Tag: Reading

West Brom player hit in the face with coin thrown by own fans

Championship side Reading came from behind to beat West Brom 3-1 in the FA Cup quarterfinals, angering the Baggies fans who made the trip. After the match, West Brom vice-captain Chris Brunt tried to make amends for the loss by moving to give his shirt to someone in the crowd, but as he took it off, he was struck by a coin thrown from the away end.

Read more

Arsenal reach FA Cup final on pitiful goalkeeping error

Arsenal required extra time to beat Reading 2-1 in the FA Cup semifinals. Alexis Sanchez scored both of Arsenal’s goals, but the second was a gift that will haunt Reading keeper Adam Federici until he jams a pencil into his ear in a desperate attempt to forget the pain.

Having already made several fine stops on the day to force Arsenal into extra time, Federici let a routine save squirt through his legs. To make it even more excruciating, he tried to make the full-reach, last ditch attempt to pull it off the goal line, but he just couldn’t do it (3:48 into the video below).

Read more

This is a 93-year-old Reading fan making fun of Arsene Wenger

Reading will face Arsenal in the FA Cup semifinals on Saturday and 93-year-old Royals fan Ciss Platten will be in attendance at Wembley. Platten was alive when Reading last reached the FA Cup semifinals in 1927, when they lost 3-0 to Cardiff City. So this match could bring (very) long awaited satisfaction for her — satisfaction made all the sweeter since she doesn’t care much for Arsenal or their manager.

From the Guardian:

For her, that the opponents are Arsenal has added extra spice to the tie. She is not the greatest admirer of the north London team nor of their manager, Arsène Wenger, a notoriously poor loser. “We call him ‘Arsène Whinger’,” Platten says. “Funny thing, it was in the paper the other day – ‘Whinger’. He’s always whinging, he’s always having a moan.” Platten laughs mischievously. As she does a lot.

Yet her distaste for all things Arsenal runs a bit deeper, right back to the late 1920s. Blame her father, Arthur. “I didn’t really know about football then but dad used to stand by the window on a Sunday morning checking his Pools coupon,” Platten says. “And he’d say: ‘Bloody hell, Arsenal have let me down again.’

“He was always grumbling about them. ‘That blasted team’ he called them. I think that’s maybe why I’ve always disliked Arsenal.”

Yes, Arsene — you just got burned by a great-great grandmother. That’s a mind game even Jose Mourinho can’t match.