Whereas at the start of the season there was that sense of uncertainty that has been replaced with a feeling that Reading can hold their own and therefore you inevitably start to think of cup runs, mid table finishes, more glamorous players coming to us....
and its then that you realise that your life as a Reading fan as you have known it for so long - the hope, the excitement of playing a big team in the cup, the inability to imagine what it is like to watch a Reading match in the premiership has gone. and if we establish ourselves then that feeling will not be replaced. I dont know what it is like to be a supporter of a team who does a Charlton or a Bolton and expects to avoid flirtations with relegation and hopes to finish in the top half. Equally I dont know what it likes to be a yoyo club - but what I do know is that I'll never see reading in the same way and that feeling will increase the more we play in the Premiership. We've lost our Premiership virginity slowly and surely - even if we head back to where we came from.
I love being a Reading fan now and I hope Reading stay in the Premiership forever - but I wouldnt want to swap the experience I've had of being a Reading fan that thought 8,000 was a good crowd at Elm Park, that got really excited when Sky showed our game on tv, that allowed you to get nods of approval for supporting a local team not in the Premierships. But its only now - when we've proved we can do well - that I've realised how we can never go back - no matter what happens our bar of expectation will be set that little bit higher.
Does anyone else feel this - or did everyone get on the bandwagon circa 2001!
![Wink :wink:](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)