondent [Southampton] is a member of the EFL and has agreed to be bound by the rules."[/quote]

Tawdry, nasty little club - getting exactly what they deserve.

[PieEater]

The day after the club had sent a spy to Middlesbrough, Southampton "provided inaccurate information, suggesting that the conduct was not part of SFC's culture and that no video footage was captured, transmitted, shared or analysed, when in fact the opposite was the case".

In addition, the independent disciplinary commission said it was "unimpressed" that Southampton tried to claim members of staff did not know about regulation 127, which states a team must not try to observe an opponent in training within 72 hours of a fixture.

It noted: "The respondent [Southampton] is a member of the EFL and has agreed to be bound by the rules."

Tawdry, nasty little club - getting exactly what they deserve.

If I was a Soton fan I'd want the whole lot sacked, and if the owners had any gumption that's what they should do. Not doing so implies tacit acceptance of what they've done.

[katweslowski]

I couldn't sleep last night and went back about 4-5 pages on the Southampton FC forum about this topic. There's some seriously odd posts there. Highlights include:

* One of the people on the board making this decision is a barrister, who represented Middlesbrough in a complaint of some kind 8 years ago. Some are saying this is a conspiracy, and she was impartial. To be fair, one person did say barristers will deal with hundreds of cases, it's one of many, they don't have loyalty to any party and it will have been long forgotten.

* Some saying it was a setup. With an ex-staff member at Middlesbrough saying how bad security was and how visible the training pitches were. This bascially led to entrapment and Southampton are therefore not quite as culpable. There was even mentions of the perfect photographs of the "spy" which proves the point (they say) that it was expected, and middlesbrough were waiting for them to send a spy over.

* Most seem to want the manager and senior staff sacked and there is a thread on there about it

[genome]

Well. Boro vs Southampton next season is going to be fun.

[Vision]

Everyone at the EFL breathing a sigh of relief.

[windermereROYAL]

Another championship play-off bore fest, thank you Burnie for sparing us another 30 minutes of that.
Agree it`s a high stakes game but most of them are non events.

[Beaulux]

Another championship play-off bore fest, thank you Burnie for sparing us another 30 minutes of that.
Agree it`s a high stakes game but most of them are non events.

Ahem, ok we had Huddersfield nil nil, but also a 4-3 and a 4-2. Our other Final was 3-2 at Cardiff.

All defeats of course.

[Beaulux]

I read that Boro are on a run of five defeats at Wembley. We cannot be far off that. Bung in Walsall at Cardiff too.

Thank heavens for the Simod Cup.

OTOH Hull have a 100% record in play offs.

[WestYorksRoyal]

OTOH Hull have a 100% record in play offs.

Bastards

[Clyde1998]

Everyone at the EFL breathing a sigh of relief.

Ultimately the best outcome for the EFL tbh.

[Beaulux]

Just seen Phil Brown on telly. Looks terrible.

[Sutekh]

I read that Boro are on a run of five defeats at Wembley. We cannot be far off that. Bung in Walsall at Cardiff too.

Thank heavens for the Simod Cup.

OTOH Hull have a 100% record in play offs.

Reading PO Finals

1995 - Bolton Wanderers 4-3 Reading
2001 - Walsall 3-2 Reading
2011 - Swansea City 4-2 Reading
2017 - Huddersfield Town 0-0 Reading (4-3 on penalties)

4 games (3 at Wembley) & 4 defeats, all actually really quite entertaining games a credit to the FL except the miserable 0-0 with Huddersfield where both teams seemed to just want penalties and didn’t appear to be remotely interested in scoring goals

Overall Reading’s record at WEMBLEY is

P6 W1 D1 L4 F10 A11

Interestingly, on first visit we scored 4, 3 were scored on the second trip, the third visit saw 2 goals followed by 1 on the fourth visit and then 0 on the 5th visit

Reading have managed 4 different ways to lose out in PO finals…

1. Take a lead, blow a chance to make it uncatchable, and then throw the whole lot all away
2. Lose to total fluke goals
3. Be cr@p and look out of things before just missing out in a storming come back
4. Make sod all effort to win the actual game and then lose on penalties after taking a two goal lead in the shootout

Each of the last 5 visits have ultimately been miserable experiences esp. on top of the fact that everybody sets out to fleece fans before and during the game.

It’s the Reading way.

Bet you’re now all actually quite relieved we failed to make the playoffs and that we’re not facing a game against Bolton today.

[windermereROYAL]

Another championship play-off bore fest, thank you Burnie for sparing us another 30 minutes of that.
Agree it`s a high stakes game but most of them are non events.

