1993-1995 vs 2005-2007

[Green]

Nothing - absolutely nothing - beats 2005-07.

agreed, but you would say that, wouldn't you.

If only we could go somewhere to read more about that period

[Winston Smith]

93-95 - the fans had more of a connection to the team

that as well.

cheering on RFC from a rammed, piss soaked southbank where each goal felt like you could lose your life in the jubilant crush > BOOM BOOM BOOMing on RFC from the stadium of lolz seats with rumblestick and songsheet in hand and a belmont on a microphone telling me to make some noise.

[The Sum of the Parts]

93-95 - the fans had more of a connection to the team

that as well.

cheering on RFC from a rammed, piss soaked southbank where each goal felt like you could lose your life in the jubilant crush > BOOM BOOM BOOMing on RFC from the stadium of lolz seats with rumblestick and songsheet in hand and a belmont on a microphone telling me to make some noise.

That applies equally to 97/98 - which was one of my favourite seasons for many reasons, even though the second half of the season was utterly dismal on the pitch. Really enjoyed it in terms of excitement, drama and experience, though.

But I think we're all maybe answering different questions here. "What season did you personally enjoy most?" ≠ "What was the best Reading team?"

[Maneki Neko]

That applies equally to 97/98 - which was one of my favourite seasons for many reasons, even though the second half of the season was utterly dismal on the pitch. Really enjoyed it in terms of excitement, drama and experience, though.

IN! for the 97-98 season being one of my very favourites.



was basically what made me fall in love wih RFC.

success and good football are over rated.

[The Sum of the Parts]

That applies equally to 97/98 - which was one of my favourite seasons for many reasons, even though the second half of the season was utterly dismal on the pitch. Really enjoyed it in terms of excitement, drama and experience, though.

IN! for the 97-98 season being one of my very favourites.



was basically what made me fall in love wih RFC.

success and good football are over rated.

Agreed absolutely. Let's be honest, if success and good football are what you crave why would you start supporting Reading? That's not what it's about...

It;'s about drama, passion, excitement, the ability to laugh when the team comes up with ever more dismal performances - and because of that, when highs - like 2005-07 - do come along they're even higher!

[tidus_mi2]

I think everything about Brian's spell as manager before the Premier League was thrilling, games could constantly go back and forth, we generally got positive results. My favourite game ever is probably the 4-3 win at Forest, that was ridiculous.

[Maneki Neko]

That applies equally to 97/98 - which was one of my favourite seasons for many reasons, even though the second half of the season was utterly dismal on the pitch. Really enjoyed it in terms of excitement, drama and experience, though.

IN! for the 97-98 season being one of my very favourites.



was basically what made me fall in love wih RFC.

success and good football are over rated.

Agreed absolutely. Let's be honest, if success and good football are what you crave why would you start supporting Reading? That's not what it's about...

It;'s about drama, passion, excitement, the ability to laugh when the team comes up with ever more dismal performances - and because of that, when highs - like 2005-07 - do come along they're even higher!

Yes yes!

Gallows humour, and emotional roller coaster rides.

When 05-07 finally came, I have to admit it just felt surreal. And a little bit odd

[Jano]

93-95 for me. My first real experience as a supporter was as a youngster of about 12 at Elm Park in the early 90's. Sneaking 5 of us kids in on one south bank card for a fiver each was great, telling our mates we'd gone home past suicide alley, which, for the life of me I have no idea if that was actually what it was called, wherever the home and away fans met after the games for a punch up it seemed, was great.

As for the football, the Mark McGhee era has always stood out for me as the benchmark, and one we've very rarely come close to matching.

[Half Biscuit]

Exciting times, ultimate success (2005-07) > Exciting times, ultimate failure (1993-95)

[General B]

I enjoyed the Coppell stuff, but I would happily donate a kidney to enjoy football the way I enjoyed it in 1993-95.

Having said that, both seem like a different era compared to paying £30 for the privilege of watching 11 faceless, Ferrari driving 22 year olds stroll about with gloves on moaning at each other while a friendless virgin bangs a drum for 90 minutes.

[From Despair To Where?]

Hard to choose.

2005-2007 was kind of part of the long term plan, ok, maybe not as spectacularly as it turned out but it was the logical conclusion of the move to the new stadium and all that. Admittedly, it was nice to have that aura of invincibility, going into every game expecting to win rather than hoping.

1993-1995 - We were little old Reading, nobody expected us to achieve what we did but we did it playing exceptional football and, although we won it quite comfortably in the end, it was a right old battle with Stockport and Port Vale for most of the season. Also, as a fan, you felt a part of the the team, like your contribution absolutely mattered and lets be honest, a bouncing Elm Park on a Friday night against a promotion rival pisses on the best the Madejski can muster

I was at uni in Manchester 1992-95 so whilst I got to 7 or 8 home games, I was predominantly an away supporter, getting to every game north of Birmingham. As a fan, there was something quite special about travelling to some godforsaken northern outpost, finding the same small, hardy bunch of souls in blue and white hoops in whatever random pub you picked, going absolutely mental for 2hrs then the farewells and "see you at Blackpool" or wherever the next away game was as we all melted away into the night. There was a sort of kinship to it.

I went to 80% of the games 2005-07 but it wasn't quite the same, Maybe the expectation numbed the excitement, maybe being a decade older and enjoying the trappings of a more well to do lifestyle made it a more comfortable experience or maybe football as a whole had become a more formulaic and corporate experience but I think I enjoyed 93-95 more. There was still a rawness to it and it felt like we were participating rather than spectating.

