[Lord Snooty]

Huddersfield Town v Reading
The Sky Bet Championship
Saturday January 2nd - 15:00 ko
at the John Smith's Stadium

Huddersfield Town welcome Reading to the John Smith's Stadium on Saturday afternoon looking for a sixth consecutive home win. That would be the first time since 2003/04 when we went 7 home victories on the trot. Town boss Carlos Corberán has picked the same starting XI for the last four matches. Barring any injuries we don't know about, it's highly likely we will see the same starters again. Many of the squad could do with a good rest, but we just don't have the depth. This game will be the half way mark for the season. To be still in the top half of the table at full time will be more than most people would've predicted at this stage. The transfer window is now open, let's kick on.

Reading were the surprise team at the start of the season going 8 games unbeaten, winning 7 of them. Since then, they have slipped up a bit, but still stand in a Play Off position. One interesting stat came up on Sky's coverage of the game at Swansea was that in "Goals conceded" they stood first in the rankings out of the 92 clubs up to October 27th. Since then, they are ranked 92nd out of 92. Gives us a bit of hope, but who the hell comes up with this rubbish?  

Both teams have injuries and are missing their captains and leading scorers. We're missing Christopher Schindler and Josh Koroma, whereas the Royals have Liam Moore and Lucas João out. They are also missing their second top scorer Yakou Meite, but John Swift has just returned from injury, turning out as a second half sub on Wednesday night.




A brief history of Reading FC: formed in 1871, they were known as the Biscuitmen because that was the main industry in the town with the huge Huntley & Palmer's factory. Joseph Huntley had a small bakery on London Street and started making biscuits there. The shop was opposite the Crown Inn, which was one of the main coach stops on the main route from London to Bristol and so Joseph made money as well as biccies, selling them to travellers. His son, also called Joseph, had a business making biscuit tins. The youngest son, Thomas worked with dad and when the old man became ill, the lad took George Palmer on as partner. They soon outgrew those premises and moved the whole lot to a much bigger concern near the railway. The new factory was so huge, it had it's own railway siding and...........

Sorry, off on the wrong tangent there. Football. Concentrate on the biscuits....no....football! Oh, if we must. The football club turned professional in 1895 and moved into Elm Park the year after, by which time Huntley & Palmer's were employing over 5,000 people. By 1903, they were producing 400 different varieties and.....

Elm Park in 1905

Reading FC entered the Football League as original members of the new Division Three (South) in 1921 and made it to the FA Cup semi finals in 1927, where they lost to eventual winners Cardiff City. They were in the 2nd Division by then,having won the Div 3 (S) title in 1926. They stayed there for a few years and got relegated back down again in 1931 and by the time the war came around, they were still there.

After the war, they had a couple of runners up seasons, but it was only the champions who got promoted back then and so they stayed in the 3rd division until they were relegated to the 4th Division in 1971. Unfortunately, due to market forces, Huntley & Palmer's were forced to amalgamate with Peek Frean and Jacobs to become Associated Biscuits in 1970 and the Reading factory closed in 1976. The football club though won promotion back to the Third Division in that year, so it wasn't all bad news. They finished 3rd and were promoted alongside Lincoln City, Northampton Town and Tranmere Rovers, with Huddersfield Town failing by finishing fifth.

They came straight back down though, but went up again as Fourth Division champions in 1979, four points above Grimsby Town, Wimbledon and Barnsley, with Huddersfield Town way down in 9th. They were relegated again in 1983, by which time Associated Biscuits were bought by Nabisco and production was moved to Huyton. The football club itself was now the subject of an unwelcome merger. Robert Maxwell, the Oxford United chairman had made an agreement with the Reading board to merge the two clubs to become known as the Thames Valley Royals.

The people of Reading,having seen their biscuit factory disappear like crumbs blown away in the wind, were not going to let the same happen to the footy club and so director Roy Tranter and former player Roger Smee took up the fight to save the club, now known as the Royals. To cut a long story short, Maxwell got his arse kicked and Smee became Reading chairman and what's more, they got promoted again in 1984.

Roger Smee

In 1985/86 after 55 years in the lower leagues, they won promotion to the 2nd Division by winning the Third Division title, under the management of Ian Branfoot, registering 94 points, 7 ahead of runners up Plymouth Argyle. A couple of years later they had more silverware, winning the Simod Cup, a short lived tournament which was a sort of EFL Trophy for the top two divisions, introduced when we had been Brexitted from European competitions following the Heysel Disaster. Anyway, Reading won the 87/88 one, by beating Luton Town, then a First Division team, 4-1 at Wembley, coming from an early goal down to win with goals from Michael Gilkes, a Stuart Beavon penalty, Mick Tait and Neil Smillie. However, at the end of the season, they were relegated back to the third division.

