News and Views
Loader Gets Three In Friendly Win
10 July 2019
By Hob Nob Anyone?
Reading's pre-season preparations out in Spain continued as they crossed the border to play Gibraltar Premier Division side Gibraltar United. The Royals ran out clear winners, hitting ten goals with no reply. Danny Loader scored a second half hat-trick as The Royals fielded two different sides, swapping all eleven players at half time with the score at 3-0. The game was used to give most of the squad players a run out and as result gave a chance to a lot of young academy graduates.
Holsgrove scored two goals with Novakovich getting the other before the half time break. Reading fielded a stronger side in the second half with senior players Walker, Moore, Blackett, Swift and Barrow joining McIntyre, Rinomhota, Barrett, Meite and Loader in a line-up which Gibraltar struggled to contain. Loader won a penalty for Meite to score from the spot before getting on the scoresheet himself. After a second Loader goal defender McIntrye scored from close range. Meite, Barrett and a third Loader goal completed a very comfortable win.
Jordan Obita, who continues to make a return from his long term injury, failed to make an appearance but is still expected to be available to Gomes when the season kicks off next month.
Reading travel to Sevilla on Saturday night in what will be much tougher pre-season fixture for the Royals. Sevilla finished sixth in La Liga last season with former Reading player Daniel Carrico making 38 appearances during the season after becoming a vital player for the side after his short and uneventful spell in Berkshire.
Discussion On This Story:
10539.4 Miles Away
Trialists playing? New formations / tactics being experimented with? Gives players the freedom in a semi competitive match to try to test themselves without the pressure of judgement being made by fans / on t'internet? The fact that the results really don't matter as long as they're not all loses (like our past 2 seasons)
I agree that I'd love them to be open but understand theres many reasons they wouldn't be.
muirinho
Lol. In which case ignore my post above. If they're streaming the lot then surely there's no good reason it's behind closed doors. Unless it's to keep stadium/policing costs down?
Actually I'd say that's very likely - there's probably required staffing levels etc as soon as you let the public in.
Be interesting to see what pre-season games are lined up for when they come back. so far just the one mentioned at the MS.
Victor Meldrew
Lol. In which case ignore my post above. If they're streaming the lot then surely there's no good reason it's behind closed doors. Unless it's to keep stadium/policing costs down?
Actually I'd say that's very likely - there's probably required staffing levels etc as soon as you let the public in.
Be interesting to see what pre-season games are lined up for when they come back. so far just the one mentioned at the MS.
There won't be a lot of time will there?
muirinho
Actually I'd say that's very likely - there's probably required staffing levels etc as soon as you let the public in.
Be interesting to see what pre-season games are lined up for when they come back. so far just the one mentioned at the MS.
There won't be a lot of time will there?
Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Like I'm not bothered about whether preseason games abroad are open to the public or not - but I'm wondering are they using extra long trip to ensure there aren't many preseason games with us plebs allowed in at all.
I don't think you'd get the issues about the cost of opening up a stadium for 50 people if we were playing say Charlton, or AFC wimbledon
Also - seriously, are preseason games against European teams as good preparation as preseasons against lower league opposition here?
Sutekh
Club will think they have softened the blow somewhat with at long last a decent home friendly lined up. Should be the biggest crowd we will have all season lol.
Guess behind closed doors enables the club to keep costs down and easily arrange games against local opposition as well as other teams "on tour".
Presumably there'll be a couple of "big name" clubs that they'll play out in Spain and I'd expect at least one if not a couple of games will be subjected to a Tim Dellor commentary.
Hope there'll be a couple of games before they go away though.
Denver Royal
I'm actually thinking (hoping) it might be better? Depending what he wants to work on, maybe foreign opposition was specifically chosen/arranged for that?
It's often said that sending an Academy grad on loan to Lg1 or 2 is pointless, and indeed harmful. Not sure what Gomes and his system(s) would get out of playing L1 or 2 teams?
URZZZZ
I'm actually thinking (hoping) it might be better? Depending what he wants to work on, maybe foreign opposition was specifically chosen/arranged for that?
It's often said that sending an Academy grad on loan to Lg1 or 2 is pointless, and indeed harmful. Not sure what Gomes and his system(s) would get out of playing L1 or 2 teams?
I can see both points of view. Some teams in the Championship play passing football - and hence you'll need that bit of practice against the foreign teams who do try and retain possession
Other teams play smash and grab sort of football - and hence you'll need that bit of practice against the lower league teams who do play similar to that sort of style. I think it's important to get a mixture of both foreign sides/Premier league opponents, and lower league teams who play to sit back, score set pieces etc etc...the likes of Boro and Millwall in the Champ
I do think it's important to get a few wins in pre-season to carry forward some momentum. Even though friendlies contribute to nothing, they can still give a slight indication of how you start a season, a winless pre-season often leads to a winless first few games
I don't think sending Academy graduates to Lg1 or 2 is pointless if you send them to the right team. Of course it's difficult trying to find a team who (a) plays a similar style to us and (b) actually wants our player and is going to actually use them. But at the same time, I'm not sure just getting them to play u23 football is beneficial. For me Championship football > League 1/2 football > U23 football in terms of the speed of the play which is why youngsters can find it difficult at first (Danny Loader etc)
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