[tmesis]

On purely football terms I'd go for 2005-2007.

The 1994 title winners were a great team that played some great football, but they were nowhere near as dominant as the 106 team. It was almost unreal to watch a team so clearly a complete class above the rest of the league. Not even finishing 8th, way above what I was even hoping for, topped that.

Clinching promotion at Leicester was the only time in watching football that I could feel myself welling up, with an emotional lump in my throat. Nothing* matched that for emotion, for feeling pride in the club and team.


The 1994 title has everything else, the obvious Elm Park factor, and a set of players you felt an affinity with.

If there was a time machine, and you could reassemble both teams at the peak for a match, I'm pretty sure the 106 team would win, but I couldn't say who I'd want to win.


* the two nearest, for me anyway, were the Simod Cup Final win in 1988, and the year before, finishing 13th in the old 2nd division, meaning the best season in the club's history.

[Nameless]

I'm just happy to have been around for all of them !
I even like the lulls in between. If we didn't have the crap seasons to balance the highs we'd be called Man Utd and we'd all go crazy if we missed out on Champions League football once every few decades.
I always say that I view following reading is like reading a book. Every season is a chapter and if you take a chapter away you no longer have a book that makes sense.

But if I had to make a choice. I'd take the 106 era. That day at Leicester is absolutely unique in our history. It can never be repeated. And I was there......

[sandman]

Difficult.

93-94 was my first season so that and the following season has a special place in my heart. We played some great football, had a great goalscorer and it was the beginning of the massive strides forward the club has made in the past 20+ years. From a personal pov it was the only season where we had three generations of the family going to matches together as my Granddad was unable to attend regularly after that season.

05/07 Came out of nowhere, I remember looking at us in the warm up before the Spurs pre-season in 05 and thinking a squad that size had no chance of gaining promotion. There were teams turning up at the Madejski with world class players and we just brushed them aside with a team consisting of former shelf stackers, unknown Irishmen and former Leyton Orient reserves. Those seasons would have been special anyway because they were seasons of firsts, the season we got promoted to the top flight was pretty much the perfect season. I'm still not quite sure those seasons weren't a dream.

Don't buy the "it felt like fans were closer to the players" bit. Apart from Lita the 05-07 team were a pretty genuine bunch. The Irish lads were no trouble at all, got on with their jobs and were grateful for the opportunity given to them. Kits and his vocal opposition to the follies of the modern game. The large personalities of Harper and Little, be shocked if you couldn't have a laugh and a joke with Blakey. They were all unique personalities, how many other clubs can claim their Goalkeeper as a Gun toting, Coach fan belt fixing, Slipknot listening, Jedi master?

Can't separate them apart from on one criteria, no supporter in our entire history before that season saw the club reach that sort of high and it will never be repeated here again. We will have successes again and we'll have disappointments again as well but those of us who were there will be the only people to have that experience.

[Kitsondinho]

05-07 for me.....mainly because 93-95 is forever tainted by the sight of Kits Snr crying his eyes out at Wembley. Some bald, drunk Bolton fan tried to cheer him up too....

[marcusopp]

Hislop/ Francis
Bernal/ Hopkins
Kerr
Williams
Wdowczyk
Taylor
Gilkes
Dillon/ Osborn
Gooding
Lovell
Quinn

What a side .
The Mad Stad is good, but Elm Park was shitastic! A dreadful facility, but a great ground. £1.50 entry. A proper kit, which stayed the same for a couple of seasons. Jeff Hopkins!

[From Despair To Where?]

Don't buy the "it felt like fans were closer to the players" bit. Apart from Lita the 05-07 team were a pretty genuine bunch. The Irish lads were no trouble at all, got on with their jobs and were grateful for the opportunity given to them. Kits and his vocal opposition to the follies of the modern game. The large personalities of Harper and Little, be shocked if you couldn't have a laugh and a joke with Blakey. They were all unique personalities, how many other clubs can claim their Goalkeeper as a Gun toting, Coach fan belt fixing, Slipknot listening, Jedi master?

I can only speak for myself but I wasn't talking about the players as individuals and personalities, I was talking about closeness to the players as a team on the pitch. As a fan you felt that you could genuinely make a difference. There were less all seater stadia so you were literally on top of the pitch, standing crowds were more organic, there was an ebb and flow on the terraces that matched the action on the pitch, That closeness meant you felt you could lift the team and drive them on, you felt more involved in the game. The white line around the pitch felt less of a dividing line between the fans and players 20 years ago.

Also, lets be honest, the 2005-06 team could have played every game behind closed doors and still wiped the floor with the league.

[Emmer Green Royal]

It has to be 2005/07 for the way we won the Championship and the unexpected success of our first top tier season with basically the same squad. But that Friday night game against Bolton was special.

[Brosef Stalin]

This question needs to be rephrased....

Would you like to 10-15 years younger and relive your glory days? (+ bolt on something about football)

[Rudolph Hucker]

The style of football McGhee got them playing evolved over a couple of seasons and it was the first time we'd ever had any sort of media attention apart from a couple of record breaking moments under Ian Branfoot. The 106 season came from nowhere, everyone just clicked and I'd say that at least half of that team had the best season of their careers that year.
For sheer size of squad and a feeling of togetherness between players and supporters I'd say '93-95 just shades it.
It might be a long time til we see another season like either of those two again.