RFSC Fan's Forum
10 August 2000

Acting Chairman - Martin Brailli (RFSC)
Present: Boyd Butler, Clive Doyle, Ray Booth, Martin Allen, Maurice Evans (RFC) Simon Webster (Alexanders)

Notes taken by Justin Beasley to whom many thanks.

Q - Would the club consider placing another Reading badge on the side of the stadium facing the M4?
A - Ray Booth - All signage is subject to planning consent; the current badge on the South East corner was part of the original plans. However there is no reason why planning permission could not be applied for another sign, and RB will look in to this.

Q - Is Caskey going to sign a new contract?
A - Martin Allen - Don't know! Caskey is a favourite of fans and management alike, he gives the team a lot of quality. He was offered a new contract last week and he is very close to agreeing terms.

Q - How fit does a player have to get before he plays again after injury? (Murty and Polston are mentioned)
A - MA - Every player is different. Midfield players need to have a high level of fitness and stamina to be able to get from box to box for 90 minutes. Centre halves have a different fitness requirement and centre forwards need explosiveness and sharpness.
Taking Murty as an example - he was fitter and stronger than any other player in pre-season, but managed to pick up a thigh injury at Arborfield garrison during a log-carrying exercise. However he's been running today and will probably play for the reserves against Norwich next week and hopefully be fit for the Swindon game.

Q - Why have the club increased the car parking charges?
A - Boyd Butler - Increased parking charges reflect an increase in the cost of running matchday buses. Reading buses have raised their charges by 15% (an increase of £8000.) London Irish pay more than £4 for parking - money which is used to subsidise the bus costs for Reading FC fans.
Ray Booth - Higher car parking charges encourage people to share cars, meaning that more people actually get to use the car park. A free car park would be full of single-person cars.

Q - So will the charges go down next season when the support reaches 16-18000?
A - RB - We'll look at that next season!

Q - But the bus fares have gone up to £3! How does this tally?
A - BB - Reading Buses set their own prices.
RB - The matchday bus services have gone through a lot of changes since the stadium opened; park and ride; attempts to separate away fans into different buses etc. RFC and Reading Buses are constantly trying to improve the service and make it efficient. Park and Ride to the stadium didn't really work as fans weren't prepared to park their car then get on a bus to get to the ground. Other problems include the fact that while buses do two trips to the stadium before a match, after the match it means you need twice as many buses as everyone wants to leave at the same time. It's a difficult logistical problem.

Q - Why don't the club negotiate with nearby companies to use their car parks on matchdays?
A - RB - This has been looked into; the club have discussed this with Compaq who have the biggest car park around, but they want to charge £5 per car, which would not be popular as it's several minutes walk from the stadium. They also want a guarantee of the full payment (i.e. the car park filled to capacity) every game, and will not have away fans parking there. It's not a realistic proposal.

Q - Couldn't the council Park and Ride be moved to Compaq on match days to free up spaces at the stadium?
A - RB - Unfortunately the Park and Ride agreement was agreed with the council before the completion of the stadium, and in hindsight has proved to be a bit problematic. It is possible for the club to object to it on the grounds of safety, but there aren't really any problems in that respect. However it's not a huge issue as of their 270 allocated spaces, they only usually fill 50-60. Even so the club are actively trying to change the agreement.

Q - Why have we played so many pre-season friendlies? We seem to have collected a lot of injuries.
A - MA - We've a big squad, and they all need to play and get plenty of the 'full 90 minutes' under their belts. But a friendly at Farnborough was cancelled on Saturday. A lot of the injuries in the squad were carried over from last season. Jones is on his way back after his hamstring strain. Nicky Forster has gone for a scan and the results will be back tomorrow.

MA apologises for the absence of Pards, Nicky Hammond and Ian Wood-Smith. They are apparently at Heathrow 'doing some business..'

