Today we hear from Roger Titford – STAR Board member
This could be my last turn at writing the STAR programme notes this season – and it will be if we don’t make the play-offs. It feels strange writing notes for a non-existent programme but there’s plenty odd about this season that will go down in history.
Reaching the play-offs is now out of our hands but we must keep going and hope that the form of one or more of our rivals collapses while we collect four or five wins from the last five games. In my long time as a supporter we have ended the season on that kind of bullish run several times before.
But this will be the first season since 1962-63, and my first year at primary school,l that I haven’t seen a single home match. There have only been three opportunities to view live though, and I missed them all. But like several thousand other supporters I haven’t turned totally plastic. I’ve only missed following one game, home or away, thanks to a combination of i-Follow, Sky, red button and BT Sport, not to mention the accompanying commentaries from BBC Radio Berkshire and elsewhere.
Those who’ve done similarly have been able to follow the sudden and thrilling emergence of Michael Olise and Omar Richards and the enormous strides made by Tom McIntyre and Tom Holmes, not to mention the goals of Lucas Joao and the skills of Ovie Ejaria. As a watch, even if distanced and virtual, 2020-21 has been pretty good for URZ and fingers crossed we could still bring it to a dramatic conclusion. But we really do need three points today – hard to say whether it’s afternoon or evening with a curious 6pm kick-off time!
One thing’s for certain at least – we’ve guaranteed our place in the top two divisions for the 20th consecutive season – our 150th anniversary season of 2021-22. That of course is a club record, our next longest stint being the five seasons in Division Two from 1926-27. Taking the longer-term view, this era – not so bad at all!