Day 75 – 365 / March 16th 2015

Full time at Reading FC’s Madjeski Stadium and the end of our adventure in this seasons FA Cup.

The massed ranks of fans are ours, Bradford City’s, in the away end. In front is a row of stewards and a line of police officers, complete with riot helmets attached to their “bat belts”, watching us. Waiting to react if we “kick off” after our teams 3-0 defeat following a quite one sided match in which Reading dominated and pub boys underperformed.

The people, let’s not call them fans, are some of the home fans. They had ran onto the pitch at the final whistle and some of them were goading us. Their are reports that some of the Reading fans made gestures that mocked the Bradford Fire Disaster. I was too far away to see if this was true.

What I did clearly see, was the blue flare that one person had taken into the pitch. It is a criminal offence to take pyrotechnics into a sporting venue. And it is incredibly stupid to throw a flare into a crowded terrace full of football fans. But, one Reading fan did just that.