LATEST NEWS ON 'The Royals'
DECEMBER 2001
Click here for directory of archived news items.

  • 29th December 2001 - Red Dragons 0 Royals 2

    • The Royals secured their 7th away win of the season with a comfortable 2-0 victory at Wrexham. Reading completely controlled the first half and took a deserved lead with a thunderbolt from Nicky Forster. Although Wrexham improved slightly after a triple substitution at half time, they rarely threatened the Royals goal. Captain Phil Parkinson dominated the midfield and Anthony Rougier gave an impressive man of the match performance. Rougier worked his socks off for the cause, holding the ball up well, defending from the front and tracking back when necessary. It was his best performance for the Royals and he was given a standing ovation from the travelling fans when he was subsituted with just a couple of minutes to go. Now the Royals must improve their home form if they are to make a serious effort for automatic promotion.

  • 28th December 2001 - New Date For Seagulls

    • Reading's Division 2 fixture away to Brighton, postponed earlier this month, has been re-arranged for Tuesday 12th February.

  • 26th December 2001 - Bluebirds 2 Royals 2

    • Reading gained a creditable point in a tough Boxing Day fixture at in-form Cardiff City this afternoon. The Royals twice had to come from behind, but goals from Nicky Forster and John Salako earned a deserved share of the spoils in the top of the table clash.

  • 22nd December 2001 - Fozzy Misery

    • Nicky Forster missed a penalty against Wigan with the score at 1:0 to the Royals. His tame effort proved very costly for Reading as within minutes Wigan grabbed an equaliser. The game ended 1:1 and it was another 2 home points dropped by the Royals.

  • 14th December 2001 - Frozen Out By Shoppers

    • For what is surely the first time ever, a football match has effectively been postponed by Xmas shoppers. The Royals top of the table clash at Brighton tonight has been called off due to expected evening temperatures of -7C meaning that the pitch will be frozen. However, the game was only re-scheduled to a Friday evening due to the Withdean Stadium car park being used for Xmas shoppers on Saturdays during December. Had the game been an afternoon kick-off it is highly probable that the match would have been able to go ahead. I think that Brighton should be suspended from the league for having totally inadequate facilities for this standard of football. Let's face it, the Withdean is barely suitable for Sunday league football. And they expect visiting supporters to pay £16 to sit so far away from the action that you can see fuck all anyway.

  • 13th December 2001 - Youths Cup Run Continues

    • Royals Youth team progressed to the Fourth Round of the FA Youth Cup with a 2:1 extra-time victory at Halifax last night. They will now face Barnsley at home in a game likely to be played at the MadStad. No date has yet been fixed, but the tie must be completed by 26th January.

  • 13th December 2001 - Keeper Signs On Loan

    • Reading have signed American international keeper Marcus Hahnemann on a months loan from Fulham. The 29 year old, who was recently on loan to Rochdale, is expected to go straight into the team for the crunch game at Brighton on Friday night.

  • 8th December 2001 - Yorked Again

    • Reading were knocked out of the FA Cup in the 2nd Round by lowly Division 3 side York City for the second year running. By all accounts, it was a pretty dreadful performance by the Royals, who never seriously looked like hauling back a two-goal deficit in the second half. The result means that reading have missed out on a mouth-watering 3rd Round tie away to glamourous Grimsby Town. I'm sure all Royals fans will be gutted by this missed opportunity. Seriously though, as soon as I heard the team news I had no real confidence in securing a victory. A midfield quartet of Rougier, Harper, Jones and Hughes was never going to get hold of the game and so it proved. Royals really did miss their injured and unavailable players. We need Whitehead. We need Whitbread. We need Salako. We need Forster. Most of all, we need Watson.

  • 4th December 2001 - Darius Off As Van Ride Ends

    • Royals crashed out of the LDV Vans Trophy with an embarassing 4:1 defeat at non-league Barnet. What on paper looked like a strong Reading line-up, were unable to cope with the power of the Conference side, who, it must be said, took their goals extremely well. Whilst most Royals fans will lose little sleep over this defeat, the biggest blow was the sending off of Darius Henderson for violent conduct. Darius now faces a 3 match suspension after a dreadful 2-footed lunge - and deservedly so.

