Tribute to Robin Friday on F365

[Victor Meldrew]

Only ever sat in the seats at Elm Park twice.

My seat in 'B' stand that night later disappeared when the club introduced what they laughingly described as executive boxes. Had a season ticket in 'B' stand right through until the early ''80s when I reverted to standing on the Tilehurst End. Went there every game until the very end.

Did the club offer season tickets for the terraces back in the '70s?

Don't think they did Ark.
I started getting one around about the early 90s because always having to travel I didn't want to run the risk of being shut out because at that time the gates had started to improve.
In my early years I used to stand at the town end and for my very first game stood just inside the gate between the stand and the terracing.
Gradually I moved on round the ground to end up right of centre at the Tilehurst End.
I only became a Tilehurst Ender when the kids started to come and sit on the back wall.

[Man Friday]

What the RF non-watchers don't appreciate is that it wasn't his skill that made RF special. It was RF as a personality. Outrageous, showman, unpredictable, sublime. No footballer has ever provided such entertainment. Not Zola. Not Henry. Not anybody. And, by the way, he could play. Boy, could he play. (And he was 100% committed. Every game.) He loved the fans and the fans loved him. What memories. We were so lucky.

[Dick Habbin's hairdo]

Man Friday - I guess that is the nearest to summing up how special RF was. Us crusties will have to live with what we know. The young'uns can debate.

Strap, Ark, Victor, GC, and all you other wrinklies, "Thank you."

[ankeny]

Gus the teenage cow eh!To print things about someone you know nothing about makes you one idiot.If he had carried on playing he would almost certainly get in the England team so what the hell do you know sunshine

well sunshine i know this much


-he DIDN'T play for the england

-he DIDN'T play at the highest level or for a top club

-he NEVER won an honour of note

those are the facts so please dont shoot the messenger here

indeed i am quite angry with players like friday, best, worthington, le tissier etc for not making mroe of their talents, they are blessed with a gift but they abuse it and none of them will ever be considered all-time greats even though they all had the ability to be that

i know i am going against the grain but i have a million times more respect for a player liek roy keane with limited ability who works at his game constantly and improves than the players i have mentioned above who basically pissed away their talent, that we glorify them says a lot about us and it's really quite sad, how they ended up and how we love them because of this

i guess only a failure could love a failure


good night

One day you might grow up and write something worth reading ,I might live long enough to see it but I doubt it.So the best thing you can do boy is shut the ..up until you think of that something.Sunshine.

[ankeny]

What the RF non-watchers don't appreciate is that it wasn't his skill that made RF special. It was RF as a personality. Outrageous, showman, unpredictable, sublime. No footballer has ever provided such entertainment. Not Zola. Not Henry. Not anybody. And, by the way, he could play. Boy, could he play. (And he was 100% committed. Every game.) He loved the fans and the fans loved him. What memories. We were so lucky.

Hunt might have a little bit of Friday about him,not much,just a hint.Footballers today are just robots,all they care about is their cars ,wags and the size of their paycheque,our Robin would have done it for nothing as long as he had his booze.

[Gordons Cumming]

Gus 's comments are the reason he is on my Ignore List.

[RoyalBlue]

Robin Friday is a legend!! The only thing that can be said against him is he quite often kept Percy Freeman out of the starting 11, who really did have the hardest shot I have ever seen!

He certainly did. As a young kid at the time, I peversely almost got a greater sense of enjoyment seeing one of Percy's freekicks hitting the defensive wall than flying into the back of the net!!

I remember on one occasion I got a double bonus when Percy's freekick knocked one of the wall out flat and the ball bounced straight back to him, allowing him the opportunity to send another occupant of the wall into a crumpled heap!!

When he got on the ball it took a bit of time for him to get up speed but once he got going there was no physical way of stopping him, as he literally ploughed his way through defences before unleashing a trademark piledriver!

PS Is big Percy still alive? I'd love to see him come invited back to do the Golden Gamble Draw (I'm sick and tired of the star guest being Kingsley!).

[Royal Rother]

to say that none of the aforementioned comes close to RF is a bit daft really.

Bless him, poor love. You really do have my utmost sympathy RR. I think when to a man/boy/woman those that saw him play ALL say the same thing, it must carry a good bit of weight. I'm struggling to think of a similar RFC player who engenders such 100% agreement. Steve Death perhaps?

Thank you for your kind thoughts.

