Cedric Baseya

[floyd__streete]

Maybe its not for our benefit and we're doing Reading Uni a favour to give them some tough opposition to test themselves against.

And why would we want to do that?

[Ian Royal]

Maybe its not for our benefit and we're doing Reading Uni a favour to give them some tough opposition to test themselves against.

And why would we want to do that?

Because we're a community club?
Because it might encourage students at Reading who aren't from around here to support us?
Because there's a chance of turning up a potential star there if we're in with them?
Because they paid us lots of money?
Because someone at the club has a close friend there?

There are loads of possible reasons, some more plausible than others, if you actually engage your brain rather than just leap on it as another tool to beat the club with.

[floyd__streete]

Fairly weak reasons given, tbh I don't care much. What no-one has answered me is why we gave up competitive Combination League reserve team football to play a bunch of students

[Ian Royal]

Fairly weak reasons given, tbh I don't care much. What no-one has answered me is why we gave up competitive Combination League reserve team football to play a bunch of students

If we were playing students every week you'd have a good point. Are we? Who have we played so far this season?

[rhroyal]

Fairly weak reasons given, tbh I don't care much. What no-one has answered me is why we gave up competitive Combination League reserve team football to play a bunch of students

Is HNA? the dumping ground for all the shit that happens in your life? Take it all out on a message board with an unbearably negative view on everything? Look at the line up; none of them even close to the first team. This is an absolutely tiny issue for Reading FC, let alone your life.

Fair play though; probably a better place to be like this on here than with people you actually know. Does get a little tedious from the other side of my keyboard though.

[phil in cornwall]

Fairly weak reasons given, tbh I don't care much. What no-one has answered me is why we gave up competitive Combination League reserve team football to play a bunch of students

Is HNA? the dumping ground for all the shit that happens in your life? Take it all out on a message board with an unbearably negative view on everything? Look at the line up; none of them even close to the first team. This is an absolutely tiny issue for Reading FC, let alone your life.

Fair play though; probably a better place to be like this on here than with people you actually know. Does get a little tedious from the other side of my keyboard though.

The answer to your question is YES. Surely you knew by now?

[tomrfcurz]

Scored 2. Don't sound like amazing goals but yeh, he scored!

[floyd__streete]

How is it 'unbearably' negative? Posting my thoughts on the subject, I call it as I see it (as usual). With a teeny bit of poetic licence thrown in for good measure. Most on here can see through that. See it as the antidote for some of the rabid, pro-RFC guff you see from some people on here who lecture all and sundry on the club's financial policy yet don't even bother attending matches.

Genuinely wonder why we don't bother entering the County Cup if - as Ian Royal asserts - we care about boosting the profile of the club in the local community, yet we play a bunch of soap dodging students*
in a friendly behind closed doors.

* FAO rhroyal, I don't really think all students are soap-dodgers.

[madstadblues]

They used to up until 2001/2002 (ish)

[Isaac Hunt]

What no-one has answered me is why we gave up competitive Combination League reserve team football to play a bunch of students

Just guessing here, but i would imagine one of the considerations was that RFC decided that it was more convenient to arrange fixtures for the development squad as and when they see fit, as opposed to be tied to a fixture list (and possible cost of being a member of the Combination League).

There may have been occasions in the past that didn't suit us taking players down to Exeter/Brighton etc on a Wednesday afternoon just for the sake of fulfilling a fixture.

It strikes me that yesterday's fixture came about for a number of reasons. Some of the squad hadn't played a game in a while (injury/new signing) - we had some trialists that we wanted to see in a game situation - it was a convenient local fixture - (as Ian says) a community friendly relationship.

It was just a practice match ffs. The opposition were a change of scenery to just playing 11 v 11 in training.

[Svlad Cjelli]

What no-one has answered me is why we gave up competitive Combination League reserve team football to play a bunch of students

Why do the two *have* to be linked? Perhaps we gave up Combination League reserve team football for perfectly sound reasons, and we are playing a bunch of students for other, still perfectly sound, reasons.

As I understood it, Combination League reserve team football wasn't remotely competitive, so we were shipping teams all over the South for matches that were just as much of a waste of time as yesterday may have been. At least this was cheap and local and achieved the same ends.

[Cypry]

From the O/S Chris Cummings says:

"The key thing was to get a lot of our players who haven't had match time some time out on the pitch. Michael Hector had his first game in four or five months, he's trained for a few weeks now, looked hungry and got through it."

So there you go, it was a run out for a few players, nothing more.....