  • 1st December 2001 - Winning Run Ended

    • The Royals winning run was brought to an end by a single goal defeat at home to Chesterfield. The Spireites took the the lead with a soft goal after just 10 minutes. Reading completed dominated the match from start to finish and played some delightful football at times. However, it was one of those days and you just felt that it wasn't to be. Despite the result, there was plenty to be cheerful about in the performance to suggest that it will only prove to be a blip in the Royals progress. It is now up to the team to bounce straight back to winning ways, beginning at Barnet in the LDV on Tuesday.

  • 1st December 2001 - World Cup Fixtures

    • The draw for the 2002 World Cup was made in Busan this morning. England have been drawn in Group F, together with Argentina, Sweden and Nigeria. FIFA have also announced a change to the Rules of the Competition. From now on, the Winners of the World Cup will have to qualify for the next competition and will not be given automatic qualification.

    The full draw and fixture list is as follows.:

    Group A

    Group B

    Group C

    Group D

    France

    Spain

    Brazil

    S. Korea

    Senegal

    Slovenia

    Turkey

    Poland

    Uruguay

    Paraguay

    China

    USA

    Denmark

    S. Africa

    Costa Rica

    Portugal

    Group E

    Group F

    Group G

    Group H

    Germany

    Argentina

    Italy

    Japan

    Saudi Arabia

    Nigeria

    Ecuador

    Belgium

    Eire

    England

    Croatia

    Russia

    Cameroon

    Sweden

    Mexico

    Tunisia

    Fixtures (all times are BST)

