Is there a generation gap among fans?

[Archie's penalty]

First game for me was in 91/2, 93/4 was my first full season when I poured over the results and went to games (away ones as I lived in the North).

The relegation season knocked a lot of the stuffing out of me and I didn't get excited again until Butler and Forster took us from 22nd to 10th in 2000.

2005-6 was something special and the first premiership season made me more excited about the team since 1995.

[Dirk Gently]

Dirkers, wouldn't you identify the 95 Play-off Final as another generational fault-line?

Yes, but not a hard and fast one - I'd count that season and the one before, as that includes people who came along once the success started to happen.

[rabidbee]

I'd count that season and the one before, as that includes people who came along once the success started to happen.

Pure coincidence, of course.

Actually, the draw at Maine Rd was the first time I'd even heard that there was a club in the area.

[Archie's penalty]

I was there that day as an intrepid 12 and a half year old.

Ooh ahh Scott Taylor scored right?

[rabidbee]

I dunno - never having heard of the club before the game, I wasn't there, didn't watch it, and remember nothing about it.

[facaldaqui]

[quote="AF1"]as soon as no mark posters start rambling about how long they've supported blah blah I quit reading, grab a plus one and head back to AE[/quote]

How long I've supported is not the point; the question was whether the change in the club's circumstances is making some posters here unrealistically critical. It''s been an interesting thread, though of course there's no clear answer.

As for being a no mark poster, my membership here goes back well before we had to reregister in 2004. Just that I mainly read.

[Franchise FC]

I was conned into supporting Reading in the 69/70 season,when all games seemed to be 6-3 for or against.The entertainment was fantastic,and i thought the following seasons would be more of the same.Top half of the third division dizzy heights.

How wrong i was, relegation was followed by years in the old fourth division.In those years we all had plenty to moan about.It is only in the last five or six years that we have established ourselves as a strong championship side,with aspirations of the premiership.

Would i have missed the struggling years? No way,they make the good times even better.Do i still moan ? of course i do i am a Reading footballer supporter.

+1

Own up you wrinklies, how many shed a tear at the mad Stad the day we beat Derby to clinch the Championship? At the final whistle I was slumped in my seat in the East stand bawling my eyes out after years of watching RFC, literally shaking with emotion, whilst all around me fans were going mental at the team on the pitch. I don't actually recall hearing any noise either, just an eerie silence like I was in a world of my own. A Very VERY surreal experience.

Still makes me well up even now.

Don't mind admitting - I cried on 606 on the way back from Leicester

[SCIAG]

Yeah. I started going in 93/4, although 94/5 was the first season I pretty much saw every home game. Even taking 1998 into account, it's seemed preety much an upward trajectory since that point.

I'm a lot like that, actually- my first game was against Stoke in 93/4. Or at least, I think it was Stoke. I can't even remember the score, I was too excited to pay attention. I was seven. Then we arrived at Wembley not long afterwards, though I was left behind. My father and brother came home to me being extremely excited- nobody had told me that we'd lost. I thought it finished 2-0.

Over the years I've disliked some players- notably Brooker, Igoe, Watson, Morgan, and Sonko pre-amazing clearance. In comparison, I've little to complain about at present, though Long and Lita are driving me mad with their general uselessness.

[rabidbee]

How could you not like Watson?

[glass half full]

Do you guys not understand that people need to vent their frustrations.
People are feeling the strain of "will we go up or not", and this has them building up pressure in fear of failure - this pressure has to be released, and S. Hunt is the target of their ventilation.
It's just that simple, basic psychology.

I'd stop talking so much about generation gap this and that, it's just people being people and doing what people do. People are insecure and need comforting.
So next time you hear that guy saying "Hunt/Kebe/Harper is shit", then you can just say "it's ok man, you don't have to be upset, we're all equally anxious to go up!" and explain it is perfectly normal for him to have this nervous reaction. It is a basic defense mechanism in the human mind, if you're afraid you can't achieve it - reject it.
All basic psychology really.

I really love this!

[Lower West]

The game is different now. Going back some years to smaller first team squads of 18 players and only 1 substitute allowed. The effects on a result of who was available for selection, who got injured in a match, who got sent off in a match made such a difference. Taking Manure as an example. However well you play against them for 70 minutes, they can change the game by bringing on 3 fresh players of quality.

The result of this is a change of expectation amongst fans. In that expectations are far far higher. I put Readings success of the past years to a stable chairman/manager relationship. Enabling the club to take a long term view. Building a good team takes several seasons. Last chequebook team was Blackburn and they fell apart not long after their brief period of success.

As money becomes issue maybe the game will change for the better again, and the different generations of fans will once again agree .

[Millsy]

Do you guys not understand that people need to vent their frustrations.
People are feeling the strain of "will we go up or not", and this has them building up pressure in fear of failure - this pressure has to be released, and S. Hunt is the target of their ventilation.
It's just that simple, basic psychology.

I'd stop talking so much about generation gap this and that, it's just people being people and doing what people do. People are insecure and need comforting.
So next time you hear that guy saying "Hunt/Kebe/Harper is shit", then you can just say "it's ok man, you don't have to be upset, we're all equally anxious to go up!" and explain it is perfectly normal for him to have this nervous reaction. It is a basic defense mechanism in the human mind, if you're afraid you can't achieve it - reject it.
All basic psychology really.

Can I have my £5?

[KC Royal]

I was born in Reading, but currently live in Northampton . Being only 17, I only followed Reading from the infamous 05/06 season, when I realised the club was really going somewhere. But today, I'm a hugely passionate Reading supporter, although I am yet to go to a match (Distance, family, cost etc.), although I plan on going once I pass my driving test!

Of course, I am probably the only Reading supporter in Northampton, and no one here understands why I love the team.

A lot of that could have been me at the same age, though in my case it was the 94/95 season, and I was born in Ascot and currently live in Kent Things have moved on since then and i've been going to games for 6/7 yrs now.

The last paragraph is still true though, though in my case ive met/seen (or mates have)Reading fans in Canterbury over the years. Tails is at uni there too atm, and there's also a STH in Herne Bay, not sure if hes a nobber but im sure i had email contact with someone from here who lived in the area... Anyway, i can almost feel the rolling of eyes every time i bring the subject up with mates!