Your first game

[Ark Royal]

Home to Oxford 1966/7. Pat Terry gave us the lead but Oxford won 2-1.

11th February 1967
Reading 1 (Terry)
Oxford Utd 2
Att: 13956
Wilkie, Bacuzzi, Meldrum, Yard, Dean, Chapman, Scarrott, Silvester, Terry, Thornhill, Harris

[Ark Royal]

Reading v Norwich 1954 (?)
Reading scored 4 and I was hooked.
There were no subs of course,Blackman scored (But he wasn't a black man)and I stood at the Town End at a time when there was no segregation.
Didn't have enough money for a Bovril and there were railway sleepers (IIRC)as part of the terracing.
If there weren't any railway sleepers there definitely were some at the Tilehurst End.
Old men probably wore a hat and there would have been no women there-a few in the stands perhaps but not amongst the riff-raff.
There was no singing and the Whitley(?) Brass Band played at half-time.

27th March 1954
Reading 4 (Quinlan 2, Docherty, Blackman)
Norwich City 4
Att: 13413
Grieve, Penford, Mansell, McLaren, Reeves, Leach, Simpson, Hinshelwood, Blackman, Docherty, Quinlan

[Ark Royal]

August 1971

Home to Chester in front of 4,000 or so. We won 1-0 and Terry Bell scored with a diving header at the Tilehurst End. I went with my Dad who is a palarse fan and still is. I was 8 at the time, stood on the halfway line in the South Bank right by the wall. I remember asking my Dad if there were going to be any action replays

I was 8 FFS!

21st August 1971
Reading 1 (Bell)
Chester 0
Att: 4157
Death, Dixon, Butler, James, Wagstaff B., Harley, Cumming, Chappell, Bell, Wagstaff A., Habbin

[Ark Royal]

my first game was in 1990, i was 3-4 and i remember very little about it. i seem to remember it being ipswich town but not sure thats correct. all i remember is loving the atmosphere and the singing. i insisted my dad took me when ever he was off work after that. 20 years later and im still going with my dad every game

first real memory would be quinn in goal (bolton at home i believe) and doing a blinding job, i think that was the game bobby 'm' got smashed to pieces if memory serves?

This one?

24th November 1990
Reading 2 (Moran, Senior)
Southend Utd 4
Att: 3927
Francis, Jones, Gilkes, McPherson, Streete (Moran), Williams, Gooding, Taylor (Senior), Maskell, Conroy, Leworthy

[fruits]

Thanks Ark Royal , for posting the team for the Reading -Wrexham game. That was quite a team I remember Sylvan Anderton was transferred to Chelsea a bit later for the magnificent sum of 15,000gbp, that was quite a big fee then. Some of the other names formed the basis of the team for many years Mclaren, Bomber Reeves, Evans, Spiers, Wheeler. David Meeson in goal swapped with David Jones every season for a couple of years. The only player I can´t remember much about is Leach can any club historian help me out please?

Jimmy Whitehouse was a fantastic player, if he had been bigger and stronger am sure he could and would have played for a top team in Division 1 as it was then. Remember he came back to Elm Park playing for Coventry who had Jimmy Hill as manager, he played a blinder certainly scored 1goal maybe 2,we ended up drawing 2-2.

I remember going to an "A" team game, think I was about 12 or 13 at the time after the game I bought the evening paper to see how the 1st team had done at Brighton, David Jones who was our reserve goalie at the time drove past , stopped and asked me how we had done , before I told him the score I said that he should be back in the first team as we had lost 8-3. He laughed ,thanked me and drove off before I could ask him for an autograph.

[Ark Royal]

Thanks Ark Royal , for posting the team for the Reading -Wrexham game. That was quite a team I remember Sylvan Anderton was transferred to Chelsea a bit later for the magnificent sum of 15,000gbp, that was quite a big fee then. Some of the other names formed the basis of the team for many years Mclaren, Bomber Reeves, Evans, Spiers, Wheeler. David Meeson in goal swapped with David Jones every season for a couple of years. The only player I can´t remember much about is Leach can any club historian help me out please?

Jimmy Whitehouse was a fantastic player, if he had been bigger and stronger am sure he could and would have played for a top team in Division 1 as it was then. Remember he came back to Elm Park playing for Coventry who had Jimmy Hill as manager, he played a blinder certainly scored 1goal maybe 2,we ended up drawing 2-2.

I remember going to an "A" team game, think I was about 12 or 13 at the time after the game I bought the evening paper to see how the 1st team had done at Brighton, David Jones who was our reserve goalie at the time drove past , stopped and asked me how we had done , before I told him the score I said that he should be back in the first team as we had lost 8-3. He laughed ,thanked me and drove off before I could ask him for an autograph.

Brian Leach b. Reading 20th July 1932
Reading 1952-1956
Apps: FL 108 FAC 7 Other 3
Goals: FL 1
Next club: Headington Utd

[Ark Royal]

Thanks Ark Royal , for posting the team for the Reading -Wrexham game. That was quite a team I remember Sylvan Anderton was transferred to Chelsea a bit later for the magnificent sum of 15,000gbp, that was quite a big fee then. Some of the other names formed the basis of the team for many years Mclaren, Bomber Reeves, Evans, Spiers, Wheeler. David Meeson in goal swapped with David Jones every season for a couple of years. The only player I can´t remember much about is Leach can any club historian help me out please?

