The Academy/Development squads watch thread 2024/25

[Royals and Racers]

Credit where credit’s due- team posted bang on 6pm, live updates throughout and a report on the website. One match wonder ? Let’s see what happens on Saturday when the U 21’s play again at 12pm at Bearwood. I’m going, so at least i will provide my normal professional service

[Hound]

Anyone standing out in the u21s at the moment? Saw some random on Twitter say Osho and Hicks played well

[morganb]

Anyone standing out in the u21s at the moment? Saw some random on Twitter say Osho and Hicks played well

Coke Miles Smith was the pick of the bunch
Hicks we liked
Evans seemed to have good movement up front
Camara played more central than usual and seemed to enjoy it
Beacroft came on and was his usual self
I'd not seen Jones before and he seemed to play well when he came on

Our keeper has nothing to do. Stickland was standard (and subbed off at half-time). Abrefa played but we didn't notice him.

[Clyde1998]

Anyone standing out in the u21s at the moment? Saw some random on Twitter say Osho and Hicks played well

Coke Miles Smith was the pick of the bunch
Hicks we liked
Evans seemed to have good movement up front
Camara played more central than usual and seemed to enjoy it
Beacroft came on and was his usual self
I'd not seen Jones before and he seemed to play well when he came on

Our keeper has nothing to do. Stickland was standard (and subbed off at half-time). Abrefa played but we didn't notice him.

Where did Spencer come on? He replaced Stickland, so did he go centre-back or did someone else fill in there?

Was it a 4-2-3-1 as well? Guessing something like this:

Rhone
Ahmed - Stickland - Duah - Abrefa
Sackey - Hicks
Osho - Camara - Coke-Miles-Smith
Evans

Not surprised Camara looked better centrally, as I think that's where he was playing before he joined Reading and where he's often played for Guinea-Bissau. Seems he have been shoehorned in being a winger.

Good to hear a lot of the younger lads played well, especially CMS. Wonder if he could feature in the first team squad at some point this season and get a couple of minutes off the bench.

I would caution getting too excited, as it appears Stoke only started with four of their side from the previous Premier League 2 fixture (albeit a 6-1 loss to Man City). Four of their starting XI came off the bench.

[Orion1871]

Ahmed links up with Savage Snr and Abraham Kanu at FGR.

[WestYorksRoyal]

Ahmed links up with Savage Snr and Abraham Kanu at FGR.

Good deal for him. Hope he smashes it.

[Clyde1998]

Ahmed links up with Savage Snr and Abraham Kanu at FGR.

Good deal for him. Hope he smashes it.

+1

Great move where he should get good game time.

[Royals and Racers]

U 18’s at Brighton
T Borgnis
Zie
Irish
Saint-Louis
Beacroft
Hunte
Musgrave-Dore
Lonmeni
Lewis
Adjei
Fuller-Thompson
SUBS
Yensu
Ojo
Nour
Coffey
Barbieri

[Royals and Racers]

U 21’s line-up
Rhone
Duah
Sackey
Osho
Abrefa
Rinomhota
Camara
Coke-Miles-Smith
Jones
Hicks
Evans
SUBS
Welland
Harrison
Cliff
Howard
Okine-Peters

[Sutekh]

U 21’s line-up
Rhone
Duah
Sackey
Osho
Abrefa
Rinomhota
Camara
Coke-Miles-Smith
Jones
Hicks
Evans
SUBS
Welland
Harrison
Cliff
Howard
Okine-Peters

Great to see Andy getting his half, hope he does well and looks more than ready to get into the 1st team.

Seems Camara and Abrefa have been returned, presumably as “not quite ready” for 1st team

[Royals and Racers]

Credit where credit’s due- team posted bang on 6pm, live updates throughout and a report on the website. One match wonder ? Let’s see what happens on Saturday when the U 21’s play again at 12pm at Bearwood. I’m going, so at least i will provide my normal professional service

One match wonder is the answer
Me and 1 other have paid to get in today.

[Royals and Racers]

Brighton 1 Reading 0 25 mins
2-0 36 mins
H-T 2-0

[Royals and Racers]

Reading 1 Stoke 0 23 mins Evans PEN
30 mins hold-up -ref has injured himself forcing a change.
Camara off injured on 42 mins replaced by Howard.

[Royals and Racers]

Brighton 2 Reading 1 62 mins Saint-Louis

[Royals and Racers]

Reading 1 Stoke 0 23 mins Evans PEN
30 mins hold-up -ref has injured himself forcing a change.
Camara off injured on 42 mins replaced by Howard.

H-T 1-0
As expected Rino off at HT replaced by Okine-Peters

[Royals and Racers]

Brighton 2 Reading 1 62 mins Saint-Louis

3-1 87 mins
F-T 3-1

[Royals and Racers]

Reading 1 Stoke 0 23 mins Evans PEN
30 mins hold-up -ref has injured himself forcing a change.
Camara off injured on 42 mins replaced by Howard.

H-T 1-0
As expected Rino off at HT replaced by Okine-Peters

2-0 64 mins Evans
Jones off injured 63 mins replaced by Cliff
3-0 69 mins Evans- Hat-trick
Evans off 72 Mins replaced by Harrison
F-T 3-0 really impressive performance and up to 20th currently. Coke-Miles-Smith and Jones had great games on both flanks. Player i really like is Philip Duah - played as centre back and captain and is improving fast.

[Royals and Racers]

Next up for the U 18’s is a rare midweek match on Wednesday 18th February home to Ipswich Town KO 1pm at Bearwood.
Next up for the U 21’s is the long journey on Monday 16th February to play Graeme Murty’s Sunderland away in the PL 2 KO 7pm. The match is being played at the Eppleton Colliery welfare ground.

[Royals and Racers]

Looks like a strong side out and a great half-time scoreline.

Winners go into the quarter-finals, with Bournemouth (2-1 away at Sheff Utd) and Colchester (1-0 at home to Swansea) already qualified.

The remaining ties are:

1. 9 Feb - Burnley vs Brentford
2. 9 Feb - Watford vs Charlton
3. 11 Feb - West Brom vs QPR
4. 11 Feb - Nottm Forest vs Sunderland
5. 17 Feb - Ipswich vs Blackburn

5 teams through to QF’s now
Reading
Bournemouth
Colchester
Burnley
Watford

[Clyde1998]

Looks like a strong side out and a great half-time scoreline.

Winners go into the quarter-finals, with Bournemouth (2-1 away at Sheff Utd) and Colchester (1-0 at home to Swansea) already qualified.

The remaining ties are:

1. 9 Feb - Burnley vs Brentford
2. 9 Feb - Watford vs Charlton
3. 11 Feb - West Brom vs QPR
4. 11 Feb - Nottm Forest vs Sunderland
5. 17 Feb - Ipswich vs Blackburn

5 teams through to QF’s now
Reading
Bournemouth
Colchester
Burnley
Watford

3-2 wins for both Burnley and Watford tonight.

Looks to be a serious chance of us winning the competition, based on the position of each side in their respective leagues:

1. Ipswich (Cat 1; 4th) vs Blackburn (Cat 1; 26th)
2. Nottm Forest (Cat 1; 17th) vs Sunderland (Cat 1; 20th)
3. Reading (Cat 1; 21st)
4. Burnley (Cat 1; 27th)
5. West Brom (Cat 1; 29th) vs QPR (Cat 2; 13th)
6. Bournemouth (Cat 2; 3rd)
7. Watford (Cat 2; 5th)
8. Colchester (Cat 2; 16th)