Which was the worst relegation and why?

[Royal With Cheese]

2008 – but not because we had a decent team and should not have gone down, but because we had an ok team that had over-performed in 06-07, and that we failed to improve on to establish our place in the league. Complacency? Who knows.

OK, I'm confused.

In 2006/7 we had a OK team.
In 2007/8 we had a decent team but you say we failed to improve over 2006/7?

So I'm presuming OK > decent then?

[Royal With Cheese]

2013 has been the worst as we have been basically outclassed in every game we've played in (with the exception of Sunderland at home). In 30 years of support I've never seen such a one-sided shit bad season.

[sandman]

'98. First relegation witnessed, awful way to leave Elm Park and Terry the Taxi.

[Gordons Cumming]

I've seen all bloody 7 relegations and none of them are good...............except for the constant delusion that the next year we'll come straight back up.

[Fox Talbot]

I've seen all bloody 7 relegations and none of them are good...............except for the constant delusion that the next year we'll come straight back up.

I've seen them all and it's a tough choice.

This season is the least competitive we've ever been and perhaps the earliest we've been relegated. I'd vote for this.

1977, 1988 and 2008 were basically management failures to build after promotion. Instead we sold off the best players and failed to replace.

1971 was a shock and we didn't really deserve to go down.

1983 was a sickener - having fought off Maxwell we won the last game and thought we had stayed up / on the pitch to celebrate / last result came through and we were down / on goal diff ?? Our 53 points and relegated stood as a record high for a long time.

1998 was in parts shocking but some fun games esp in the Cups.

[melonhead]

Reading have been relegated 7 times since the Second World War. I've experienced three of those relegations as a fan.

1)1998 when we got thumped every week and were awful - my favourite league season ever,when i truly fell in love with RFC

2) 2008 when we had a decent team and shouldn't have got relegated but we did - yup. was like a huge kick in the guts

3) This year when we've been poor all season long but have just boringed our way out of the league - meh

.

[Schards#2]

1998 - Utterly tame capitulation leaving us starting life at the Madejski in League one, a new era in the club's history, and an old era ending on a desperately low note. A very depressing time.

[leon]

1998 was just dreadful - it just felt as if we'd thrown everything we'd struggled to achieve away.

[Winchester Royal]

1998 was my first, but it was also my first season, as an 12 year old, only attending 5 or so games (each one a loss where Reading didn't score) I'm not sure I really understood what was going on but I knew that people were angry and I knew Elm Park had a certain type of magic to it.

2008 was agonising, but at least we took enough of a side down with us to compete the next year. It was hard to take because the team were good enough to stay up. An 8 game losing streak really didn't help - I think we beat Liverpool earlier that season too, and had some other decent wins?

2013 has been shit and we knew it was going to happen back in February. So the worst for me in terms of performance, but it doesn't exactly hurt to go down because it was so inevitable.

[royalZILLAAA]

I find it mildly interesting that, since 1983, we've had relegations after 5 years, 10 years, 10 years, and 5 years again.

If we're doing 'palindromic' relegations then we should be relegation-free for the next 6 years, which is fairly comforting to know. Could be lucrative if we bounce back up this year. Can't wait for our 5 year stint in the Prem.

[Ian Royal]

Only there for the last three, but 98 was worst for me. It was supposed to be a time of growth and looking forward and instead we finally slipped out back into our natural home.

2008 was nasty, but also still strangely ok in a way as we went out with a 4-0 win and it seemed like we'd still taken a big step forward and could make the step up again.

2013 is pretty meaningless in comparison. We've known it was going to happen so long it's more of a relief its official tbh. And we've already taken some of the steps to try and put it right next season.

[Ark Royal]

Also seen them all, but there was something depressingly inevitable about this season.

At the start of the season I tried desperately to convince myself that we would not make the same mistake twice in investing in the talent required to stay in the Prem; but, as the saying goes: those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

This year has been awful because I've never seen us go down with such a whimper before, but in some ways the fact that I took relegation for granted by September made it easy.

1998, for me was the hardest.

We didn't have a great team, but there looked no danger at all in around February. As I remember it, we had 39 points from 29 games. Going down from that position looked almost impossible.

We then nosedived like never before, losing 15 of the last 17 games, and in many we looked so shambolic it made you want to spit.

There was real Wolves-style anger at how that season ended. A home pitch invasion after a shocking display against Port Vale, thrashed and made to look farcical by the club then bottom of the league. The further anger spilling over as we got thrashed at Oxford on a miserable Tuesday night. Right to the end, when in front of a sold out Elm Park for its last ever game, we played a barely interested Norwich team and only managed one shot in the whole match.

[andrew1957]

2008 was the worst for me as I never thought we would go down that season (8 cup finals to go).

This season had a sense of inevitability about it. Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong this season and I accepted relegation was inevitable long ago. I am gutted Brian was sacked - as he deserved better and he was by no means soley responsible for the debacle. His sacking just left a sour taste on a completely disastrous season.

Looking forward to the Championship in all honesty - as this season has just been horrible and no one at the club – players, management, owners or even number 13 come out of it with any credit at all.

[Waylenstreet]

2008.
The outcome for 2013 was set inevitably by December 2012..
But in 2008 there was a real sense of what might have been.

[AirRaidSiren]

97/98, I went twice to Elm park that season, don't remember too much about the Portsmouth game at home but Huddersfield at home was diabolical, although I remember Swindon away and we kicked arse! My first time Swindon away.

For me 2008, we had a good team and as far as I'm concerned, the players were far too complacent thinking there were worse teams around us and we'd be ok. How wrong they were and some of them should be ashamed of themselves thinking they were big time charlie's. It was heart breaking seeing us under achieve after a glorious year the season before. My highlight that season was the 0-0 draw at Old Trafford. Fantastic day out with my family.

Close behind, this season. Total shit. Haven't seen us play this bad ever at the Mad Stad. Awful. Can't wait for this season to end.

[AthleticoSpizz]

1977, everything about us was grey and bleak

[E&5]

87-88 - the first time always hurts the worst

That's what she said

[Mid Sussex Royal]

1970/71 was my first season supporting and we went down on my birthday which wasn't great - think it was a mid week game played AFTER the final scheduled Saturday - they'd never let that happen now.

1976/77 - we had a rank bad side and were down as soon as Friday was sold. Main memory from that season was Portsmouth fans causing havoc at Elm Park.

1982/83 - the worst for me - Exeter, who were our rivals were away to Newport who kicked off 15 mins late, we won our last game at home to Wrexham and looked safe at 5pm only for Exeter to score right at the end to send us down - 53 points too which is a lot to go down with. Kerry Dixon was leading scorer in the league playing for a relegated side and he missed 3 months with a pelvic injury!

1988 - looked down for most of season following selling Senior, Bremner and Wood in the summer - Simod Cup made up somewhat

1998 - Prob second worst - we beat Birmingham I think in Feb and looked safe - then lost around 10 in a row - and it was last season at EP.

2008 - It was a bad one but we went on a terrible run after xmas and I feared the worst - Fulham home game lost it for us and I always had a feeling they'd win at Portsmouth last day.

2013 - we've been down since Wigan and Villa defeats and struggled all season apart from one month.

[Biscuit_Boy]

I've seen all bloody 7 relegations and none of them are good...............except for the constant delusion that the next year we'll come straight back up.

Next season we will change that...we coming straight back up