21.12.85

[fruits]

Mad Max was unbelievable in that comeback.

my dad really wanted to go at half time too i tihnk. I persuaded him to stay.!!

totally thrilling for a 10yo like me at the time.

What a game!!!!!!!!!,I remember it as if it were yesterday. As everyone else has commented we were 3-0 down before half time might even have been after 30 mins, I have never been so cold in my life, you think our defence is bad now you should have seen it on that day, not even sure it turned up. I said to a friend we will not score if we play until Christmas Day. THEN BANG, BANG, BANG AND TWO MINUTES BEFORE THE END BANG AGAIN.. 4-3. PLYMOUTH HAD A PLAYER SENT OFF. THIS GAME HAD EVERYTHING.


Another fantastic game was the first game back after the big freeze and the first game with Roy Bentley as manager. We were at home to Brighton , took the lead 4 times and lost 4-5.

[From Despair To Where?]

IIRC Argyle were 2-0 at half time and we promptly conceded the 3rd in the first minute of the second half.

[royalsteve]

22 years ago today and probably the greatest game and greatest comeback some of us have ever witnessed.

3-0 down to Plymouth with 25 minutes to play and then 3-1 down with nine to play and then a certain Mad Max starts to run amok. The rest is histoire.

Your memories? Discuss.

i was about 17 at the time and annoyingly had to miss this one as i was working that day.....couldnt believe it when a collague told me rfc had won 4-3, after said colleague had already told me it was 3-0 to plymouth, that only 20-30 mins earlier! I initially told him to go away nicely as i didnt believe him

[Ark Royal]

IIRC Argyle were 2-0 at half time and we promptly conceded the 3rd in the first minute of the second half.

Correct. Dave Smith, the Plymouth manager, actually missed the third goal as he was still making his way from the changing rooms.

[royalsteve]

Reading v Exeter anybody?

yeh i was there with about 1000 other brave souls....what a game....could have and should have been 10-7...i have the vid of the game too!

[From Despair To Where?]

Dave Smith did a similar thing the following season. Went into the changing rooms early for half time and missed Gary Peters putting through his own net with a back header.

[royalsteve]

What about when we were 3-0 up at half time at home to Port Vale and ended up drawing 3-3! That was the play off season as well wasn't it?

That, my friend, is a 2nd half that fans of Reading back then would rather forget.

The Plymouth match we were 3-0 DOWN with 25 TO PLAY and WON 4-3. This was back in 1985...

Sadly, I hadn't even contemplated football at that age, I was only 3,so therefore I have no memories whatsoever!!

couple of recent ones .....what about 1-0 down to Wolves, won 2-1 with 2 goals in the last 5 i think....or wigan playoff game the same....tho THE best for me in my 30+ years of supporting RFC has to be the Boro game last year (closely followed by the WBA cup game the year before) as best comebacks that i can remember

[Whistle]

The best football 'high' ever. Absolute force of nature in the last ten minutes against a team that hadn't lost in 3 months. At 3-3 you knew we were gping to win. I was standing in the middle of the South Bank and it was mental.

[royalsteve]

The best football 'high' ever. Absolute force of nature in the last ten minutes against a team that hadn't lost in 3 months. At 3-3 you knew we were gping to win. I was standing in the middle of the South Bank and it was mental.

i would agree if i had been there, im sure of that...awesome

[Gordons Cumming]

Recently I have missed 2 GREAT Reading matches.

Reading 5, Derby 0

Reading 3, Liverpool 1

I didn't miss that one though........

We looked dead and buried shortly after half time when Plymouth scored their 3rd.

Then it was all Reading.............Bremner was the calalyst. Fantastic.
Plymouth didn't know what hit them!!!

[wolsey]

Reading v Exeter anybody?

Bought the video of that game from Exeter. Quinny's second was an absolute cracker. He did not score tap-ins.

Factoid: That 6-4 game is the only game in Football League history where five players scored two goals each.

Sorry thought you meant the game in the 70's (75/6 perhaps).

I had never seen Reading lose to them (in fact we used to generally stuff them).

Well we were 2-0 down in quick time yet still won (4-3 I think) Best feeling I had at a football at that time (therefore must have been pre THE Tranmere game)

As for Plymouth , they were so much better than us for the first hour it was embarassing (3-0 up shortly after Half Time, then they hit the post).

After about an hour Super Kev won a penalty with an outrageous dive (if HNA had been existence then, I'm sure the usual suspects would have called for him never to be picked for Reading again)

We then totally outmuscled them and outran them and the feeling when the fourth went in, and then again at full time was probably not repeated until the Coventry, Luton, Wigan, Brentford, Leicester, or Middlesbrough matches

[seahawk10]

I like these threads to learn more of the history of Reading FC. So I take it Mad Max was the nickname for Kevin Bremmer. Any story behind where he got that nickname? Excuse the ignorance, but my knowledge of the history of RFC isn't great.