John Madejski bought the club in 1991 and a new era began. He appointed Mark McGhee as player/manager and he got them promoted again by winning the third division title (by now called Second Division due to the formation of the Premier League), finishing a point ahead of runners up Port Vale. They almost made it a double promotion in the next season, but were denied by the streamlining done by the Premier League, who were going from 22 clubs to 20. Reading had finished as runners up behind Middlesbrough, but had to be content with a place in the Play Offs.

They beat Tranmere in the semis 3-1 on aggregate and then faced Bolton Wanderers at Wembley, the day after we had beaten Bristol Rovers. The Royals raced into a 2-0 lead within 12 minutes with goals from Lee Nogan and Adrian Williams. They stayed ahead for most of the match but then the Trotters hit back with two late goals to take the match into extra time. Mixu Paatelainen and Fabian de Freitas won it for Bolton before Jimmy Quinn, who had become player/manager when McGhee left for Leicester, scored a consolation in the 120th minute.

They couldn't match these dizzy heights and by 1998 they ended up back down in the Second Division (3rd tier). That was their last season at Elm Park and so the started 1998/99 at the brand new Madejski Stadium, winning the first match there 3-0 against Luton. In 2000/01, Alan Pardew was promoted from the coaching staff to be manager and he guided the club to the Play Offs again. They beat Wigan Athletic in the semis, but lost in the Final at the Millennium Stadium, beaten after extra time 3-2 by Walsall. Jamie Cureton had given them the lead and at 1-1 after 90 minutes, Martin Butler put them ahead again in the first minute of extra time. Unfortunately, an own goal from Tony Rougier levelled things up before the Saddlers won it a couple of minutes later.

It didn't wreck their confidence though and the following season they went up as runners up to Brighton. They almost did it again, but they made it to the Play Offs again, and failed once more, this time at the semi stage, beaten by Wolves.

Pardew left for West Ham and was replaced by Steve Coppell who almost got them to the Play Offs, finishing 7th. However, the following season, 2005/06, saw them promoted to the Premier League for the first time, going up as champions of by what now was known as the Championship. Not only as champions, but with a record number of points, 106, a whole 16 points above runners up Sheffield Utd. Not only that, but Huntley & Palmer's were back as well. They re-opened in 2006 in Sudbury in Suffolk.

Obviously Reading would come straight back down again, but no! They finished 8th, just missing out on a place in the UEFA Cup. But then got relegated in the next season, going down on the last day, despite winning 4-0 against Derby, Fulham's win at Portsmouth sealed their fate.

Coppell got them to the Play Offs again and again, they cocked it up, being beaten in the semis by Burnley. Coppell resigned and was replaced by Brendan Rodgers, who didn't last long and was replaced by Brian McDermott. He got them to two FA Cup quarter finals and then in 2011 got them once again to the Play Offs. They beat Cardiff in the semis and then cocked up again at Wembley, losing 2-4 against Swansea City.

Not to be deterred by another Play Off failure, they went and won the Championship title again in 2012, finishing a point above runners up Southampton. They came straight back down again, not before a quite remarkable match at the Madejski in the League Cup against Arsenal. Ever heard the chant 4-0 and you cocked it up? Well that's just what happened after they raced into a 4 goal lead,only for the Gunners to drag themselves back to force extra time and run out winners with a ridiculous 7-5 scoreline.

Next season saw them make it to the FA Cup semi finals for only the second time, where it was Arsenal again stopping their progress. They followed that with the quarter finals in the next season and then finally, one more Play Off cock up. That was in 2017 and we all know how that ended.

Head to Head



Reading lead the head to head with 25 wins to Town's 15, with 13 draws.

Well we'll start with that one then. The year was 2017. It was Monday May the 29th and it was at Wembley for the Championship Play Off Final, the world's most biggest prize in football, supposedly worth £170m. Hmmm! It were a crap match and finished 0-0 and we won on penalties. A lot of people class it as their best Town moment ever. I found it a bit underwhelming. Well not underwhelming, just a bit too tense to be classed as a best Town moment. And who wants to play in the Prima Donna League anyway?  

Got to love this bloke though, haven't you.  

Let's go back to more dreary days now. Back to the 1970s and our first meetings in the 4th Division. We first played each other in 75/76, firstly down at Elm Park with the Biccie Boys winning 2-0. Their first trip up to Leeds Road ended in much better fashion for us with Bob Newton scoring once and Terry Gray twice in a 3-0 Town win, which was good as they went up that season. They came back down though and we met up again in 77/78. Unfortunately, they did the double over us and we didn't even score. The 0-1 defeat at Elm Park was one of my first away games on my own after my dad had stopped going. Big brave lad that I was, going on the Supporters Club bus.

