Your first memory as Reading supporter...

[West_Reading]

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.

[Ark Royal]

Staying at my nan's house in Rutland Road waiting for my parents and uncles to come back from the game. We could tell from the roars of the crowd whether Reading had won.

[FiNeRaIn]

Standing in the sunderland end at Elm park when Reading won 4-0. Guy next to me and my dad said he'd had enough, hopped up the fence and jumped onto the pitch, grabbed the ball and whacked it in the net. Q a shit load of laughs. Reading fans response..

" 4-1 to the blue and whites".Brilliant.

My dad and I came back ever since.

[SLAMMED]

I can't remember the score (2 or 3-0?), but I'm pretty sure the first game I went to was a win against Man City in 1998. Even though I was only 7 at the time, I saw how much it meant to people just winning a game, and I wanted to be part of it.

Didn't get my first season ticket until 2004.

Hooked ever since.

[SHORT AND CURLY]

Catching the train to Reading. Nicking the toilet roll for throwing on the pitch later on

Walking from the station, passing the Butts centre along the Oxford Road. looking for the floodlights, Getting a shiver down my spine as they came into sight, buying a bag of chips on the Oxford Road.

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.
Paying peanuts to stand on the Southbank and watch my heroes in front of around 5,000 hardy souls.

Dont get the same buzz at all these days.

[Stranded]

Before I actually went to my first game, I would often sit on the grass bank at the top of Colliers Way (by the flats) and listen to the crowd noises. Either that or I'd be at my nans and wait excitedly to see the Reading FT score.

[Sun Tzu]

First memory is my first game when I was 7. Family had no football history, for some reason Dad took me and 2 friends for a birthday treat. Not stopped going since and it's been a long, long time now ! Still remember the sounds, smell, atmosphere of Block E (I think ) of the North Stand. In particular the sound you made if you banged your feet on the wooden floor. The singing from the South Bank (in those days it was under the clock that made the noise) made a big impression.

[URZZZZZZZZ]

First memory of Reading is before I started supporting them.

Moved to Sandhurst on 29th May 1995 (know the date?) when I was 6 years old. Not really understanding why, my Step Dad who was from the area unpacked the TV first dropped everything and began watching this game of football. He was never a big football fan but he was very keen to see this one. I remember a sense of dissapointment at the end of the match but shrugging it off fairly quickly to unpack the van!

First experience of a game was in 1999 (?) Wycombe at home. Went with the whole family and been hooked ever since, all STH's now and have been for the last 8 years.

[The Real Sandhurst Royal]

Short and Curley wrote:

Catching the train to Reading. Nicking the toilet roll for throwing on the pitch later on

Walking from the station, passing the Butts centre along the Oxford Road. looking for the floodlights, Getting a shiver down my spine as they came into sight, buying a bag of chips on the Oxford Road.

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.
Paying peanuts to stand on the Southbank and watch my heroes in front of around 5,000 hardy souls.

Dont get the same buzz at all these days.

Great memory Short and Curley. Your memory brings back so many for me as I regularly made the trip to Elm Park by train from Crowthorne to Reading in the 70's and 80's.

[Big Foot]

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

[Winchester Royal]

Reading 0-1 Sheff Utd. Nov 4th '97.

I remember how green the pitch was and how everybody seemed so angry.

[Ashfordroyal]

`cant remember the year, probably 73-74 ish, Wagstaff & Dixon playing.
The mainstand at Elm Park didnt have a turnstile, just some big doors I remember, nobody checked my next door neighbours season ticket, he just walked in without paying for me!
Had a Bovril & some fruit pastiles, remember nothing about the game or who we were playing.

[floyd__streete]

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.

[PlasticRoyale]

My first was against Norwich just as the HST's kicked in didnt want to be one of those JCL's who go to game's just cos there in the prem so fought id rough it out in the Championship for a few games

[Maguire]

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.

[fester_royal]

i was going to Reading games a few years before this happened but theyre all lost in the blur of childhood memories.
my first clear memory is of Bobby M getting a right good smashing (i think that ended his carreer.. any factitions around?) , i think it was against Bolton? infront of the away end? and jimmy quinn having to go in goal and being supereb. everyone around me was singing songs about quinn and as a little boy that just stuck in my mind. i remember going home and singing loads of Reading songs for ages

no idea what the final score was

[Thankgodisfriday]

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

[Focher]

My first proper memory was when Bristol City ripped up the concrete on the way end and started lobbing rocks at the police and home fans in 84 (???)

Happy daze

[Row Z Royal]

Uwe Hartenberger hitting the post against Port Vale, with me thinking he'd scored because all I could see over the wall was the net ripple.

[Gordons Cumming]

I can't remember my first game ( Between Sept & November ) 1969.

All that sticks in my mind are goalmouth scrambles and a Reading boot burying the ball in the net.
Reading had a lot of short players playing for them then, also.