Gibbo's 92.: The Madejski Stadium

- Ground Number 33 -

- 01/10/2011 -

- Reading FC 0-0 Middlesbrough FC -

Another trip to London with my Mother was booked. However, there was a problem. The fixture list hadn't yet been announced, meaning we had no match to go to! We had agreed to go West Ham or Brighton if either of them were at home. Sods law! They were both away. So we decided to go to the more modern of all the stadiums on offer - The Madejski Stadium.

Built in 1998 the stadium is named after club chairman John Madejski, and replaced Elm Park as Readings home. The Madejski Stadium is also home to London Irish Rugby Union team.

When we booked the trip we thought it would be thermals weather. How wrong could we have been? England was basking in it's hottest weather for months. October 1st turned out to be the hottest October day on record and saw temperatures reach 31 degrees.

Setting off from London Waterloo at 12 O'clock we caught the tube up to Paddington, then the Great Western service to Bristol. Stepping on the train to Reading was a welcome break from the heatwave... air conditioned trains! This was a brilliant experience. Being a regular user of Northern Rail trains means I am used to trains with radiators on, even in the middle of August.

The train journey to Reading only took 20 minutes, arriving in Reading at around 13:30. After deciding it was far too hot for a pie at the stadium we nipped to M&S to buy some snazzy sandwiches before our onwards bus journey to the stadium.

This is where we got completely lost. We needed to find a particular bus stand in order to get to The Madejski. However, it wasn't signposted and the station was under refurbishment.

After 10 minutes of walking up and down trying to find somebody in a football shirt, we asked a man in a fluorescent jacket - Always a winner. He pointed us around the corner where there were around 5 buses parked up. They weren't just any buses though. These buses looked like something from the future; Double deckered, air conditioning, comfy seats, WI-FI! AND they were hybrid. A far cry from my local bus route (582 between Leigh and Bolton!)

We arrived at The Madejski and it reminded me of our visit to the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan (Sevilla) a couple of months earlier. Weather wise. Nothing else. We couldn't wait to get through the turnstiles and into the shade!

Programmes at Reading are of decent quality and are priced at £3, I also received a team photo from a group of cheerleaders. I also bought a Reading FC polo shirt for £10, which allowed me to get out of my soaking wet Bolton shirt.

Sitting in the lower tier of the West Stand offered a great view of the pitch. Saying that though, there isn't one spot in the stadium which has a poor view. It is very well designed.

To my left was the North Stand - I don't have any interesting facts for this stand, apart from the fact its capacity is 4,946. Oh, and there was a strange looking man taking photos of the cheerleaders at half time when I ventured up there.

Opposite was the East Stand. If you are a fan of the sun, then this is the stand for you. The most exciting fact about this stand? It has a smoking section outside.

The away fans were housed in the impressive looking South Stand. With a steep gradient it looks like a great stand on which to create a great atmosphere.

The fact I haven't written much about the stands is nothing against The Madejski Stadium - in fact I really like it. However, all of the stands are just a bit too generic and have nothing to them.

Middlesbrough had started the season off very well, and were the in form team going in to the fixture. Marvin Emnes had been in rich goalscoring form, and was the man to watch. Despite the match finishing 0-0, it was a hard fought, enthralling contest between two footballing sides.

Reading started the game brilliantly, with constant pressure piled upon the Middlesbrough defence. Reminded me of watching Bolton really... Lots of pressure, but doing nothing with it.

Carl Ikeme in the Middlesbrough net was the man responsible of keeping out Reading striker Adam Le Fondre (Who I look like according to Mark Jupp - @Only1Eliza).

However it was Federici in the Reading net who produced the most saves as the match progressed. On the half hour mark he made a great double save to prevent Marvin Emnes from giving his side the lead.

It was goalless at half time after what had so far been a thrilling end to end encounter.

As the stands at The Madejski are all connected I decided to go for a walk around the stadium. It somewhat reminded me of the best stadium in the country... The Reebok.

I realised just how lucky we were sitting in the West Stand, with everybody in the East Stand suffering from sun stroke and dehydration. However, their plight was short lived when the Reading mascot - Kingsley The Lion - came around and handed out some free Dominos Pizza to some lucky fans! Just what you need when it's hotter than The Bahamas.

I later found out that Kingsley is a character amongst football mascots. He isn't quite as good as the breakdancing badger at Fulham, or the foul mouthed Duck at Preston, but he has been sent off!

"During the first half of the home match against Newcastle on April 30, 2007 Kingsley was shown a red card by referee Mike Riley for standing too close to the pitch. It was reported that one of Riley's assistants confused Kingsley for one of the players and almost flagged him for offside. Steve Coppell, the Reading manager, said "I can see why the referee was getting confused. He does look like so many of my players."

After using my camera to great effect; zooming into my mother from across the stadium. I noticed another man with a camera. Fair play (I thought)... Until I noticed he was zooming into a woman who was stood near the corner flag - Whether they were related or not I will never know, but I highly doubt it as he did in fact resemble a paedophile.

The second half kicked off, and the children in front of me discovered the joys of shouting abuse at the players who were taking corners. The victim this half was Middlesbroughs' Tony McMahon. He was subjected to many awful words such as; "SAUSAGES!" and "FATTY!".

Middlesbrough were shooting towards their own fans, which resulted in the team playing with far more confidence and danger. Boro were unlucky not to take the lead when Emnes hit the post.

The final stand out opportunity of the game came when Barry Robson turned the Reading defence and saw his shout bounce off the post.

We exited the stadium not having a clue how/where to get our bus back to the Train Station. So after running about, looking at the number on each and every service we finally found it. At first it seemed a bit disorganised, but this was probably the case as we weren't regulars.

We really enjoyed our day out at The Madejski. Despite it being different to many modern stadia it isn't a stadium I would rush back to. However if Bolton drew them in the cup I will definitely be making the trip!