The Academy/Development squads watch thread 2024/25

[Clyde1998]

Maidenhead, Aldershot, Wealdstone & Woking in the Premier League National League Cup, looks like all will be played away.

Group stage match round 1: 1 – 2 October 2024
Group stage match round 2: 5 - 6 November 2024
Group stage match round 3: 3 – 4 December 2024
Group stage match round 4: 21 – 22 January 2025
Quarter-finals: 5 – 6 February 2025
Semi-finals: 11 – 12 March 2025
Final: 1 – 2 April 2025
Competition Format:

32 team competition consisting of four regional groups of eight teams.
The group will consist of four Premier League 2 and four National League teams.
Each Club will play four group stage fixtures with only National League v Premier League 2 fixtures being played (fixtures to be played at the National League main stadium).
The top two teams from each group will qualify for the next stage of the competition.
The knockout stages will consist of Quarter Final, Semi-Final and Final which will all be standalone fixtures.

https://www.premierleague.com/news/4121350

Had to check, but our U21s will be playing the first teams of the National League sides.

Based on what the other clubs have said, I believe our games are:

• Tuesday 15th October (19:00) - Aldershot
• Tuesday 5th November (19:30) - Maidenhead (£10 for adults)
• TBC - Wealdstone
• TBC - Woking

I'm certainly interested in the Aldershot and Maidenhead games. Need to work out the viability of Wealdstone. Not sure about going to Woking so soon after playing them in a friendly.

EDIT: Removing dates for Wealdstone and Woking as the ones listed clashed with other U21 matches.

[morganb]

Maidenhead, Aldershot, Wealdstone & Woking in the Premier League National League Cup, looks like all will be played away.

Group stage match round 1: 1 – 2 October 2024
Group stage match round 2: 5 - 6 November 2024
Group stage match round 3: 3 – 4 December 2024
Group stage match round 4: 21 – 22 January 2025
Quarter-finals: 5 – 6 February 2025
Semi-finals: 11 – 12 March 2025
Final: 1 – 2 April 2025
Competition Format:

32 team competition consisting of four regional groups of eight teams.
The group will consist of four Premier League 2 and four National League teams.
Each Club will play four group stage fixtures with only National League v Premier League 2 fixtures being played (fixtures to be played at the National League main stadium).
The top two teams from each group will qualify for the next stage of the competition.
The knockout stages will consist of Quarter Final, Semi-Final and Final which will all be standalone fixtures.

Don't think we'll be fielding very strong teams for a couple of these games as they clash with the following mid-week first team matches:

Group stage match round 1: 1 – 2 October 2024 1st October - Reading v Burton

Group stage match round 3: 3 – 4 December 2024 3rd December - Reading v Cambridge

[Royals and Racers]

Rounds 3 and 4 clash with the International cup
Wednesday 4th December Zagreb played at Aldershot
Tuesday 21st January Valencia played at SCL
Can’t see that Wealdstone or Woking have posted any match dates yet.

[Clyde1998]

Rounds 3 and 4 clash with the International cup
Wednesday 4th December Zagreb played at Aldershot
Tuesday 21st January Valencia played at SCL

Good spot. Appears only the Ajax game is listed on our website as International Cup matches; oddly both club and Premier League websites still have us down as playing Derby at Aldershot on the 20th January.

The National League Cup games will be a different date then. I based them on when the other games our group were being played. Neither Reading, Wealdstone, Woking, the Premier League or National League have officially said anything about those games.

Seems the week including Tuesday 10th December is free and we have no U21 games listed between Monday 16th December and Friday 10th January - so that could perhaps the Wealdstone and Woking games will fit in there. Maybe nothing's been said as dates haven't been formally selected yet.

[morganb]

On other club sites -

https://www.theshots.co.uk/national-lea ... -launched/

Aldershot v Reading U21 - Tuesday 15th October 7pm

https://www.maidenheadunitedfc.org/news ... ouncement/

Maidenhead United v Reading U21 - Tuesday 5th November, 7:30pm, York Road

Nothing on Woking or Wealdstone yet but will be in December / January

(Sorry - A bit late with the news I see...)

