“The brain is very slow, it can’t multi-task” – Those are words from Will Smith's character in his latest Blockbuster movie “Focus” where he plays a conman with cunning and swift hustling manoeuvres, sadly those very skills that were needed to be on show against a sharp Reading time never came to fruition.
After spending (virtually) an entire weekend in Reading which was as glamorous as staring at the back of a dusty fridge freezer, further tarnished with constant rain from morning to the evening, it genuinely made me feel like running into a woodchipper.
However, what Reading does have to offer is a beautiful shopping centre in the form of The Oracle which is crammed with every world famous bar and eatery you can think of (apart from McDonners at 5 Lane Ends) and also possesses some of the prettiest ladies (Translation: Gal’Dem) the South has to offer – the type of girls with perfect eyebrows and the smiles to make any man’s heart skip a beat.
The referee for the evening, Mike Jones, was an absolute horror, Twitter was rammed with criticism from fans from around the country after the game too, just remember - good karma *always* prevails, even on a personal note occurring this evening, you always get out what you put in and hopefully another feature of magic will follow when Reading face Arsenal ;)
The truth is, City never looked like scoring, the game should have never been played 24 hours after a league fixture but the revenue accrued from the run of games has been a decent platform from now until May. Even after a combined total of 10 hours sleep in 3 days from Saturday to Monday and feeling a slight mental strain, I had a lot of sympathy for a Bradford City team who must seriously be feeling the effects of a hectic fixture schedule. Even if this game was on the Tuesday or Wednesday it was always going to be an incredibly tough task in the purpose built Town of Reading - No team should be made to play twice in 3 days, mixed with long coach rides up and down the country, it’s just not physically possible.
When a bitter night was about to come to a close, Thomas Gadd getting abused by our own Bradford City fans, a bizarre pitch invasion and then that moment where karma prevailed:
“Due to the pitch invasion, the Reading players will not be appearing for a lap of appreciation”
It’s been an incredible 5 months of fixtures, amazing Bantams Banter Podcasts and from a personal perspective the away trips have been standouts, from the freezing morning at Halifax, maintaining my life at Millwall and the drunken evenings before and after Chelsea – memories that will live with me forever.
What this hectic situation shows is how quickly things can change in a matter of weeks or days – it was always going to be positive or disappointing outcome but, the beauty of life in this game is that everybody gets another chance every season, a chance to rethink and try again with a new challenge to be better as a singular and collective.
Enjoy the week ahead.
