Boycott West Ham Away

[soggy biscuit]

In a very short space of time we have gone from a handful of people at Elm Park bouncing around div's 2 & 3 to 24,000 pact lunch eating, jester hat wearing, rumble stick hitting, song sheet mumbling, back the boys and make some noise following, sitting in silence, middle class people at the spaccerbowl bouncing around div's 1 & 2.

I think we are fair game for ridicule to be honest, if it was round the other way we would certainly poke fun at clubs like that

[Schards#2]

Before i get slated for trolling, gloating or anything else, i am a hammers fan who comes in peace who has actually lived in Reading for quite a few years and went to Elm Park many times around the Mark McGee, Shaka Hislop, Kevin Dillion, Michael Gilkes era and have always treated the Royals as my second team. And i'm more than happy to go to the Madejski and support them and i really didn't want Reading to be relegated.

I totally agree about the cost of the WHU v Reading ticket prices and i'll admit to being outpriced myself. But I think if the match were earlier in the season then there would have been no talk of a boycott, it really does come across as renaming "no point in going" to "boycott". I'd totally agree with "no point in going" if west ham were in your position.

I have to say I don't really understand this idea that somehow West Ham are rivals? Certainly there are no Hammers that think that Reading are ours as our depest rivalries are the obvious - Millwall and maybe less so, Tottenham and Chelsea. So it's all one way traffic from you to us whilst we don't take the piss out of Reading any more than we do any other club and think no more of playing Reading than we do, say, Norwich or Stoke. There isn't a rivalry.

As for hoof ball, well, we're happy for everyone to keep thinking that of Allardyce and his teams. It's very misguided. He plays to the strengths of the squad he has. West Ham, despite many accusations on here that we think we are, are not a big club (we've been yo-yoing forever and know our status), in fact we've been £100 mil in debt since the icelandic bank crash. Just don't get taken inby the media perception of us, it's not what we feel or think we are.

We cannot afford greatly skillful players but we'd just get relegated trying to outplay anyone on the deck. Until we can afford decent players (maybe via being at the olympic stadium a few years) then we'll look at changing things.

As for the Olympic Stadium, if we didn't take it, it would have been left to rot. If you want to blame anyone for the taxpayer shelling out so much for it then blame the challenges from Barry Hearn and Spurs that stopped us buying it. There was no viable other option. I am sure that had the stadium been in Reading and you were still at Elm Park, you guys would have loved to move there.

I agree with all of that. And even though I didn't come here to gloat, I took so much vile abuse that I've decided to now gloat. It's cathartic if you like. (…whoosh! That went straight over the heads of some)

M8, stop kidding yourself. You are a West ham on a Reading message board getting involved from the day we are relegated, (some three weeks before we are due to play you). What possible reason would you have to be here at that time other than to gloat, which you duly have. I understand you probably feel a bit stupid now but there's no point in lying to yourself.

The reality is that for months you've been counting down the days to the last game of the season in the hope that Wst Ham will relegate Reading and give you some payback for the many humiliations you have suffered at Reading's hands. When it became clear Reading's hopes weren't going to make it that far, you went for the next best thing of trolling our message board during and after the game where we were mathematically relegated.

For you to now agree with another West Ham fans comment saying any rivalry is all one way (from Reading to West Ham) is beyond parody.

[winchester_royal]

Not really, the Madejski is rarely any quieter than any other ground, and given that we have more than our fair share of women and children that's pretty embarrassing for other clubs tbh.

Still..Reading fans love to h8 on other Reading fans

[PieEater]

the olympic stadium has fallen into our lap

But you were always gonna get it. Tottenham getting it would have been ridiculous, but why did they have to give us all that 'legacy of the games' bullshit and not just build the stadium with a set contingency plan to convert it for football after the games (a la Man City) instead of wasting taxpayers money with a more complex conversion? Football was the only thing to make full use of such a huge stadium. I thought I'd boycott football there, but of course I'll be returning.

It's hardly West Hams fault that the Olympic committee was so short sighted.

Anything has to better that their away end, particularly if your seat is left of the corner flag, below ground level and staring into the sun. £50 is a joke.

[anR]

the olympic stadium has fallen into our lap

But you were always gonna get it. Tottenham getting it would have been ridiculous, but why did they have to give us all that 'legacy of the games' bullshit and not just build the stadium with a set contingency plan to convert it for football after the games (a la Man City) instead of wasting taxpayers money with a more complex conversion? Football was the only thing to make full use of such a huge stadium. I thought I'd boycott football there, but of course I'll be returning.

It's hardly West Hams fault that the Olympic committee was so short sighted.

Anything has to better that their away end, particularly if your seat is left of the corner flag, below ground level and staring into the sun. £50 is a joke.

Yeah I don't blame West Ham (except maybe Brady), it's LOCOG's fault and I've never been happy with it. I actually can't wait to go for West Ham games there, but I will not be going to Upton Park this season. Or Craven Cottage, for that matter!

[floyd__streete]

Still..Reading fans love to h8 on other Reading fans

IN. Genuinely, the fewer of you pcunts at an away game the better tbh.

[winchester_royal]

Still..Reading fans love to h8 on other Reading fans

IN. Genuinely, the fewer of you pcunts at an away game the better tbh.

See you at Burnley

[floyd__streete]

Still..Reading fans love to h8 on other Reading fans

IN. Genuinely, the fewer of you pcunts at an away game the better tbh.