Q - Why has the pitch been narrowed?
A - MA - It was Pards' decision. We are really good at set pieces, but we don't have the quality of wing player to take advantage of space down the flanks, so narrowing the pitch slightly should play to our strengths.

Q - What has Maurice Evans been up to since he re-joined the club?
A- Maurice Evans - Not a lot!! Spends 3 or 4 nights a week watching games, plus weekends. Reckons he sees 250 games a season, most of which are rubbish! But that's what scouting is all about. Hasn't seen many players to excite him since he's been back to be honest. Loves wingers, skilful players - the game's not just about strength and fitness contrary to Mad Dog's opinion!
Also Maurice is helping with the schoolboy scouting and has seen some good kids coming through. The club still needs one or two scouts for the Academy if anyone's interested..
Believes it's vitally important to have staff at the club who have Reading FC at heart, and the scouting team now has that, with Bobby Williams and Martin Hicks among others.

Q - The club want to get more people in the North Stand, so why is the North Stand unreserved? Reserved seating used to be one of the perks of having a season ticket!
A - BB - The East Stand has shown how popular unreserved seating is. If people can't get in their own seat it means people are migrating there and so it will prove that unreserved seating works! Anyway if the club gets to the stage where the stadium is getting close to capacity, all seating will have to be reserved anyway. However the reserved/unreserved issue will be reviewed every season.

Q - Was the week's 'holiday' at Arborfield worthwhile?
A - MA - 'HOLIDAY'??!! It was no holiday, more like a nightmare - getting up at 5.30 every morning. The dormitories were crap - food was good though. MA hired the worst, most dilapidated bus he could find to take the players to Arborfield, and when they arrived a number of big beefy soldiers immediately had them running and doing press-ups and sit-ups by the side of the road. But the whole thing brought the best out of the players and helped create a great camaraderie - everyone worked for each other and supported each other through the more difficult exercises; cites an example where Adi Viveash was given a standing ovation by the other players after negotiating a rope ladder despite being terrified of heights.
It also taught MA to be a bit tougher on the players!

Q - Other new stadiums hold rock concerts - why not us?
A - BB - We have tried but most bands still go to Wembley. Obviously when that's knocked down it may be easier to get bands here. It's something that the club are very actively pursuing, however, and there may be a benefit in association with the NSPCC next year. The club approached stars like Elton John and George Michael, but Elton John wanted £1m and we wouldn't have made any money. The club are also trying to get other events here - we are currently negotiating to get the FA Vase final at the Mad House.

Q - Will supporters using the RFSC coaches for away travel be able to park at the stadium when London Irish are playing here?
A - RB - Yes, they should be comfortably accommodated in the spare spaces left by the council Park and Ride scheme.

Q - Will we play one up front on Saturday against Millwall?
A - MA - [probably taking it as an implication that we don't have enough strength in depth up front..] Everyone who plays for Reading is a good player - they're all good players. For promotion, we need a big, good squad and they will all be used. On Saturday we will play two players up front and we will win.

Q - At Reading station, home and away fans get mixed up - there's no organisation. A - Why can't something be done about this?
RB - The club tried to segregate supporters at the station, by having separate buses, but this seemed to provoke more aggro than when supporters mixed freely. Soon the Fast Track bus stop will move from Blagrave Street to the front of the station, and most of the away fans will see that as they exit the station and get on that one, so it should help to alleviate the problem.

Q - Can't we have some of the reserve games at the Mad House?
A - MA - Would like that too - 'I don't want to drive to bloody Farnborough!' - but the fact that London Irish are playing here means there would be too much wear on the pitch; there's nothing we can do about it.

Q - Does the club have confidence that the policing and safety at the ground will improve this season?
A - Clive Doyle - The police operation at the club will be dramatically different this year - a lot of time and money has been invested in new initiatives and strategies. For the police's part, they realise that mistakes were made last year, but are now confident that lessons have been learned. One thing that is certain is that the police will be firmer on arresting troublemakers at games.

