Its all starting to go horribly wrong for Reading !.

[burrish gull]

Good lad, I've been going 29 years but if you went up to one of the big boys and went 'boo' they'd turn round take one look at you and go 'nice ground, shit fans'

 

[clapham_gull]

"If Brighton is cool, why was it amongst the worst places to live in Britain"

.. book that came out at Christmas mate. Also had London in it - tell that to the residents of Chelsea and Kensington.

"I saw a thread on this very site about it!.."

F*ck me, get yourself down to a bookshop or buy a newspaper mate..

Reading: Bland, cup-of-soup, kind of place/club

 

[El Presidente]

Top lad Ali, you prove that for true fans the club chooses you, no the other way around as it is for the fake plastic wannnabes with their armchair devotion to the current flavour of the month. It's the same for us with the Albion, it's in the blood. We may cheat on our wives and girlfriends, but never on our team

 

[burrish gull]

If Brighton is cool, why was it amongst the worst places to live in Britain?
I saw a thread on this very site about it!

I refer you to Clapham Gulls post ironic quote about how at the same time Brighton is cool it's also cool to think it's shit in a post modern type of way. No where else in the country (except London) can you 'get on it' like you can in Brighton, believe me it would make your eyes water (again I'm being ironic in a post modern Jamie Oliver type of way)

 

[mona]

yawn yawn as a bit of a football historian many of the old Div 3 South clubs have potential. Brighton, Palace, Norwich, Southampton, Reading, Plymouth, Luton, QPR, Charlton are all much closer together in support terms than they are to clubs like Spurs, Everton, Man City. Saints are obviously top of the list now and deserve to be. Reading were a long way behind the Albion 20 years ago but now get bigger crowds. Things change. Arguing about potential is a waste of time. Like El Presidente I was at Sunderland 23 years ago, think our support was more like 300 but take his point. I might be old gittish but all I'm thinking about now is the game tomorrow at QPR. Being rivals with Reading is boring. As the other Reading fan said, Coppell and Pardew both made mistakes when they moved clubs.

 

[burrish gull]

I visited Reading every year from 1992 to 2001 for the festival, when I needed a shit I went into the town but ran back when I discovered it was nicer in my tent.

 

[clapham_gull]

Yep, Ali although I've given my share of abuse but I totally respect your devotion to your club (and your abuse of ours)

Too much has this messageboard been full of sh*t drivel about celebs or did you watch this programme last night.

I've been guilty of it in the past, but that was at at a time when such posts were a distraction from the football. Now its the opposite.

(Cue abuse from NSC regulars about being a newbie- yes, but I don't feel I have much to contribute about Big Brother etc...)

HNA is a bit pants with contribution, but at least you talk about your club.

So Ali, please roll on some meaningless stats about Reading or some abuse about Brighton because me and Burrish are full it too.

 

[clapham_gull]

I've visited Reading many times - for football and for work, and for the fest.

Don't like it at all.

 

[burrish gull]

Right on Clapham too many kids hiding behind the keyboard, it's like f***ing Smash Hits on here sometimes, I want to talk about footy not whether I'd like to f*ck some z list bird.

 

[clapham_gull]

ALI you are a star, but me and Burrish still hate Reading. You are welcome on this board anytime - just for the fact that you talk football.

Who have you got tomorrow ?

 

[clapham_gull]

We were not at the meet up. God forbid.

Defeats the object and the fun of the board.

I think the board has lost a bit in the fact that a few regulars obviously know each other.

Some NSC regulars: You're ruining this board........

 

[Guinness Boy]

I am sitting here with my copy of 'Seagulls' and the last three home games in 1990/91, when we were within a gnat's bollock of going up to the Prem, were as follows

Oxford United 8,118
Bristol City 7,738
Ipswich 12,281. (Biggest crowd of the season!!!)

We needed to win this final game to cement our play off place. Two minutes left and the score is 1-1. John Byrne is brought down outside the box. The crowd go strangely quiet as Dean 'Wendy' Wilkins floats a 22 yarder into the far corner, and then we go nuts.

Big crowds and the Albion are a bit of a myth. In the good years we have excellent support, but there is a huge fairweather element at the Albion historically. It's down to your generation to stop this trend!

For most of that season we played appaling football in a run down ground as many people have pointed out. Remember the 0-0 at home to Notts Co? One of the worst football games I've ever had to stand through. We actually got to the playoffs with a negative goal difference. However when Wembley came we took 33,000 so you and Berks are both wrong, our highest crowd that season was in the region of 55,000.

However your post as against my post is probably still indicative of what will happen if and when Falmer is built. For most games, depending on what division we're in we'd get 10 - 15k. The ground would sell out for any big cup game, Palace at home, Pompey at home and any time we were about to win proper promotion or needed a win to stay up.

