To all the boo boys:

[winchester_royal]

Folk can boo players if they want to. I can boo my own child at the nativity if I so wish.

Not sure what effect I'd be looking to achieve, though.

Always interesting to hear fans condemn the mercenary nature of football players and then with the next hilariously fickle breath jeer the same players they are demanding loyalty from.

Who are they sticking around for? The fans? The fans turn on players in a heartbeat. Take the money and run, footballers.

'Greed. Fans pay a lot of money and put in a lot of hours to watch football, and (within reason) are entitled to do whatever they want, but that doesn't mean that booing the team everytime things aren't going well is the right course of action. Call me old fashioned, but as 'supporters' I do believe our role is to turn up and support the players rather than rocking up and expecting to be entertained and having a hissy fit when that doesn't happen. Getting on the players backs will only lead to lower confidence levels, more mistakes, and worse performances..which will in turn lead to more booing and the diabolic loop continues.

Reading fans aren't alone in this though. It seems to be a problem that is rife in modern football. For example some Southampton fans booed their team off after the 3-2 defeat to Spurs on Sunday. Daft on so many levels.

There's a difference between booing one poor performance on the back of 10 good performances and booing a poor performance on the back of many poor performances.

The ''You can't expect it to be quality entertainment every week' argument does not apply.
I've seen about 45 mins of high quality entertainment all season.

Well tbh I don't think performances have been that poor. Average? Yes, very, but prior to Saturday we'd lost once at home all season and we're lying 5th. Hardly justification for such a strong negative reaction. And even accepting your point about poor performances...fans have been booing the defenders for having the temerity to pass the ball since the first game against Ipswich.

[sandman]

“It can make you rush that pass, rush that shot"

If it makes them speed up instead of the ponderous plodding they're doing at the moment then I'd like to encourage the fans to keep booing and groaning.

[P!ssed Off]

'Greed. Fans pay a lot of money and put in a lot of hours to watch football, and (within reason) are entitled to do whatever they want, but that doesn't mean that booing the team everytime things aren't going well is the right course of action. Call me old fashioned, but as 'supporters' I do believe our role is to turn up and support the players rather than rocking up and expecting to be entertained and having a hissy fit when that doesn't happen. Getting on the players backs will only lead to lower confidence levels, more mistakes, and worse performances..which will in turn lead to more booing and the diabolic loop continues.

Reading fans aren't alone in this though. It seems to be a problem that is rife in modern football. For example some Southampton fans booed their team off after the 3-2 defeat to Spurs on Sunday. Daft on so many levels.

There's a difference between booing one poor performance on the back of 10 good performances and booing a poor performance on the back of many poor performances.

The ''You can't expect it to be quality entertainment every week' argument does not apply.
I've seen about 45 mins of high quality entertainment all season.

Well tbh I don't think performances have been that poor. Average? Yes, very, but prior to Saturday we'd lost once at home all season and we're lying 5th. Hardly justification for such a strong negative reaction. And even accepting your point about poor performances...fans have been booing the defenders for having the temerity to pass the ball since the first game against Ipswich.

Last 5 home games:
Wigan (played badly, lost)
Bournemouth (played badly, lost)
Charlton (played badly, won)
QPR (played decently, drew)
Millwall (played badly, drew)

The vast majority of Reading fans will not have seen a satisfying Reading win since the 4-1 against Doncaster which was over 2 months ago.
Surely only a fool would be surprised at boos?

[winchester_royal]

I don't think anyone is surprised tbh.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Nobody booed when McDermott was in charge, obviously Adkins isn't popular. I say keep booing.

[Barry the bird boggler]

Nobody booed when McDermott was in charge, obviously Adkins isn't popular. I say keep booing.

Oh yes they did, I recall several outbreaks during some of the bloody pathetic and inept performances and tactical master strokes last season.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Nobody booed when McDermott was in charge, obviously Adkins isn't popular. I say keep booing.

Oh yes they did, I recall several outbreaks during some of the bloody pathetic and inept performances and tactical master strokes last season.

We were playing high quality Premier League opposition, not losing 6-0 to Peterborough.

[Mid Sussex Royal]

Nobody booed when McDermott was in charge, obviously Adkins isn't popular. I say keep booing.

They did regularly in the championship too, its just people only remember the last 15 games on whatever it was. The booing was about hoofing the ball up the pitch aimlessly from memory...

[Extended-Phenotype]

Folk can boo players if they want to. I can boo my own child at the nativity if I so wish.

Great comparison mate.
Identical situations.
Well played.

Thanks, though didn't say they were the same. Said people can do what they want. Just not sure what they expect it to achieve.

Driving people to perform worse because they aren't performing? Just seems retarded to me. But knock yourself out, you paid the money - its up to you if you want to make it a shit day out for yourself.

