Don't blame Reading if Stevenage get juicy fixture

[voyager1]

You're watching the FA cup 4th round draw and the balls are pulled out of the hat. Stevenage get a lucrative 4th round fixture - either an easy bye to the 5th round or a lucrative match away at a Premier League side. This rubs salt into the wound suffered yesterday - you think "well, that should have been us"

You start looking for someone to blame - was it JM, BMD, any of the first team or Lady Luck.

A pointless exercise. Let me explain.

The FA cup draw is done by someone placing the balls into a pot, shuffling them and pulling each one out. Whilst the ball number would have been the same for Reading if they had of beaten Stevenage, the outcome of pulling that number out would have most likely been different.

Imagine if I could travel back and change history (disregard the laws of physics regarding the grandfather paradox). My trip back to yesterday somehow results in Reading getting a 4-0 win.

Instead of the Stevenage fans staying until the end celebrating their FA cup win, several of them left early. Likewise, the Reading fans who left 10 minutes early now stay until the end. This alters the outcome of everyone's evenings. You parked at the Madejski Stadium and drive down the A33 towards the M4, the Stevenage fan emerging from Imperial Way has to stop to give way to you. This holds up the person behind them, and the person behind them, including all the non match traffic. This butterfly effect quickly spreads throughout Reading and the whole country. Car accidents which occurred last night would have been replaced by other car accidents etc.

The Stevenage fan who delays the Paddington bound train by a few seconds as he jumps through the closing doors - that never happened in the timeline where Reading won because he left early and was already on the train. Everyone is a few seconds late, the train driver is late home.

This would filter through to the people doing the draw. They load the balls into the pot a second or so early/late. They place their hand into the pot differently. All the FA cup draws will be different. The probability of getting exactly the same outcome as the one today will be 1 in (10 to the power of a ridiculously high number).

Whilst a physics related posting might not seem relevant in a football thread, I thought I'd post it in anticipation of everyone balling their eyes out if Stevenage get a good fixture.

[paultheroyal]

[Simon's Church]

What does the fourth round draw have to do with the team?

[winchester_royal]

That post can be summed up in 3 words.

The butterfly effect.

[voyager1]

What does the fourth round draw have to do with the team?

Because if Stevenage get a good draw, some people will be crying out "if only we'd have beaten Stevenage then that would have been us getting xxxx"

Very borderline whether it should be in the Team section or Other football.

However, the title of the thread is the main point I'm trying to get across - don't blame Reading FC for missing out if Stevenage happen to get a lucrative tie.

My local team were knocked out of the FA cup and their message board was flooded with opposition fans generating threads "look what you missed out on" and home supporters crying "this is what we missed out on"

Whilst I don't envision gloating Stevenage fans (they appear to be decent people), there's more likely going to be Reading fans thinking "we missed out on XXXX"

[paultheroyal]

We were inept, rubbish, dire to name a few appropriate words so excuse me in saying that I do blame the football team of Reading FC on missing out on a decent cup run.

Having said that, last 2 years were great.

[voyager1]

We were inept, rubbish, dire to name a few appropriate words so excuse me in saying that I do blame the football team of Reading FC on missing out on a decent cup run.

Having said that, last 2 years were great.

Yes, you are right to blame Reading for missing out on a decent cup run. What I'm trying to say is that if Stevenage get a particular fixture which suited Reading, don't think that a different outcome yesterday would have resulted in Reading getting the same fixture.

[paultheroyal]

We were inept, rubbish, dire to name a few appropriate words so excuse me in saying that I do blame the football team of Reading FC on missing out on a decent cup run.

Having said that, last 2 years were great.

Yes, you are right to blame Reading for missing out on a decent cup run. What I'm trying to say is that if Stevenage get a particular fixture which suited Reading, don't think that a different outcome yesterday would have resulted in Reading getting the same fixture.

[Chaney]

stevenage would have a different draw number to the one we would have had, so we wouldnt of got the same draw that they will get.

[Elmer Park]

stevenage would have a different draw number to the one we would have had, so we wouldnt of got the same draw that they will get.

Sorry Cheney but the FA Cup draw is done by match number now so whoever Stevenage get would have been Reading's opponents had the players been sufficiently up for the game yesterday to have been able to win.

[floyd__streete]

A pointless exercise.

Quite

[LoyalRoyalFan]

If Stevenage get Swindon I will leave the board.

[robbieroyal]

Home against Notts County, prob would have got stuffed!!

[Simon's Church]

Could have been a great homecoming for legend Julian Kelly. Shame.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

At least it wasn't Swindon...

[who are ya?]

Shame it wasn't tbf

[SLAMMED]

You're watching the FA cup 4th round draw and the balls are pulled out of the hat. Stevenage get a lucrative 4th round fixture - either an easy bye to the 5th round or a lucrative match away at a Premier League side. This rubs salt into the wound suffered yesterday - you think "well, that should have been us"

You start looking for someone to blame - was it JM, BMD, any of the first team or Lady Luck.

A pointless exercise. Let me explain.

The FA cup draw is done by someone placing the balls into a pot, shuffling them and pulling each one out. Whilst the ball number would have been the same for Reading if they had of beaten Stevenage, the outcome of pulling that number out would have most likely been different.

Imagine if I could travel back and change history (disregard the laws of physics regarding the grandfather paradox). My trip back to yesterday somehow results in Reading getting a 4-0 win.

Instead of the Stevenage fans staying until the end celebrating their FA cup win, several of them left early. Likewise, the Reading fans who left 10 minutes early now stay until the end. This alters the outcome of everyone's evenings. You parked at the Madejski Stadium and drive down the A33 towards the M4, the Stevenage fan emerging from Imperial Way has to stop to give way to you. This holds up the person behind them, and the person behind them, including all the non match traffic. This butterfly effect quickly spreads throughout Reading and the whole country. Car accidents which occurred last night would have been replaced by other car accidents etc.

The Stevenage fan who delays the Paddington bound train by a few seconds as he jumps through the closing doors - that never happened in the timeline where Reading won because he left early and was already on the train. Everyone is a few seconds late, the train driver is late home.

This would filter through to the people doing the draw. They load the balls into the pot a second or so early/late. They place their hand into the pot differently. All the FA cup draws will be different. The probability of getting exactly the same outcome as the one today will be 1 in (10 to the power of a ridiculously high number).

Whilst a physics related posting might not seem relevant in a football thread, I thought I'd post it in anticipation of everyone balling their eyes out if Stevenage get a good fixture.

[Barry the bird boggler]

Could have been a great homecoming for legend Julian Kelly. Shame.

and martin allen - nice one boys....

[Simon's Church]

Didn't even realise he was there. What a game it would have been!

[leon]

I'm slightly surprised that this thread has got the legs it has.