Your first memory as Reading supporter...

[Royal With Cheese]

Walking up to the ground, hearing the roar, the fans, the tannoy playing Mouldy Old Dough, the blue and white scarfs, the aroma of tobacco, buying a programme for about 10p.

Bring it back I say - great tune.

[Leamington Royal]

4-3 Div 4 goal fest vs Exeter City was enough to hook me c.1975, aged 8. Dad took me and left me sitting on the wall on the South Bank with all the other younger kids while the Dads stood on the terraces. Mouldy Old Dough conjures up only one image in my head - Elm Park.

Still sit with my Dad today!

[papereyes]

1-0 against Tranmere and a frozen mars bar

[Big Foot]

First game was August 1995 vs Millwall. Remember Gooding being sent off.

Yeah think I remember this - the infamous wrench being hurled at Shepherd. Gooding scored with a shot that hit the underside of the bar IIRC and Millwall had a big German striker calle Uwe Fuchs and Alex Rae scored the winner. This was back in the days when 'Wall played in green and white quarters.

My first memory was going to Wembley for the Simod Cup Final - downhill from then on.

First game was August 1995 vs Millwall. Remember Gooding being sent off.

That was the night where Simon Sheppard narrowly missed being hit by a spanner thrown by Millwall fans. Good job they didn't throw it at him.....he'd only have dropped it. I remember that moron Mick 'The Pr*ck' McCarthy asking in his usual paranoid manner in his media interview after the game how we could be so sure that the spanner was thrown by a Millwall supporter, despite the fact that it had clearly been thrown from the Town End


Memories from my first game include a pitch invasion at the end which I longed to join in with but which was deemed unsuitable for a six year old. Reading had just beaten Derby 1-0 to all but sew up the 1986 Division 3 title.

Correct chaps. And my Mum and Dad wonder what happened to a nice boy like me

[Horsham Royal]

Sitting with my dad in the North Stand watching us wallop Hull 3-0 (78/79 ?)
My dad as usual having a go at someone for swearing ...

[PEARCEY]

Decided to support Reading back in 1972 when as a little lad I saw the highlights of the game against Arsenal in the FA Cup on The Big Match whilst I was in South Wales visiting my Gran...we only got bloody Star Socceer with Hugh Johns where I lived and the Big Match was always more glamorous. It started from there and the divorce still hasn't gone through.

[Archie's penalty]

When my mate moved to Lancaster from Reading in 1988. Earliest memory was leafing through the Rothmans guide in the 1988-9 season. I think we came 18th that year. What a lovely guide that was.

[Royal_Delight]

First game of the premiership season. As a fairly new supporter then, saw the magnificent comeback against Boro and from that day onwards, came to live and love Reading FC.

[under the tin]

A lot of nostalgia on here recently, so here's my bit.

There is a personal sense of "full circle" for me this weekend, as the first game I saw was home to Aston Villa in 1971/2.
How times have changed, as back then, Villa were grubbing around in the third division, yet Birmingham City were top tier, regularly pulling in
40 000 odd. I wonder what happened to the Blues' fanbase ?

My dad used to take me, and we stood in the town end. No segregation then.
I saw all of that season from behind the goal.
The following season, (we'd been relegated, by Villa) I went to a mid week game on my own,as my dad worked nights.
I met up with a schoolmate, and we decided to pay 5p, and go through the transfer gate, to see what it would be like to watch the game from "under the tin".

That decision was a watershed moment in my life, because going through that turnstile changed me from being merely a passive spectator to being someone who felt a sense of belonging, a part of a movement. I became a fan of my beloved football team, and that love endures today.
I still look back on those days with a fond smile. Levi jacket, doc martens, scarves around neck and right wrist.

Bertie Mee said to Bill Shank-ly
Have you heard of the North Bank High-bu-ry
Shanks said no I don't think so
But I've heard of the Reddin South Bank
Na na na na na na na na
Na na na na na na na na
Na na na na na na na na
Na na na na na na na na
We are the Reddin South Bank

[Maquisard]

My love for the club started thanks to ITV ironically considering how much I hate them.

I was eight years old at the time I think and this was in the days when ITV/Meridian used to show Division One games on Sunday afternoon. We were playing Wolves at Elm Park (Right opposite my house) and we won the game 4-2. I don't remember much else now from the game but that's where my love started.

I remember watching that game -- can still remember the surreal awe that my team was on tv, like the big clubs. And a colleague who supported Wolves had to buy me a beer thanks to the result!

Memories from my first game include a pitch invasion at the end which I longed to join in with but which was deemed unsuitable for a six year old. Reading had just beaten Derby 1-0 to all but sew up the 1986 Division 3 title.

Pitch invasions after victories over Derby seem to be a theme for Reading (5-0, 5-0, 5-0, 5-0 hahahahaha)

Walking up to the ground, hearing the roar, the fans, the tannoy playing Mouldy Old Dough, the blue and white scarfs, the aroma of tobacco, buying a programme for about 10p.

Bring it back I say - great tune.

First record I ever owned, sigh.

My earliest memories of Reading FC are simply the floodlights of Elm Park -- we moved to Reading when I was 18 months old and lived on Tilehurst Road at first, so my view of the floodlights are from adult-knee level. I still get nostalgic when I'm visiting other towns and see small football pitches with their floodlights. Can't really remember when I realised I was a supporter, it was just taken for granted that you support your local club. I probably only became passionate when we moved away, though.

[ankeny]

My first was a trip to Elm Park in 1970/71 stood on the Southbank but couldnt see a lot...After that the seats in Norfolk Road near the announcers in 73,just loved it...the banter and the games I was hooked then in 75-76 cycled in from Pangbourne to be part of Charley Hurleys Blue and White Army, a bag of chips on the way home and getting scared to death cycling past the spooky Purley Dip where the chicken farm used to be and wild dogs barked

Yes,same here 70/71 season,up till then I had no interest in sport only sex and music(Well it was the sixties and we invented both)but my boss badgered me into going and it was Reading v Gillingham ending in a 0 0 draw but I was hooked.Pity we were relegated by an own goal at Villa Park that season followed by our lowest period as a Reading supporter but then we played the mighty Hayes,one of the biggest turning points(Well ,perhaps just for me)in our history.We signed God himself,Robin Friday.

[PEARCEY]

Thats good re your dad.
I loved Mouldy Old Dough as a kid and along with Blockbuster was the first single I had.