Another week, another crisis at Reading Football Club. Everyone felt the positivity from the win in Cumbria on Saturday, but as is now commonplace with this Club, this feeling was unlikely to last very long.

Sure enough, the glossy varnish was hardly dry before the Supporters Trust at Reading [STAR] brought everyone back down to Earth with their ‘not so positive’ update from former CEO Nigel Howe. After a few recent meetings suggesting that things were 'heading in the right direction', the phrases ‘fighting against time’ and ‘have a shortfall’ are not ones you want to hear after three years of fighting transfer embargoes, points deductions and fines, especially after believing there could be some good news coming in the not-too-distant future.

Supporters, players and coaches alike- on the same page, as has been the case all year- have been praying for the day they can truly celebrate a win, knowing that three points will actually remain intact, or a time where it did not feel strange seeing a Royals squad in a hotel the night before a long slog north for a fixture.

Alas, here we are again, and supporters are bracing for yet another punch in the gut from the English Football League unless things drastically speed up or someone very generous wins the EuroMillions.

As a local reporter and supporter of the club, I am running out of words, and energy, to describe the feelings of the staff, players and supporters at this time. There are only so many times you can feel anger, fear and trepidation about what the future is to hold for our beloved Club and even fewer times in which you can write it down and print it.

Everyone knows the score, and everyone shares those feelings. So, we must try and use that energy effectively in the best way we can, by backing the boys. Despite dropping down a division last season, the supporters have not wavered. In fact, the lower the club has fallen, the higher their esteem has risen among the footballing world.  

The medium-to-long-term future remains unclear and uncertain, but what is for sure is that whatever happens, the Royals will be backed to the hilt. This club, these players and those staff need the town right now.

Reading Chronicle:

Unfortunately, as we all knew when this catastrophe began, the ball is not in our court. We can march the marches, hold up the red cards and talk on any national radio station that will have us, but the buck lies with one individual, and there’s nothing we can do about him.

So, what can we do? We must continue to do what we have done, AND THEN SOME. Turn out and back those boys, back our team and our town to the hilt. Fill all four corners of the Select Car Leasing Stadium and keep this club going. Tens of thousands march down Wembley Way for showpiece events, so why not march down Hoops Way in the months of the season instead?

Every single penny that goes from you sitting, or standing, inside the stadium will go towards reducing this ‘shortfall’ that we fear come the end of the month. You may not have been for years, put off for various reasons in the past. To that, I say come back. With the crop of players on the field and the manager in the dugout, you won’t regret it. It’s time we really backed those boys, and this club, and made plenty of noise.