Blackpool’s League One rivals boss ‘completely agrees’ with fans stance over protests

Reading manager Ruben Selles may have landed himself in hot water with the clubs hierachy after agreeing with the fans protests towards owner Dai Yongge.

In a planned protest, more than 200 tennis balls were thrown on to the pitch on the 16th minute during Reading's clash with promotion hopefuls Bolton Wanderers.

Fans chose to throw balls on the pitch at the 16th minute because that is how many points they have been deducted under the six-year stewardship of Yongge, with the latest coming last week after being charged by the EFL.

Reading were relegated from the Championship last year, owing mainly to their points deduction, having been in a closely-contested relegation battle with Cardiff City, Huddersfield Town and Rotherham United. The Berkshire side have also been placed under transfer restrictions in recent seasons, and now their manager has had his say on the matter.

"I have my own feelings about it," Selles said to the Reading Chronicle when asked about his opinions on the protests.

"I am losing points because of off the pitch when I am winning them on the pitch.

"I completely agree with the protest, we need to be better in that aspect and we need to be together and stop losing points because we don’t do the things we need to do as a football club. It is nothing special, we need to do our jobs.

"If I don’t win football matches you will always claim against me because my team needs to be better, so everyone in the job needs to do what they need to do, and the club needs to do better in terms of finances because it is nearly twice as much as everybody that we have to win football matches.

"We have five points now and we should have eight, the table does not reflect the level of performance we have had so we completely understand, and we have the same feeling."

Despite the protest, Reading went on to win the pitch as Robbie Savage's son Charlie Savage scored to cancel out Dion Charles' opener and then Caylan Vickers scored in the 86th minute.

The Tangerines themselves are no strangers to protests and once forced a match with Huddersfield Town to be abandoned after fans invaded the pitch in protest against Karl Oyston in May 2015. Fans also boycotted home games during Oyston's tenure, but made a return in March 2019 when Oyston was ousted from the club.

Blackpool and Reading meet at Bloomfield Road this Saturday (Saturday, September 23) with a 3.00 pm kick-off. Reading's 10-month winless run on the road could go in Blackpool's favour but the hosts have struggled to find the back of the net in several matches this term.