Terry Gray

They got promoted in the next season, but we managed to get a couple of draws out of them. The home match, early in the season shows how far we'd slid down. Only 2,951 turned up at Leeds Road, a ground that once held 67,000, to see a Paul Bielby penalty give us a point. The away match was also 1-1, but the name of the scorer lets us know that things were about to get better. It was Ian Robins.

So after we got promoted in the season after they did, we met up again in the 3rd Division. We didn't get off to the best of starts and so I wasn't right bothered at missing the home match to go on holiday with my mum and dad to Cornwall. Listening to the radio on the way home on Saturday afternoon, before 5Live, was it Radio 2 who did the football? Anyway, the scores were coming in and by full time we had beaten Reading 4-1. Thankfully YTV had sent their cameras to the game and I could see the goals on Sunday afternoon with the great John Helm commentating. First up, the Reading keeper Steve Death dropped a Dave Cowling cross and it ended up in the back of the net. Then Mick Kennedy scored from the penalty spot. And Mick Laverick and Brian Stanton finished the job off. Later in the season, we went down therein 3rd place in the league and lost 1-2, with a Mark Lillis goal.

I didn't miss the game in the next season. We did the double over them. It had been another slow start to the season when we went to Elm Park and came away with a 2-1 win. Steve Kindon scored and Martin Hicks gave us an own goal. I'm sure there was some fighting behind the goal, but wasn't there every week?   Anyway, they came up here in February and we hammered them 6-1. That boy Hicks put through his own net again to make him one of our top scorers.   Peter Fletcher got two of them as well as Lillis, Cowling and Stanton getting one each.

Martin Hicks

Stanny scored again as we got a draw down there in the next season. And he got another in the Leeds Road fixture. We were top of the league when they came up for that as Colin Russell and a Malcolm Brown penalty completed the scoring in a 3-1 win. We faded slightly towards the end of the season but still went up in 3rd place, our last automatic promotion.

They came up four years later and we met up again in the league, this time for the first time in the 2nd tier. Before that though, they beat us in our first FA Cup meeting. After a disappointing goal less draw at home, they beat us 2-1 in the replay. We had two seasons together in Division Two and we only won one of the four games. That was in 86/87 when we beat them 2-0 at home. Duncan Shearer and Phil Wilson scored then, but the next season was the one where we got relegated badly and the Biccie Boys did the double over us.

They came down the season after and so we met up again in the 3rd Division. Six seasons we spent in the same league then, before they went up. They became a bit of a bogey team with us only winning one out of those twelve games. That was in 90/91 when we won at Elm Park, with goals from Keith Edwards and Iwan Roberts.

We won promotion in 1995 and so we were both in the 2nd Division again. Both matches were won 3-1 by the home team. Two home wins again in the next season and then we did the double in 97/98. Reading went down that year. By the start of our season, it looked certain that we would be going down, but no! We replaced Brian Horton with Peter Jackson and the legendary Great Escape season was on. After our first win at home to Stoke and a magnificent win at Maine Road on a Friday night against Manchester City, the one with the Rob Edwards goal, Reading came to the McAlpine on the Saturday after and we got another win. We were still bottom of the league and Paul Dalton scored the only goal of the game. This was their last season at Elm Park and our last visit there was one of the last games. It was the back end of March and we were up to 17th in the table and when Marcus Stewart scored twice to give us a 2-0 win, we were up to 15th. Reading finished bottom of the league, so our last day capitulation at home to Port Vale, when we lost 0-4 didn't affect them at all. It relegated Man City instead.  

They got their own back in 2001/02 when they did the double over us as we got relegated. They beat us 1-0 both times with Nicky Forster scoring on both occasions. It was Forster again on target a couple of years later when we lost a League Cup match down at the Madejski and that was it for a decade. We didn't meet up again until we got promoted back to the Championship in 2012.

Nicky Forster

Since then we have had five seasons together in the 2nd tier, culminating in that winner takes all penalty shoot out. There's been a couple of FA Cup meetings which Reading ended up winning. We got our one and only win at the Madejski in 2014 when Jacob Butterfield and Harry Bunn scored in a 2-1 victory.

Last season, when we had blown our gift of Premier League football, and came back to the Championship, we had two terribly poor games. The home game was one of those with Mark Hudson in charge and we lost 0-2. The away game was one of the post lockdown games in July. It finished 0-0 and I can't remember a single thing about it, even though I've just read the match report. I can remember games from the 70s, but can't remember 6 months ago. Ah well!  