[LUX]

Happy Xmas to you and your family, EP.

Fcking sort out your kid's nativity acting, mind.

[CountryRoyal]

Everybody is taking it as a given that booing can only exacerbate already poor performances.

Is it not entirely possible that booing may provide motivation in a kind of "right, I'll show you tossers" kind of way? Not saying its always the case, just pointing out.

[3points]

Country Royal - I've said it before. Guthrie definitely started playing with more urgency once he got vociferously booed around the 35 minute mark and stop passing the ball backwards all the time.

[Extended-Phenotype]

:lol:

Happy Xmas to you and your family, EP.

Fcking sort out your kid's nativity acting, mind.

Have a good one matey!

I will probably sleep through xmas after spending all of today stuck in queues with 50,000 other stupid men who left shit to the last minute.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Country Royal - I've said it before. Guthrie definitely started playing with more urgency once he got vociferously booed around the 35 minute mark and stop passing the ball backwards all the time.

The opposite can be said of the likes of Cummings tho'.

The poor sod was getting gyp for his throw-ins before he'd even picked the ball up on a couple of occasions. Then, when he had the ball in his hands...he was harranged again for not throwing it in soon enough.....throwing it to his static tin soldier like (and marked) team mates who couldn't be arsed enough to move around enough to offer him any other options. Once his card was marked by the Reading "faithful", that was the end of his game.

I think that the good substitutions offered the whole team more impetus, and were more likely to be the catalyst for Guthries improvement in the second half...not the booing of his precious self.

[AirRaidSiren]

Country Royal - I've said it before. Guthrie definitely started playing with more urgency once he got vociferously booed around the 35 minute mark and stop passing the ball backwards all the time.

The opposite can be said of the likes of Cummings tho'.

The poor sod was getting gyp for his throw-ins before he'd even picked the ball up on a couple of occasions. Then, when he had the ball in his hands...he was harranged again for not throwing it in soon enough.....throwing it to his static tin soldier like (and marked) team mates who couldn't be arsed enough to move around enough to offer him any other options. Once his card was marked by the Reading "faithful", that was the end of his game.

I think that the good substitutions offered the whole team more impetus, and were more likely to be the catalyst for Guthries improvement in the second half...not the booing of his precious self.

Like Shane Griffin v Oman, who was jeered by certain idiots in the crowd for doing as he was told. Our fans are utter cnuts at times. Yeah, jeer a youth team player who was making his debut and instructed by the rest of his defence on what to do.

[P!ssed Off]

Country Royal - I've said it before. Guthrie definitely started playing with more urgency once he got vociferously booed around the 35 minute mark and stop passing the ball backwards all the time.

The opposite can be said of the likes of Cummings tho'.

The poor sod was getting gyp for his throw-ins before he'd even picked the ball up on a couple of occasions. Then, when he had the ball in his hands...he was harranged again for not throwing it in soon enough.....throwing it to his static tin soldier like (and marked) team mates who couldn't be arsed enough to move around enough to offer him any other options. Once his card was marked by the Reading "faithful", that was the end of his game.

I think that the good substitutions offered the whole team more impetus, and were more likely to be the catalyst for Guthries improvement in the second half...not the booing of his precious self.

In terms of our rubbish throw-ins recently, as far as it goes near where I sit, the taker is not the one on the receiving end of stick.
It's the other lazy players who offer zero movement who generally get a barracking (quite rightly) from the crowd.
Don't know specifically about Cummings on Saturday though because I was on the opposite side of the pitch to his 1st half throw-ins.

As for Cummings' card being marked, my sister spotted Adkins and Crosby giving Cummings a load of stick from the touch line just before half-time (sit nearish the dugout). According to her Cummings looked quite upset by the exchange and was angrily shouting back at them. Not sure how I missed said incident, must have fallen asleep.
Don't know if anyone else saw it?

[AthleticoSpizz]

Looking down the Eaststand line, pretty sure (and from what I heard locally), that the barracking was definately aimed at Cummings...not the unwilling waiting recipients of the ball.

The poor lad was visibly shaken and was leaking confidence by the minute....it was just like when he first arrived in his big hail of expectation. Can understand if he was losing it with NA/NC...they probably weren't choosing to see what we were seeing at 2-0 down.

Hope he bounces back, he has been pretty awesome for a bit-part player being played out of position.

[sandman]

Never heard anyone get criticised for taking a throw. Every game you hear people shouting at players to move for the taker or at the ball kids to give them the ball quicker.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Taking the throw wasn't specifically the problem to start with, it was the length of time that he had ball in hand that seem to agitate the natives

[P!ssed Off]

Never heard anyone get criticised for taking a throw. Every game you hear people shouting at players to move for the taker or at the ball kids to give them the ball quicker.

Yeah that's certainly the case in the West stand.