Your best and worst years?

[Ark Royal]

The last 2 seasons stand out for obvious reasons, but 2002/03 must be up there. No one had heard of us yet we were top 6 for the last half of the season and really came to be noticed for the first time.

82/83 was very poor, but 88/9 takes the biscuit, only saved from a 2nd succesive relegation by beating Southend on the last day.

What's this fixation with Southend all of a sudden? We beat Chesterfield 4-2 at Saltergate on the last day to avoid the drop.

[Dirk Gently]

Also add as a memorable time that autumn at the start of the 2000/01 season, when for a couple of months Butts & Curo seemed to be able to score at will - especially at home.

I remember quite a few glorious nights at the MadStad watching 4 and 5 goals rattling in each match - but then when we got to winter it all dried up.

[From Despair To Where?]

Best 93-95 and the last 2 seasons. both periods the culmination of a couple of years constructing a brilliant team. If pushed, I probably enjoyed 93-95 more, a complete contrast to what had immediately preceded it which was...

the worst, without question the Porterfield years. The club was dying on and off the pitch. The football wasn't even shit, at least shit football inspires a reaction, even if it is negative, it was just mediocre and dull, it inspired absolutely no emotion of any kind. The club was going nowhere on the pitch and going under off it. I vowed to never watch Reading again whilst Porterfield was in charge. We very nearly didn;t have a club to support anyway. Fortunately the Madejski revolution kicked in and Porterfield was sacked 2 weeks later. It's hard to describe how bad it really was to those that were not there. Imagine the worst game of football you've ever seen. Now imagine that every week for what feels like eternity. Even the TB1 and TB2 years weren't that bad. At least we had something to get angry about. The Porterfield era was 10 times worse.

[Jackson Corner]

05-06 Will never be bettered for me. Worst 82-83 relegated to the bottom tier crowds around the 2,500 mark and nearly going out of business all together.

[Fluff]

The worst would have been the Bullivant years. Last season at Elm Park, 3-0 at home to Port Vale, pitch invasion.
Chants of "nice ground, no fans"
Happy Days

[Baines]

Have to agree with those who've given 88-89 as the worst season. For all the times when the atmosphere was great and the ground was rocking, Elm Park could be oxf*rd shit when we were bad.

Best 05/06, but also 87/88 - even though we got relegated, my 8 year old memory has blotted that out, and all that's left is the Simod cup run.

[The Mighty Finn]

The last two seasons were incredibly enjoyable and are ones that I will remember for the rest of my days....for reasons that have been already most eloquently put by other posters.

Nostalgically I will always think highly of 75-76. As a 16 year old I had already been supporting Reading for 7 or 8 years but I could only reasonably go to home games, of which we won 19 of the 23! Robin Friday was a complete legend then, even though (or maybe because) you could find him drinking a (few) pints of cider outside the Spread at any given weekday lunchtime. I was just about old enough to go drinking before and after the games (I have now lost my addiction to mild and bitter) and the whole era for me was great. The 5-0 drubbing of Tranmere was then just about the best thing that had ever happened to me.

As others have said.... the low times have been when the club has been soulless. I lost the faith for a number of years and, to my shame, rarely went to a match from the late 80's to the mid 90's... I hardly ever saw Trevor Senior play.

[Skyline]

Best season for me was 2005/6. As others have said, the feeling of going to a game almost knowing you were going to win was just surreal. Scoring for fun - I'm sure strap could confirm or deny it, but I can't recall a season when we scored 5 goals six times before - letting few in, and just completely dominating games, 'Fortress Madejski' really did seem to mean something that season.

Worst season - I'm torn between 97/98 and 98/99. 98/99 was bad because it started with so much hope and expectation in a new stadium, but just petered out into nothingness. But I'm going to plump for 97/98. To be relegated as bottom of the league in the last season at Elm Park was bad enough, but to have to put up with the completely spineless and disinterested football that the 'team' (and I hesitate to call them that) dished up in the last game was almost too much to take.

[bobby m's syrup]

Tight one this, but I really loved 93/94 & 94/95 and the stuff we played under McGhee and Quinn/Gooding. Also the 69/70 side which made such a huge impression on me as a kid. 2005/06 and 06/07 still just seems a bit unreal! Perhaps in years to come it will really begin to sink in.

The worst? Probably 82/83 and relegation. A truly shocking team that only had Kerry Dixon as a saving grace.

69/70 the season of the return to the hoops and Jack Mansell.

I also remember being entranced by the quality of the football, although that evaporated somewhat when the pitches got heavier. Not the most successful of seasons, but we did end up scoring more goals than anyone else in that league and were rewarded with a visit from Manure (inc George Best) in the Watney Cup.

[Harps stay sharp]

Best: Last Season was amazing but I also enjoyed 93/94 as well. That's when I started going away more with a few mates.

Worst: Have to agree Tommy Burns football was awful and the fact every match we would get deeper and deeper and end up conceding goals late on it was so frustrating.

[VOR]

Tight one this, but I really loved 93/94 & 94/95 and the stuff we played under McGhee and Quinn/Gooding. Also the 69/70 side which made such a huge impression on me as a kid. 2005/06 and 06/07 still just seems a bit unreal! Perhaps in years to come it will really begin to sink in.