Where are they now? Let's see what's happened to all those who played on that famous day in our history.

Danny Ward - now in his 3rd season at Leicester,still waiting to make his PL debut
Tommy Smith - at Stoke
Michael Hefele - still wasting away at Forest
Christopher Schindler - on the treatment table
Chris Löwe - back in Germany at Dynamo Dresden
Jonathan Hogg - nearly at 250 appearances now for Town
Aaron Mooy - wasting his talent in China
Elias Kachunga  - wasting his talent in Sheffield
Izzy Brown  - ditto
Rajiv van La Parra - at UD Logroñés in the Spanish 2nd division
Nahki Wells - at Brizzle Titty

Subs:
Joel Coleman - went to Fleetwood, but has been injured all season
Tareiq Holmes-Dennis - had to retire injured at 25
Martin Cranie - won promotion to PL with the Blunts, now plays for Luton
Kasey Palmer - on loan at Swansea from Brizzle Titty
Mark Hudson - unemployed at the moment
Dean Whitehead - ditto
Collin Quaner -  ditto

Manager: David Wagner - ditto

Ali Al-Habsi - went to West Brom, retired in August
Chris Gunter - Wales' most capped player, now at Charlton
Tiago Ilori - back where he started at Sporting Lisbon
Liam Moore - now club captain
Joey van den Berg - back in the Nether regions with NEC Nijmegen
Tyler Blackett - signed for Forest at the start of the season
George Evans - at Derby
Danny Williams - Pafos FC in Cyprus
John Swift - still there
Yann Kermorgant - went back to France, but has now retired
Lewis Grabban - at Forest

Subs:
Anssi Jaakkola - at Bristol Rovers
Jordan Obita - at Oxford Utd
Adrian Popa - in Romania
Roy Beerens - at Vitesse Arnhem
Garath McCleary - at Wycombe
Liam Kelly - signed for Feyenoord, but is on loan at Oxford
Joseph Mendes - in the French 2nd division

Manager: Jaap Stam - managing FC Cincinnati in the MSL

So what's going on down at The Madejski? Managed nowadays by Veljko Paunović, the former Partizan Belgrade midfielder. Born in Strumica in 1977 in what is now Macedonia, but was then in Yugoslavia, he started out his career with Partizan, but moved to Spain after just a year and signed for Atlético Madrid. He stayed in Spain, with various clubs, for over a decade, making it to the Cup Winners Cup Final with Mallorca. His career went around Europe with stints in Germany, Turkey and Russia before ending his playing career in the USA with Philadelphia Union in 2011.

Having lived and played in Spain for so long, he was awarded a Spanish passport and went back there to take his coaching badges and got a job as a Champions League analyst, before he took on the job coaching the Serbian national teams junior sides. During this time, he won the FIFA u20 World Cup in 2015. Later that year he went back to America to manage Chicago Fire. They made it to the MLS Cup Playoffs in 2017, but in November 2019 the Fire fired him and he was out of work until August 2020. That was when Reading came calling, looking for a new man to replace Mark Bowen, who had been dumped following a disappointing season in 2019/20.

Veljko's dad, Blagoje Paunović, was also a footballer and football manager. As a player, he played for Partizan and made it to the Euro 1968 Final with Yugoslavia, where they lost to Italy after a replay.

Who's in their squad then? The main man this season has been Lucas João. The ex Wendy striker has chipped in with 14 goals so far this season, which is already more than he ever got in a full season at Hillsborough. Born in 1993 in Lisbon, he is an imposing figure, standing 6' 4" tall and started his playing career on the island of Madeira with C.D. Nacional. He joined Sheffield Wednesday in 2015, but didn't feature in the 2017 Play Offs when they got knocked out by Huddersfield Town. That's because he had gone out on loan to Blackburn Rovers, where he scored three goals in 13 games. Then he joined Reading at the start of last season, only scoring six all season. So it's been quite a surprise to all this season how his goal scoring record has just gone potty. Fortunately for us, he's out injured.  

Lucas Eduardo dos Santos João

Up top alongside him are some more prolific strikers. Romanian George Pușcaș signed last season and scored a five minute hat trick against Wigan. Sam Baldock has played in the Premier League for Brighton, but we remember him for his MK Dons days when we beat them in the Play Offs. Yakou Méïté was last season's top scorer. He signed from PSG in 2016, but didn't play against us in the Play Offs. Hounslow born Nigerian international Sone Aluko is another striker. They paid seven and a half million to Fulham for him and he has struggled to find the back of the net.

The club captain is Liam Moore. He is one of only two players from Reading's Play Off team still there and I'm sure you'll recognise him as one of the players who missed in the penalty shoot out. He was a member of the Leicester City squad the season they won the Premier League. Unfortunately for him, he was out on loan at Bristol City and so missed out on a medal.

