Play Off Watch?

[East Grinstead Royal]

They always used to say that losing a semi-final was worse than losing a final. That may be true of knock-out competitions such as the FA Cup, but definitely not with the play-offs!

The day after the Bolton game, I learnt that the wife of a colleague of mine had died in childbirth, which put my disappointment into context. The day after the Walsall defeat, I was off on honeymoon - an extremely lucky coincidence, although I’d missed the Wigan second leg owing to getting married that day! I think the one that hurt me the most was Swansea - I just felt we had reached the end of an era and would never get back into contention for a place in the PL. After the Huddersfield one, I actually thought we would improve the following season, when in reality that game really was the end of an era.

At least I was at the Simod final (and the semi against Coventry).

[katweslowski]

Swansea - went in fully expecting to lose. They'd been the better team all season. We ran them close though, and this time we really were a top end Champ side knocking at the door regularly.

Arsenal (FAC semi) - I think I'm right in saying we've never beaten Arsenal. We ran them far closer than I think anyone could reasonably expect. Only bad thing was their utterly classless fans.

Huddersfield - dire game in every way. Similarly to Swansea Huddersfield had seemed better than us the whole way. And we'd been struggling for a while other than this season.

Arsenal (FAC semi) - Agree about their fans. That was the worst bit for me. They were all around the stadium in the posh seats around the edges, so even at the end they were gloating above, and then outside laughing at us. The fact it was a big club is always hard as you know the importance of the fixture, you feel it, it's somethign you talk about for years. For them, it's just another day out and a rare game for them most likely as I doubt they go to the Emirates regularly.

Huddersfield - Felt like we just completely wasted the opportunity. Any team with an ounce of desire and intensity would have won the game easily. Instead both just sat around doing almost nothing for 120 minutes. It was gutting too as the penalty shootout I thought we'd won as I believe they missed a penalty first which I thought was our way to victory

[Snowflake Royal]

Swansea - went in fully expecting to lose. They'd been the better team all season. We ran them close though, and this time we really were a top end Champ side knocking at the door regularly.

Arsenal (FAC semi) - I think I'm right in saying we've never beaten Arsenal. We ran them far closer than I think anyone could reasonably expect. Only bad thing was their utterly classless fans.

Huddersfield - dire game in every way. Similarly to Swansea Huddersfield had seemed better than us the whole way. And we'd been struggling for a while other than this season.

Arsenal (FAC semi) - Agree about their fans. That was the worst bit for me. They were all around the stadium in the posh seats around the edges, so even at the end they were gloating above, and then outside laughing at us. The fact it was a big club is always hard as you know the importance of the fixture, you feel it, it's somethign you talk about for years. For them, it's just another day out and a rare game for them most likely as I doubt they go to the Emirates regularly.

Yeah ok fellas, you feel good gloating about only just beating in extra time a team fighting relegation in the division below you, do you?

Fukwits.

[stealthpapes]

Swansea - went in fully expecting to lose. They'd been the better team all season. We ran them close though, and this time we really were a top end Champ side knocking at the door regularly.

Arsenal (FAC semi) - I think I'm right in saying we've never beaten Arsenal. We ran them far closer than I think anyone could reasonably expect. Only bad thing was their utterly classless fans.

Huddersfield - dire game in every way. Similarly to Swansea Huddersfield had seemed better than us the whole way. And we'd been struggling for a while other than this season.

Arsenal (FAC semi) - Agree about their fans. That was the worst bit for me. They were all around the stadium in the posh seats around the edges, so even at the end they were gloating above, and then outside laughing at us. The fact it was a big club is always hard as you know the importance of the fixture, you feel it, it's somethign you talk about for years. For them, it's just another day out and a rare game for them most likely as I doubt they go to the Emirates regularly.

Huddersfield - Felt like we just completely wasted the opportunity. Any team with an ounce of desire and intensity would have won the game easily. Instead both just sat around doing almost nothing for 120 minutes. It was gutting too as the penalty shootout I thought we'd won as I believe they missed a penalty first which I thought was our way to victory

Yup, we were 3-2 up after 3 penalties, score that next one and ...