The worst? Probably 82/83 and relegation. A truly shocking team that only had Kerry Dixon as a saving grace.

69/70 the season of the return to the hoops and Jack Mansell.

I also remember being entranced by the quality of the football, although that evaporated somewhat when the pitches got heavier. Not the most successful of seasons, but we did end up scoring more goals than anyone else in that league and were rewarded with a visit from Manure (inc George Best) in the Watney Cup.

Given the delights of 69-70 my worst season would be the following one when 'Player of the year' Terry Bell consigned us to relegation to Div 4 for the first time ever with an og in the last game of the season!

This season has been fantastic but for me nothing will ever match our dreamlike progress to total domination of the Champ last year via a succession of 5-0 and 5-1s

[Silver Fox]

Concur with everyone who has said last year for best as it was just always enjoyable. Even losing to Plymouth wasn't that bad as at least it was the first day of the season and it was sunny

Worst, again I'm going to side with those who've gone for 97/98. Just horrible and even moreso when you think we had one of our better cup runs and also tonked Sunderland. To then completely give up on the season in January or so was jsut horrible. Add to that the personal grief as it was actually my first regularly attended seaosn for quite a while as I'd been away from Reading/working on saturdays when in Reading. Still, that nice Mr Burns was going to sort it out

[Dr Hfuhruhurr]

Not very good with years, but just to be different.

Best: Shaka's first year / McGhee / Promotion to the championship and six goals away at exeter (and they get 4). Endless goals / Elm park. Michael Gilkes' season ticket.

Worst: A pair of contenders.
The second year at the madejski / Endless 1-1s at home / Godawful team / The very real prospect that we will be doing this again and again for the next ten years

and
(Just Joking) This year. A bizarre season that effectively ends in February.

[Barry the bird boggler]

2005/2006 best

1998/1999 worst

[LUX]

The last two seasons were incredibly enjoyable and are ones that I will remember for the rest of my days....for reasons that have been already most eloquently put by other posters.

Nostalgically I will always think highly of 75-76. As a 16 year old I had already been supporting Reading for 7 or 8 years but I could only reasonably go to home games, of which we won 19 of the 23! Robin Friday was a complete legend then, even though (or maybe because) you could find him drinking a (few) pints of cider outside the Spread at any given weekday lunchtime. I was just about old enough to go drinking before and after the games (I have now lost my addiction to mild and bitter) and the whole era for me was great. The 5-0 drubbing of Tranmere was then just about the best thing that had ever happened to me.

ditto. Agreed about the past two seasons, but 75/76 was my first ever-present season (at home) and I loved every moment. Well, looking back through rose tinted specs I did. We actually went through an awful stutter in Feb/March 76.

[Riseley]

The best is 69-70 season for me. Goals galore, slick passing, the Dennis Butlers and programmes sold by girls wearing mini-skirts. Proper shirts were worn and things like bring it on posters and marketing speak about brand identity were still left on the other side of the pond.
The worst was when Maxwell was on the verge of destroying us but was stopped by Smee, Tranter and Tredder's dad at the eleventh hour.

[International Royal]

Best - 2005 / 06. Fantastic football, the belief that we would never lose, a full stadium from Christmas onwards and Little played the football of his life.

Worst - 1982 / 83. You really had to be there, absolute crap week in week out. Relagated to the old Div 4, watching Ray Hiron as centre half, sad times and you couldn't see it get any better. Crowds at Elm Park down to 2,000 - 3,000, no atmosphere. Many lost the will to live and deserted the club in droves.

[Sir Rodney Effing]

Best - Tough call... probably 94/95 despite THAT play-off, games like the Wolves game after the FSB jumped ship were great. Closely followed by the last two years.
Worst - Tough call because of the wide range of choices! Last season at Elm Park "wins" I guess, because at times we were sub-shit, and that Norwich game was a disgrace. I think they re-wrote the entry in the dictionary for "capitulation" that day... And as others have mentioned, Tommy Burns turned out to be the biggest let-down since Chamberlain said "This paper ensures peace in our time"

[LUX]

Worst - 1982 / 83. You really had to be there, absolute crap week in week out. Relagated to the old Div 4, watching Ray Hiron as centre half, sad times and you couldn't see it get any better. Crowds at Elm Park down to 2,000 - 3,000, no atmosphere. Many lost the will to live and deserted the club in droves.

this period would be my specialist subject on Mastermind, but I do not remember Ray Hiron playing for us that late (let alone at centre half).

For me he was a one-season wonder, playing number 8 in 75/76. He was old even then.

fair play to you if I'm wrong.

[Archie's penalty]

For best I would have to say 94-5: The team was great and I really believed we were going to the prem. I remember sitting in a Pizza hut in London considering how tragic it all was - I was only 15 at the time... 05/06 and 06/07 run it close though. This year is the first year I approached the passion I had for the team in 94-5.

For worst - well I think I would say the Burns years. It was all set up for the guy to succeed - a great stadium, a willing chairman and we were just so boring - no ambition. It says a lot that during those years I lost interest in the team...