Sir Steve - vindicated?

[Fat Leather Jacket]

Im not one to really moan about attendences but 11k really is woeful. Thats all im saying on the matter.

[Maguire]

For those of you who missed the game check out Long's goal - well worth the price of admission.

Saw it on Sky Sports News and spent the 20 notes on Class As
instead.

Result.

[readingbedding]

Only 11,514 there tonight.

The FA Cup hasn't lost it's magic..........

Why so shocked, the FA Cup is nowhere near what it used to be.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 241979.stm

That will be why this was the best attended third round for years then?

You disagree, that's fine.

[PieEater]

Very impressed with Bikey's distribution, though needs to take an extra touch every now and then.

Long still looked a little out of his depth - the sooner he goes on loan to the CCC for some first team experience the better.

Great to see The Bobster and Kits back, though Convey should have come off with 15mins to go because he had run his socks off and looked absolutel knackered. Well done both.

Also rans for Useless (barely CCC quality now, unfortunately), Sam "Dodgy" Sodje (aquitted himself well and popped up with a goal) Oster, Golbourne, Ingimarsson - all played well. Lita looked a class above Burnley and took his goal VERY well.

Seol looks be lacking motivation so Sir Steve needs to kick him up the backside.

MOTM goes to Federici - great debut, three cracking saves and excellent distribution. Well done Adam.

On the whole I agree with Row Zs assessment.

Golborne - good game and didnt look out of place but was part of a poor defence.
Ivar - Solid and as quick as Akinbyi
Sodje - I thought he was pretty poor apart from the goal. Shocking in the first half
UDLC- Living up to his nickname, also looked clueless but the does something really good.
Convey - I thought Convey looked lively, made some good runs but always seemed to make the wrong decision on what to do.
Bikey - Decent game, strong and got stuck in. We did lose the midfield battle though
Oster - again did lots of good things, but a few too many backpasses.
Seol - Poor but moments of quality
Lita - fell over too much and Styles gave us nothing, but took his goal well
Long - IMHO a revelation, as well as a fantastic goal he was much more physical than I'd seen him before. Chased and closed down and really looks like another Doyler on the way.

Kitson - good to see him back and showed some good skill. He does look like he's been on the weights
Pearce - did OK but really needed more help from the ref as Akinbyi was all over him

[Dirk Gently]

Look on the bright side - Feberici flapped at a cros sat the end and turned by 3-1 bet at 8s into a 3-2 win at 20s.

[Sam Tubber]

Only 11,514 there tonight.

The FA Cup hasn't lost it's magic..........

I know what you mean, disgusting turnout. Unfortunately too many twats in Reading support Arsenal, Chelsea, etc.

Still, I enjoyed myself tonight at the ground and thats all that matters.

There are also too many twats in Reading who support Reading.

LOL. Agreed. FACT

[londinium]

Kinda proves what was said on the Club Policies thread - surely 16,000 @ £15 each is better than 11,714 @ £20 each

Who is to say that we would have got 16,000?

It is a similar arguement as to the one where people are saying we should field a full strength team and we would have got more fans tonight.

I believe that a drop in price to £15 wouldnt have increased the gate size enough to make any difference in total income.

Neither do I believe that fielding the first team would have done a great deal either. It is the quality of the opposition that normally make all the difference in the gate size, hence Blackburn and Bolton being the lowest gates this season and Man utd, Chelsea and Arsenal the games where people are clambering for tickets despite the side we put out or the cost.

Burnley are hardly a big gate puller, one of the worst attended home games last year and the year before too.

[Stranded]

Only 11,514 there tonight.

The FA Cup hasn't lost it's magic..........

Why so shocked, the FA Cup is nowhere near what it used to be.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 241979.stm

That will be why this was the best attended third round for years then?

You disagree, that's fine.

Since when is stating a fact disagreeing.

The FA Cup hs no doubt lost some of it's appeal but the 3rd Rd this year has the best average attendance since 1989. That is a fact.

Thought we played very well tonight. Federici was excellent when called upon. Bikey superb IMHO.

The finish from Long was almost Van Basten-esque and nearly worth the admission price alone. Enjoyable night.

[readingbedding]

Only 11,514 there tonight.

The FA Cup hasn't lost it's magic..........

