Dot Counting Reading - Heading for a Sellout

Attendance tracking
A little bit more than we thought and the second highest home attendance v Reading ever.
 
sideshowrob said:
A little bit more than we thought and the second highest home attendance v Reading ever.
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I'm gonna be honest. I am one of the Oxford fans who feel this derby is big, second only to Swindon, and I always used to love them. However, having been home and away this season, something just seemed to be missing and the games didn't have that edge. Maybe it's the general feeling at the moment.
 
I am sure it will grow again if we stayed together in the same league for a few years. Judging on Saturday I would bet that they are for the drop.
 
Funny how their supporters reacted as though they’d won the Champions League after getting a draw against a club they obsessively belittle.

And if they’re output on social media platforms is an accurate indicator, they’re thick as pigswill to boot.
 
LeftSideLarry said:
Funny how their supporters reacted as though they’d won the Champions League after getting a draw against a club they obsessively belittle.

And if they’re output on social media platforms is an accurate indicator, they’re thick as pigswill to boot.
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It reminded me of Scotland's 0-0 win at Wembley. This was Reading 1-1 win at Oxford!
 
Matt W said:
I enjoyed the 'singers' being in the North Stand next to away fans - if a concerted effort was made to all move there it would help the atmosphere in the short term
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I was in the family section with my five year old (I'm usually in the East stand) and thought that the atmosphere was very good. Quite funny having the shared catering under the stand - pissed up lads swearing non stop, mingling with families at half time. I wasn't bothered as I've already taken the boy to plenty of away games but would've been a bit of a culture shock for some parents!
 
Re: the rivalry with Reading, it did strike me that there was perhaps more songs sung about Swindon on Saturday (both in the stands and in the concourses) than there were at any normal home game.

I think that’s your biggest indication yet that the Reading rivalry has really slipped down in importance amongst the fanbase as a whole.

My first ever away game was at Elm Park and the sky was black with bottles pre-game. I get that it remains a massive rivalry for some. But for many, and particularly the younger fans (ie those under 40 if we’re being generous with the definition of “young”!), we’ve just not played them for such a long time so the rivalry hasn’t really been on the agenda.

If we end up playing them a lot over the coming seasons (as I think we may well might as I think they have a decent chance of staying up, and I wouldn’t put money on us going up this season), the rivalry will increase.

But it’s a rivalry which is a distant second to Swindon for the majority these days in my view.
 
I think where you're from / grew up has a large impact on whether you see Reading as a rivalry. For those who grew up in South Oxfordshire, particularly in the Didcot/Wallingford area, Reading is probably more of a rivalry given the close proximity and the fact a lot of Reading fans live in the area. For those from North Oxfordshire, I can understand why it doesn't carry the same level of importance.

FWIW I thought the atmosphere was improved on Saturday, especially in the first half. There didn't seem to be any 'needle', but at least some songs were sung and there was a bit of back and forth between the two sets of fans.
 
Common Villager said:
I think where you're from / grew up has a large impact on whether you see Reading as a rivalry. For those who grew up in South Oxfordshire, particularly in the Didcot/Wallingford area, Reading is probably more of a rivalry given the close proximity and the fact a lot of Reading fans live in the area. For those from North Oxfordshire, I can understand why it doesn't carry the same level of importance.

FWIW I thought the atmosphere was improved on Saturday, especially in the first half. There didn't seem to be any 'needle', but at least some songs were sung and there was a bit of back and forth between the two sets of fans.
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It probably meant more to me now than it did in the past, having moved from Oxford where I didn't really come across many Reading fans to a town on the Hampshire/Berkshire/Surrey borders (Hampshire side thankfully) and only about 13 miles from Reading, sometimes come across them in the gym or pub, having gobbed off about their demise though I didn't fancy having to take it back, if you don't meet many of them then I can understand why you don't care much, its not as ingrained as the Swindon rivalry where I could never meet any of them and still hate them.

Reading don't really have a derby, some I meet claim its us but its not reciprocated enough to be one, some of the older fans claim Aldershot but the time since they have played each other means that Aldershot younger fans have moved onto Woking. Given they both need and want a rival maybe Reading and Wycombe could get us something going, nearish and and similar commuter towns who look like they could be at the same level for a while.
 