I actually think that once we have Falmer then us and Reading will be similar sized clubs in terms of support.

The difference is in our potential as the 33000 we took to Wembley proves or the 3 times oversubscribed applications for the Mansfield game. If we got to the Premiership we'd sell out Falmer every game and, provided it gets the go-ahead that's not an unrealistic goal.

Finally while I'm not that bothered about Reading particularly (like Leyton O before them they're a small and irreleavent annoyance) I have to admit that I take great pleasure in every defeat incurred by that double talking, spineless ex-Palace c**t. And I don't mean Pardew.

 

[NMH]

Its good to meet the people you've chatted with, but it does take away a little bit of the "You don't know who I am" factor.

NMH; "You know I hate reading"

 

[berkshire seagull]

For most of that season we played appaling football in a run down ground as many people have pointed out. Remember the 0-0 at home to Notts Co? One of the worst football games I've ever had to stand through. We actually got to the playoffs with a negative goal difference. However when Wembley came we took 33,000 so you and Berks are both wrong, our highest crowd that season was in the region of 55,000.

However your post as against my post is probably still indicative of what will happen if and when Falmer is built. For most games, depending on what division we're in we'd get 10 - 15k. The ground would sell out for any big cup game, Palace at home, Pompey at home and any time we were about to win proper promotion or needed a win to stay up.

I actually think that once we have Falmer then us and Reading will be similar sized clubs in terms of support.

The difference is in our potential as the 33000 we took to Wembley proves or the 3 times oversubscribed applications for the Mansfield game. If we got to the Premiership we'd sell out Falmer every game and, provided it gets the go-ahead that's not an unrealistic goal.

Finally while I'm not that bothered about Reading particularly (like Leyton O before them they're a small and irreleavent annoyance) I have to admit that I take great pleasure in every defeat incurred by that double talking, spineless ex-Palace c**t. And I don't mean Pardew.

What you on pal?
Cup finals mean f-all as thats a lot of glory hunters etc and notts final anyway was 45k for us and 16k for them as was clear to see.

The facts are that our big crowds in the past are not mega moons ago like the 60s and 50s we are talking 79-80 etc.

The fact is we had a great chairman and the goldstone had many 30-35k crowds and it wasn't big enough.
the premiership doesn't show true potential does it as these are mostly glory hunters and in my view the top or middle of the 1st will show where the potential lies full stop.
Potential doesn't die and these fans are still there and waiting and you can be sure falmer will be full on many occasions and won't be big enough.
I went to readings simod cup final in which at the time 45k they took was half there population,so forget the cup final crap means sod all.

O yeah the playoff final was 61k so do some research!!!

Yes ali i no it hurts,but im telling ya we are twice as big as reading and have always been and just because we had a joke decade in the 90s and shite grounds and probs this doesn't mean the fans dissapear does it.

Cov at home on a tuesday night last season 27k applicants and thats why we no the fans are waiting.

 

[BRIGHT ON Q]

We took 36,000 in a crowd of 59,000 actually.

 

[berkshire seagull]

O.k so i was a grand out big deal
Our end was full anyway,but like most cup finals they get filled

 

[BRIGHT ON Q]

Notts county had piss all though and half of them had Forest shirts on.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Berks mate - I was sort of making the same point you were - that by potential we are bigger than Reading but we have to get in to the Prem to realise that potential. I reckon the glory hunters are the difference between 15000 and over subscribed at Falmer. The same glory hunters applied for Mansfield tickets but were f*** all to be seen later in the season.

I don't know what you're on about with the rest of it. We hardly ever got 30k plus at the Goldstone. I can remember clearly gettting 33,000 against Blackpool in 78 when those Spurs and Scummers stiched us up for a place in the third. We had 26,000 against Arsenal in the Cup in 88 though they brought about 6,000.

Falmer's plans should (and I think do) allow for extension. But to suggest we build bigger on the off chance we become top ten Prem material on the opening is the sort of business logic that gets teams bust. You don't start an airline with Concorde and a couple of 747s, you start it with small local routes and build up.

Have no doubt. The Albion has potential. We are potentially a bigger club than Reading. Falmer will help. But we can hardly give it the large one on crowds of 6000 in an athletics stadium. The transition will be tough but, like you, I think once made we have to think big. Let's not run before we can crawl though eh?

 

[Simster]

So it's taken nine pages to conclude that we might be bigger than Reading if we got Falmer but right now they get bigger crowds, play in a higher division and are so big that they can easily poach are best staff.

Great.

 

[Guinness Boy]

No it's taken one page to conclude that and eight pages for Burrish and Clapham to wind the shit up out of Royal Ali.