I'm officially bored of travelling away with Reading

[shadesrwrf]

In a word, yes. Arsenal away was one for the once-a-season away supporters. Not far to travel, new ground, big club, 3 o'clock Saturday kick-off. Perfect.

Then why, when I go to more than one away game per season, couldn't I get a ticket?

[West Stand Man]

if you studied sport and society (sociology) you would be on my knowledge level

couldn't get that low if I tried.

doesnt suprise me coming from someone who sits in the west stand

I'll take that as a compliment. Thank you.

[Seal]

Having witnessed first hand the supporters of Swansea making their way back from the Den on Saturday afternoon, I am very glad our support is a mixture of lads, kids and older folk. I could think of nothing worse than being hounded around London in a constant police escort and then being frog-marched by 60 odd police dressed in riot gear back on a train home

Agreed but I think there is a middle ground somewhere in between...

Of course there is but I don't think you can dictate what your support is like, especially when away from home it's been nothing more than average in recent history. We have had our odd moment in terms of numbers, Newcastle away astonished me as not only did we take a large number up there on a cold Wednesday night in December we also had a larger percentage of those that were there for the day/night as well as the football. It would be great from my perspective if more games were like this overall, I couldn't really careless really as long as I have a crack with a good few beers beforehand and some mates in tow. I'm not there for other people

Of course. My priority is who I'm with as well, and having been to one game on my own when my mates were refused entry for being too lashed, I can speak from experience that it is who you are with who makes it!

However your reference to Newcastle seems to indicate that like me, your overall away game experience is improved when there is a great away crowd. I can't see how, as clearly a passionate follower of RFC, you could dispute this. Therefore to say you couldn't care less seems folly.

I know you can't pick and choose the make up of our support, and I don't think that was what JSC was getting at in his original post, nor is it what bothers me. It is more the attitude pf some members of our away support that can be frustrating.

[Behindu]

All we're saying is that it is a shame that when following Reading we can't do the same, as it's always traditionally been part of the away fan experience.

You could - you could ignore those who ask you to sit and carry on standing. Those who object will eventually get fed up and stop travelling. It's what has happened with those other clubs...

AS for standing being 'traditional', well only in the sense that away ends used to be terraces so you had no real choice. Singing at away games is traditional and can be done stood up or sat down. Just because we now have seats there is no reason to drop that tradition which actually has a benefit to your team !

[Royal Monk]

So according to some on this thread i was an ok supporter when i started going to Elm Park ie im my early 20's , having a few beers and a sing song but when i got into my late 30's and started bringing my son who was 4 at the time i suddenly became an undesirable supporter.
My sons 12 now and has had a season ticket for 8 years .... people like him are the future for this club once us oldies have departed so dont knock the kids

[Huntley & Palmer]

I think it increases the game enjoyment, I don't really consider myself a football watcher in the truest sense. I could quite happily just stay in the pub all day, most games I have to squint out of one eye to even focus on the pitch. All that matters to me is that I enjoy the day, the football is almost secondary.

[blue_army_wokingham]

i guess one way of ending the debate would be to see how many fans stand up and sing when we chant 'stand up for steve coppell' at the charlton game???

i know some of you will no reply with 'we have to stand or we cant see'....but when we sing that song, almost 95% of the stand join in. if people that dont agree with standing at a football match then they can stay seated. the chant will only last for about 15 seconds so i'm sure you wont mind missing 15 seconds of a game to prove your point??

i personally think its about majoritys. and the minorities should be more tolerant of the majority.

i guess at the end of the day you cant please everybody in regards to standing / seating ......we can debate it over and over again but it will never be resolved. i just think the people that are happy to stay seated the whole game need to be more tolerant of those that want to stand up and sing every now and then. i dont think i've ever seen somebody turn around to somebody sitting down during a song and then shout at them to stand up and join in. it works both ways.

[Rob-Royal]

Ah this old chestnut....

JSC, for this very reason I don't go to away games much now...Newcastle away I knew would be good as it would be past bed time for those that like their comfort, slippers & hot coco as well as being too far and inconvenient for a midweek game to go to.

It's not just about standing at games, it's about vocal passionate support which makes for a better atmosphere and gee's the players up as we keep getting reminded by the announcer before every home game.

I've experienced far too often the gentle tap on the shoulder to not stand for 5 seconds or shout, clap & sing to support my club with tutting going on all around if I dare use a 4 letter word.

We just have to accept that there's supporters like this at every club it's just in our case it's the majority.