I purchased 3 extra tickets and assigned them to 3 season tickets for this game, I got to the North stand Saturday and a couple of people in my party couldn't get in, apparently it had already been scanned.

Went round to the ticket office and they'd only gone and resold our tickets (they were listed under a different name with them). Ticket office claimed they emailed us (yet no email was receieved) to say that as it was a high risk game, we couldn't have had the extra tickets. One of our party ended up having to sit in the South stand as there were no more tickets in the North stand

All in all, an utter shower of s**t and 15 minutes of the game missed.

Anyone else have anything like this?
 
Common Villager said:
I think where you're from / grew up has a large impact on whether you see Reading as a rivalry. For those who grew up in South Oxfordshire, particularly in the Didcot/Wallingford area, Reading is probably more of a rivalry given the close proximity and the fact a lot of Reading fans live in the area. For those from North Oxfordshire, I can understand why it doesn't carry the same level of importance.

FWIW I thought the atmosphere was improved on Saturday, especially in the first half. There didn't seem to be any 'needle', but at least some songs were sung and there was a bit of back and forth between the two sets of fans.
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I thought the atmosphere was good at the start certainly, it was charged and excited rather than hateful.
 
Carpy said:
I purchased 3 extra tickets and assigned them to 3 season tickets for this game, I got to the North stand Saturday and a couple of people in my party couldn't get in, apparently it had already been scanned.

Went round to the ticket office and they'd only gone and resold our tickets (they were listed under a different name with them). Ticket office claimed they emailed us (yet no email was receieved) to say that as it was a high risk game, we couldn't have had the extra tickets. One of our party ended up having to sit in the South stand as there were no more tickets in the North stand

All in all, an utter shower of s**t and 15 minutes of the game missed.

Anyone else have anything like this?
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Had the same in the East Stand. Lucky there was quite a few empty seats even though it was ‘sold out’
 
werthersoriginal said:
I thought the atmosphere was good at the start certainly, it was charged and excited rather than hateful.
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It as like that for the away game in December and then just petered out and no one could really be bothered with it.

Just like the Oxford-Reading rivalry overall, I guess.
 
I get that rivalry is different due to where people are in Oxfordshire as it's such a spread out county.

Also the fact we haven't played for years, I personally detest them.

I think if we played more often it would feel different, but due to the current apathy around the club, even if we had been playing the swine on Saturday it would have not been more upbeat unfortunately!

We have local derbies, we should embrace it instead of belittling them as we don't have them too often, whether it's the swine or Reading.

I spoke to a Reading fan who said all the usual crap about our place being a library etc, he also tried to claim there had been some fisty cuffs at some point and Reading had come out on top.

I put it down to him talking out his a**e, as I never heard of any bother, but I had to get away quickly as I night out in the Westend.

Was there any trouble apart from the usual verbals?
 
Ox4Eva said:
I get that rivalry is different due to where people are in Oxfordshire as it's such a spread out county.

Also the fact we haven't played for years, I personally detest them.

I think if we played more often it would feel different, but due to the current apathy around the club, even if we had been playing the swine on Saturday it would have not been more upbeat unfortunately!

We have local derbies, we should embrace it instead of belittling them as we don't have them too often, whether it's the swine or Reading.

I spoke to a Reading fan who said all the usual crap about our place being a library etc, he also tried to claim there had been some fisty cuffs at some point and Reading had come out on top.

I put it down to him talking out his a**e, as I never heard of any bother, but I had to get away quickly as I night out in the Westend.

Was there any trouble apart from the usual verbals?
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I did hear of a couple of Reading fans putting up stickers in the blackbird bogs but they were rumbled and very quickly sent on there way
 
Its definitely not a "proper" derby.

If that was the red lot on saturday:
i) it wouldve been a sell out
ii) the fans would've been behind the team all match (like Jerome said on the dub)
iii) we were singing anti-sw*nd*n songs, with only a few half hearted "going bust" songs aimed at the biscuit munchers
iv) the "fan zone" at their place wouldn't have been mixed if it was the scum. but there, us and them were having pints all mixed together.

It was just another (crap) match, against a crap team.
 
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