21.12.85

[Ark Royal]

22 years ago today and probably the greatest game and greatest comeback some of us have ever witnessed.

3-0 down to Plymouth with 25 minutes to play and then 3-1 down with nine to play and then a certain Mad Max starts to run amok. The rest is histoire.

Your memories? Discuss.

[Row Z Royal]

I was, to the day, 15months old.

Memories are a somewhat lacking, i'm afraid.

[Schards#2]

I was there, I don't remember the last three goals being so late in the game.

It was mayhem in the Southbank.

[Wycombe Royal]

Great memories of that day and I have not seen a more thrilling second half of football since.

[mathematically_safe]

i know that me and my dad nearly left at half time but decided to stay...

[Aubery Boyce]

Mad Max was unbelievable in that comeback.

my dad really wanted to go at half time too i tihnk. I persuaded him to stay.!!

totally thrilling for a 10yo like me at the time.

[West_Reading]

What about when we were 3-0 up at half time at home to Port Vale and ended up drawing 3-3! That was the play off season as well wasn't it?

[handbags_harris]

What about when we were 3-0 up at half time at home to Port Vale and ended up drawing 3-3! That was the play off season as well wasn't it?

That, my friend, is a 2nd half that fans of Reading back then would rather forget.

The Plymouth match we were 3-0 DOWN with 25 TO PLAY and WON 4-3. This was back in 1985...

Sadly, I hadn't even contemplated football at that age, I was only 3,so therefore I have no memories whatsoever!!

[sucatraps]

Reading v Exeter anybody?

[From Despair To Where?]

Reading v Exeter anybody?

For all the goal count, it just doesn't compare. One of the most extraordinary final 10 minutes of a game I have ever seen. Memories of the goals are hazy but I clearly remember when we pulled it back to 3-1 the collective feeling that we would get something out of the game followed by the absolute cerainty that we would win the game when we pulled it back to 3-2. Plymouth were punch drunk and Kevin Bremner tore them to shreds. Our form up to the new year put 2 seasons ago in the shade, 62 points from 24 games but we "only" finished on 94.

I remember scaling the fence at the front of the South Bank when we made it 4-3 and impaling myself on the spikes at the top. Sure, we were a pretty agricultural footballing side but fit as oxf*rd. We nicked so many results in the last ten minutes that season.

Maybe not quite the most thrilling second half of football ever, Derby to confirm the title ranks as the most complete demonstration of football I've ever witnessed but it does run it close.

[Ark Royal]

Reading v Exeter anybody?

Bought the video of that game from Exeter. Quinny's second was an absolute cracker. He did not score tap-ins.

Factoid: That 6-4 game is the only game in Football League history where five players scored two goals each.

[CentiaRoyal]

I was, to the day, 15months old.

Memories are a somewhat lacking, i'm afraid.

I was, to the day 15months and 2 days old.

Memories are a somewhat lacking, i'm afraid

[Ark Royal]

Guy I was standing with on the Tilehurst End left at half time. He just could not believe the result when it rolled off the vide-printer!

As far as I am concerned, the Plymouth game is the greatest I have ever seen.
Argyle were going great guns at the time: second in the table and unbeaten in 14.

Poor Argyle. They just did not know what hit them in that last nine minutes, when Mad Max became a force of nature. Fair play to Plymouth fans though; they clapped us off the park at the end.

As another poster said earlier, we were not pretty to watch, but we were fitter than a butcher's dog and blew teams away in the tail end of games in 85/86.

[Ark Royal]

Reading v Exeter anybody?

Our form up to the new year put 2 seasons ago in the shade, 62 points from 24 games but we "only" finished on 94.

You are correct Despair. On New Years' Day before the Gillingham home game, our record was P 24 W 20 D 2 L 2 Pts 62. Identical home and away records of 10-1-1. We were 19 points clear of Walsall. Lost 2-1 to Gillingham that afternoon despite goal of the season from Deano and the gap was never that wide again.

[ayjaydee]

Slightly off topic - I recall a cup game with Watford where we were getting well beaten with not long to go, took it into extra time and won. Was it on our Simod run? The memory is getting a bit hazy.