I even witnessed this first hand at Leicester last year on a day when 135 years of waiting was over and history was in the making....sad but true.

[SpaceCruiser]

i guess one way of ending the debate would be to see how many fans stand up and sing when we chant 'stand up for steve coppell' at the charlton game???

i know some of you will no reply with 'we have to stand or we cant see'....but when we sing that song, almost 95% of the stand join in. if people that dont agree with standing at a football match then they can stay seated. the chant will only last for about 15 seconds so i'm sure you wont mind missing 15 seconds of a game to prove your point??

Yes, 15 seconds is fine. Any longer than that, you're being selfish. Also standing up again as soon as you've sat down is unforgivable. I had to suffer some twat doing that for the entire first half at St James.

[holsgrove breaks a leg]

This really has to be one of the daftest threads ever. People who harken back to the halcyon days of Elm Park really make me wonder whether they were really there. There was basically one part of the ground - half the south bank - where sharpy-style laddishness was the preferred form of support. The rest of the place was a mixture of families, grumbling old geezers and acres and acres of empty space. If you were right in the middle of the south bank the support seemed great, but if you were anywhere else you realized it was just a few drunks periodically bawling. (When I moved to London, I often went to Highbury. Same phenomenon. If you stood in the North Bank it seemed like the best football support you ever heard, and then you couldn't understand why Arsenal support seemed so shit on telly.)

On away trips (and I only went to a couple as a youth), it was basically a selection of the lads from the south bank. The reason other people didn't go was because going to away matches meant dealing with opposition hooliganism wherever you went, police heavy-handedness, nasty travel services and a generally crap time to and from the ground.

Some people liked that. Good for them. But the old model was a small number of basically similar people, and the new model is a large number of diverse people. If you preferred the old model, and don't want to go, then fine but don't imply that because you prefer it it's objectively better.

Money has got Reading to where we are today. Money from TV, money from expensive tickets, and money from a very fine man who wants his club to be a family club. You can;t have the old ways and still have the success.

We're hardly advocating a return to the dark old days you talk of. There are many many clubs who quite happily are still able to stand at away games (as surely you would have seen at the Madejski this season?).

All we're saying is that it is a shame that when following Reading we can't do the same, as it's always traditionally been part of the away fan experience.

I think its a case of individual clubs putting up with, or accepting the fact that away fans will stand up during the duration of a game. Like i mentioned earlier, im not bothered if others stand up during games, but to tie it in with a 'tradition' and because of our links with Elm Park which posters definately appear to cling to i find tiresome. I personally dont feel i need to demonstrate how i recognise the 'old days' or elm park by standing up at games the whole time- i have been there,done it and enjoyed it at that particular time-why flog a dead horse???. Incidentally, i stood on the tilehurst end of the South Bank (mainly to see Gilkes rip the opposition apart!) and i agree it was less of a hotbed than the right hand side, but at least the old gits and characters made it unique for certain!!

[3 veesinarow]

Between the three of us, we have 72 (I'll spell it out for those with IQs lower than that...Seventy-two) years of supporting Reading yet according to AndyRFC, Jerry St.Clair et al, we apparently have no place at football matches.

I said nothing of the sort. And please stop your condescending references about low IQs and idiots. It undermines the strength of your argument.

I have absolutely no problem with families attending football matches. What I do have the problem with is sanitising the away game experience because there might be some kids there with delicate eardrums or parents with even more delicate sensibilities.

My dad took me to Elm Park as a kid, but was sensible enough to accept that there might be bad language, and that I might not have a completely unobstructed view for the whole game. I still bloody loved it though.

Kids? Why do we constantly pander to the needs of fukkin' kids? They must represent about 5% of the away support at a game, yet they're continously trotted out as a stock example in these kind of debates.

Something of a contradiction, there. No-one is asking for the experience to be sanitised - the edgier, the better, frankly - and who is pandering to who? You described fellow away fans as "daytrippers" in your second post on this thread...tell me that was meant as a compliment and not as a condescending remark and then you can lecture me on strength of argument.

[Jerry St Clair]

You described fellow away fans as "daytrippers" in your second post on this thread...tell me that was meant as a compliment and not as a condescending remark and then you can lecture me on strength of argument.

You're right.

I shall retract my patronising comment about daytrippers,

[floyd__streete]

Well well well, I get home from work and see that some intelligent debate has broken out on here in the most recent few pages. My tuppence worth? To be fair, I agreed with much of the spirit of what JSC said in the first place; I was sat next to two old boys on Sunday wearing club colours and who hardly joined in with any of the singing and chanting but as long as they can leave me to support the team in my own <ahem> unique way then they can wear Gimp masks and Thomas the Tank Engine pyjamas to games, sit on their hands and bring all their grandchildren along for all I care.