[stealthpapes]

Arsenal FA cup didn't really register that badly on the day. We took them to extra-time. We played really well, solid TEAM performance there.

The QF vs Villa a few years before was worse, our first FA cup QF since 1926-27 (i.e. the last time we made it to a semi-final). I'd only ever seen us make the 5th round twice. We were 2-0 up at HT and I remember it feeling like a big deal. Just hold on, don't do anything stupid. Play it cool, Trigger, play it cool.

Oh.

Anyway, FA cup SF next day was Villa vs Liverpool and I sat in a Brummie pub watching them all celebrate. And it hit me - we could have had a crack against Villa. We really could have. Wembley day out, Tim Sherwood's Villa.

Pass me my jester hat, I'm going in.

[Pepe the Horseman]

Bolton - we were in France, listened to it on the radio. Had our car graffitied by Bolton fans so it read Bolton 4 Reading 3 Better Luck Next Year in the back window for the rest of the holiday.

Walsall - Don Goodman's a local character in the JQ and he doesn't remember a minute of this game. Daft own goal. Daft no-golden-goal exemption. As Ian says, we went up next season (with a wobble) and it doesn't matter. Remember the small army of Reading fans that day, first time in an age I thought we could be bigger. Watching the twenty odd Walsall fans celebrate was .

Wolves - yeah, pffffft, did let a golden chance go through our fingers in the first leg. Seem to remember some formation shenanigans - Henderson out on left wing? Watched second leg back at Uni and just felt like it wasn't going to happen.

Burnley - Watched in Lass O'Gowrie (twice). Archie's Penalty called a Burnley fan a fascist. Bikey went mental. Clearly something not right in the second leg. Coppell left.

Swansea - suckered myself into believing, went to both Cardiff games (based in Manchester at the time) and nearly failed a teaching assessment as I cadged a lift back to Crewe, then caught an absolute rattler back to Manc. Cardiff games were great. Went to Wembley from Ilkley, turned out to be the last time I saw my grandfather. Game was good fun, to be fair, felt like a no-loss.

Huddersfield - Anyone remember the big board with the heart rates linked up? And the Reading fan basically comatose throughout. I enjoyed this mostly for the pre- and post-game sesh. I'd just come back from Ghana, so the rhythm and tempo coefficient was high. There was a load of us in the Bree after the game, really nice to meet a bunch of people IRL F2F. Didn't care about result, not really, liked Stam's style of play and thought he'd build on the success.

Oh.

How long were you in Ghana, m8? I spent 3 months in Accra back in early 2005.

[stealthpapes]

Off and on for work, 2017, 2018, 2019. A few months in total but spread out. When I say I just got back from Ghana here, it was like the day before that I'd landed.

Isn't there a Port Harcourt based nobber?

[stealthpapes]

Pepe - any Accra anecdotes?

[Pepe the Horseman]

Pepe - any Accra anecdotes?

Went to watch a Hearts of Oak game, and the fans ended up pelting the linesman with bags of water.

Nearly died on a bus ride to Kumasi as it was so overcrowded and I was wedged against the door. Thought I was either going to suffocate or fall through the door. When he realized the driver pulled over and let me ride up front with him. White privilege ftw.

Also came back with some weird parasitic disease, possibly cutaneous leishmaniasis, that's still dormant inside me.

[stealthpapes]

Nice.

I went to Cape Coast, visited the castle/slavery museum and watched a guy nearly drown from a beach side bar.

Went to Jamestown and basically got mugged slowly. But view from lighthouse was good.

[Pepe the Horseman]

Nice.

I went to Cape Coast, visited the castle/slavery museum and watched a guy nearly drown from a beach side bar.

Went to Jamestown and basically got mugged slowly. But view from lighthouse was good.

Fun fact - Cape Coast's football team are called the Mysterious Dwarfs.