Rival Watch

[South Coast Royal]

Carlisle or Salford; two of the few grounds I have yet to visit.

I went to the last time we played Carlisle away 82 midweek 0-0 1 coach about 30 Royals went. Got back 4:30 in the morning went to work at 8. Terrible ground hasn’t changed I won’t go again.

Such a mission to get to. It is a 5.5 hour drive if you stop for 30 minutes on the way. Be leaving at 6.30am at the latest to get up there. For a northern city it's not as big a shithole as one might think. Has a castle and a reasonable little city centre and a few good pubs. The ground itself is very old school but a dump. The traffic there is a nightmare. Not upset if they don't go up.

I love it when people from Reading refer to a place like Carlisle in the area of some great countryside as "northern city it''s not as big a shithole as one might think".
Condescending and ignorant and if "traffic is a nightmare" what does that make Reading.

I do love our town because I grew up there but if I hadn't then I would probably use the same terminology as Jimmy has but call it Southern and a town..

[Stranded]

Expect a new manager will take about 3 to 6 weeks.

We've known what division we'd be in for less than a week and whilst we should have been planning for both eventualities there's only so far you can go down the worst case route until it happens.

Thr club, and many prospective managers could probably do with an end of season break and pause to reflect as well.

I'll worry if we're into July and still haven't appointed anyone.

Bowen and Carey et al can pick up a lot of the player related actions whether we have a manager or not.

I'd say end of May is the likely time, so in your timescales. The only way it could possibly be quicker is if we have identified the man already, he is out of work and happy to come.

[From Despair To Where?]

I went to the last time we played Carlisle away 82 midweek 0-0 1 coach about 30 Royals went. Got back 4:30 in the morning went to work at 8. Terrible ground hasn’t changed I won’t go again.

Such a mission to get to. It is a 5.5 hour drive if you stop for 30 minutes on the way. Be leaving at 6.30am at the latest to get up there. For a northern city it's not as big a shithole as one might think. Has a castle and a reasonable little city centre and a few good pubs. The ground itself is very old school but a dump. The traffic there is a nightmare. Not upset if they don't go up.

I love it when people from Reading refer to a place like Carlisle in the area of some great countryside as "northern city it''s not as big a shithole as one might think".
Condescending and ignorant and if "traffic is a nightmare" what does that make Reading.

I do love our town because I grew up there but if I hadn't then I would probably use the same terminology as Jimmy has but call it Southern and a town..

Brunton Park isn't the first stadium I'd be calling a dump either.

[Snowflake Royal]

Not been to the stadiums, but been to Carlisle and Hartlepool with work and they were much nicer than say Bedford or Peterbrough

[genome]

Cracking strike for Northampton

[Ascotexgunner]

Not been to the stadiums, but been to Carlisle and Hartlepool with work and they were much nicer than say Bedford or Peterbrough

Think I've been to Hartlepool. Can't remember, do you have to go a cross a field to get to the ground......or maybe I'm thinking of Darlington.

[South Coast Royal]

Not been to the stadiums, but been to Carlisle and Hartlepool with work and they were much nicer than say Bedford or Peterbrough

Think I've been to Hartlepool. Can't remember, do you have to go a cross a field to get to the ground......or maybe I'm thinking of Darlington.

IIRC the old Darlington was also, or was next to a cricket ground.
Have never been to Hartlepool, one of the few left if I was thinking of doing the full collection of grounds.

[blythspartan]

Not been to the stadiums, but been to Carlisle and Hartlepool with work and they were much nicer than say Bedford or Peterbrough

Think I've been to Hartlepool. Can't remember, do you have to go a cross a field to get to the ground......or maybe I'm thinking of Darlington.

I think it’s Darlington. I went there in 1986 when we drew 0-0. A field rings a bell but I have to admit my memory is getting worse these days. It was a dull game but we secured promotion.

[Hound]

Such a mission to get to. It is a 5.5 hour drive if you stop for 30 minutes on the way. Be leaving at 6.30am at the latest to get up there. For a northern city it's not as big a shithole as one might think. Has a castle and a reasonable little city centre and a few good pubs. The ground itself is very old school but a dump. The traffic there is a nightmare. Not upset if they don't go up.

I love it when people from Reading refer to a place like Carlisle in the area of some great countryside as "northern city it''s not as big a shithole as one might think".
Condescending and ignorant and if "traffic is a nightmare" what does that make Reading.

I do love our town because I grew up there but if I hadn't then I would probably use the same terminology as Jimmy has but call it Southern and a town..

Brunton Park isn't the first stadium I'd be calling a dump either.

