Dreaded Third Place

[Gunny Fishcake]

Who'd have thought start of the season we'd end up third. This is an amazing achievement but I'd actually rather finish fourth than third. My reasoning is we play in a league over 46 games and three teams go up , and when you finish third it sucks. Of course we all know the play offs system but it still rankles with me. Here we go again then starting at Fulham Saturday 5.30pm KO

[tidus_mi2]

Eh I'm fine, we finished third but never even made it into the top 2 all season, it's not like we've got the disappointment of falling short. Now if Newcastle get punished with a point deduction this season I won't be complaining!

[Winston Biscuit]

Only RFC fans could see what has happened the past few seasons then talk of a 3rd placed finish as 'dreaded'

[Gunny Fishcake]

Only RFC fans could see what has happened the past few seasons then talk of a 3rd placed finish as 'dreaded'

In defence I don't see this as a dreaded achievement , opposite it's an amazing achievement as I said....it's just teams who finish third rarely win play offs when we've already finished third in a league competition .....if that makes sense !

[Silver Fox]

I thought someone the other day said third place wins 36% of the time, which isn't too shabby

[genome]

Only RFC fans could see what has happened the past few seasons then talk of a 3rd placed finish as 'dreaded'

In defence I don't see this as a dreaded achievement , opposite it's an amazing achievement as I said....it's just teams who finish third rarely win play offs when we've already finished third in a league competition .....if that makes sense !

Urban myth, 3rd place wins most of the time, as far as I know

[Gunny Fishcake]

Only RFC fans could see what has happened the past few seasons then talk of a 3rd placed finish as 'dreaded'

In defence I don't see this as a dreaded achievement , opposite it's an amazing achievement as I said....it's just teams who finish third rarely win play offs when we've already finished third in a league competition .....if that makes sense !

Urban myth, 3rd place wins most of the time, as far as I know

We are Reading !

[Winston Biscuit]

Only RFC fans could see what has happened the past few seasons then talk of a 3rd placed finish as 'dreaded'

In defence I don't see this as a dreaded achievement , opposite it's an amazing achievement as I said....it's just teams who finish third rarely win play offs when we've already finished third in a league competition .....if that makes sense !

BBC reports from 2013 showed that the team finishing 3rd goes up more than teams finishing 4th to 6th. http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/22437083

35% of the time the 3rd placed team wins the play offs compared to 15%, 30% & 20% for 4th, 5th & 6th.

[Gunny Fishcake]

Only RFC fans could see what has happened the past few seasons then talk of a 3rd placed finish as 'dreaded'

In defence I don't see this as a dreaded achievement , opposite it's an amazing achievement as I said....it's just teams who finish third rarely win play offs when we've already finished third in a league competition .....if that makes sense !

BBC reports from 2013 showed that the team finishing 3rd goes up more than teams finishing 4th to 6th. http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/22437083

35% of the time the 3rd placed team wins the play offs compared to 15%, 30% & 20% for 4th, 5th & 6th.

I stand corrected and will now sit in a dark room for the rest of the day and dream of winning the Play Offs

[Silver Fox]

I reckon* that the 3rd place record is slightly tempered by the fact that the team in 3rd are downhearted by missing out on automatic, an issue that doesn't apply to us**

*based on no facts
**although it may apply to Fulham what with them being the best team in the league

[Jackson Corner]

By my reckoning this is the seventh highest league finish in our 146 year history.

[JIM]

It is worth more money from football league payout at the end of season.

[Scutterbucketz]

By my reckoning this is the seventh highest league finish in our 146 year history.

Yeah that's what it said on the RFC twitter feed. I'm struggling with this one.

Champions twice.
3 seasons in the Premiership
1994-1995 second place.

That makes 6. Or did we finish 3rd one time with more points?

[jd82]

By my reckoning this is the seventh highest league finish in our 146 year history.

Yeah that's what it said on the RFC twitter feed. I'm struggling with this one.

Champions twice.
3 seasons in the Premiership
1994-1995 second place.

That makes 6. Or did we finish 3rd one time with more points?

[Scutterbucketz]

By my reckoning this is the seventh highest league finish in our 146 year history.

Yeah that's what it said on the RFC twitter feed. I'm struggling with this one.

Champions twice.
3 seasons in the Premiership
1994-1995 second place.

That makes 6. Or did we finish 3rd one time with more points?

oops

I should stop drinking now.

[Linden Jones' Tash]

According to this data (which doesn't include last season), 3rd placed teams go up 40% of the time, twice as often as any other position.

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/ ... hat-a-myth

All to play for

[The Royal Forester]

Reading have won more games than any of the other three teams in the play-offs, only one has scored more than us, only one has lost less games than us. We have finished in third place with at least four points more than them. Huddersfield and Fulham have conceded nearly as many goals as us. No team has done the double over us. Why are so many writing us off? Even if we do miss out on promotion, this season has been great. Enjoy the ride, and if we fail, wish us better luck next season.

[CountryRoyal]

By my reckoning this is the seventh highest league finish in our 146 year history.

Yeah that's what it said on the RFC twitter feed. I'm struggling with this one.

Champions twice.
3 seasons in the Premiership
1994-1995 second place.

That makes 6. Or did we finish 3rd one time with more points?

[Schards#2]

Promotion odds are ridiculous:

Fulham - 9/5 (less than 2/1)

Reading 9/2

Haven't we just finished three places above then. I do think they are just about favourites but those odds seem crazy to me

[CountryRoyal]

Promotion odds are ridiculous:

Fulham - 9/5 (less than 2/1)

Reading 9/2

Haven't we just finished three places above then. I do think they are just about favourites but those odds seem crazy to me

It's just means loads of people are lumping on Fulham because the media told them to.