Reading slip into the bottom three thanks to Sheffield Wednesday's win at Blackpool

Car Expert

oh dear - though Reading appear to be improving, so hopefully they won't stay in the bottom 3 for long.

Charlton got a 2-1 win last night

Derby managed to beat Doncaster at last - in the Cup!

Unless Arsenal can find 2 goals in 5 minutes or so, they're out of the cup...

Charlton play Leyton Orient tomorrow...

I really didn't fancy that draw, and it looks as though sadly I was right not to.

3 points please

Can't believe Reading won yesterday

FA Cup 5th Round Draw
Reading v West Bromwich Albion
Chelsea v Cardiff City
Southampton v Portsmouth
Manchester City v Stoke City
Bolton Wanderers v Tottenham Hotspur or Leeds United
Derby County v Birmingham City
Wolverhampton Wanderers or Crystal Palace v Aston Villa
Fulham v Notts County or Wigan Athletic

It's Chelsea's to lose now I think, although they've had a rather easy passage to get this far...

Car Expert

No CE. Even with the 'please'

I am watching Charlton on TV . They are very poor and not a patch on Orient . 0 - 1 to Orient with a few mins left

We have left all our football skills in the dressing room. Really poor...

There you go CE, 3 points for you

Hope we can do you a favour on the 13th February and the 13th April when we play Leeds and Norwich at home...

Time to support Walsall and Swindon tomorrow to make up for it

Car Expert

A Walsall win, and a Swindon-Leeds draw sounds about right. Swindon are a bit close to Charlton in the table for me to wish a win for them...

Thanks for the good wishes CE

I am wondering when Tranmere will get some more points ! They did get through 2rnds of the cup though and narrowly lost to Wolves when they played as well as them

Zurab Khizanishvili has signed on loan to Reading. Hope he can help us climb back up the table where we belong, starting with a win at Sheff Utd tomorrow...

Car Expert

Palace appear to have gone into administration.

Local rivals 'n' all, it's still sad to see them in trouble...

But it's not that sad, is it?

er...well, they do spoil their lovely red shirts with those blue stripes...

Sheff Utd have scored already

Car Expert

Walsall and Swindon are both winning...

Car Expert

How did that happen? Donny 1-4 Boro.

Even better than Willo Flood's freak goal on Saturday.

Reading lost again tonight

Car Expert

Are you laughing at us winning, or at my previous post?

Shame about the Norwich victory, but another Leeds loss will help Charlton out...

Another miserable night for Derby - nobody can understand Nigel Clough's substitutions, our local rivals are in superb form - and we play them on Saturday. Our only hope of avoiding relegation is that there may be 3 other teams in similar problems, or more go into administration.

It was at us winning, but both I guess

So that puts you 10th (9th effectively, with Palace about to be deducted 10 points). Still a reasonable chance of the play offs, at least...

It's still not good enough though.

It'd be good enough if you won the play-offs! And it's an awful lot better than it was a couple of weeks ago...

If we were in the playoff zone and then won the playoffs, that would be good enough

I didnt have to wait long for Tranmere to get 3 pts.
What on earth happenend to Leeds last night

Form appears to have gone down the pan since their Cup victory over Man United. A couple of League reverses, and they were lucky to get a cup replay over Spurs. Selfishly, I am thinking this means Charlton can overhaul them, if we don't have too many more aberrations like Monday's Orient match...

I am glad I resisted putting a bet on Leeds to win league 1. I was sure it was a forgone conclusion.

There's something really satisfying about beating your local rivals!

Derby 1 - Forest 0

Crucial win for Reading today

Car Expert

That's another two points dropped, Barry !

Ah well : let's think of 'glass half full' and say it's one point gained...

Another point gained...

. Maybe we can 'do' Leeds for you next month. !
A colleague and I have a £10 bet on each Leeds v Tranmere match.
Last two seasons we broke even , but Im £10 down this season !

Would be appreciated!

Jinky's gone.

Worst. Team. Ever.

What?

I think someone got a bit confused.

We've slipped a place further down the table.




I can't actually work out who played where. We need a midfield...

Another Reading win today

Our chances of staying in this division looks a little more promising now...

Car Expert

Group A: Germany, Turkey, Austria, Belgium, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan
Group B: Russia, Slovakia, REPUBLIC OF IRELAND, FYR Macedonia, Armenia, Andorra
Group C: Italy, Serbia, NORTHERN IRELAND, Slovenia, Estonia, Faroe Islands
Group D: France, Romania, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Belarus, Albania, Luxembourg
Group E: Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Hungary, Moldova, San Marino
Group F: Croatia, Greece, Israel, Latvia, Georgia, Malta
Group G: ENGLAND, Switzerland, Bulgaria, WALES, Montenegro
Group H: Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Cyprus, Iceland
Group I: Spain, Czech Republic, SCOTLAND, Lithuania, Liechtenstein

Decent draw for England, can't wait for England v Wales

Not quite so good for Northern Ireland and Scotland, but the Republic of Ireland will fancy their chances I think.

Quite a few interesting local derbies in prospect - France v Luxembourg; Germany v Austria; Sweden v Finland; Denmark, Norway, Iceland...


Took me a while to get my head around how to qualify from each group, but there's three ways to do so (option 1 is preferred ):

1. To finish top of the group
2. To finish runners-up and having the best qualifying record compared to the other eight runners-up (effectively being a 'fastest loser' in athletics terms). For those teams in groups A-F who have one team more in their groups compared to G, H and I, the points gained from the games against the side that finishes bottom of each group will be subtracted from their total points tally at the end to determine the 'fastest loser'.
3. The remaining four places up for grabs will be determined by a two-legged play-off for the eight remaining runners-up (similar to the World Cup qualifying)

The other two places - to make a total of 16 teams - obviously goes to the two co-hosts: Poland and Ukraine.

Car Expert

Darlington won yesterday (although Boro only managed a draw ).

Darlo now have 14 points and are 12 points from safety (13 once you take their awful goal difference into consideration). They have 20 matches left to find a way of surviving in the football league. Can they do it?

Oh dear I thought Tranmere were beginning to recover ! Then they lose to another weak team Oldham Grrrrrrrr.