[Lord Snooty]

Huddersfield Town v Reading
The Sky Bet Championship
Saturday August 24th - 3:00 ko
at The John Smith's Stadium

Huddersfield Town welcome Reading to the John Smith's Stadium on Saturday for our first home Saturday afternoon match of the season. It'll be the first meeting with them since Wembley, where we of course beat them in a penalty shoot out.
Mark Hudson is expected to still be in charge as there are no signs of us appointing a new full time manager.



A brief history of Reading: All their best seasons have been recent, since the takeover by John Madejski in 1991. Before then they were mostly a lower league side, flirting occasionally with the 2nd division (what we now call the Championship). It was in one of those seasons in the relative big time that they won their first major trophy, the Simod Cup in 1988, beating Luton Town at Wembley. They did get relegated though shortly after.
Then Madejski took over, moved the club out of Elm Park, their home since 1896, and moved them into the stadium they have now, named after himself of course. That was in 1998 and soon they were to be promoted again. They finished runners up in 2003, a couple of years after losing to Walsall in the Play Off final. They made an immediate impact in the Championship, reaching the Play Offs, where they got beat by Wolves at the semi final stage.
Not to be deterred though, they won the 2005–06 Championship with a league record 106 points, scoring 99 goals and losing only twice. For the first time in their history, they were now in the top flight of English football. They defied the odds that first season by finishing a creditable 8th, but were relegated again the following season.
They spent their time in the Championship at the top end, reaching the Play Offs the next two years, but being beaten by Burnley and then Swansea. In 2012 however, they won the title to return to the Premier League.
It didn't last and they were straight back down again. They almost made it back again, late in May in Twenty Seventeen, but lost at Wembley on penalties.

Head to Head
Reading lead the overall head to head by 24 wins to 15, with 12 draws.

There was a match between the two clubs at Wembley a couple of years ago. Finished 0-0 after extra time. That came after the two league games had been won 1-0 by the home teams, Phillip Billing scoring for us at the JSS. The previous season had seen loads of goals in the two league games and two FA Cup games we played each other. Reading won the aggregate then 10-9.

We pumped them 6-1 and 4-1 at Leeds Road back in the Mick Buxton era and that wasn't long after we only played them for the very first time back in the 70s. That was in Division 4 in 1975/76 and the home team won both games again. 2-0 to Reading at Elm Park and then Bob Newton and Terry Gray (2) scoring for us in a 3-0 win at home.

So what's happening at the Madejski? Managed now by José Manuel Gomes, a 48 year old Portuguese lad in his 17th managerial position, who's only honour on his Wikipedia page is the 2016 Saudi Super Cup.

Who have Reading got? Well they have some of the best known names in the history of football in Pelé and Pușcaș. This Pelé though is a midfielder on loan from Monoco and the boy Pușcaș is George Pușcaș, a Romanian striker who has just arrived this month but has already scored twice against Cardiff last weekend and against Wycombe in the League Cup.

George Pușcaș

Club connections:

Oliver Norwood played for Town and Reading. He now plays in the Premier league for Sheffield Utd.

Benik Afobe: played on loan with us and then had three games on loan at Reading, in what now seems an eternity ago.

Simon Church: came on loan to us from Reading and was pisch.

David Cowling: is a proper Town legend, being a member of the famous Mick Buxton squad, scoring the goal that beat Leeds in the League Cup and the goal against Newport County that secured promotion, before having a short stint as a Reading player in 1988.

Steve Francis: joined Reading from Chelsea in 1987 and 270 matches later came to Town where he played 186 times, one of which was at Wembley in the 1995 Play Off victory over Bristol Rovers.

Craig Maskell: was a prolific goalscorer for Town in the 1980s before leaving to join Reading in 1990 where the prolificness continued.

Sean Morrison: came on loan from the then Premier League club Reading in 2012 and helped us beat Sheffield Utd at Wembley in a famous penalty shoot out.

Danny Williams played against us for Reading in the Play Off Final, so we signed him afterwards when we were a Premier League club. Was allowed to leave at the end of last season after being injured for most of it.