As someone who has to leave the house at 6 to make my commute anything other than terrible, I Did lolz a bit at someone on the Reading board commenting on the traffic being bad somewhere else

[AthleticoSpizz]

Yep, red traffic light a go-go….or rather not (a go-go)

[tmesis]

I went to the last time we played Carlisle away 82 midweek 0-0 1 coach about 30 Royals went. Got back 4:30 in the morning went to work at 8. Terrible ground hasn’t changed I won’t go again.

Such a mission to get to. It is a 5.5 hour drive if you stop for 30 minutes on the way. Be leaving at 6.30am at the latest to get up there. For a northern city it's not as big a shithole as one might think. Has a castle and a reasonable little city centre and a few good pubs. The ground itself is very old school but a dump. The traffic there is a nightmare. Not upset if they don't go up.

I love it when people from Reading refer to a place like Carlisle in the area of some great countryside as "northern city it''s not as big a shithole as one might think".
Condescending and ignorant and if "traffic is a nightmare" what does that make Reading.

I do love our town because I grew up there but if I hadn't then I would probably use the same terminology as Jimmy has but call it Southern and a town..

I'm not sure how anyone can say the ground hasn't changed either. There's a new stand for about 5000 down one side. The open end might seem a bit crap, possibly because people just aren't used to open ends any more. Nothing wrong with the home end though.

I think the term 'shithole' tends to be banded about too lightly, and really means any ordinary town which doesn't have a UNESCO listed centre, making it like pretty much like any other town.

I can't offer much about the town itself though, seeing almost none of it. I was given a lift by a mate who fancied 'doing' Carlisle City, while I saw United. I thought he was a bit nuts, but while I quite enjoyed the game I saw, his matched ended 13-2.

I think southern fans are a bit fixated on the 'grim up north' idea, when much of the north is far more picturesque in general.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Love the N East and N West coastlines, spend a fair bit of time on them.

Think the “grim oop North” thing is mainly bantz, a bit like them that live up there have us all down as shandy drinking wealthy Southerners.
Wales is pretty too (despite my so-called obsession with running-down anything west of Bristol lol).

[From Despair To Where?]

Of the 70 odd grounds I've been to, the biggest shithole is probably Loftus Rd. Dreadful views pretty much where ever you sit.

[tmesis]

Love the N East and N West coastlines, spend a fair bit of time on them.

Think the “grim oop North” thing is mainly bantz, a bit like them that live up there have us all down as shandy drinking wealthy Southerners.
Wales is pretty too (despite my so-called obsession with running-down anything west of Bristol lol).

I think there is also the problem that if you go to away games and only really see the ground and the route in and out of a town, it's easy to get the impression that there's nothing more to the place that a couple of dreary arterial roads which are much like any other dreary arterial road. Nobody who only knows Cambridge from the route to the Abbey Stadium would condisider it a place worth visiting.

[Hound]

It’s mainly throw away cliche nonsense isn’t it - slating some other town when in reality most towns are pretty similar to each other north or south.

Been to some standout rubbish towns mind you, Luton and Rotherham stick in the mind, but that wasn’t due to their northern or southerness

The north generally doesn’t do it for me - all the miles and miles of fields, even more rubbish weather etc but it has its advantages of course

[Royal_jimmy]

Confirmed opponents for next season

Blackpool
Bristol Rovers
Burton
Cambridge
Charlton
Cheltenham
Derby
Exeter
Fleetwood
Leyton Orient
Lincoln
Northampton
Oxford United
Port Vale
Portsmouth
Shrewsbury
Stevenage
Wigan
Wycombe

Not yet confirmed

Any one of:
Stockport
Carlisle
Bradford
Salford

and three out of:
Sheffield Wednesday
Bolton
Barnsley
Peterborough

Most looking forward to being away to Oxford, Port Vale, Lincoln and Shrewsbury being new grounds I haven't been to. Also looking forward to going to Wycombe, Cambridge, Pompey, Cheltenham, Bristol Rovers and Exeter. The rest of the league is dull.

[genome]

Hahahaha Millwall with the spectacular bottle job

[tidus_mi2]

Hahahaha Millwall with the spectacular bottle job

The Met will be breathing a sigh of relief, no East London derby in the Prem.

[Hound]

Hahahaha Millwall with the spectacular bottle job

The Met will be breathing a sigh of relief, no East London derby in the Prem.

Yeah impressive that

Stoke got to be one of the weirdest aides of the year. Absolutely useless bar one month when they were amazing (didn’t they beat Sunderland 5-0 away?)

Pleased to see some good clubs in the play offs and not just prem league rebounds. Hoepfully wba have to sell everyone or use, and Norwich and Watford stay down for a while

[Hound]

Solely in football terms hope Sunderland go up, and if not them, Cov.

Two brilliantly managed clubs by Mowbray and Robins, who have shown great spirit, ability and played decent football to match

Fair play to both of them.