Jimmy Whitehouse was a fantastic player, if he had been bigger and stronger am sure he could and would have played for a top team in Division 1 as it was then. Remember he came back to Elm Park playing for Coventry who had Jimmy Hill as manager, he played a blinder certainly scored 1goal maybe 2,we ended up drawing 2-2.

I remember going to an "A" team game, think I was about 12 or 13 at the time after the game I bought the evening paper to see how the 1st team had done at Brighton, David Jones who was our reserve goalie at the time drove past , stopped and asked me how we had done , before I told him the score I said that he should be back in the first team as we had lost 8-3. He laughed ,thanked me and drove off before I could ask him for an autograph.

My uncles raved about Jimmy Whitehouse (and Sylvan Anderton). They were, by all accounts, some players. Coventry were eventual champions in 63/64. Reading finished sixth. That game:

January 11th 1964
Reading 2 (Kerr, Thornhill)
Coventry City 2
Att: 17102
Wilkie, Walker, Meldrum, Evans, Spiers, Thornhill, Wheeler, Kerr, Tindall, Allen, Jones

[Gordons Cumming]

fruits and Ark Royal are making me feel young again!

[From Despair To Where?]

v Tranmere 1983/84. We won 1-0 with a late Mark White free kick. Our last home game in Division 4.

[Ark Royal]

v Tranmere 1983/84. We won 1-0 with a late Mark White free kick. Our last home game in Division 4.

7th May 1984
Reading 1 (White)
Tranmere Rovers 0
Att: 7234
Judge, Williams, White, Price, Hicks, Wood, Duncan, Horrix, Senior, Sanchez, Crown (Beavon)

[Fluff]

V Bradford City september/octoberish 1978

3-0 to us, iirc 2 goals for John Alexander and one for Pat Earles

Attendance around 7,500

[AthleticoSpizz]

not sure

early to mid 1970's

remember Sunday lunchtime kick-offs (to beat the power-cuts)

remember Ces Podd playing for Bradford

remember Andy Alleyne playing for Reading

remember beating Exeter 4-3 ( with their goalkeeper looking a lot like Bob Wilson..................and his name being Bob Wilson.............even tho' it wasn't THE Bob Wilson)

remember seeing THAT GOAL by Percy Freeman (understated because of Robins soon-to-come goal)

remember seeing George Duck in the FA Cup at EP

remember the Aldershot games.....the police lorry (a Bedford bullnosed RL for the pedants) full of local retards parked right by the Southbank turnstiles....the occupants making lots of noise and rocking it around

remember the unsegregated EP

Charlie Hurley era

[Franchise FC]

Percy Freeman - remember him ploughing through on a very wet evening for the reserves and the opposition defenders falling over themselves to get out of the way.

Now he was a player

[ankeny]

Percy Freeman - remember him ploughing through on a very wet evening for the reserves and the opposition defenders falling over themselves to get out of the way.

Now he was a player

Saw Percy play in the reserves v Spurs.Spurs had a guy called Jimmy Neighbour playing for them and he actualy pollaxed Perc and knocked him out.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Percy's "THAT GOAL" came from pretty much the half-way line on a grassless wintertime Elm Park pitch

sadly, it was Division 4, there were no cameras/mobiles/videos to capture it ....and ( a very big imho) it was better than Robin Fridays "THAT GOAL"

[Franchise FC]

Percy Freeman - remember him ploughing through on a very wet evening for the reserves and the opposition defenders falling over themselves to get out of the way.

Now he was a player

Saw Percy play in the reserves v Spurs.Spurs had a guy called Jimmy Neighbour playing for them and he actualyl pollaxed Perc and knocked him out.

Jimmy Neighbour was only about the size of Steve Coppell and Peter Taylor (and not combined). How the hell did he knock out big Percy ?

[ankeny]

Percy's "THAT GOAL" came from pretty much the half-way line on a grassless wintertime Elm Park pitch

sadly, it was Division 4, there were no cameras/mobiles/videos to capture it ....and ( a very big imho) it was better than Robin Fridays "THAT GOAL"

How could you..

[AthleticoSpizz]

Percy's "THAT GOAL" came from pretty much the half-way line on a grassless wintertime Elm Park pitch

sadly, it was Division 4, there were no cameras/mobiles/videos to capture it ....and ( a very big imho) it was better than Robin Fridays "THAT GOAL"

How could you..

it was a very big "IMHO"

[ankeny]

Percy Freeman - remember him ploughing through on a very wet evening for the reserves and the opposition defenders falling over themselves to get out of the way.

Now he was a player

Saw Percy play in the reserves v Spurs.Spurs had a guy called Jimmy Neighbour playing for them and he actualyl pollaxed Perc and knocked him out.

Jimmy Neighbour was only about the size of Steve Coppell and Peter Taylor (and not combined). How the hell did he knock out big Percy ?

Unbelievable I know,but it happened!

[Franchise FC]

Saw Percy play in the reserves v Spurs.Spurs had a guy called Jimmy Neighbour playing for them and he actualyl pollaxed Perc and knocked him out.

Jimmy Neighbour was only about the size of Steve Coppell and Peter Taylor (and not combined). How the hell did he knock out big Percy ?

Unbelievable I know,but it happened!

Not very neighbourly - taking a truncheon on the pitch. Have the laws of the game been changed since then to stop that sort of thing ?