We're taking an under 21 side to Billericay tonight.

Anyone have an idea what our squad will look like for tonights game?

Bet365 are offering 2.25 on a Reading win this evening. That looks a decent price for a friendly away to an Isthmian league side. I saw Wealdstone take on QPR under 21s the other day and QPR beat them comfortably. It was only 2-1, but Wealdstone didn't really threaten a professional QPR youth side.

Wealdstone are better than Billericay and our under 21's are better than QPR's. I fancy our lads to win in Essex tonight. I just want to be sure we're taking a decent squad there though first before I pull the trigger on my bet.

Are Kuhl, Samuel, Fosu, Stacey, Kelly, Hyam, Dickie etc. gonna be in Billericay tonight? Or are they all in Holland?

Pretty sure they all travelled to Holland.

The official website used to have plenty of news and information on it.

We don't even know what squad Jaap has taken to Holland. We have no team news ahead of tonights game at Billericay. I bet most of you didn't even know that we were taking a side to Essex tonight.

What has happened to the RFC media department?

Charles Watts. Can you please find out what our squad will be this evening in Billericay and write a little piece on it for me.
Thanks Charles.

Also the trip to The Netherlands and playing some top team from Saudi on Friday hasn't exactly been well reported. Guess it was all last minute though so perhaps there's a bit of extenuating on their behalf. But then the OS should have posted something by now so just goes to show how utterly inept the club is at communicating.

The club has made numerous cut-backs to staff across the board, and done so very quietly. Perhaps the media team is no exception to that. But keeping the fans up to date seems less of a priority these days.

Off topic, but after AZ bolted leaving us with huge debts, budgets were cut throughout the football club, including planned preventative maintenance. We still haven't increased that budget to where it used to be or should be. You can see some of the effects of this as you walk around the outside of the stadium, with weeds growing on the roof in the gutters, and rust here, there and everywhere. It will cost us more to put these sort of things right than it would have to prevent them. Perhaps the owners are thinking short-term.

Someone's been reading hobnob.


Full list of squad members who are part of the tour to Holland:
Ali Al Habsi
Anssi Jaakkola
Lewis Ward
Tennai Watson
Jordan Obita
Jake Cooper
Danzell Gravenberch
Paul McShane
Robert Dickie
Zak Jules
George Evans
Joey Van den Berg
Danny Williams
Liam Kelly
Craig Tanner
Garath McCleary
Yann Kermorgant
Deniss Rakels
Dominic Samuel
Joseph Mendes
Gaston Campi

Mentions Bond's injury but nothing about Kuhl, Stacey or Fosu.

Shakeout has started. League 1 loans this year perhaps.

On the Billericay website, it says that Reading promised to bring "a very strong side" (discuss), and that Reading won 2-1.

And apparently it rained a lot.

Did anybody actually go tonight?

After the game but backed us for £30 at 6/5

I had a tenner on at 2.25 on Bet 365
I also had a tenner on it on the Betfair exchange at 2.3
Then after we went a goal up, someone on the betfair exchange was laying us off for 2.1, so I slapped another tenner on it at 2.1 when we were leading.

I was sweating on the result though because Billericay equalised and we needed a winner in the last 10 minutes to win the bet.

I also put a tenner on Lincoln Red Imps coming in at half time with the scores level. That was on at 2.75. I thought a disorganised Celtic would struggle in the first half to break down the Red Imps. But I thought Celtic would come good in the second half. The price was too short to back Celtic in the second half so I left it alone. Celtic were awful last night. I also backed Leyton Orient to win at Wealdstone which they duly obliged. So it was a good night from a betting point of view.

Still no news anywhere about this game.

I have no idea who played or who scored....

Below is the report from the Billericay website.

Billericay Town 1-2 Reading

Published: 13 July 2016

An 87th minute goal gave Reading the win in an entertaining game at New Lodge last night.

The Blues started with seven of last years squad, six of which started the last game of the season 4-0 win against Wingate.

It was end to end stuff from the outset. Reading took the lead when a short corner caught Billericay napping. HUBBLE equalised with a cracking left foot drive but the Royals won it at the death when a cross into the box wasn't dealt with.

Town came straight back and a trademark Sappleton special almost snatched an equaliser but just cleared the bar.

Next up for the Blues are Leyton Orient on Saturday 3pm here at New Lodge.

BILLERICAY TOWN: Giddens (c) Diallo (Popovici 45) Cross (Katakaza 45) Hazet (Figura 45) Stephenson (Sanussi 65) Adelowo (Da Cruz 65) Monville (Ross 45) Hubble (Gordon 45) Maitrepierre (Sappleton 45) Dimgkiokas (Asumadu-Sakyi 45) Abdul (Gbo 45)


Still don't know who scored for Reading or what our line-up was.

Charles Watts and Reading FC media department. Do your job!

Jeez, talk about obsessed! Charlie Watts is in the Netherlands with the first team. Quite probably the much reduced media team is busy dealing with both the Netherlands trip and transfers. An U21 match against Billericay isn't the most significant thing going on for ReadingFC at the moment.
Obviously it's more important for Billericay as it's their first team, so you'd expect them to report it.

Jeez, talk about obsessed! Charlie Watts is in the Netherlands with the first team. Quite probably the much reduced media team is busy dealing with both the Netherlands trip and transfers. An U21 match against Billericay isn't the most significant thing going on for ReadingFC at the moment.
Obviously it's more important for Billericay as it's their first team, so you'd expect them to report it.
You're literally the only person who cares about this nothing game! There's a report on the Tilehurst End with full lineup and scorers for your anoraking pleasure. Enjoy!

Thanks for the link John Smith.

Some of that isn't strictly true. They did a lot of work around the stadium last summer. They painted all the (I don't know what they are called) the tall white metal things that basically hold the roof up. They were all dirty and now are sparklingly clean. Quite a big job that too. (They have been painted and not cleaned as i saw them do it just before the season started.

You would have seen the white metal stanchions being painted on the ITV documentary 'Don't Look Down :Rope Men' shown a couple of weeks ago.

If someone could post a link to the big white metal stanchions being painted, that'd be much appreciated.

Il show you something big and white

Il show you something big and white

from 15:17 to 16:38

don't see them painting but I think they were inspecting the stanchion in preparation?