[Gordons Cumming]

I'm not sure where Mad Max came from but Bremner used to run around like a headless chicken at times.

[Ark Royal]

Mad Max was totally nails but he could play a bit as well. Strange, but for most of that game he was totally anonymous as Ian Branfoot was playing him in an unfamiliar midfield role. When the game was all but lost, Branfoot brought on Glen Burvill for Gilkesy and threw Bremner up front. After that he was like a beast unleashed. That one game made him a Reading legend.

[PEARCEY]

Guy I was standing with on the Tilehurst End left at half time. He just could not believe the result when it rolled off the vide-printer!

As far as I am concerned, the Plymouth game is the greatest I have ever seen.
Argyle were going great guns at the time: second in the table and unbeaten in 14.

Poor Argyle. They just did not know what hit them in that last nine minutes, when Mad Max became a force of nature. Fair play to Plymouth fans though; they clapped us off the park at the end.

As another poster said earlier, we were not pretty to watch, but we were fitter than a butcher's dog and blew teams away in the tail end of games in 85/86.

ISTR Andy Rogers was the hero that day. At one stage he had the ball next to the corner flag and a Plymouth player hacked at him to try and get the ball, and was booked. From the free-kick, the ball went back to Andy Rogers by the corner flag, and the same defender did exactly the same and was immediately sent off!

At least I think that's the same match .....

I remember listening to radio Wales commentary when Andy Rogers swallowed his tongue against Swansea...it sounded pretty grim at the time.

I also remember jumping up and down when I saw on the Grandstand vidi printer that we had beaten Plymouth 4-3 wish I had been there. It was a strange season as I saw us lose 6-0 to Walsall in Feb 86 and didn't really care because we were going up and were still miles clear.

[Millsy]

I wasn't there

But... although the margin of comeback was higher, did it feel anywhere near as good as beating McGh*e's WoLOLves 2-1 in the dying seconds?

I can't imagine anything feeling better than that. Not just the significance of the opposition (manager), but the way in which it was done.

Comparisons, anyone who was at both?

[Jackson Corner]

I did leave at 3-0 was making my way down Wantage Road thinking how the hell are we top of the league we were crap. Heard the cheer for Deano's pen turned round and went back and was watching a completely different game we were all over them, 3 goals and a sending off so glad I came back and trust me there was plenty who didn't!

[Dirk Gently]

I wasn't there

But... although the margin of comeback was higher, did it feel anywhere near as good as beating McGh*e's WoLOLves 2-1 in the dying seconds?

I can't imagine anything feeling better than that. Not just the significance of the opposition (manager), but the way in which it was done.

Comparisons, anyone who was at both?

Hmmm, Wolves was so quick - two goals in a couple of minutes right at the death but that was after 80 minutes of turgid nothingness. So wvery intense.

Plymouth had a lot more tension, becaue once we got our first goal it was a lot more "we can't realy come back in this, can we?" and then the tension grew and the atmosphere ramped up as we got one goal after another.

I'd say that Plymouth was the more memorable beacue it was 4 goals from a hopeless position - Wolves was just two quick goals right at the end - rare but not *that* rare (remember Wigan & Bolton)? It just had the extra spice beacuse it was McGoo's team and Gilksey's injury that gave us the extra time.

Don't get me wrong - Wolves was a great and memorable match, but Pymouth was virtually once in a lifetime.

[Millsy]

I wasn't there

But... although the margin of comeback was higher, did it feel anywhere near as good as beating McGh*e's WoLOLves 2-1 in the dying seconds?

I can't imagine anything feeling better than that. Not just the significance of the opposition (manager), but the way in which it was done.

Comparisons, anyone who was at both?

Hmmm, Wolves was so quick - two goals in a couple of minutes right at the death but that was after 80 minutes of turgid nothingness. So wvery intense.

Plymouth had a lot more tension, becaue once we got our first goal it was a lot more "we can't realy come back in this, can we?" and then the tension grew and the atmosphere ramped up as we got one goal after another.

I'd say that Plymouth was the more memorable beacue it was 4 goals from a hopeless position - Wolves was just two quick goals right at the end - rare but not *that* rare (remember Wigan & Bolton)? It just had the extra spice beacuse it was McGoo's team and Gilksey's injury that gave us the extra time.

Don't get me wrong - Wolves was a great and memorable match, but Pymouth was virtually once in a lifetime.

Thanks Dirk. Well explained and I agree Plymouth would be more of a rarity.

Kind of unrelated, but anyone remember QPR vs Port Vale (I think) several years ago - it was on TV. I think one of them went 3-0 up by half time and second half the other team came back to in 4-3. That was an incredible game to watch.

[ShrewsandRoyals]

The craziest I have ever seen Gary Peters become in a match. He was screaming, shouting, and geeing on the team and crowd for that last 10 minutes like a lunatic.

Was lucky enough to talk through that game over a drink with the man himself. That game is as special to the players as to the supporters that were there, which is hardly surprising!