The other survivor from the Play Offs is John Swift. He's yet another in a long list of Chelsea juniors who had to move elsewhere to get a game. He did make one sub app for them in the last match of the 2013/14 season, but then spent time away on loan at Rotherham, Swindon and Brentford. He signed for Reading at the start of the 16/17 season.

The keeper these days is Brazilian Rafael Cabral Barbosa. He signed from Sampdoria at the start of last season and ended it as Player of the Year. Sam Walker is another keeper at the club. He's been on an emergency loan at Blackpool over the Christmas period. Luke Southwood has been on the bench recently, having made his Reading debut in the two EFL Cup matches this season. He spent last season away on loan in Scotland with Hamilton Academical. They also have a 19 year old goalkeeper yet to make his debut. He is Icelander Jökull Andrésson, who is the son of former World's Strongest Man title holder Andrés Guðmundsson.

Experienced defender Michael Morrison signed on last season and scored his first goal for the Royals in their 2-0 win at ours in the early part of the campaign. A less experienced defender is Tom McIntyre. He came through the Academy and fractured his forehead on his debut. Another Academy product is Omar Richards, who plays at left back. Tom Holmes is another one and he spent last season on loan in Belgium. Tomás Esteves is on loan from Porto and Lewis Gibson is on loan from Everton.

Midfielder Josh Laurent signed in the summer from Shrewsbury, having started out at QPR. Also in midfield is Leeds born Andy Rinomhota, who came through the Reading Academy and is now approaching his 100th appearance. Alfa Semedo is on loan from Benfica. If he sounds familiar, that's because he was on loan last season with Nottingham Forest, not because your dad used to drive one in the 70s.

Another midfielder is Frenchman Michael Olise. He came through the Chelsea youth system and the Man City one as well before ending up at Reading where he finally made his breakthrough in 2018. Londoner Ovie Ejaria played a couple of games in the PL for Liverpool. Steven Gerrard took him on loan to Rangers, but when he returned, the Reds sent him out again on loan to Reading. He spent a couple of years on loan before signing on permanently in the summer.







Line up away at Swansea on Wednesday night:

33 Cabral Barbosa
2 Pontes Esteves
29 Holmes
4 Morrison
5 McIntyre
8 Rinomhota
28 Laurent
7 Olise
30 Semedo
14 Ejaria
9 Baldock

Subs:
3 Richards
10 Swift
22 Southwood
24 Aluko
37 Melvin-Lambert
43 Watson
44 East
48 Dorsett


Club connections:



Unfortunately for this article, Dunking Shearer, Andy Ritchtea, Jammie Dodger McCombe, George Cookie and Caramel Eiting never played for Reading, so it's back to sensible club connections. We'll start with this fella.....

Bikkie Afobe played for Town in 2010/11 and helped us reach the Play Offs in a campaign we don't talk about. The following season, he joined Reading on loan for the end of the season that they won the Championship. He made three appearances for them.

Sean Morrisons-Ownbrand was a Nice centre back when he came to us on loan from Reading in the following season. He took part in a successful Play Off campaign and scored one of the penalties in the shoot out against Sheffield Utd. He went back to the Madejski and played in the Prem with them before transferring to Cardiff City, where he is now captain of the team.

Toffee Elphcrisp is more of a chocolate bar pun than a biscuit, but I'm going with it anyway. He of course, is still a Town player, but hasn't been seen for over a year now after he had his knee knackered by a dastardly Preston player. He only has 12 games so far in his Town career. Will he ever add to that? Before us, he played in League One for Brighton, then won promotion to the PL from L1 with Bournemouth. He dropped back to the Championship in 2016 when he joined Aston Villa and played against us in the famous game when Michael Hefele scored with his arse. The following season, he went on loan to Reading and injured his knee in his second appearance. He only turned out a couple more times for them.

Another of our current squad started his career at Reading. That's Ben Hamer, the ever popular goalkeeper. He had been on loan at Crawley Town and League Two Brentford before he made his Reading debut. He never played in the league, but had two EFL Cup games in 2009/10 against Burton Albion and Barnsley. But then the FA Cup came around and the Royals were drawn at home to Liverpool. Ben was on the bench and with the score at 1-1, Adam Federici was injured in the 69th minute and young Ben was on. He kept his sheet clean for the rest of the game against a strong looking Liverpool attack, but that was the last appearance of his Reading career, though he did sit on the bench for the rest of the season. He had another loan out, this time to Exeter and then was sold to Charlton Athletic.

