Pre-season fixtures

[Reading Rebel]

I was thinking about what local sides if any we might be playing in our pre season fixtures and started to have a look at their web sites to see if any had been arranged. 

The first club I looked at was Maidenhead which I would consider to be the most obvious local club to play in pre-season.

Maidenhead have currently arranged 4 away games against local clubs and clubs fairly close to home in Holyport, Flackwell, Hanwell Town and Farnborough.

No mention of a pre-season game against us which seems to have been the norm for as long as I can remember.

Does anyone know what the reason for this is because being one of our closest and oldest rivals should make it an obvious choice for a pre season fixture.  

 

 

[Scott Davies]

16 minutes ago, Reading Rebel said:

I was thinking about what local sides if any we might be playing in our pre season fixtures and started to have a look at their web sites to see if any had been arranged. 

The first club I looked at was Maidenhead which I would consider to be the most obvious local club to play in pre-season.

Maidenhead have currently arranged 4 away games against local clubs and clubs fairly close to home in Holyport, Flackwell, Hanwell Town and Farnborough.

No mention of a pre-season game against us which seems to have been the norm for as long as I can remember.

Does anyone know what the reason for this is because being one of our closest and oldest rivals should make it an obvious choice for a pre season fixture.  

 

 

I did ask them but they said they didn’t want to play on any plastic pitches 👍🏼

[Reading Rebel]

2 hours ago, Scott Davies said:

I did ask them but they said they didn’t want to play on any plastic pitches 👍🏼

I think I'm right in saying if accepted their new ground at Braywick Park would have been 3G, they currently train on 3G or Astro and are/were actively looking to convert York Road to 3G.

Thanks for the reply Scott.

[DonnyNo6]

9 hours ago, Reading Rebel said:

I was thinking about what local sides if any we might be playing in our pre season fixtures and started to have a look at their web sites to see if any had been arranged. 

The first club I looked at was Maidenhead which I would consider to be the most obvious local club to play in pre-season.

Maidenhead have currently arranged 4 away games against local clubs and clubs fairly close to home in Holyport, Flackwell, Hanwell Town and Farnborough.

No mention of a pre-season game against us which seems to have been the norm for as long as I can remember.

Does anyone know what the reason for this is because being one of our closest and oldest rivals should make it an obvious choice for a pre season fixture.  

 

 

The coaches that look after the Women's Teams at Maidenhead where my daughter plays say Dev hates 3Gs.

[Nathan]

16 hours ago, Scott Davies said:

I did ask them but they said they didn’t want to play on any plastic pitches 👍🏼

7 hours ago, DonnyNo6 said:

The coaches that look after the Women's Teams at Maidenhead where my daughter plays say Dev hates 3Gs.

This has always stuck me as a pretty poor excuse tbh. They'll play on 3g surfaces from time to time in the league (e.g. Bromley and Dorking last season) and you'll never know when you'll have to play on them in the FA Cup or Trophy, so why not get some practice in?

17 hours ago, Reading Rebel said:

The first club I looked at was Maidenhead which I would consider to be the most obvious local club to play in pre-season.

Maidenhead have currently arranged 4 away games against local clubs and clubs fairly close to home in Holyport, Flackwell, Hanwell Town and Farnborough.

No mention of a pre-season game against us which seems to have been the norm for as long as I can remember.

Does anyone know what the reason for this is because being one of our closest and oldest rivals should make it an obvious choice for a pre season fixture.

All their friendlies were away from home last season as well. Would it hurt them to host friendlies if the pitch surface really is such as issue?

His bizarre attitude just goes to show that, despite the close geographical proximity and the grandiosely-styled "SL classico", we're not really rivals.

[SloughFlyer]

We play away at Chertsey on 20th July as announced by Chertsey earlier today.

[Ian g f]

All the friendly fixtures are out now

[Reading Rebel]

All pre season away games are fairly local which is certainly a plus.

[GlenSTFC]

Surprised there aren’t some tougher tests against step 1 or EFL teams. The Luton Town XI will be mostly youngsters. When you think of all the fairly local step 1 sides and not one of them is available?

[Scott Davies]

The sad reality is that if teams can avoid it then they’ll choose to play games on grass rather than 3G. Only have to look at Dorking’s fixtures Glen to see that.

We asked 6-8 national league/EFL sides and they all said if we can’t get a decent game on grass then we’ll consider playing Slough.

[GlenSTFC]

40 minutes ago, Scott Davies said:

The sad reality is that if teams can avoid it then they’ll choose to play games on grass rather than 3G. Only have to look at Dorking’s fixtures Glen to see that.

We asked 6-8 national league/EFL sides and they all said if we can’t get a decent game on grass then we’ll consider playing Slough.

Frustrating… and do you find some players don’t want to sign for us because of our pitch? With a new pitch due to be laid will it be the exact same or a newer version?

[Curtis]

I’ll be interested in the Luton XI match to see how the squad has shaped up pre-season & if Elijah Adebayo makes a return to Arbour Park, but not sure I’ll be keen on any of the others

[Reading Rebel]

I would think the majority of players who don't like 3G are the ones who are injury prone or had bad injury's in the past.

Personally I always look forward to pre-season, looking at how the new signings are bedding in and how the squad in general is shaping up.

 

Edited May 27 by Reading Rebel

[SloughFlyer]

What I find strange about the 3/4G situation is (and I know the weather doesn't bear this out currently) but surely grass pitches at that time of year will give uneven, hard ground that could result in knees (twice over the last few years to us) ankles etc being just as at risk. At least with the 3G surface you know it's nice and flat.

