I came, I saw… IKEA — Reading 1 Sheffield United 3
I’ll come clean. Yesterday, I committed football adultery.
I also blew a hole in my stated intention of not seeing any non-non-league football this season. In my defence, I didn’t have to pay for the ticket, so at least I can claim that I’ve not helped finance the monster – beyond the half-time Mars Bar.
I’d already decided I couldn’t make it to Thatcham as we had M’s old friend, Sally, visiting for the weekend, but I hadn’t bargained on my mate Russ offering me his Reading season ticket for the day. As it happened, M and Sally were planning on spending the afternoon in Reading in any case, and seemed annoyingly keen to get rid of me for a couple of hours. So we were all happy — at first. I later became consumed with guilt about depriving Thatcham of a few quid. Read more »
Amid the fireworks and marching bands that marked the start of the new Premier League season, you’d be forgiven for missing another footballing landmark. Slipping unnoticed into the calendar came the very first stage of this season’s FA Cup. But if seeing a Premier League game this weekend was tantamount to attending a glitzy premiere at the Odeon, Leicester Square, a visit to Reading Town for the Extra Qualifying Round against Melksham, was more like seeing the latest Ken Loach at the Rex in Dewsbury on a rainy Tuesday afternoon.
Sometimes, match reports don’t have that much to do with the match. This was the case yesterday, when I finally seized the chance to see Thatcham Town in action, against the Railwaymen of Didcot Town (or the Diddy Boys, to give them their less macho nickname), last year’s play-off winners in this division. Just a pre-season friendly, but I don’t need the carrot of fierce competition at this stage of the feast. I’m still setting the table, and will happily wait for the anxiety and elation courses.
This website is not about Rodney Marsh, but about what he represents. Or once represented to me.
