My view on last night.

[f321ffc]

First off I have to say what a great turnout of Fulham fans, it shows we are starting to believe.
A couple of excellent saves from Button, I not a fan of his but credit for those saves.
Did anyone else notice the linesman running the left hand line?  Every time the ball went out he wouldn't make a decision, he waited for the ref to indicate whose ball before raising his flag.
As we had a 170 mile drive to Reading we left home at 3pm so the first we heard of the Martin situation was when we got to the pub, I really hope that Slav gets the backing of Khan or whoever makes the decisions otherwise I can see nothing but another manager search.
Now on to the abandonment I expect this has already be said but I'll say it again, anyone at the game would have had no argument had it been stopped anytime from 35 mins to half time, it was obviously called af during half time and my argument is why did they not wait and bring the teams out after half time and assess the conditions then.
During half time the fog lifted considerably and conditions were as good as at anytime in the first half .

[Baszab]

Please explain if the ref decided to call it off - why did they send the FFC players out ? Or was it just to come over to the away end ?
Why not call it off after the first half so nobody had to hang around spending money at RFC for nothing ? Oh I get it !

[Delboy]

Looks like the referee had chosen to call the game off when he left the pitch at half time. I did not see him come back out after half time. Surely, he should at least have appeared and gone out to the centre circle to ascertain the situation and let the fans know he was making his decision with all current conditions in hand. The weather forecast was for the fog to lift which it was doing. In fact by the time I was on the M4 visibility was good. 
Do we get our money back? Or do we get free tickets to the rescheduled game? Will be interesting to find out. I'm sure all the RFC season ticket holders will get in for nothing, what about us??? 

[Dodger53]

I live 8 miles from the AMEX - we had thick fog all day and when we waved our family off after a family lunch about 7 in the evening it was as thick as ever, I took the dog for a walk at 8:30 and it had all gone. Refs have always had diifficult decisions with fog, I remember many a walk through Bishops park with my dad when you couldnt see the end of your nose but he always said most refs will not pp until the latest moment because it can clear very quickly. Damned if they do and damned if they don't. pp must be one of the decisions ref hate.

[Williams Tale]

See my post. Re stuck ln the car park

[dannyboi-ffc]

Please explain if the ref decided to call it off - why did they send the FFC players out ? Or was it just to come over to the away end ?
Why not call it off after the first half so nobody had to hang around spending money at RFC for nothing ? Oh I get it !

Very sneaky from Reading and its the obvious reason for delaying the announcement. Football really takes the p1ss out of us fans and its why i dont buy stuff in the ground often. Im still resenting the 8 quid i paid for an hour and half of parking.

Can we get our ticket money back?

[White Rabbit]

Seems to me that Reading FC have some answering to do. In an age when Wimbledon LTA can predict that a shower is 5 miles away, why can't football clubs use the Met Office in a similar way. There must be a local weather station that feeds in local details. Berks radio had indicated that the fog would lift enough for the game to go on, so was that not fed through to the officials? Like others, I saw no officials out assessing the visibility at the end of half time, in which case we must assume that the ref had already taken the decision based on the last twenty minutes of play. If this was so, Reading could have announced it immediately, rather than hanging on so that income on food and drink was maximised. But why did Fulham come out and Reading didn't? Was the decision instead the result of a Reading request? A team short of two regulars and with a striker down with a hamstring during the game may have been a little shocked at Fulham dominance in possession. They couldn't afford to lose, after all a lot of big money is at stake in promotion to the premiership. And that announcement that the fog was worse outside? Tosh. It was as clear as anything on the M4.
  049:gif

[f321ffc]

Seems to me that Reading FC have some answering to do. In an age when Wimbledon LTA can predict that a shower is 5 miles away, why can't football clubs use the Met Office in a similar way. There must be a local weather station that feeds in local details. Berks radio had indicated that the fog would lift enough for the game to go on, so was that not fed through to the officials? Like others, I saw no officials out assessing the visibility at the end of half time, in which case we must assume that the ref had already taken the decision based on the last twenty minutes of play. If this was so, Reading could have announced it immediately, rather than hanging on so that income on food and drink was maximised. But why did Fulham come out and Reading didn't? Was the decision instead the result of a Reading request? A team short of two regulars and with a striker down with a hamstring during the game may have been a little shocked at Fulham dominance in possession. They couldn't afford to lose, after all a lot of big money is at stake in promotion to the premiership. And that announcement that the fog was worse outside? Tosh. It was as clear as anything on the M4.
  049:gif

It was obvious that the game was off when only the Fulham players came out, and that was only to thank the fans. As you say Reading fc have some questions to answer but will those questions ever be asked.

[Whitesideup]

I live 8 miles from the AMEX - we had thick fog all day and when we waved our family off after a family lunch about 7 in the evening it was as thick as ever, I took the dog for a walk at 8:30 and it had all gone. Refs have always had diifficult decisions with fog, I remember many a walk through Bishops park with my dad when you couldnt see the end of your nose but he always said most refs will not pp until the latest moment because it can clear very quickly. Damned if they do and damned if they don't. pp must be one of the decisions ref hate.

But that wasn't the case. The ref can only be damned for a shocking decision to abandon a match when the conditions were the best they had been all evening. We should know his explanation and his match report should be published; his career should be on the line if there are untruths  eg the linesmen could not see the other side of the pitch.

Calling off a game when conditions were totally playable  - if he didn't check then he is negligent. If Reading and perhaps Fulham as well, didn't encourage him to review conditions at the time of the restart, then they too are negligent. I have wasted hours of my time as well as the money. I am still mad about this decision because it was so easy to avoid. I bet the ref gets all his match fee and his expenses. 

[Whitesideup]

And others have said that Fredericks card stands, for a handball when he was blatantly pushed over, and he is now suspended for the Brighton game.....

[stevehawkinslidingtackle]

Please explain if the ref decided to call it off - why did they send the FFC players out ? Or was it just to come over to the away end ?
Why not call it off after the first half so nobody had to hang around spending money at RFC for nothing ? Oh I get it !

And compare that to Brighton game last night that was called off. They rounded up all the food that was due to be sold for the match, and gave it all to the homeless. Brighton continue to show how to run a club, on and off the pitch.

[ffc73]

Can we get our ticket money back?

We get a half price ticket for the rearranged game

Those are the terms printed on last nights ticket

[Woolly Mammoth]

Can we get our ticket money back?

We get a half price ticket for the rearranged game

Those are the terms printed on last nights ticket

Can I insist on only watching the second half of the rearanged match.