Thoughts of a lifelong fan: A new design for my birthday and Reading review

Crawley Town's new strip was revealed just before we played against Reading, however I was lucky enough to receive another design for my birthday, which I will talk about after my thoughts on the 1-0 loss to the boys from Berkshire. I didn’t know how strong their squad was that played against us, because they were due to play Charlton at home on the Saturday.

That commitment to this being a ‘second XI’ night gave the match a slightly different dynamic to before, one of Richardson essentially telling these players: “You’re not in my first team right now, but if you impress in games such as this one, that could change.”  

Whether or not any of their players impressed their manager enough to make that change is up for debate but, one thing I do know is, if it hadn’t had been for a mistake by our triallist goalkeeper the result would probably have been a 0-0 draw albeit one that I feel would still have flattered the Berkshire side. Crawley played fluent football throughout and should have scored at least a couple of goals and because I am still getting to know our players, and how to pronounce their names, I am going to pick out just four players who really caught my eye. They are Pele Arganese-McDermott, Stephen Duke-McKenna, Jay Williams, and Jude Robertson. Firstly, our Pele impressed me with his presence in defense but also in the way he moved forward with the back. The Duke, as that seems to be Stephen’s adopted name, certainly amongst those sitting around me in the East stand, impressed with his ball control and I can see him being the source of a lot of our attacking effort this season but the most pleasing aspects of the game for me was the performance put in by local lad Jude Robertson and also the appearance of Jay Williams as a second half substitute.

I think we will see a lot more of Jude this year and, as an added bonus, he is now classed as a home-produced player which means CKR will be able to name seven players on the bench. Lastly, Jay’s appearance hopefully, fingers crossed, quashes the rumours that Scott Lindsey was in the ground on Saturday to give him a lift to York.  

All the Red Devils must do now is beat Lindsey’s York City two days before you can read this in print and give us a trip to Watford next weekend. If you didn’t travel to York, hopefully you will have joined me, Alain Harper and others in REDZ to witness our win/loss, delete as appropriate. 

The match featuring Reading’s first team against Charlton, was in fact played behind closed doors at The Valley due to Readings’ newly laid turf not having rooted itself due to the hot weather and ended in a 3-0 win for the Royals. 

Back to the shirt, I received a fantastic gift for my birthday at my 75th bash in Redz on Saturday, which is a real work of art. Unfortunately, I can’t wear it because the giver misjudged the size of my stomach, but here it is in all its glory. I’ll just have to buy a new one