All posts tagged Reading

For the second time in consecutive pre-seasons I made the short journey to Didcot Town’s Loop Meadow to witness Reading attempt to chalk up their annual cricket score over their First Great Western-serviced neighbours.Last year was a complete whitewash as the Royals strolled to a 9-0 tonking, with Dave Kitson memorably scoring within seconds of strutting on as a second-half sub, but yesterday evening felt different. The car park pre-match was a good indication: with not a single Baby Bentley in sight, it was immediately clear that this was a team on the turn. Only man-mountain Andre Bikey, the wideboying…

Christian Benitez signs for Birmingham City in a rumoured nine million pound deal and yet Kevin Doyle is, as speculated previously by Lloyd on these pages, snapped up by Wolves for 6.5 million? A proven striker with 55 goals for Reading, 20 of which have been at Premier League level, Doyle is one of those players to whom the over-used label “class” applies. When asked to define just how good he is, I always resort to lame sounding comments such as “you can tell by the way he runs” or “he moves like a footballer”. Doyle glides across the pitch…