    Group Stage

    Date

    Venue

    Fixture

    Time

    Fri-31-May

    Seoul

    France

    v

    Senegal

    12:30

    Sat-01-Jun

    Niigata

    Eire

    v

    Cameroon

    07:30

    Sat-01-Jun

    Ulsan

    Uruguay

    v

    Denmark

    10:00

    Sat-01-Jun

    Sapporo

    Germany

    v

    Saudi Arabia

    12:30

    Sun-02-Jun

    Saitama

    England

    v

    Sweden

    06:30

    Sun-02-Jun

    Busan

    Paraguay

    v

    S. Africa

    08:30

    Sun-02-Jun

    Ibaraki

    Argentina

    v

    Nigeria

    10:30

    Sun-02-Jun

    Gwangju

    Spain

    v

    Slovenia

    12:30

    Mon-03-Jun

    Niigata

    Croatia

    v

    Mexico

    07:30

    Mon-03-Jun

    Ulsan

    Brazil

    v

    Turkey

    10:00

    Mon-03-Jun

    Sapporo

    Italy

    v

    Ecuador

    12:30

    Tue-04-Jun

    Gwangju

    China

    v

    Costa Rica

    07:30

    Tue-04-Jun

    Saitama

    Japan

    v

    Belgium

    10:00

    Tue-04-Jun

    Busan

    S. Korea

    v

    Poland

    12:30

    Wed-05-Jun

    Kobe

    Russia

    v

    Tunisia

    07:30

    Wed-05-Jun

    Suwon

    USA

    v

    Portugal

    10:00

    Wed-05-Jun

    Ibaraki

    Germany

    v

    Eire

    12:30

    Thu-06-Jun

    Busan

    France

    v

    Uruguay

    07:30

    Thu-06-Jun

    Saitama

    Cameroon

    v

    Saudi Arabia

    10:00

    Thu-06-Jun

    Daegu

    Denmark

    v

    Senegal

    12:30

    Fri-07-Jun

    Kobe

    Sweden

    v

    Nigeria

    07:30

    Fri-07-Jun

    Jeonju

    Spain

    v

    Paraguay

    10:00

    Fri-07-Jun

    Sapporo

    Argentina

    v

    England

    12:30

    Sat-08-Jun

    Daegu

    S. Africa

    v

    Slovenia

    07:30

    Sat-08-Jun

    Ibaraki

    Italy

    v

    Croatia

    10:00

    Sat-08-Jun

    Seogwipo

    Brazil

    v

    China

    12:30

    Sun-09-Jun

    Miyagi

    Mexico

    v

    Ecuador

    07:30

    Sun-09-Jun

    Incheon

    Costa Rica

    v

    Turkey

    10:00

    Sun-09-Jun

    Yokohama

    Japan

    v

    Russia

    12:30

    Mon-10-Jun

    Daegu

    S. Korea

    v

    USA

    07:30

    Mon-10-Jun

    Oita

    Tunisia

    v

    Belgium

    10:00

    Mon-10-Jun

    Jeonju

    Portugal

    v

    Poland

    12:30

    Tue-11-Jun

    Incheon

    Denmark

    v

    France

    07:30

    Tue-11-Jun

    Suwon

    Senegal

    v

    Uruguay

    07:30

    Tue-11-Jun

    Shizuoka

    Cameroon

    v

    Germany

    12:30

    Tue-11-Jun

    Yokohama

    Saudi Arabia

    v

    Eire

    12:30

    Wed-12-Jun

    Miyagi

    Sweden

    v

    Argentina

    07:30

    Wed-12-Jun

    Osaka

    Nigeria

    v

    England

    07:30

    Wed-12-Jun

    Daejeon

    S. Africa

    v

    Spain

    12:30

    Wed-12-Jun

    Seogwipo

    Slovenia

    v

    Paraguay

    12:30

    Thu-13-Jun

    Suwon

    Costa Rica

    v

    Brazil

    07:30

    Thu-13-Jun

    Seoul

    Turkey

    v

    China

    07:30

    Thu-13-Jun

    Oita

    Mexico

    v

    Italy

    12:30

    Thu-13-Jun

    Yokohama

    Ecuador

    v

    Croatia

    12:30

    Fri-14-Jun

    Osaka

    Tunisia

    v

    Japan

    07:30

    Fri-14-Jun

    Shizuoka

    Belgium

    v

    Russia

    07:30

    Fri-14-Jun

    Incheon

    Portugal

    v

    S. Korea

    12:30

    Fri-14-Jun

    Daejeon

    Poland

    v

    USA

    12:30

    2nd Round

    Sat-15-Jun

    Seogwipo

    E1

    v

    B2

    07:30

    Sat-15-Jun

    Niigata

    A1

    v

    F2

    12:30

    Sun-16-Jun

    Oita

    F1

    v

    A2

    07:30

    Sun-16-Jun

    Suwon

    B1

    v

    E2

    12:30

    Mon-17-Jun

    Jeonju

    G1

    v

    D2

    07:30

    Mon-17-Jun

    Kobe

    C1

    v

    H2

    12:30

    Tue-18-Jun

    Miyagi

    H1

    v

    C2

    07:30

    Tue-18-Jun

    Daejeon

    D1

    v

    G2

    12:30

    Quarter-Finals

    Fri-21-Jun

    Shizuoka

    A1 or F2

    v

    C1 or H2

    07:30

    Fri-21-Jun

    Ulsan

    E1 or B2

    v

    G1 or D2

    12:30

    Sat-22-Jun

    Gwangju

    B1 or E2

    v

    D1 or G2

    07:30

    Sat-22-Jun

    Osaka

    F1 or A2

    v

    H1 or C2

    12:30

    Semi-Finals

    Tue-25-Jun

    Seoul

    E1 / B2 / G1 / D2

    v

    B1 / E2 / D1 / G2

    12:30

    Wed-26-Jun

    Saitama

    A1 / F2 / C1 / H2

    v

    F1 / A2 / H1 / C2

    12:30

    3rd / 4th Place Play-Off

    Sat-29-Jun

    Ulsan

    v

    12:00

    FINAL

    Sun-30-Jun

    Yokohama

    v

    12:00