Billy Price: could've been the greatest goalscorer in Town history if not for the intervention of the 2nd World War. He scored Town's last league goal before the outbreak of hostilities and the abandonment of professional football competitions. That was the winner in a 2-1 win over Sunderland at Roker Park. Over the next few years, the FA set up regional wartime leagues to keep moral up on the home front and in this time Billy Price notched an amazing 179 goals in the bright blue and white of Huddersfield Town. The quality of the opposition at times may have been a bit ordinary, we had an 11-0 win over Rochdale in 1941 in which he scored a hat trick, but had he been playing under normal circumstances, who knows how many goals he could've notched as a Town player?
His official total is 31 goals in 60 appearances at either end of the war, stretched over a ten year Town career. He then transferred to Reading in 1947 at the age of 30 with his best years behind him.



The most famous one though would be Phil Parkinson: assistant manager to Alan Pardew at Charlton in April 2007 he decided to come and sign for Ken Davy as the new manager of Huddersfield Town. His managerial career at the MacAlpharm Stadium was completely unblemished, not losing one single match in his spell in charge of the club. Unfortunately for Town, the lure of the Premier League and the desire to help Charlton drop to league One, was too much for him and he returned to the Valley.
He then took a break from football by accepting employment with Bradford City.
In his playing days though, Parkinson was a genuine Reading legend. Player of the Season twice in the 1990s, he captained them to two promotions, clocked up over 300 appearances and was voted by the fans into their best ever XI.
He will, of course, be always remembered fondly in these parts though as Phil "the chair" Parkinson.

Any more? Brian McDermott started his career at Arsenal and then Oxford Utd when they were in the top flight. He then came on loan to us in 1986, playing 4 matches and scoring once in a defeat at Valley Parade. He later managed Reading in the Premier League before giving up on life and becoming the Leeds manager in 2013.

[theo_luddite]

I see you just saved me a long night on the keyboards Snoots

You mentioned the obvious but really you need to include this link (I don't care how many threads I put it on, we barely got awarded another until this season).

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turn it off when it's done, some right crap follows that goal

[jjamez]

Hannes wolf gone from 33/1 down to 2/1 fave in the space of an hour or so?

Is puscas related to theee puscas?

[Amelia Chaffinch]

Not relishing this one, having seen PushCars play on Sunday. In for a thraping?

[Lord Snooty]

Hannes wolf gone from 33/1 down to 2/1 fave in the space of an hour or so?

Is puscas related to theee puscas?

Thee Puscas was Hungarian. This lad's Romanian. Don't know how common a name it is in those parts.

[St Charles Owl]

Hannes wolf gone from 33/1 down to 2/1 fave in the space of an hour or so?

Is puscas related to theee puscas?

Thee Puscas was Hungarian. This lad's Romanian. Don't know how common a name it is in those parts.

The other one's name was spelled differently - Puskas, not Puscas!!

[theo_luddite]

There's always one isn't there?
Has to let the facts get in the way of a good story.

[Lord Snooty]

First Saturday 3pm kick off at home since 20th April v Watford.
And the season before that's game against Watford was our last win on a Saturday afternoon.
Come on Town. Time we had another.

[Lord Snooty]

Town’s team vs Reading
1. Kamil Grabara
5. Terence Kongolo
6. Jonathan Hogg
8. Trevoh Chalobah
11. Adama Diakhaby
16. Karlan Grant
17. Rajiv van La Parra
21. Alex Pritchard
26. Christopher Schindler ©
28. Jaden Brown
33. Florent Hadergjonaj

Substitutes
Ryan Schofield; Tommy Elphick, Juninho Bacuna, Isaac Mbenza, Josh Koroma, Fraizer Campbell, Lewis O’Brien

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No Puscas. Lucas Jaoaoa replaces him.

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On the bench Puscas. Odd. Scored twice in the last game.

[Lord Snooty]

Ht 0-0. Much better, but still don't look like scoring and Reading look very unambitous.