[Royals and Racers]

Next up for the U 21’s is a return to PL 2 action with an away game this Friday afternoon 20th at Crystal Palace KO 2pm. The match takes place at Palace’s training ground.
Match is being streamed on Palace TV - a weeks subscription costs £3.49.( needs to be cancelled after the match)

Paid my £3.49 so will be watching.
Norcott
Ahmed
Beacroft
Stickland
Holzman
Senga
Osho
Spencer
Sackey
Tuma
Okine-Peters
Subs
McMillen
Howard
Welland
Jones
Harrison

[Royals and Racers]

Palace 1 Reading 0 15 mins - could have been offside.
1-1 29 mins Tuma
H-T 1-1 Reading doing ok and deserve to be level.

[Clyde1998]

What formation are we playing? Noticed a couple of the scores apps have us playing 4-2-3-1, with Osho on the right-wing; that seems unlikely. Based on what I know of the players, it looks like it could be a 5-3-2.

[Royals and Racers]

What formation are we playing? Noticed a couple of the scores apps have us playing 4-2-3-1, with Osho on the right-wing; that seems unlikely. Based on what I know of the players, it looks like it could be a 5-3-2.

F-T 1-1 It looked as if we played 4-3-3 But seemed quite fluid. Decent performance i thought. You will know how many tickets we have sold for Tuesday ?

[Clyde1998]

What formation are we playing? Noticed a couple of the scores apps have us playing 4-2-3-1, with Osho on the right-wing; that seems unlikely. Based on what I know of the players, it looks like it could be a 5-3-2.

F-T 1-1 It looked as if we played 4-3-3 But seemed quite fluid. Decent performance i thought. You will know how many tickets we have sold for Tuesday ?

Seems a much better result than the last few, hopefully the new players in the U21s becoming more used to the level and it's got going to be a very difficult year that I was starting to fear. There's a few that I assume are injured too - Wellens, Borgnis, Clarke, etc. who'll strengthen the squad once they return.

Looks like around 350 sold so far. I imagine it will improve the closer we get to the game. The EFL Trophy games that have little risk of selling out tend to have a late rush of ticket sales and people may realise the game is taking place fairly late too. Would be good to get to at least 500 in.

I don't know what sort of crowds we got the last time we played in this competition (2018-19), when looking at group stage games, but looking at the pictures from some of those games I wouldn't be surprised if it was similar.

[Clyde1998]

To update on the National League Cup, Woking has confirmed the date and prices for our fixture.

Wealdstone haven't made any statement regarding the competition or their matches, but that game is likely to be around December time.

Fixtures (all away):

• Tuesday 15th October (19:00) - Aldershot
• Tuesday 5th November (19:30) - Maidenhead (£10 for adults)
• December? - Wealdstone
• Tuesday 7th January (19:00) - Woking (£8 for adults)

[SCIAG]

Looks like around 350 sold so far. I imagine it will improve the closer we get to the game. The EFL Trophy games that have little risk of selling out tend to have a late rush of ticket sales and people may realise the game is taking place fairly late too. Would be good to get to at least 500 in.

I don't know what sort of crowds we got the last time we played in this competition (2018-19), when looking at group stage games, but looking at the pictures from some of those games I wouldn't be surprised if it was similar.

Are you talking about the International Cup?

When we played Bayern Munich II at Wycombe in 2017 there were <100 Reading fans there, more Munich fans who never stopped singing.

When we played them a little over a year later at the Madejski, there were about 2,000 fans there, again a pretty substantial away contingent.

Richards played in the first match, and Olise in the second. The big name in the Munich side was Joshua Zirkzee, although Mario Goetze's brother Felix came off the bench. He's now at Paderborn in the 2. Bundesliga, a club I only really know because Sammi the Fridge played for them.

[Clyde1998]

Looks like around 350 sold so far. I imagine it will improve the closer we get to the game. The EFL Trophy games that have little risk of selling out tend to have a late rush of ticket sales and people may realise the game is taking place fairly late too. Would be good to get to at least 500 in.

I don't know what sort of crowds we got the last time we played in this competition (2018-19), when looking at group stage games, but looking at the pictures from some of those games I wouldn't be surprised if it was similar.

