Mick Harford

Derby County vs Reading
Tuesday 12th March
Pride Park   KO 1945
 
Opposition Bio: Reading have made more headlines off the field than on it in recent times as they find themselves in financial strife as a result of incompetency by their owner. Sound familiar? 
The EFL have seemingly cut them more slack than they did with ourselves but their patience must be wearing thin as deadlines to deposit sufficient funds regularly pass. The latest failure to pony up saw them docked further points and their season deduction now stands at six points in total. 
There was a further deduction of three points doled out, albeit suspended, after their understandably fed up supporters invaded the pitch and caused the early abandonment of their home match with Port Vale, the latters best result in recent months.
Where we had Mel Morris, Reading have Dai Yongge. This proves the old adage of being wary of baldies or fake Welshmen baring gifts.
Any sympathy we have for them should be tempered though by the thought that they are probably still laughing at us paying £3m for Nick Blackman.
Reading FC are known as the Royals, a distinctly naff nickname acquired after a young Prince Albert played a dozen games for the club before marrying Queen Victoria. Plus they hail from the royal county of Berkshire. They are also known as the Biscuitmen due to the town's association with the biscuit makers Huntley & Palmers. 
They are managed by Spaniard Ruben Selles and, having been relegated last season, will be looking to secure League 1 survival this season and kick on in 2024/25 under different ownership and without points deductions.
Reading are the proud holders of two notable records. In the 1985/86 season they recorded 13 straight victories at the start of the season in what is now this division and they also hold the record for the highest points total for their whopping 106 points in their 2005/06 Championship campaign. 
Opposition Form: Not too shabby in fairness. In the ten matches played since they beat us 1-0 at their place they have won a further four games with three draws and three defeats.
They arrive at Pride Park on the back of a 2-1 home defeat to Wycombe and in 18th place with a record of W12-D9-L16. It should be noted, however, that without their points deduction they would be in 14th position. 
Their away record is perhaps misleading as the bare stats of W3-D5-L10 needs to be looked at in the knowledge that they contrived to lose their first eight matches on the road. They all count obviously but their more recent form away since then reads W3-D5-L2. 
Their away wins have been at Wycombe (2-1), Stevenage (1-0) and Carlisle (3-1). They have also managed decent draws at Oxford and Peterborough.
In those 18 away games they have only failed to score on four occasions. Promisingly from a Rams perspective, they have only kept the one clean sheet on their travels.
Opposition Players: Going purely off the stats it would appear their chief dangermen are top marksman Harvey Knibbs (10 goals, 6 assists), Sam Smith (9 goals, 10 assists) and possibly Femi Azeez and Lewis Wing. They also have Robbie's son Charlie Savage, the experienced Harlee Dean and the wonderfully named youngster Jacob Hammond-Chambers-Borgnis who I hope gets a runout as I'd love to see if they put his triple-barrelled name on his shirt.
Rams vs Reading History: This will be the 48th league clash between Derby and Reading and the 54th in all competitions. The clubs' first meeting was a League Cup clash in October 1965 (1-1) but it wasn't until 22nd September 1984 that the Rams and the Royals met in a league fixture for the first time and the long wait proved barely worthwhile as we played out a goalless draw at their previous home, Elm Park. The return fixture would prove to be more memorable, for us at least, as Reading's first ever league visit to Derby in April 1985 saw the Rams win 4-1 with goals from Bobby Davison, Steve Buckley, Trevor Christie and Gary Micklewhite in front of a bumper crowd of 7,945 (really?).
That was not a taste of things to come in this fixture though as Reading have had by far the better of it. Our record on their turf is especially poor with just four wins in 24 visits. On Derby soil, though better as you'd expect, it is still deeply unimpressive. Our last victory at home to them was a 1-0 success in September 2021 but our overall home league record against Reading is W10-D3-L10. 
Expected Team: Same again one might think. Possibly a change in the middle to give more legs with Smith or Thompson in for Hourihane. 
Other Fixtures of Note: Something similar to Saturday would be nice. A Derby win and at least one of our rivals for automatic dropping points please. Their games midweek are:
Portsmouth vs Burton
Bolton vs Oxford
Carlisle vs Barnsley
Peterborough vs Stevenage (Weds)
COYR
 

Got some injuries yesterday, Lang, Ogillvie and Sparks could be out for a while.

Portsmouth fans saying that Lang, Ogillvie and Sparkes were injured yesterday.
 

Shouldn’t be listening to the wives and girlfriends either. They just need to nip out for a pint of milk and get more training in 😂

Goal difference could be so important this season, so this is great today.

Goal difference could be so important this season, so this is great today.

Late equaliser for Luton, more pressure on Notts

Goal difference could be so important this season, so this is great today.

7 goal difference swing on Barnsley today, might make a difference come the end of the season 

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
2-0

hopefully this is the link
https://apple.news/Au9eUhriIQQCbaCat7mMCRQ

Further article in the i today looking at those nightmare seasons for clubs in the Prem Kenny Miller interviewed and talks about how great the fans were despite the dross on show!

Brilliant article that, thanks for posting @FlyBritishMidland

Not sure if this is the right place but a nice article in The i.  And some nice quotes from Igor and Paulo 🐏.
https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/derby-dream-good-times-2942535?ITO=newsnow

So nice they've done it again this season.

(it's a lovely GK kit in my opinion, love our version)

Alright B4 lad. Firstly, apologies for all these clowns who don't realise that pinks trips are an abomination. They'll be dealt with later 😋
More to the point, can you ask the big fella for a helping hand again? I think we can and will beat Brizzle and I don't doubt you do too, but a little divine intervention wouldn't hurt.
Thx, 86 

EFL thought LCFC had broken rules, LCFC said "LOL these rules don't apply" Club Financial Reporting  Panel side with LCFC.
Wonder if the EFL will appeal this like they did with us?

Chanting 'Lets pretend we scored a goal' against Villa at home was chuffing brilliant to be fair, then celebrating wildly when nothing had happened on the pitch.
 
I'm weirdly proud of that season, attending every home game apart from one and a few away, guess which was the only home game I missed? as me and my mate, Tim, decided to watch it on TV  instead.

Stevenage away, 9th April

And I thought I was the only one to have only missed the Newcastle home game that season. 
Thank you @Mick Harford and @Alty_Ram.  Join the club.

The only home game I missed that season was the 0-4 home defeat to Spurs, I was swimming with Whale sharks in the Caribbean Sea in Mexico at the time which kinda took the edge off it.😀

Of home games I managed to only miss.... Newcastle... *sigh* you couldn't make it up. When we went into the next season, I remember it dawning on me that despite being an ST holder that I hadn't seen us win in well over a year. Jesus wept, what a time that was to endure being a Derby fan ! I climbed out of the East Stand at the final whistle on the final day and watched some lads unfurl a banner with 'Thank f*** that's over' written on it. Quality ! Summed it up perfectly!

Chanting 'Lets pretend we scored a goal' against Villa at home was chuffing brilliant to be fair, then celebrating wildly when nothing had happened on the pitch.
 
I'm weirdly proud of that season, attending every home game apart from one and a few away, guess which was the only home game I missed? as me and my mate, Tim, decided to watch it on TV  instead.

Pretty sure Reading fans weren't rushing to offer support to us in our hour of need, unlike, say the magnificent Blackpool fans.