Ahem, ok we had Huddersfield nil nil, but also a 4-3 and a 4-2. Our other Final was 3-2 at Cardiff.

All defeats of course.

Even though I didn`t say it I meant most recently. Since we lost 4-2 to Swansea there have been the following.
4 scores of 2-1 (one after ET)
2 scores of 2-0
1 score of 1-1
7 scores of 1-0
1 score of 0-0

Big build up zero entertainment mostly.

[windermereROYAL]

I read that Boro are on a run of five defeats at Wembley. We cannot be far off that. Bung in Walsall at Cardiff too.

Thank heavens for the Simod Cup.

OTOH Hull have a 100% record in play offs.

Reading PO Finals

1995 - Bolton Wanderers 4-3 Reading
2001 - Walsall 3-2 Reading
2011 - Swansea City 4-2 Reading
2017 - Huddersfield Town 0-0 Reading (4-3 on penalties)

4 games (3 at Wembley) & 4 defeats, all actually really quite entertaining games a credit to the FL except the miserable 0-0 with Huddersfield where both teams seemed to just want penalties and didn’t appear to be remotely interested in scoring goals

Overall Reading’s record at WEMBLEY is

P6 W1 D1 L4 F10 A11

Interestingly, on first visit we scored 4, 3 were scored on the second trip, the third visit saw 2 goals followed by 1 on the fourth visit and then 0 on the 5th visit

Reading have managed 4 different ways to lose out in PO finals…

1. Take a lead, blow a chance to make it uncatchable, and then throw the whole lot all away
2. Lose to total fluke goals
3. Be cr@p and look out of things before just missing out in a storming come back
4. Make sod all effort to win the actual game and then lose on penalties after taking a two goal lead in the shootout
5 incredible bad luck, losing 3-0, pull it back to 3-2, Karacan hits the post, Noel Hunt has a tap in but Gary Monk denies him by a toe nail block. we win that if that goes in.

Each of the last 5 visits have ultimately been miserable experiences esp. on top of the fact that everybody sets out to fleece fans before and during the game.

It’s the Reading way.

Bet you’re now all actually quite relieved we failed to make the playoffs and that we’re not facing a game against Bolton today.

[South Coast Royal]

Does anybody think that McBurnie's "body art" looks good?

A quite dreadful game of football on a par with our Huddersfield game.

I expect today's Bolton v Stockport game to be more entertaining especially if Brighton's winger Cozier-Duberry turns it on for Bolton.

I wonder if we had got him from Brighton rather than Doyle or MOM we might even be at Wembley today, such has been his impact for Bolton this season scoring 8 times in 33 league games (Bolton might have got automatic if he hadn't been injured for about 10 weeks) and a number of assists.

[SouthDownsRoyal]

Does anybody think that McBurnie's "body art" looks good?

A quite dreadful game of football on a par with our Huddersfield game.

I expect today's Bolton v Stockport game to be more entertaining especially if Brighton's winger Cozier-Duberry turns it on for Bolton.

I wonder if we had got him from Brighton rather than Doyle or MOM we might even be at Wembley today, such has been his impact for Bolton this season scoring 8 times in 33 league games (Bolton might have got automatic if he hadn't been injured for about 10 weeks) and a number of assists.

No, looks dreadful.

[WestYorksRoyal]

Was reading about Hull. Worst xG of a play off finalist over a season since us in 2017, and actually in the bottom 3 on the xG table. I know people love to put down xG, but over the long term it's proven a good indicator, and we all saw what happened to us in 17/18 with Al-Habsi gone and Kermogant unfit.

Then they finished on only 73 points and +4 GD, which in plenty of seasons what not get you into the play-offs. Sunderland have shown what you can do with good recruitment so I won't write them off. But what I will say is the team that has got promoted is miles off being able to compete.

[tidus_mi2]

Was reading about Hull. Worst xG of a play off finalist over a season since us in 2017, and actually in the bottom 3 on the xG table. I know people love to put down xG, but over the long term it's proven a good indicator, and we all saw what happened to us in 17/18 with Al-Habsi gone and Kermogant unfit.

Then they finished on only 73 points and +4 GD, which in plenty of seasons what not get you into the play-offs. Sunderland have shown what you can do with good recruitment so I won't write them off. But what I will say is the team that has got promoted is miles off being able to compete.

I'm always an xG defender, the main issue is people try to make it out as gospel rather than using it as a metric like it should be, perhaps there are tweaks that can make it more accurate but it is still a solid indicator of how effective a team is offensively/defensively.

[WestYorksRoyal]

Southampton really throwing their toys out of the pram and acting without class in their latest statements. I would be furious with the hierarchy if we acted that way.