Things are looking up for Royals supporters
THERE is a lot going on in the world right now – much of it being positive.
Vaccines are ready, Christmas is coming and we might even get some snow this weekend.
For Reading fans the list is longer, with the team within striking distance of the top of the table, fans being permitted back in to stadiums to watch games and some entertaining football being played.
Let us not forget, originally the Government indicated it would be March 2021 before fans were allowed back to watch sporting events in England. A reduced maximum of 2,000 fans may not get the place rocking, especially as facemasks will muffle the cheers, but it is a big step in the right direction. On Saturday, for the first time since the end of February, the lucky few with tickets can watch Reading play at the Madejski Stadium – for ardent fans it has been a long 280 days of waiting.
We must hope Reading play at their very best and reward this loyal and patient battalion with a big win against Nottingham Forest.
Let’s hope the game isn’t snowed off. Away from the Championship, we were all treated to a cup draw live on the telly on Monday evening.
Every year the FA Cup third round draw is always a television highlight. Minnows Marine hosting Jose’s Spurs. Wayne Rooney preparing for his first
FA Cup game as a manager, against mighty Chorley. Lovely stuff. It’s exactly what the FA Cup third round is all about.
Cup draws are timeless. While elite sport has more science thrown at it than you find in an AstraZeneca laboratory, the destiny of mega-clubs in a draw is based entirely on luck. No superstar wants their fate determined by Robbie Savage plucking their ball out a big plastic pot – that sounds more like a trial on I’m a Celebrity than elite sport.
Savage picked Reading out to travel to Luton on Saturday January 9.
2020 has been a bad year, but I’m not sure 2021 is going to be much better if that is how we are to start it.
With only home fans permitted at games, it was never more vital to get a home draw.
Failing that, you would get something remarkable – a giant, a minnow, a geographically-challenging trip, a team you have never played a competitive match against previously – anything will do.
Instead, Reading play a team they will have met less than a fortnight earlier in the league and who knocked them out the League Cup in September.
The TV executives will not be clamouring to show that game. Reading’s free scoring and leaky defence in Championship football means seven of the current run of 11 games have/will be available on satellite telly.
Contractually I am not permitted to utter the actual name, ever.
While I like to think the radio commentary is occasionally adequate, fans deprived of a ticket to the games can at least still see the team in action and properly stay in touch with matchdays. Not for Luton away in the FA Cup though.