Sorry chap, there is indeed general agreement as to his incredible talent and aura and I would not presume to call any of that into question (and I do enjoy reading about his exploits), but I think you are the only one daft enough to suggest that a footballer who played most of his career at the bottom level of the English League structure was actually a better player than George Best, Thierry Henry, Cristiano Ronaldo et al.

[Victor Meldrew]

to say that none of the aforementioned comes close to RF is a bit daft really.

Bless him, poor love. You really do have my utmost sympathy RR. I think when to a man/boy/woman those that saw him play ALL say the same thing, it must carry a good bit of weight. I'm struggling to think of a similar RFC player who engenders such 100% agreement. Steve Death perhaps?

Thank you for your kind thoughts.

Sorry chap, there is indeed general agreement as to his incredible talent and aura and I would not presume to call any of that into question (and I do enjoy reading about his exploits), but I think you are the only one daft enough to suggest that a footballer who played most of his career at the bottom level of the English League structure was actually a better player than George Best, Thierry Henry, Cristiano Ronaldo et al.

All of those were top players RR but Robin Friday was OURS and that is the point.

[fritzyboy]

Great thread guys!
Iam 46 and was lucky enough to meet him in The Spread (often with Dave Moreline) before games when I was sitting with my Dad and little bro.
His missus (Lisa I think not Liza) is a lovely woman and still works occasionally in my local.
She is always at pains to disprove a lot of the urban myths about the best biscuitman I ever saw

[From Despair To Where?]

I never saw him play, I'm too young. I started going about 6 years after he left the club. All I knew as a kid on the terraces is that every player was compared unfavourably to him and he had a mythical status in the hearts and minds of the fans as a sublimely gifted footballer who was hard as nails and always gave 110%. Even in more frugal times when footballers weren't the untouchables they are today, he seemed very much the embodyment of the fans' passion and commitment on the pitch. His rebellious streak only adds to that allure as the man who really didn't give a oxf*rd and played and lived for the sheer hell of it. Not the perfect person by any stretch of the imagination but for 90 minutes every Saturday, the man who gave such pleasure to thousands.

Legends are a product of their time and environment. Making comparisons with today's footballers in terms of ability and honours is irrelevant, it's the impact at the time that makes the legend. Taking an almost literal view of the meaning, it's all about the folklore of the man's and his deeds and the fact that grown men still get misty eyed about him getting on for 20 years after he died and the fact that Cardiff fans feel the same about him makes him a legend in my eyes. He was the embodyment of everything that was good about the club at the time, a taste of caviar when you're more used to gruel. Senior, Gooding, Sidwell, Shorey, Kitson, Doyle etc, all great players but thet do not define their era at the club in anything like the same way. The only other player in my time as a supporter who seems to come close to such universal affection is Michael Gilkes.

[Royal Rother]

All of those were top players RR but Robin Friday was OURS and that is the point.

I have no problem with that whatsoever but that was not the point that was being made and defended by Strap.

Sorry I just find fatuous statements that in so many words says "no footballer to have played in the last 30 years comes close to being as good as RF" as if he actually believes it, from the chap who has been chucking childish name-calling insults in the direction of Madejski and others for the last few months a little hard to accept without commenting on its stupidity.

[Royal With Cheese]

-he DIDN'T play for the england

-he DIDN'T play at the highest level or for a top club

-he NEVER won an honour of note

those are the facts so please dont shoot the messenger here

indeed i am quite angry with players like friday, best, worthington, le tissier etc for not making mroe of their talents, they are blessed with a gift but they abuse it and none of them will ever be considered all-time greats even though they all had the ability to be that

i know i am going against the grain but i have a million times more respect for a player liek roy keane with limited ability who works at his game constantly and improves than the players i have mentioned above who basically pissed away their talent, that we glorify them says a lot about us and it's really quite sad, how they ended up and how we love them because of this

i guess only a failure could love a failure


good night

And with that, the last vestiges of Gus' credibility disappeared into the sunset never to return.

The End

i can't believe my credibility lasted that long


thanks Avoners


on the street however i remain feared and respected, they cower before me

Yes - but unfortunately the street is populated with mentals and asylum seekers who can't speak english.

[Man Friday]

He's unlikely to be the greatest footballer that ever played (although he could have been...possibly).

But once again, that's not the point. What he had more than any other professional footballer was charisma - so much so that, although he only played 2.5 seasons for us, he's still being talked about today in such revered tones by Reading fans(and ditto for Cardiff - their player of the millenium also - after playing for them for less than one season !).

[brendywendy]

and to talk to any cardiff fan about his and it sounds like he was there for years and years hes that popular
in fact mention reading at all and hes the 1st subject to come up