vs 
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Reading. Once the mighty Royals slain by Bolton and Swansea in playoff finals. The home of a massive Costco next to the stadium and a QPR look a likey kit that ‘Arry would be proud of. They like managerial change and you’d be forgiven if you thought Steve Coppell had gone there for a second reign but alas it is Mr Nigel Adkins. Not the man of dietary fame and fortune as that is a Mr Atkins but the nice fella who got sacked from Southampton a few months back.
What stands out for me though about this place is its ingenuity and marketing genius. A stroke of brilliance seen throughout the world courtesy of Match of the Day and one that echoes in the deeper, darker but cosy recesses of RAWK. One that even a cynic like me looked at and went “My dear fellow, that is a simply excellent idea – Bravo old chap… Bravo!”.
That chap was my brother in laws x2 by the way and Uncle who came up with the Dominos Pizza to a random seat idea for their business at half time at the Madejski stadium
Reading fans got fatter, Marcus Hahnemann became heavier and somewhere along the way their genius became legend. I wonder if that ditzy lion mascot of Reading nicks a slice or two before giving it away! Oh - one of these people is on RAWK
I’m not biased but I do love Dominos! It is often imitated but never bettered
Now the deserved family salute is out of the way let us look at what we face. Reading are in the deep doodah. They need to win to keep the slimmest of survival hopes alive and we need to win to keep the slimmest of Europe hopes alive. In this dog eat pizza world only one will triumph. A draw is not an option. Nigel knows this as does Brendan so what will follow in the 90 mins on Saturday will be a very open and very direct affair. We weren’t scintillating against the Hammers and faced an opposition without a desire to try and do anything. This won’t be the same. It can’t be. Having lost 8 on the trot Reading will want to be chomping at the bit to win a match
So is it inevitable we’ll lose? Dead certs and us don’t go hand in hand but then given the way the first 2 days of the week have gone it should be a foregone conclusion that we’ll win. Mentally I just hope the 11 on the field don’t view it as such and passionately destroy the last whimper of Reading’s survival hopes. It’s cruel. It’s not nice and many Royals will cry further into the night but it may mean that the traffic getting in and out of the Madejski gets fractionally better. I mean people got wholesale bargains to get… have a heart! Have you seen the tellys at Costco recently?!
Threats? Well some have been made, I’m not gonna lie. Facebook, Twitter, newspaper threads. Many a red has been accused thus far of not having a heart for celebrations and so on and so forth and not considering Mark/Carol. They’re devastated I’m sure
Match wise from Reading there may be a few made by some fans about how great they are but on the pitch it doesn’t look likely. Le Fondre is not looking so fond of scoring and from our side well we have plenty when it clicks. The frustration of the Hammers match was that if just one move clicked it could have been a very different story. It didn’t and it won’t do. Hopefully the players and management alike know this and they cap off the week with a 3rd bit of good news for us all.
Oh and our manager did spend 6 months odd there. Don’t think he liked the coffee but the pizzas went down a treat!
Mascots. Now Kingsley the Lion has apparently been sent off in his history. This shocked me. Have we found a match for Mighty Red finally?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/berkshire/content/articles/2007/04/30/kingsley_sent_off_feature.shtmlOn second thoughts, maybe not
Reading and drops do happen a fair few times. They hate playoffs (as we’ve seen as they’ve never won them to return to the Premiership) so if they do go down they more than likely will need to win the Championship to come back.
Roll on Saturday. The minutes silence for our lost but not forgotten 96 will be deafening in many ways as it echoes the justice we have so long awaited. The truth is out. Now lets get the bastards too
As with all our previews, please note that RAWK will mute anyone posting just a formation in a Preview thread until the day after the match is over. This is to improve the quality of preview replies. Formations posted alongside rational comments and debate are exempt. Thanks, RAWK Oh yeah in case you forget