Personally it seems like common sense to arrange fixtures for the reserves of the type/level that is deemed needed for the greater squad at that time, rather than be tied to a fixture list outside of our control.....it was only last week that a more "usual" reserves side (Griffin and Harte played alongside youngsters like Gage, Walcott, the Edwards brothers etc) beat Palace behind closed doors...

[Royal Rother]

Fairly weak reasons given, tbh I don't care much. What no-one has answered me is why we gave up competitive Combination League reserve team football to play a bunch of students

Is HNA? the dumping ground for all the shit that happens in your life? Take it all out on a message board with an unbearably negative view on everything?

Looks like he's got your number there Floyd.

[Ian Royal]

From the O/S Chris Cummings says:

"The key thing was to get a lot of our players who haven't had match time some time out on the pitch. Michael Hector had his first game in four or five months, he's trained for a few weeks now, looked hungry and got through it."

So there you go, it was a run out for a few players, nothing more.....

Personally it seems like common sense to arrange fixtures for the reserves of the type/level that is deemed needed for the greater squad at that time, rather than be tied to a fixture list outside of our control.....it was only last week that a more "usual" reserves side (Griffin and Harte played alongside youngsters like Gage, Walcott, the Edwards brothers etc) beat Palace behind closed doors...

What's this, last week we played a decent side? No, Floyd says we gave up the combination league to play students. You're lying.

[M-U-R-T-Y]

For oxf*rd sake, this really is the most inconsequential argument I've ever seen on HNA.

[floyd__streete]

Fairly weak reasons given, tbh I don't care much. What no-one has answered me is why we gave up competitive Combination League reserve team football to play a bunch of students

Is HNA? the dumping ground for all the shit that happens in your life? Take it all out on a message board with an unbearably negative view on everything?

Looks like he's got your number there Floyd.

See it as the antidote for some of the rabid, pro-RFC guff you see from some people on here who lecture all and sundry on the club's financial policy yet don't even bother attending matches.

And I've got yours. So go f*ck yourself.

[Royal Rother]

[RoyalBlue]

What no-one has answered me is why we gave up competitive Combination League reserve team football to play a bunch of students

Just guessing here, but i would imagine one of the considerations was that RFC decided that it was more convenient to arrange fixtures for the development squad as and when they see fit, as opposed to be tied to a fixture list (and possible cost of being a member of the Combination League).

There may have been occasions in the past that didn't suit us taking players down to Exeter/Brighton etc on a Wednesday afternoon just for the sake of fulfilling a fixture.

It strikes me that yesterday's fixture came about for a number of reasons. Some of the squad hadn't played a game in a while (injury/new signing) - we had some trialists that we wanted to see in a game situation - it was a convenient local fixture - (as Ian says) a community friendly relationship.

It was just a practice match ffs. The opposition were a change of scenery to just playing 11 v 11 in training.

If they just wanted the latter, that could have been achieved by playing a team from STAR or Hob Nob!

Don't disagree with some of the philosophy behind the game, just would have thought they could have stretched them a bit more than a University team who in all probability have only just started playing again after an extremely long summer break.

[Isaac Hunt]

What no-one has answered me is why we gave up competitive Combination League reserve team football to play a bunch of students

Just guessing here, but i would imagine one of the considerations was that RFC decided that it was more convenient to arrange fixtures for the development squad as and when they see fit, as opposed to be tied to a fixture list (and possible cost of being a member of the Combination League).

There may have been occasions in the past that didn't suit us taking players down to Exeter/Brighton etc on a Wednesday afternoon just for the sake of fulfilling a fixture.

It strikes me that yesterday's fixture came about for a number of reasons. Some of the squad hadn't played a game in a while (injury/new signing) - we had some trialists that we wanted to see in a game situation - it was a convenient local fixture - (as Ian says) a community friendly relationship.

It was just a practice match ffs. The opposition were a change of scenery to just playing 11 v 11 in training.

If they just wanted the latter, that could have been achieved by playing a team from STAR or Hob Nob!

Don't disagree with some of the philosophy behind the game, just would have thought they could have stretched them a bit more than a University team who in all probability have only just started playing again after an extremely long summer break.

10 years ago a game like this wouldn't have even been reported. I find it amazing that some people feel the need to question the reasons behind the club deciding to play a game of this nature. Who gives a fvck?

How about someone contacts the club to try and arrange a select HNA XI vs the development squad as a bit of pre-match entertainment before the Southampton game?

[Broxroyal]

This type of game isn't as uncommon as you might think. When I was a student at Portsmouth, donkeys years ago, we played a Pompey X1 probably of similar standard to the team RFC put out for this game.
There was no internet then so it wasn't reported.