Gav

Let’s hope it was something misheard, but if it happened then I hope they get a lifetime ban. Absolutely no place for that at our or any club.

FFS. Do we know if it was our fans or theirs?

I just spent 45 actual seconds wondering what the hell you were talking about until I realised Americans say ant-eye not ant-ee.

Maybe she’s secretly British. Hope not, we don’t want her.

…But the combination of Ingimarsson and Sonko in front of him shouldn’t be ignored! They did more than their share of protecting the goal too. We had a very steady back line, and I don’t recall many enforced changes so that helped our defence build a rapport.

He scores pretty highly on all of those by virtue of being our most successful ever keeper, but my overwhelming memory of him (nearly 20 years later!) was his general command of the area. He was strong on crosses, a big character and an excellent shot stopper. Consistent, yes, absolutely…

Marcus Hahnemann was incredible. What a keeper!

I’m probably not the best person to ask on that one… it’s a little bit before my time following Reading, but I don’t think either of them set the world alight. I’m not sure Hammond even ever made more than a few appearances!

Adding #readingfc to see if anyone on the hashtag has any knowledge!

Nope, he was goalkeeping coach. Our main goalkeeper was Marcus Hahnemann

Goalkeeping coach!*

Sal Bibbo was goalkeeping from 2006ish, and Nicky Hammond was director of football, responsible for bringing in all our most famous bargains of that era (Doyle, Long, Kitson etc), as well as negotiating huge fees for players after they moved on (arguably much more than they were really “worth”)

And both Sal Bibbo and Nick Hammond ended up as key components of our most successful ever period. Wild.

Matt Ritchie was the difference. Absolutely phenomenal when he came on, and never stopped organising. Seriously. He didn’t stop. At all.

Yeah, that’s fair enough. I’d hate it if they weren’t such an important part of our story (the owners of SCL are Reading fans too)

Just the SCL… although I still call it the Madejski cos old habits die hard!

That may as be, but they paid our bills when our owner wouldn’t and without them we likely wouldn’t exist, so I’d be happy to name my seat after them an’ all.

Standing tall against fascism was the defining characteristic of Britain in the 20th century. Let’s make sure capitulation to fascism isn’t the defining characteristic in the 21st century. You have our backing. Shut them down.

More of this, please. Thanks.

Mark Lanegan vs Liam Gallagher on Oasis’ first, aborted attempt to conquer the US is worth a listen as told in Lanegan’s excellent autobiography (Chapter 38, “See You In Miami, Mate”)

open.spotify.com/show/0w9U0kP...

Classic Hole shirt klaxon #readingfestival

Respect on the Jesus Lizard t-shirt, guitarist man #readingfestival

Not excusing it, but think everyone’s just been wound up so tight by all the Dai stuff that they thought “finally, we can have a good year”, and on the pitch things currently seem no better. It‘s also no help that they’re on a site entirely fuelled by manufactured outrage, but that’s another issue

Completely agree. I think it’s just massively exacerbated by the fact we’ve all waited so long for a “normal” season where we can focus on the football and all that, but to many it’s been a bit of a damp squib; ie, still haven’t signed a striker, performances on the pitch aren’t there yet, etc…

Could we try maybe slightly different squiggles in the middle? Maybe more squiggles?

When the ball arrived at his feet I assumed he was just going to rifle it into the bottom corner. I can see *why* he played in Garcia; in theory it’s a tap in the keeper can’t cover, but it was a bobbly delivery that didn’t work out that way. Definitely the wrong choice. He needs to back himself!

That is interesting! Surely there’s *someone* competent we can afford out there though!

We often looked at our most dangerous today when they came onto us and we were able to use Kyerewaa and Garcia’s pace to break on them, it gave us space behind them to attack. If we can tighten up at the back it might be a viable option.

I wouldn’t go as far as that; he must have something about him for them to bring him in, so I’m still clinging to a hope it’ll click into place, but we need to bring in two actual, real strikers with actual, real experience. One marquee signing and one journeyman would do for me, but we need two.

My biggest complaints of Burns so far (and I appreciate it’s early early days), is that he seems ridiculously poor in the air for his height and that he frequently gets caught out of position in the way Mbengue would, but where Mbengue would turn on the afterburners and catch up, he… can’t.

If you’re here to learn the job, we don’t need you, we already have our own players that fit that bill.

With the caveat of having not seen them, I’d have to assume it’s got to be Paudie + Williams. Either that or Paudie *or* Williams with wither Stickland or Burns alongside.

As I understand it, Dorsett’s first choice position is CB, so it seems odd he’s so high up the pecking order for full back yet can’t get a look in at CB.

I refuse to blame Stickers purely because he’s been dropped in without an experienced partner. Burns was “signed” for the job so I expect more.