Are you talking about the International Cup?

When we played Bayern Munich II at Wycombe in 2017 there were <100 Reading fans there, more Munich fans who never stopped singing.

When we played them a little over a year later at the Madejski, there were about 2,000 fans there, again a pretty substantial away contingent.

Richards played in the first match, and Olise in the second. The big name in the Munich side was Joshua Zirkzee, although Mario Goetze's brother Felix came off the bench. He's now at Paderborn in the 2. Bundesliga, a club I only really know because Sammi the Fridge played for them.

Yeah - the International Cup.

I imagine we can't read too much into the games played at Wycombe in terms of attendances, due to the relative distance people would have to travel.

The Bayern semi will be interesting to look back at to see what came of the players from both teams.

We also played Sparta Prague and Feyenoord in the group stage in 2018-19 at the Madejski, but no official attendances were published for those ones. They're the ones I'm really comparing with; the pictures from those games look like maybe 400 at the absolute maximum.

[Royals and Racers]

So next up for the Royals U 21’s is on Tuesday evening 24th when we play Ajax in our opening match in the PL International Cup at the SCL stadium KO 7pm- ticket office will not be open on the night to purchase tickets- advance sales only !
Massive test for the Royals and the English teams have made a poor start to the 2024/5 competition. 7 matches played with 2 draws and 5 wins for the European teams !

[SCIAG]

Looks like around 350 sold so far. I imagine it will improve the closer we get to the game. The EFL Trophy games that have little risk of selling out tend to have a late rush of ticket sales and people may realise the game is taking place fairly late too. Would be good to get to at least 500 in.

I don't know what sort of crowds we got the last time we played in this competition (2018-19), when looking at group stage games, but looking at the pictures from some of those games I wouldn't be surprised if it was similar.

Are you talking about the International Cup?

When we played Bayern Munich II at Wycombe in 2017 there were <100 Reading fans there, more Munich fans who never stopped singing.

When we played them a little over a year later at the Madejski, there were about 2,000 fans there, again a pretty substantial away contingent.

Richards played in the first match, and Olise in the second. The big name in the Munich side was Joshua Zirkzee, although Mario Goetze's brother Felix came off the bench. He's now at Paderborn in the 2. Bundesliga, a club I only really know because Sammi the Fridge played for them.

Yeah - the International Cup.

I imagine we can't read too much into the games played at Wycombe in terms of attendances, due to the relative distance people would have to travel.

The Bayern semi will be interesting to look back at to see what came of the players from both teams.

We also played Sparta Prague and Feyenoord in the group stage in 2018-19 at the Madejski, but no official attendances were published for those ones. They're the ones I'm really comparing with; the pictures from those games look like maybe 400 at the absolute maximum.

Thought it was worth mentioning for Dinamo Zagreb at Aldershot as a comparison. Doubt they'll bring as many fans as Munich did.

Don't recall what the crowds were like for Sparta or Feyenoord.

[Royals and Racers]

Eastleigh fc have issued a hard hitting statement about why they have refused to take part in the new National league cup- obviously not all the clubs buying into this new addition to their fixture list.

[Sutekh]

Eastleigh fc have issued a hard hitting statement about why they have refused to take part in the new National league cup- obviously not all the clubs buying into this new addition to their fixture list.

https://eastleighfc.com/2024/09/stateme ... eague-cup/

Not happy. Usual story of authorities dumping stuff on clubs without consultation. Guess this is one competition that won't last long, esp. when you end up getting Reading u21s v Maidenhead u21s or some variation thereof (and this is the Maidenhead that pulls out of the B&B citing fixture congestion).

[Orion1871]

Premier League and EFL clubs simply take these players that have often had many years development at our clubs, something they cannot do to each other.

Well that's not true.

[Royals and Racers]

The U18’s in PL U 18 action this afternoon home at Bearwood to Norwich City KO 1pm
Welland
Trialist
Irish
Duah
Harrison
Howard
Bowdery
Source
Saint-Louis
George
Omoregie
SUBS
Nour
Agyekum
Martin
Pullinger

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