The Reading goal in that game with Liverpool was scored by another Town connection, Simon Church. He played in the replay at Anfield and helped his team win 2-1 after extra time. They then beat Burnley and West Brom after a replay, scoring in the first match, before they eventually got beat by Aston Villa in the quarter finals. He scored 12 goals that season and was a first team regular for the next couple of seasons. However when they got to the PL in 2012, he was out of the picture. So we were quite excited when he came on loan to us. That was false optimism as he turned out to be a load of crap and only lasted a month, scoring once, a 90th minute consolation in a home defeat against Brighton.

Danny Williams was probably the best player on the pitch when we beat Reading at Wembley. So we signed him up for our Premier League squad and he made his debut as a sub in that brilliant opening day win at Crystal Palace. Maybe his best game for us was the famous win at home to Man Utd, but unfortunately he was injury prone and only made 30 appearances over his two year stint with us. Before that, he had four seasons with Reading, turning out 156 times.

Prolific goal scorer Craig Maskell played for both. He signed for us in 1988 from Southampton and only stayed a couple of years. But in that time, he bagged 55 goals, putting him in 19th position in our all time goal scoring list. That persuaded Reading to part with a cheque for a quarter of a million pounds for him. He had a couple of seasons there before Glenn Hoddle signed him for Swindon.

Town legends from the Mick Buxton era, David Cowling and David Sutton, both played for Reading. Sutty had a loan there from Plymouth in 1977, playing 9 times for them. After that, he signed for us and played 284 games, winning promotion twice. Cowling beats that figure by over a hundred. He played 392 times and is 8th in our most appearances list. He's also on the all time goal scorers list, with 48 putting him in 26th. He played ten games for Reading after his ten year stint with us.

Buxton's assistant throughout those glory days was John Haselden and he also has a Reading connection. Before Buxton arrived, he had a short stint managing the team himself in 1977. He left Town in 1986 to take up a similar role at Reading as second in command to Ian Branfoot. In 1991, he had four games as caretaker manager, before they appointed Mark McGhee in the role. He died in March 2020, another of the growing number of ex footballers suffering from dementia.

Anyway talking of Reading managers, one of their most successful ones, Brian McDermott, played for Town for a while. He came on loan to us in 1986 from Arsenal. Later he managed Reading and won the Championship with them. And after that, he made a right arse of himself managing Leeds.

Oliver Norwood had a couple of seasons with us and followed that with a couple of seasons for them. Now plays in the worst team in the Premier League.

Steve Francis started his career at Chelsea, but lost his place in the team to the bloke who is now assistant manager at Reading, Eddie Niedzwiecki. So Steve was sold to Reading after making 71 appearances for the Blues, one of which was the Full Members Cup Final at Wembley in 1986. He played more than 200 times for the Biscuitmen, becoming Player of the Year in 1987. He was in goal for us at the 1995 Play Off Final when we beat Bristol Rovers. Before that game, he starred in the penalty shoot out win down at Brentford, with his saves setting up the chance for Darren Bullock to win it. He eventually lost his place to Nico Vaesen.

Phil Stant was a soldier who fought in the Falklands War in 1982. Before the war, he was billeted at Aldershot and played football for Camberley Town. After the war, he decided to try taking his football career further. He played 4 games for Reading,scoring twice, before he signed for Hereford Utd. They had to buy him out of the Army and he went on to repay them with 38 goals in 89 games. He then went to Notts County, who were managed by Neil Warnock and on their way up to the pre Premier League top flight. It was from there that he came to Town on loan in 1991 and played five games scoring once in a home defeat against Swansea City.

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. He turned out 15 times for the Biscuitmen, scoring twice, before departing for Hull and then Bradford City.

Dai Evans played 18 games for us in 1928/29 in the 1st Division. Before that he played 122 games for Reading. Whilst playing for the Biscuitmen, he was known as Dai "gestive" Evans. He was capped four times by Wales.

Dai was a left half, as was Tommy Meads who played around the same time. He played 40 games for us and followed that with 31 games for Reading. After that he played for Spurs.   





Reading in popular culture: Did I mention they used to make biscuits in Reading? here's a good read for you. It's from the Reading Museum, a blog about the history of biscuit tins. https://www.readingmuseum.org.uk/blog/re...scuit-tins

Anyway. Away from the biscuit tin. What else does Reading have? Well yond Jane Austen went to school there. Mary Russell Mitford lived there. Thomas Hardy wrote about it and Oscar Wilde got imprisoned in it. I'm sure I've written all this before.......





........Been and had a look and yes, I did the match thread for the post lockdown match that I said earlier I couldn't remember a thing about.  

Oh dear! i'll just regurgitate some of that then.  

