A grim night at the Amex: Brighton 1 Reading 2 (ELC)

You often read in the manager’s column of a programme that your (fans) support matters although clubs with their high ticket prices and endless sales promotion of merchandise do not do that much to foster it. Last night’s League Cup match v Reading before a crowd of 6000 – in reality less as that figure included 3,000 1901 club members not many of whom attended – suffered from the absence of any atmosphere. Both stands behind the goals were empty and you could hear the players shouting to each other on the pitch. There were no park and ride buses so to get to the Amex you had to rely  the train service always a dangerous option with Southern. Crucially there were no discounted tickets. The distinct impression supported by the reserve side picked is that the League Cup, which does even have a sponsor, is of no interest to clubs so why should fans support it. They do not.

Reading took a first half lead when a corner might have been cleared and added a second in the second half. By the end we had 5 forwards on the pitch: Hemed, Baldock, Manu, Skilak and Murphy but  only scored a late consolation goal . A pal of mine in the 1901 club was much relieved there was no equaliser as he could not face extra time.

The footballing authorities need to take a long hard look at the League Cup. Always something of a sickly infant it’s become an irrelevance to al those except a mid-table Premier side who fancy a trip to Wembley and have neither relegation concerns nor top 6 ambitions. Clubs need to offer supporters some incentive and inducement as last night game is an experience I would not wish to repeat.