Best Reading FC Moments of 2011 – Part 4 Play-off Pandemonium

Football League Championship, Play-Off semi-final second leg

The Scene – Cardiff City Stadium, Tuesday May 17th

Result : Cardiff City 0 – Reading 3

Part four of our greatest Reading FC moments of 2011 sees Jon Keen take a look back at a crucial play-off trip to Wales when The Royals delivered a vital performance just when it mattered, and secured a trip to Wembley.

The Play-off Ticket Experience – Part Two

Yesterday we looked at the experiences of those who bought play-off final tickets in person at the Madejski Stadium, as reported to The Tilehurst End in the survey we ran in the weeks before the final.  Those experiences were almost universally positive praising the whole ticket-buying process and especially the efficiency of Sales Centre staff.

Today, in the second part of this four-part series, we look at the experiences of those who purchased tickets by phone from the ticketing agency TicketZone.   And if you’re wondering what the other two parts are, tomorrow we’ll look at those who purchased tickets from Ticketzone over the internet, and then we’ll tie these three strands together with an analysis of the whole tickets system, how it came about and what we’re doing with the survey results.

Match Review: Reading FC 2-4 Swansea City – Wembley

May 30, 2011

So we’ll be playing in the Championship next year? Sadly so, a 4-2 defeat to Swansea sees them take the final promotion place, not us.

The Team? Federici, Griffin (Robson-Kanu), Harte, Khizinishvili, Mills, Leigertwood, Karacan, Kebe, McAnuff, Hunt (Church), Long.

Attendance: 86,581

MOTM: Jem Karacan, the guy never stopped working and was so very nearly the hero, seeing his goalbound shot deflected onto the post.

Below, I’ll be chewing over yesterday’s result and looking at what could have been.

Made a note in my diary – simply said “Bugger”

So, Christmas day has been and gone, and after all the expectation the exquisitely wrapped present turned out to be just a lump of
coal.

Perhaps the big mistake was investing so much emotional energy into the game, but in many ways that’s unavoidable.  It’s been interesting over the past couple of weeks to see the differing excitement levels of different Reading supporters.   The youngsters who’ve never experienced a play-off final before, have been massively excited and completely invested in the final, but the older heads have been a bit different.   As well as being more world-wise and cynical, they’ve (or rather we’ve!) started off being a lot more detached, and refusing to get fully drawn into the excitement – possibly as a defence mechanism.    

Match Preview – May 30 – Reading FC v Swansea City (Play-Off Final)

Reading FC Match Preview – May 30 – Play-Off Final  v Swansea City (Wembley)

So What’s At Stake Here? Only about £90 million pounds and a place in the biggest league in club football

And Who Are Standing In The Way? In case you’ve been living under a rock, Swansea City who finished third in the league and beat Nottingham Forest in the play-off semi-finals.

Any former Royals? Swansea’s manager Brendan Rodgers had 6 months as our manager here last season and spent a good 10 years here as a coach.

Can I Still Get A Ticket?  At the time of press (1pm May 27) there were a handful of tickets available in person at the Madejski Stadium.

Any Bits of Key Info About Wembley? Reading have provided a full Q+A which can be found here

TV Coverage? Yes the game will be live on Sky Sports One and in Sky 3D from 2pm

Play-Off Final Tickets – How was it for you?

At The Tilehurst End we’re interested in getting a much better idea of how the process of buying Play-Off final tickets was for everyone – both good and bad!   We know some people experienced problems, but we want to get a better idea of just how widespread this was.  We’re already in contact with Reading FC, the Football League, Ticketzone and Wembley, and we’d like to be able to tell them – objectively –  how it all went for everyone (good and bad) rather than give them a list of problems.   So we’ve put together a quick survey to help us with this.

(Ticket) System of a Down

At The Tilehurst End we’ve received a few emails and a fair number of tweets at about Reading’s ticketing arrangements for the Play-Off final, so we thought we’d take a look at what’s been good and what’s been bad about these, three days into tickets sales.   The club received a lot of criticism for decisions they made prior to the FA Cup Quarter-Final with Manchester City, so just how do the decisions they made before this match stand up?

Ten things the Royals need to do to beat Swansea

May 20, 2011

We’ve done it. We’re through. We’ve comprehensively beaten Cardiff on their own turf. 3-0 the final score. On to Wembley.

Don’t take anything for granted, the chants and songs of “We’re going up, we’re going up!” were all over the place on Tuesday night, but thse chants are premature; just as Swansea’s pitch invasion was premature.

So, after the jump there’s a list of the ten things that McDermott’s men should be doing to beat Swansea, ‘the Championship’s Arsenal’ (which means they won’t win anything… right?).

Match Preview – May 17 – Cardiff City (Play-Offs A)

Reading FC Match Preview – May 17 – Play-Off Semi-Final, Second Leg  v Cardiff City (A)

How did the first leg finish then? A 0-0 draw at the Madejski Stadium on Friday.

What was the game like?  Both teams fought hard in a game of relatively few chances. Reading probably had the better of the tie

TV Coverage? Yes the game will be on Sky Sports One at 7.30pm

Match Preview – May 13 – Cardiff City (Play-Offs H)

Reading FC Match Preview – May 13 – Play-Off Semi-Final, First Leg  v Cardiff City

Where did Cardiff finish in the Championship? 4th

Recent form?  Not the best for a team coming into the play-offs. Having been in the automatic promotion hunt for most of the season Cardiff imploded in their penultimate game and lost 3-0 at home t Middlesbrough, before a 1-1 draw with Burnley on the final day saw them slip to 4th.

Last time we played them? We drew 2-2 at the Cardiff City Stadium in February, having looked like we’d stolen all 3 points with a Manset goal in injury time, a Craig Bellamy free-kick in the 97th minute levelled things.

Any former Royals? Nope, Cardiff are a Royal free zone, though Jobi McAnuff used to play for the bluebirds.

TV Coverage? Yes the game will be on Sky Sports One at 7.30pm

Any other business? Well it’s the play-offs for a start, Reading know they’re just 180 minutes from Wembley and perhaps 270 from a place in the Premier League. Also tonight’s game kicks off at 7.45 rather then the usual Mad Stad 8pm.

The Promotion Paradox

 Of course, every football supporter wants their team to be playing in the top division, and to see them competing with the best.   So with preparing for the play-offs there’s understandable excitement  in the air – noticeably much more excitement that the last play-off “adventure” in 2009, when the team’s spirit had evaporated over the previous few months and everyone knew we were destined to fail.  But this year there is a tangible feeling that this is quite possibly our time again. 

But we’ve been there before, and we know what the Premier League is like, so the excitement is tinged with a certain amount of worry, for me at least.  Being a match-going supporter of a team in the Premier League is quite horrible compared with supporting one in the Championship, so it’s a bit of a paradox.    Yes we all want to go up – but will we enjoy it if we get there? 

Reading FC – Bookie Watch – April 29, 2011

Here’s our weekly look into what the bookmakers are saying about Reading Football Club.

Monday’s disappointing 3-2 defeat against Sheffield United officially ended our automatic promotion hopes, but the Royals are still in with a fantastic chance of the play-offs, needing a dramatic set of results to deny them a top six finish. So how do the bookies rate our chances of making it back to the Premier league through the play-offs?

Reading FC – Bookie Watch – April 22, 2011

Here’s our weekly look into what the bookmakers are saying about Reading Football Club.

So just over three weeks to go now and while Norwich’s crushing 5-1 win over Ipswich has given them a big boost in their hunt for automatic promotion, the Royals are realistically one win away from being at least in the play-off lottery come May. So with just four games left what are the bookies saying about our promotion chances.