Ricky Gervais was born and raised in Reading. He's not the only famous one from biscuit town. The list is quite impressive for actors. John Altman, Lucy Benjamin, both of East Enders, Felix Bowness (Hi-de-Hi), some lad called Kenneth Branagh, and some lass called Kate Winslett are all from the town. TV personalities are aplenty as well. Sarah Beeny, Charlie Brooker, Keith Floyd, Arthur Negus, the odious Jeremy Kyle, and legendary Tiswas front man Chris Tarrant, all born in Reading. As was some posh lass called Kate Middleton. Whatever happened to her?

Musically, apart from the festival, which is for some daft reason twinned with the shithole known as Leeds, they have a couple of famous musicians. Marianne Faithfull went to a convent school in Reading, whereas Mike Oldfield was born there.

I posted videos of Marianne and Mike last time so for your musical interlude this time, here's a couple of performances from the Reading Festival in 2011 from Madness and Pulp. Enjoy!








Other Championship matches this weekend:

Friday:
Sheffield Wednesday v Derby County

Saturday:
Birmingham City v Blackburn Rovers
Brentford v Bristol City
Luton Town v Queens Park Rangers
Millwall v Coventry City
Norwich City v Barnsley
Preston North End v Nottingham Forest
Rotherham United v Cardiff City
Swansea City v Watford
Wycombe Wanderers v Middlesbrough
Stoke City v AFC Bournemouth


Recent form - last 6 matches:
Town 2-1 Blackburn
Barnsley 2-1 Town
Town 2-0 Watford
Coventry 0-0 Town
Bournemouth 5-0 Town
Town 2-0 Sheff Weds

Swansea 0-0 Reading
Reading 2-1 Luton
Brentford 3-1 Reading
Reading 1-2 Norwich
QPR 0-1 Reading
Reading 1-2 Birmingham



Town are 12th with 31 points, Reading are in 6th with 37.

Leading scorers:
Top Dogz:
Josh Koroma (6)
Frazier Campbell (4)
Carel Eiting (3)
Isaac Mbenza (3)
Naby Sarr (3)

Biscuitmen:
Lucas João (14)
Yakou Meite (6)
Michael Olise (4)


January the 2nd down the ages: How did we get on in previous matches played on this date? Not bad. Played 27, Won 11, Drawn 9, Lost 7.

1911: Hull City (h) Div 2, WON 2-0 (James Howie, Henry Hamilton)
1915: Preston North End (h) Div 2, WON 3-1 (Ralph Shields pen, Frank Mann, Fred Fayers)
1922: Manchester City (a) Div 1, lost 1-2 (George Brown)
1926: West Bromwich Albion (a) Div 1, drew 2-2 (Joey Williams, George Brown)
1928: Middlesbrough (a) Div 1, lost 1-3 (George Brown)
1932: Grimsby Town (a) Div 1, WON 4-1 (George McLean 2, Dave Mangnall 2)
1937: Arsenal (a) Div 1, drew 1-1 (Willie MacFadyen)
1943: Bradford Park Avenue (a) Wartime League North, WON 3-2 (Joseph Poole, Robert Barclay, Billy Price)
1954: Portsmouth (a) Div 1, lost 2-5 (Jack Mansell og, Len Quested)
1956: Bolton Wanderers (a) Div 1, drew 2-2 (Roy Hartle og, Tommy Cavanagh)
1960: Scunthorpe Utd (a) Div 2, WON 2-0 (Kevin McHale, Les Massie)
1965: Newcastle Utd (a) Div 2, lost 1-2 (Tony Leighton)
1971: Birmingham City (h) FA Cup rd 3, drew 1-1 (Bobby Hoy)
1978: Brentford (a) Div 4, drew 1-1 (Steve Baines)
1982: Brentford (a) Div 3, WON 1-0 (Peter Fletcher)
1984: Carlisle Utd (h) Div 2, drew 0-0
1988: Blackburn Rovers (h) Div 2 lost 1-2 (Andy May pen)
1989: Southend Utd (h) Div 3, WON 3-2 (Craig Maskell, Junior Bent, Mick Byrne)
1993: Gillingham (a) FA Cup rd 3, drew 0-0
1995: Shrewsbury Town (h) Div Two (3rd tier), WON 2-1 (Ronnie Jepson, Lee Duxbury)
1999: Queens Park Rangers (a) FA Cup rd 3, WON 1-0 (Wayne Allison)
2006: Gillingham (h) League One (3rd tier) drew 0-0
2010: West Bromwich Albion (h) FA Cup rd 3, lost 0-2
2012: Notts County (a) League One (3rd tier), drew 2-2 (Gary Roberts, Jordan Rhodes)
2016: Bolton Wanderers (a) Championship, WON 2-0 (Joe Lolley, Mustapha Carayol)
2017: Wigan Athletic (a) Championship, WON 1-0 (Nahki Wells)
2019: Burnley (h) Premier League, lost 1-2 (Steve Mounié)


James Howie, who score in the 1911 game, was a striker at the back end of his career. He had won three League Championships with Newcastle United in the previous decade, as well as an FA Cup winners medal in 1910. He stayed with us for three years then went to manage QPR.

