Best scenario

[Platypuss]

Given our current form i think Relegation is highly likely.
We have been pretty poor more or less all season.

Derby have been sh*te all season long, but i would not want to go to Pride Park needing a result to stay up, as i think they could just as easily turn us over.

In reality we need to beat Spurs this Saturday, and hope some of the other results go our way.

In a way, part of me would rather we went to Derby needing to win rather than play in the knowledge that a draw would be OK.

[Barry the bird boggler]

Given our current form i think Relegation is highly likely.
We have been pretty poor more or less all season.

Not quite so, we were more or less nicely obscure and leading the charge of 8/9 teams towards the middle of thre table. Then January happened and, despite SC's pulling out all the stops to "improve" the ailing squad , since then we have been diabolical.

22 points from the first 19 games (avg. points 1.1) followed by 11 points from the next 17 (avg. points 0.6)

[Gordons Cumming]

It's in our hands still. We're playing against teams that have nothing left to play for. We're in a great position.

However, I fully expect us to f*** it up somehow.

In exactly the Reading way.

[ElmParker]

Given our current form i think Relegation is highly likely.
We have been pretty poor more or less all season.

Not quite so, we were more or less nicely obscure and leading the charge of 8/9 teams towards the middle of thre table. Then January happened and, despite SC's pulling out all the stops to "improve" the ailing squad , since then we have been diabolical.

22 points from the first 19 games (avg. points 1.1) followed by 11 points from the next 17 (avg. points 0.6)

Which means that had we continued he season as we'd started it, we'd be in 13th on 40 points currently and above all the other relegation contenders.

[JC]

The best scenario is for us to win against Spurs, Bolton to lose to Sunderland and Fulham to beat Birmingham. In that case a draw will do us at Derby irrespective of other reaults and we could even afford to lose as long as Bolton or Fulham did not win on the last day.

[seahawk10]

It's in our hands still. We're playing against teams that have nothing left to play for. We're in a great position.

However, I fully expect us to f*** it up somehow.

In exactly the Reading way.

I keep hearing this, that Reading has a history of failure. But if that were entirely true then RFC would never have made it to top flight football. This is a different team with a different manager. This team has come through when it matters in the past and will again. We are staying up!

[SpaceCruiser]

I keep hearing this, that Reading has a history of failure.

I really don't think that's entirely true, but in the years between the 1930's and 1985, Reading failed to progress as a club - apparently due to the directors of Reading unwilling to see Reading realise any ambitions of being successful. They spent the majority of those years in the same division, i.e. Division Three (now called League One). So it's not really a history of failure, more like a history of getting nowhere.

I would think they're attributing the history of failure to the recent play-off final defeats to Bolton and Walsall. Plus the two relegations in 1988 and 1998.

[papereyes]

I keep hearing this, that Reading has a history of failure.

I really don't think that's entirely true, but in the years between the 1930's and 1985, Reading failed to progress as a club - apparently due to the directors of Reading unwilling to see Reading realise any ambitions of being successful. They spent the majority of those years in the same division, i.e. Division Three (now called League One). So it's not really a history of failure, more like a history of getting nowhere.

I would think they're attributing the history of failure to the recent play-off final defeats to Bolton and Walsall. Plus the two relegations in 1988 and 1998.

2008

[SpaceCruiser]

I keep hearing this, that Reading has a history of failure.

I really don't think that's entirely true, but in the years between the 1930's and 1985, Reading failed to progress as a club - apparently due to the directors of Reading unwilling to see Reading realise any ambitions of being successful. They spent the majority of those years in the same division, i.e. Division Three (now called League One). So it's not really a history of failure, more like a history of getting nowhere.

I would think they're attributing the history of failure to the recent play-off final defeats to Bolton and Walsall. Plus the two relegations in 1988 and 1998.

2008

What about 1978?

[Richi Royal]

All these permutations are pointless, what if brum do this and fulham do this etc.... at the end of the day at this point in time whether we stay up or not it is 100% in our hands, given our position with 2 games left that is all we could have asked for.

All we can do on Saturday is go into the game give everything we have got and go for the win....then after the game we will reassess where we are and look at what we need to do, but i think i am right in saying we are going to have to get something at Derby no matter what so we are going to have to try and win that game anyway.