[Reading Rebel]

On 24/05/2024 at 15:05, Nathan said:

This has always stuck me as a pretty poor excuse tbh. They'll play on 3g surfaces from time to time in the league (e.g. Bromley and Dorking last season) and you'll never know when you'll have to play on them in the FA Cup or Trophy, so why not get some practice in?

All their friendlies were away from home last season as well. Would it hurt them to host friendlies if the pitch surface really is such as issue?

His bizarre attitude just goes to show that, despite the close geographical proximity and the grandiosely-styled "SL classico", we're not really rivals.

I think a lot of supporters still look at Slough and Maidenhead as rivals, especially the older brigade and would like a pre season game between the two sides.

All NL clubs will have to play on a 3G during the season so I think it's just the old sour puss Devonshire who continues to dig his heals in regarding 3G.

As said before their new ground if passed by the council would have been a 3G and I'm sure they train on a 3G or Astro surface.

[3spirit]

4 hours ago, Reading Rebel said:

I think a lot of supporters still look at Slough and Maidenhead as rivals, especially the older brigade and would like a pre season game between the two sides.

All NL clubs will have to play on a 3G during the season so I think it's just the old sour puss Devonshire who continues to dig his heals in regarding 3G.

As said before their new ground if passed by the council would have been a 3G and I'm sure they train on a 3G or Astro surface.

While I get the merits of 3g financially for non-league clubs, I'm with Alan Devonshire on this - football should be played on grass. Anything else doesn't seem proper.

[Nathan]

4 hours ago, Reading Rebel said:

I think a lot of supporters still look at Slough and Maidenhead as rivals, especially the older brigade and would like a pre season game between the two sides.

All NL clubs will have to play on a 3G during the season so I think it's just the old sour puss Devonshire who continues to dig his heals in regarding 3G.

As said before their new ground if passed by the council would have been a 3G and I'm sure they train on a 3G or Astro surface.

RR, I think it's more a case of "memory of the rivalry" rather than the rivalry itself, rather like our rivalry with Wycombe. As I said on one of the other threads, we've met in the league for only one season over the last 50 years. Our other (increasingly sporadic) competitive matches have almost all come in the B&B Cup, with the others being the Isthmian League Cup or Suburbian Cup. As for friendlies, I don't think we've played one against Maidenhead since 2014.

I wonder when/if their new ground ever gets built, and assuming Alan Devonshire is still the manager, if he'll throw his toys out the pram and resign in protest given his known dislike of 3G pitches? And if they train on 3G, why the opposition to playing on 3G?

27 minutes ago, 3spirit said:

While I get the merits of 3g financially for non-league clubs, I'm with Alan Devonshire on this - football should be played on grass. Anything else doesn't seem proper.

You'll get a lot more usage out of a 3G pitch than a grass one. Do you remember Beaconsfield's cabbage patch?

[Reading Rebel]

2 hours ago, 3spirit said:

While I get the merits of 3g financially for non-league clubs, I'm with Alan Devonshire on this - football should be played on grass. Anything else doesn't seem proper.

Pretty certain given the choice it's a given that most if not all clubs supporters would prefer to play on grass.

But financially and weather wise (global warming) it's getting more beneficial to have a 3G especially if you've got a grass pitch that floods easily as per Taunton. 

[Reading Rebel]

1 hour ago, Nathan said:

RR, I think it's more a case of "memory of the rivalry" rather than the rivalry itself, rather like our rivalry with Wycombe. As I said on one of the other threads, we've met in the league for only one season over the last 50 years. Our other (increasingly sporadic) competitive matches have almost all come in the B&B Cup, with the others being the Isthmian League Cup or Suburbian Cup. As for friendlies, I don't think we've played one against Maidenhead since 2014.

I wonder when/if their new ground ever gets built, and assuming Alan Devonshire is still the manager, if he'll throw his toys out the pram and resign in protest given his known dislike of 3G pitches? And if they train on 3G, why the opposition to playing on 3G?

You'll get a lot more usage out of a 3G pitch than a grass one. Do you remember Beaconsfield's cabbage patch?

Nathan I'd still say that if we had a pre season game against Maidenhead home or away it would still attract a healthy attendance for a pre season game.

 

Edited May 27 by Reading Rebel

[Nathan]

1 hour ago, Reading Rebel said:

Nathan I'd still say that if we had a pre season game against Maidenhead home or away it would still attract a healthy attendance for a pre season game.

Maybe, although I'd say that if we got Chelsea to send a team down for a friendly that might attract a large crowd, but who'd really consider us rivals? 2 years ago we played an Arsenal XI with a crowd of 1248, far larger than our average league attendance. West Brom in 2017 attracted 1003 (though that was Super Kev's testimonial). Even Charlton Athletic's U23 last year attracted 470, which I'd say is decent for pre-season.

It also depends on how well we're doing on the pitch. Many of those B&B matches were played in front a crowd consisting only of the proverbial man & dog. It wasn't until both sides started doing well (2016/17 onwards) that these games started attracting anything like a decent crowd.

It's not that it can't happen, nor that I hope it doesn't happen because I hope it does; we're really missing a proper rivalry IMHO (Hampton or Farnborough really don't do it for me). I just don't understand the perception that Maidenhead are massive rivals.

Back onto the topic of pre-season games, I must say I'm disappointed that we haven't managed to get big local teams (such as Reading, Wycombe, Brentford etc.) down more often since we moved to Arbour Park and were promoted to National League South. I know that contacts are what's really important here, but surely we've asked? Surely they haven't all used the "we don't like 3G" line?

Edited May 27 by Nathan