[Rob-Royal]

22 years ago today and probably the greatest game and greatest comeback some of us have ever witnessed.

3-0 down to Plymouth with 25 minutes to play and then 3-1 down with nine to play and then a certain Mad Max starts to run amok. The rest is histoire.

Your memories? Discuss.

Remember it still today but sure that the goals came earlier, I'm sure we got one back soon after half time, then 2 more in quick succession mid way through the half with one being a penalty and then the last with about 10mins to go. I recall someone near me saying we scored too early and could allow Plymouth back in which I found an odd thing to say....glad to be corrected as the old memory is starting to fade a bit and I'm sure there is a match report around somewhere.....this was also Spacey's first game btw...suprised he hasn't mentioned it again....

I was 21 then

[Dirk Gently]

Slightly off topic - I recall a cup game with Watford where we were getting well beaten with not long to go, took it into extra time and won. Was it on our Simod run? The memory is getting a bit hazy.

I thought it was the Simod too, but when I looked it up it was the Football League Trophy quarter-final back on 8th December '82 - releagtion season!

Won 5-3 with a Gary Donnellan hat-trick!

[Dirk Gently]

Guy I was standing with on the Tilehurst End left at half time. He just could not believe the result when it rolled off the vide-printer!

As far as I am concerned, the Plymouth game is the greatest I have ever seen.
Argyle were going great guns at the time: second in the table and unbeaten in 14.

Poor Argyle. They just did not know what hit them in that last nine minutes, when Mad Max became a force of nature. Fair play to Plymouth fans though; they clapped us off the park at the end.

As another poster said earlier, we were not pretty to watch, but we were fitter than a butcher's dog and blew teams away in the tail end of games in 85/86.

ISTR Andy Rogers was the hero that day. At one stage he had the ball next to the corner flag and a Plymouth player hacked at him to try and get the ball, and was booked. From the free-kick, the ball went back to Andy Rogers by the corner flag, and the same defender did exactly the same and was immediately sent off!

At least I think that's the same match .....

[Ark Royal]

Guy I was standing with on the Tilehurst End left at half time. He just could not believe the result when it rolled off the vide-printer!

As far as I am concerned, the Plymouth game is the greatest I have ever seen.
Argyle were going great guns at the time: second in the table and unbeaten in 14.

Poor Argyle. They just did not know what hit them in that last nine minutes, when Mad Max became a force of nature. Fair play to Plymouth fans though; they clapped us off the park at the end.

As another poster said earlier, we were not pretty to watch, but we were fitter than a butcher's dog and blew teams away in the tail end of games in 85/86.

ISTR Andy Rogers was the hero that day. At one stage he had the ball next to the corner flag and a Plymouth player hacked at him to try and get the ball, and was booked. From the free-kick, the ball went back to Andy Rogers by the corner flag, and the same defender did exactly the same and was immediately sent off!

At least I think that's the same match .....

Yep, you memory serves you well. A sending off thrown in for good measure. After the fourth went in, Andy partook in some good old-fashioned time wasting by the corner flag in front of the South Bank and nearly got lumped into it by Gordon Nesbit.

[Ark Royal]

22 years ago today and probably the greatest game and greatest comeback some of us have ever witnessed.

3-0 down to Plymouth with 25 minutes to play and then 3-1 down with nine to play and then a certain Mad Max starts to run amok. The rest is histoire.

Your memories? Discuss.

Remember it still today but sure that the goals came earlier, I'm sure we got one back soon after half time, then 2 more in quick succession mid way through the half with one being a penalty and then the last with about 10mins to go. I recall someone near me saying we scored too early and could allow Plymouth back in which I found an odd thing to say....glad to be corrected as the old memory is starting to fade a bit and I'm sure there is a match report around somewhere.....this was also Spacey's first game btw...suprised he hasn't mentioned it again....

I was 21 then

Goals came - give or take a minute or so - in the 65th, 81st, 82nd and 87th and were scored by Horrix (pen), Senior (2) and the winner fittingly by Mad Max himself.