See you at Burnley

Been there 4 times, bored going there now, its miles away.

[Chillitsphil]

Well I'm pleased that I made this comment and that the West Ham fans all over their forum liked it so much

[floyd__streete]

FEWER inflatables.

[Chillitsphil]

FEWER inflatables.

[westongeezer]

Lesser!

[genome]

More than anything I associate them with a tedious tube journey.

This here is the crux of the matter for me. As someone who does a good job of rarely venturing into london the odd tube journey is not so unpleasant, almost novelty like, yet the journey to West Ham is just a total abomination. It drains you of every smidgen of happiness you had before you got on the tube

I notice West Ham as much as I notice any other club who I don't support, we just had a couple of good games against you, that's all. you are to the late 2000's/early 2010's what Bristol City were to the early to mid 2000's and Wolves were to the mid to late 90's

The tube journey back to Padders last year went quite quickly tbf!

[Jonhammer]

Happy to boycott any game at the moment tbh

the West Ham game on the last of the season is classed as a cat A Game hence the high price
all end of season Premiership games are classed as Cat A.

[Jonhammer]

More than anything I associate them with a tedious tube journey.

This here is the crux of the matter for me. As someone who does a good job of rarely venturing into london the odd tube journey is not so unpleasant, almost novelty like, yet the journey to West Ham is just a total abomination. It drains you of every smidgen of happiness you had before you got on the tube

I notice West Ham as much as I notice any other club who I don't support, we just had a couple of good games against you, that's all. you are to the late 2000's/early 2010's what Bristol City were to the early to mid 2000's and Wolves were to the mid to late 90's

The tube journey back to Padders last year went quite quickly tbf!

Journey is a pig but 2016/17 will be much easier. as for putting us on the same level as Bristol City / Wolves you seem very bitter about your campaign this season. ok Big Sam plays boring football but he managed to keep us in the premiership.

[Jonhammer]

There does seems to be a general air of arrogance towards Reading, particularly the common judgement of "your support is shit because only X number of fans showed up, you weren't very loud, you're a 'plastic' club, your fans left early' etc that seems to get churned out over the various web portals as some bizarre willy-waving exercise each time we get a win and face needs to be saved at the claret and blue end

I don't think that's particularly the exclusive province of West Ham fans, to be fair.
I think it's more of a relection of how our club has grown and now moves in different football circles to what it once did. Back in the old EP days, the only time I'd get to see the West Ham, Derby, Forest, Leeds, Coventrys, etc. was on the telly, or the odd cup game. We are the relatively new kids on the block, and it's all to easy for opposition fans to use their past glories as a stick to bait "little club Reading" with. We are not immune to this daftness ourselves, and I fully expect to hear some of our own jolly japesters singing "our garden shed" at Dean Court next season. I promise you, I'll almost laugh.

I live 20 minutes from Readings ground. and the season you walked the championship was an interesting one. at the begining medium support and as you took off the plastic fans joined in. made going into Reading a pain. strange how towards the end of season the plastics have vanished. we West ham went down they had average gates of 30K plus. just wonder what Readings will be next season?

[Jonhammer]

In a very short space of time we have gone from a handful of people at Elm Park bouncing around div's 2 & 3 to 24,000 pact lunch eating, jester hat wearing, rumble stick hitting, song sheet mumbling, back the boys and make some noise following, sitting in silence, middle class people at the spaccerbowl bouncing around div's 1 & 2.

I think we are fair game for ridicule to be honest, if it was round the other way we would certainly poke fun at clubs like that

well said soggy biscuit all clubs poke fun at others. I for 1 will miss Reading, nice club and I have a few Reading friends. 1 thing i never do is make fun of a club that is religated, I know it hurts, been there often enough with the Hammers. Good luck for next season hope to see you back in the premieship, you have a good manager.

[genome]

Oof, four in a row. Good start.

[Colin Cheeselog]

I live 20 minutes from Readings ground. and the season you walked the championship was an interesting one. at the begining medium support and as you took off the plastic fans joined in. made going into Reading a pain. strange how towards the end of season the plastics have vanished. we West ham went down they had average gates of 30K plus. just wonder what Readings will be next season?

So what you’re saying, if I follow correctly, is; a football club that was experiencing success attracted progressively more fans during that period of success?

That's quite a theory, I hadn't thought of it like that before. Have you thought about writing a thesis on this?

I had often wondered why Man Utd got 70,000 fans and Bury only 2,000. In fact, having looked at some figures, the average premier league attendance is higher than the average championship attendance, which in turn is higher than the average league 1 attendance, and so on throughout the leagues.

I think you're on to something...

[fridays gone]

I live 20 minutes from Readings ground. and the season you walked the championship was an interesting one. at the begining medium support and as you took off the plastic fans joined in. made going into Reading a pain. strange how towards the end of season the plastics have vanished. we West ham went down they had average gates of 30K plus. just wonder what Readings will be next season?

So what you’re saying, if I follow correctly, is; a football club that was experiencing success attracted progressively more fans during that period of success?

That's quite a theory, I hadn't thought of it like that before. Have you thought about writing a thesis on this?

I had often wondered why Man Utd got 70,000 fans and Bury only 2,000. In fact, having looked at some figures, the average premier league attendance is higher than the average championship attendance, which in turn is higher than the average league 1 attendance, and so on throughout the leagues.

I think you're on to something...

Sarcasm! I think you're onto something