Q - There are 'Reading FC Players Parking' signs near the away end - why is this?
A - RB - Players don't like to walk - they like to park near the players' entrance, and the club appreciate that they are the most important people at the club, so they have their own parking spaces as close as possible to their facilities.

Q - Unofficial Internet sites have been banned from using club imagery - what is the club's stance on this?
A - BB - If there is material that is copyright to the site owner, there's nothing the club can do to stop it being used. The Football League own the fixture list and RFC use it with their permission and have to report unauthorised publication of it where they see it. With the new deal with NTL and the Football League, all clubs will get £150,000 for their internet rights - this is serious money and the best the club could hope to get from the net.
In the case of HNA, it is a site that the club admires, and aspires to, but the club have to protect their copyright - we're just playing to the rules. At the end of the day the NTL deal is a decent amount of money - the club HAS to find ways to make money off the pitch as the football does not pay for itself.

Q - What improvements have been made to the pitch to prevent a repetition of the deterioration that occurred when Richmond played here?
A - RB - In the first season, the pitch couldn't cope with the amount of use it got. It's an all-weather, sand draining pitch which requires good deep root growth. Unfortunately it got infested with meadow grass, which is a weed with shallow roots, and this took hold, preventing the pitch from bedding down properly.
This summer, the pitch was stripped of the meadow grass while leaving the underlying root structure intact. It was completely re-seeded with new rye grasses and aerated with a new, superior machine. This season the reserves will not be playing on the pitch and this will help keep the wear and tear down. Also the club has arranged fixtures to minimise rugby in January, when the pitch is at its most vulnerable.

Q - What happened with Martin Williams?
A - MA - We all love Martin, he's a talented player, but there were times when his training and attitude weren't up to standard. We set a high standard and we can't have people slipping. But he's welcome back here for physio and still has a good relationship with the management.

Q - Will reserve games be free for season ticket holders?
A - BB - Don't know; the deal has only just been finalised with Farnborough Town, it'll be sorted out tomorrow.
Q - Well done to the club for last week's open evening. Will the club do it again next year?
A - BB - Yes, it was a great success, we'll do it again.
MA - Wants an open 'day' rather than evening - at the training ground during the next school holidays. Let people see a proper training session, meet the players etc.

Q - Season ticket holders were originally invited to choose a seat before the season - why doesn't the club reserve that seat for me?
A- RB - It's very difficult to enforce reserved seating, particularly for individual seats.
BB - You can't do it, people just ignore it and sit where they like.

Q - Is a new signing imminent?
A- MA - Read your papers tomorrow!

Q - Why has Andy Gurney been discarded lately?
MA - Because Murty has been doing so well towards the end of last season, especially during the Stoke game where he was flying in all over the park. Gurney has had a niggling injury so he's behind on his fitness, but he's on his way back - he'll come in on Sunday morning with MA for a fitness session and will hopefully be fit for next weekend.

Q - Why is Ricky Newman playing at right-back when he's best in midfield?
A - MA - We need him to play right-back due to injuries.

Q - Is Jimmy McIntyre coming off the transfer list?
A - MA - McIntyre was excellent when MA arrived, but had a dip in form toward the end of last season and was transfer listed. But in pre-season he's been fantastic - even came early for pre-season training. If he keeps it up then obviously we wouldn't want to sell him.

MA talks about the schoolboy scouting network he and Maurice Evans have set up. When MA arrived there as just one schoolboy scout! Now there are several and the club is on the road to getting local boys playing for the club, which is their overall aim.

MA welcomes everyone up to the training ground - buses are cheap and car parking is free! Meet the players, they'll be happy to meet you.

Martin Brailli winds up proceedings - thanks all the club representatives and supporters in attendance. Wishes all the best to the management and players for the coming campaign and promises to bring a bottle of champagne for the management to drink at the next forum when we're promoted!