[PEARCEY]

All these permutations are pointless, what if brum do this and fulham do this etc.... at the end of the day at this point in time whether we stay up or not it is 100% in our hands, given our position with 2 games left that is all we could have asked for.

All we can do on Saturday is go into the game give everything we have got and go for the win....then after the game we will reassess where we are and look at what we need to do, but i think i am right in saying we are going to have to get something at Derby no matter what so we are going to have to try and win that game anyway.

You are not right in saying that we need something from the Deby game. If we beat Spurs and lose to Derby we may well still stay up.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

2 Wins and we stay up.
Thats all.
So get behind the lads and make sure we get the 6 points we need.

[Arch]

It's in our hands still. We're playing against teams that have nothing left to play for. We're in a great position.

However, I fully expect us to f*** it up somehow.

In exactly the Reading way.

I keep hearing this, that Reading has a history of failure. But if that were entirely true then RFC would never have made it to top flight football. This is a different team with a different manager. This team has come through when it matters in the past and will again. We are staying up!

With the solitary exception of 2002, when despite our best efforts to throw away automatic promotion by drawing almost all of our last dozen games we managed to squeak it with minutes remaining, it's very hard to think of an instance of Reading being involved in a down to the wire relegation or promotion scrap and having it not turn out badly.

[PEARCEY]

Winning 4-2 at Chesterfield in 1989 from 2-0 down at half time in 1989 is the last time I remember Reading successfully getting out of a tight corner (other than 2002). Had we lost it would have been relegation back to the fourth division.

[Arch]

Winning 4-2 at Chesterfield in 1989 from 2-0 down at half time in 1989 is the last time I remember Reading successfully getting out of a tight corner (other than 2002). Had we lost it would have been relegation back to the fourth division.

Good one. I think I must have invoked the exile's privilege and largely ignored the season following relegation. In those days, it was a matter of reading the results on Sunday morning in the Boston Globe.

[PEARCEY]

Winning 4-2 at Chesterfield in 1989 from 2-0 down at half time in 1989 is the last time I remember Reading successfully getting out of a tight corner (other than 2002). Had we lost it would have been relegation back to the fourth division.

Good one. I think I must have invoked the exile's privilege and largely ignored the season following relegation. In those days, it was a matter of reading the results on Sunday morning in the Boston Globe.

I'm sure the Boston Globe always gave the Royals a lengthy write-up!
I vowed that I could no longer support the club if went down in 89. The thought of playing the likes of Rochdale, Darlington etc was not overly appealing. I was staying at my parents house in the Cotswolds on the day of the Chesterfield game so my only source of up to date scorelines was tele-text. I could barely look at the scores(hand over face) during the second half and could scarecely believe we had gone from 2-0 down to 3-2 up in the space of about ten minutes. We survived that season and as you crawled to promotion in 2002. Other than that its usually ended in disappointment. If it does and as history shows the club will bounce back.

[Cookie]

The bookies must be shitting themselves, I reckon a lot of money went on us going down when it was 8-1 the other week

Ha! I feel so sorry for the poor bookies.

[Man Friday]

No history of failure? 2-0 up and awarded a penalty and we stll lose! This is the Reading way. 'Twas ever thus and forever it shall be. A club after my own heart. No wonder I read Tom Sharpe and enjoy Gallows Humour.

[Ian Royal]

I'm not sure I can see us getting 2 wins, but I think Fulham may well do.

I see us with (at best) 1 win 1 draw =37
Fulham 2 wins = 36
Brum 1 loss 1 draw = 33
Bolton 2 draws = 35

Just as easily I can see us with only 2 draws which would see us on 35, which puts us down on goal difference. I refuse to see anything worse, though it is obviously a distinct possibility.

The fact of the mater is if we fail to get a single point from our remaining 2 games we are relegated. That is not good.

[Beelzebub]

No wonder I read Tom Sharpe and enjoy Gallows Humour

Despite reading and enjoying a lot of Tom Sharpe I had never concidered the connection with supporting Reading FC.

Hmmmm,

On reflection I guess you have a point, now wheres that copy of Riotous Assembly ?

Whatever happens I guess its down to luck and over the years that has generaly gone against us. But then we have never made the top flight before, so maybee, just maybee, our luck has changed!