Why so shocked, the FA Cup is nowhere near what it used to be.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 241979.stm

That will be why this was the best attended third round for years then?

You disagree, that's fine.

Since when is stating a fact disagreeing.

The FA Cup hs no doubt lost some of it's appeal but the 3rd Rd this year has the best average attendance since 1989. That is a fact.

Thought we played very well tonight. Federici was excellent when called upon. Bikey superb IMHO.

The finish from Long was almost Van Basten-esque and nearly worth the admission price alone. Enjoyable night.

I'm saying that the FA Cup for me is nowhere near what it was 15+ years ago, he disagrees.

That's fine.

[Stranded]

Err no.

He's stated that this year's FA Cup 3rd Rd was the best attended in years. 1989 in fact. At no point does he say anything about it being nowhere near what it was 15 years ago.

Show me the disagreement, as I can't see it.

[Woodcote Royal]

Coppell vindicated with bells on.

Whilst I appreciate that it's been an expensive season, those who chose to stay away on principle alone just don't appreciate what a fantastic job Steve Coppell is doing for this club and where his priorities lie when picking a team for these sort of games.

Whilst Seol looked lost for much of the evening, all the others were desperate to make their mark. Without these opportunites motivating fringe players would be an uphill struggle.


£15 a ticket might have prised a few more from their armchairs but, frankly, if watching our squad players stake their claim for a place in the first team doesn't appeal, stay at home..................because that's what really mattered tonight

Convey looked VERY sharp but Kitson is still a few weeks away.

Federici, what a debut! Sorry but, goodbye, Graham Stack.

[Platypuss]

The strange thing is that he appears to think that the Hansen article backs him up - it doesn't really.

[readingbedding]

Err no.

He's stated that this year's FA Cup 3rd Rd was the best attended in years. 1989 in fact. At no point does he say anything about it being nowhere near what it was 15 years ago.

Show me the disagreement, as I can't see it.

Ok....

Hansen's comments about the FA Cup is something that I agree with.
I posted the link then Alad said that it was the highest attended 3rd round since 1989.

I took that as someone who was saying that the FA Cup is still popular as ever.

A lot less people could go to matches back in 1989 due to smaller grounds etc.

The FA Cup, in all honesty, will never be what it was in the 1960s, 1970s or 1980s because the money in the Champions League and Premiership is now so huge.

I said one thing, he countered, I took that as a disagreement.

[Dirk Gently]

So what we're saying is that since 1989 (until this year) FA Cup attendences have been declining - but at the same time League attendences have been steadily growing.

So even if this is a blip, sadly it looks like the FA Cup is slowly dying.

[Sonic]

As I've posted elsewhere, its simple to increase 3rd round attendances. If we make it past newc/brum in the next round and draw Chelsea, Arsenal or Man U in the 5th round at home give priority for the tickets to those who turned up tonight regardless of royalty points.

[Platypuss]

As I've posted elsewhere, its simple to increase 3rd round attendances. If we make it past newc/brum in the next round and draw Chelsea, Arsenal or Man U in the 5th round at home give priority for the tickets to those who turned up tonight regardless of royalty points.

How will that increase 3rd round attendances? Does a time machine come into it somewhere?

[londinium]

Kinda proves what was said on the Club Policies thread - surely 16,000 @ £15 each is better than 11,714 @ £20 each

15 x 16,000 = 240,000
20 x 12,000 = 240,000

Try again

It is actually:

15 x 16000 = 240000
20 x 11714 = 234280

Try again


We wouldnt have got 16000 anyhow though

[Sonic]

As I've posted elsewhere, its simple to increase 3rd round attendances. If we make it past newc/brum in the next round and draw Chelsea, Arsenal or Man U in the 5th round at home give priority for the tickets to those who turned up tonight regardless of royalty points.

How will that increase 3rd round attendances? Does a time machine come into it somewhere?

Simple, if attending the early rounds games gets you ticket priority if the team progress (quarter finals, semi finals and dare I say the final !!) people will turn out for rounds 3 & 4.

[Platypuss]

What has that got to do with this season?

"Simple".

[Sonic]

What has that got to do with this season?

"Simple".

I was n't talking about this season. Just seems like a reasonable idea for the future to me.