Ralph Shields, who scored in the 1915 match, I've mentioned before. If you weren't paying attention, he emigrated to Australia and was killed by the Japs in the 2nd World War.

Frank Mann, who scored in the same match, was on our books for 11 years either side of the war. Afterwards he joined Manchester Utd and was until recently, their oldest player, still turning out for them aged 39.

George Brown, who scored in the 1922, 1926 and 1928 matches, we all know about as he's our record goal scorer, who's goals played a huge part in our domination of English football throughout that decade. The goal in the 1922 game was only his third goal in a tally of what would end up as 159.

Willie MacFadyen, who scored in the 1937 game, scored 235 goals for Motherwell over a 15 year period, helping them to their only Scottish League title in 1932. He came to us in 1936 and played in the 1938 FA Cup Final.

Les Massie, who scored in the 1960 match, sits in 5th position in our all time goal scorers list with 108. He died in November, aged 85.

Tony Leighton, who scored in the 1965 game, didn't get anywhere near the age of 85. He died of motor neurone disease in 1978, aged 38.

Steve Baines, who scored in the 1978 match against Brentford, went on to be a referee and reffed in the Football League for 8 seasons.

The 1982 game against Brentford was a hastily re-arranged game. We had qualified for the 3rd round of the FA Cup and were drawn to play Carlisle Utd or Bishop Aukland. It was a pretty harsh winter and their game got postponed on loads of occasions. When the latest postponement came just a few days before we were supposed to meet in the 3rd round, we had to re-arrange the league game which had earlier been called off due to the fixture clash, down at Brentford. We won our second round game at Chesterfield on the 12th of December and didn't get to play our 3rd round game, away at Carlisle, until the day everybody else played their 4th round games on the 23rd of Jan. When the 4th round draw was made it came out as Carlisle United or Bishop Aukland or Huddersfield Town, will play Orient. We beat Carlisle, but then disappointingly got beaten by Orient after a replay.

Quiz time:

I've decided to follow jjamez's lead and do some anagrams for your quiz this time. These are all biscuits.

1. Monoca Rubber  
   
2. Bleachers Tramroad  
   
3. Crude Tarmacs  
   
4. A Baker Way  
   
5. Dr Abigail  
   
6. Cat Hire  
   
7. Armed Jedi Smog  
   
8. Ice Ghetto Vocalised  
   
9. Nine Pug  
   
10. Chloe Bacon Booth   
    

[Amelia Chaffinch]

Does everyone else's calendar change Reading matches to reading a book?

[jjamez]

think danny williams is also on the unemployed list, think his contract expired/got torn up

3 one of my faves- custard cream
4 something we all need- a break away
5 the nottingham forest biscuit- Gary baldie
6 an andy rich tea?
7 must be a jammie dodger?

[theo_luddite]

Just to show I read your threads from start to the end of the first section Snoots, I've changed my predicted Reading scorer v Town on Saturday. I'll let you know when I get to the biscuit kwiz - though it looks like jjamez has already left us with the crumbs.

Yes AmChaff - don'tcha just love smartassed IT geeks with as much common sense as a UK Government in a Trade negotiation?

[ritchiebaby]

9. Penguin.
10. I can't be bothered to check all the letters but it looks like Chocolate Hobnob/

[Lord Snooty]

Just to show I read your threads from start to the end of the first section Snoots, I've changed my predicted Reading scorer v Town on Saturday. I'll let you know when I get to the biscuit kwiz - though it looks like jjamez has already left us with the crumbs.

Yes AmChaff - don'tcha just love smartassed IT geeks with as much common sense as a UK Government in a Trade negotiation?

Read it more carefully theo. Meitie's injured as well.      

[theo_luddite]

I'm thinking of changing it to 2-0 now.

[Lord Snooty]

[theo_luddite]

I like this.....

https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/sport/foo...g-19547458

---

having booked a round of golf to find that the polar ice cap still extends to parts of Staffordshire that haven't been under an iceberg since the ice age. Or for most of the 30+ years since I moved down here.

[Lord Snooty]

Yes, I like the Chickenman. Best Examiner writer since Dougie Thompson disappeared.