Reading = the worst away support in the league in terms of quality. On a par with Wigan, Boro and Fulham.

Oh dear Alad.

Worst away support in terms of quality ? Who appointed you 'voice of the fans' - and whoever did, I demand a recount. That statement only looks marginally less laughable alongside you citing Wigan, Boro and Fulham as having amongst the 'worst' away support in the league. Travelled with Middlesbrough fans often to make that judgement have you?

A personal view? Reading supporters have filled their allocation at a good many of the away games this season. 2,000-odd went to Newcastle on a Wednesday night. 1,200 went to Middlesbrough, a round trip of something approaching 500-miles to visit a less than glamorous location. I have no doubt that these figures will drop next season but I've almost always found our away support to be generous in its encouragement for the team, respectable in numbers and more often than not very good humoured. Not to mentioned almost always impeccably well behaved - newsflash to some people, this is a good thing.

[AndyRFC]

Having witnessed first hand the supporters of Swansea making their way back from the Den on Saturday afternoon, I am very glad our support is a mixture of lads, kids and older folk. I could think of nothing worse than being hounded around London in a constant police escort and then being frog-marched by 60 odd police dressed in riot gear back on a train home

Next week, they're all being bussed into Bristol.

[floyd__streete]

Having witnessed first hand the supporters of Swansea making their way back from the Den on Saturday afternoon, I am very glad our support is a mixture of lads, kids and older folk. I could think of nothing worse than being hounded around London in a constant police escort and then being frog-marched by 60 odd police dressed in riot gear back on a train home

Next week, they're all being bussed into Bristol.

I'd stop going to away games if I was treated like that. Good job I travel around as part of (on the whole) a fair-minded, good humoured fanbase. Another newsflash for some - life is too short for going round the country and terrorising the locals.

[BLUES & ROYAL]

Do you know having been hearded around as an away fan in the 70`s 80`s I can with out a doubt say it was like being treated like an animal.

I have been put in a cage at the Old Den, frog marched to coaches at Brammall Lane, bricked at Port Vale chased around Newport, Cardiff and even Crewe and York.

I might have been stupid with the other couple of hundred that put up with that week in week out, but give me the safety of today and a seat to boot.

So we have a reputation for being a family club

Well that suits me fine after the shite I have put up with following this club around the UK

Hardly making us a rubbish team is it?

[Avon Royal]

Nottingham Forest at Bristol City on Saturday, 3,500 stood up throughout the game hardly a shirt or family in sight.

Well they must have taken their shirts off when they got to the game because there were hundreds of shirts on view in town before the match.

The thing I notice when I watch MK Dons play away is because its unreserved those who wish to stand at the back can do so, and those who want to sit can sit down the front. Creates a much better atmosphere and makes everyone happy.

To be fair - and probably much to the disappointment of a number of posters - Mk Dons have fantastic fans. What they lack in numbers they make up for in enthusiasm.

[blue_army1871]

Portsmouth the worst for me. Not one song and a crap ground. The fact that they've got a 1 metre wide gantry behind the stand does not help when you've got half the stand needing the toilet.

[westendgirl]

Of course. My priority is who I'm with as well, and having been to one game on my own when my mates were refused entry for being too lashed, I can speak from experience that it is who you are with who makes it!

Am I reading this right, a real loyal Reading fan who tells us all how we should behave doesn't actually enjoy the experience unless he has the right company. Could it be people ask you to sit down because they came to watch the football not for the social experience?

As someone who is: happy to go to a game on their own and talk to the people sitting around me; doesn't have the right dangly bits; has a back problem that makes standing for 90 minutes very uncomfortable and, believe it or not, wants to watch the football I apparently do not qualify in any way as an authority on football watching

[bobby1413]

but when we sing that song, almost 95% of the stand join in.

I've never seen 95% of home support or away support stand up singing that song.

You get the majority, but there is still some who don't.

When at arsenal, we had just went 2-0 down. The song started on one side of the stand, and started spreading across. The guy behind me moaned "ohhh no!".

You'll always have supporters like that.

I think some people here are trying to define what a "good supporter" really is. Some of you think that a good supporter:

- sings
- cheers their team on vocally
- stands up

You'll never be happy, as there will always be someone to break up the party. If it's not a steward, it's another fan.