Reading City Football Club and the John Madejski Academy Football Performance Programme have been proudly partnered with 2018 and it continues to go from strength to strength.

Over 200 games have been played where a member of the First Team Squad has consecutively been a graduate of the JMA Football Performance Programme, giving talented young players a pathway into men’s football and into the football pyramid.

As a club we have a proven record of pushing players on to higher levels in the non-league pyramid with former JMA Graduates leaving RG30 to play at Step 4 and Step 2.

Since 2018 our friends at John Madejski Academy have also represented us in the FA Youth Cup, reaching the Second Round Proper in the 2021/22 Season.

With the Cityzens now fielding its own Under 18s squad, the partnership goes one step further this evening as they’ll face a JMA Side as our youngsters prepare for their inaugral season in the Allied Counties Football League.

We caught up with Michael Butcher, who many of you will know as our First Team Assistant Manager but he’s also the Director of Football at John Madejski Academy and will be in the opposing dugout this evening. Here’s what he had to say:

“Tonight is the first time we have been able to have a fixture between JMA and Reading City U18’s.

 

The partnership and pathway continually grows from strength to strength and tonight is another part of that.

 

Lee (Lee Johnson, Under 18s Manager) and John (John Goodwin (Under 18s Secretary) will be part of the FA Youth Cup management team this season and this game gives us the chance to look at both squads as we prepare for the FA Youth Cup this season.

Lee and John put together an excellent young group last year and with many of those still U17 this season we will be looking to fully integrate both sides in the FA Youth Cup over the next 2 seasons and beyond.

 

When we first did this, Deano (Deano Jones,former Under 23s Manager) had talented young players in the U23’s like Nathan (Jones), Ben (Lambourne) and Jude (Van Spall) who all played a part in the FA Youth Cup and went on to play in the first team but since then, there hasn’t been those young players at the club.

Whilst we have a strong group again this season, some of the City boys will come in and further enhance that over the next 2 seasons as we look to maintain our excellent record in the competition.

 

I am excited to see this develop and hopefully there will be many more future City first team players in this seasons as we have seen both Charlie Davies and Bobbi Emery, who impressed in last seasons FAYC, progress and sign Combined Counties forms for 24/25.”

Ahead of a historic night for our youngsters we also caught up with Under 18s Manager, Lee Johnson and he told us how big an occasion this was not just for him but everyone involved with the Under 18s:

“Last year, we built a team that was in theory going to just get through our first season of under 18s football and push on this year.

After all, we had the youngest team in the league with most of the boys aged only 15 when the season started. With 2 league games left, we still had a chance to win the league. So a great first season for us.

We now look ahead to Reading City’s historic game v our partners at JMA.

The 2 teams will play each other for the first time ever. This will be a chance for Butch (Michael Butcher) to see and select some of our boys for this season’s FA youth cup.

It’s a huge credit to our boys to even be considered for this, so we’d like to thank all at JMA.

At Reading City, we have always pushed the boys to be the best that they can be and to fulfil their potential and to play at the highest possible level. The FA youth cup will certainly give them the chance to do that.

 

John (John Goodwin, Under 18s Secretary) and myself are honoured to be asked to be in the dugout at the upcoming cup games. We will both learn from the experience and we will certainly learn a different type of coaching.

 

Going forward, this can only not only help our boys for the upcoming season, but also strengthen the bond between Reading City and our partner club JMA.”