Most gutting moment as a Reading fan.

[roberto_11]

Yeah Walsall was pretty bad, especially after the Wigan playoff win in the last minute where it seemed like it was meant to be our year. Incidently that was my best Reading match ever.

Someone wrote they felt physically sick when Byfields goal went in - was the same with me actually. There was no way it seemed like it COULD go in.

Was a sad end to an entertaining season. I think the season after when we did go up, we got less points and didnt play as well. More solid at the back but not as exciting going forward.

Also funny to think how Harper played in that game, one of his first for the club. Things have now gone full circle.

I think Bolton game was worse, even though I was quite young we played brilliantly and from 2-0 up to lose the prize with 6 minutes to go was god awful. Especially as deep down everyone knew that was our big chance as we were unlikely to do that well again at that point in time

[Archie's penalty]

watching Birmingham get promoted at the Mad Stad is surely one too..

+1.

And the fact that Sky kept showing the moment they won throughout the summer.

[Stooper]

I think Walsall just takes it for me, over the Forest relegation & Norwich home game amalgamated.

As people have said, the '95 season just seemed like a dream. Even to be there was amazing, being 4 minutes away from the Prem seemed surreal.

Walsall, we should have won. We'd been an amazing outfit all season and even going down to Col U that day, knowing we couldn't go up automatically hurt. So we turned our attentions to the play offs with a deserved confidence; looked like going down to Wigan and turned it around amazingly. To lead in extra time, and still lose being the 'big boys' in the division.....yeah, it hurt.

Forest hurt as well as we did so well. Matched them, if not bettered them and Brayson hitting the post, Jimmy Mac's super miss and then Bart-Williams sealing the deal. We wiped away tears of relegation while they celebrated promotion on the pitch. And the hopelessness of 'celebration' on the last day at Elm Park...already down and an abject performance was not the way to bow out. Even moreso the 5 or so games we had afterwards, which always concluded with a pitch invasion followed by an announcement of 'please do not invade the pitch, we still have one game left', met with dismay by the fans as we'd said goodbye several times.

[Ian Royal]

Losing to Norwich in the last ever competitive match at EP. Not only had we been relegated like a bunch of useless tossers, we couldn't even scrape together the dignity to go down with a bang and leave our ground with anything other than another dismal defeat.

[Kitson12]

Norwich at home, 2003/4. the bloody ref with the assist for their late goal to win the game!
Though the most has to be Bolton shirley?

[Jackson Corner]

Norwich at home, 2003/4. the bloody ref with the assist for their late goal to win the game!
Though the most has to be Bolton shirley?

Bolton by a mile and stop calling me Shirley.

[Wimb]

I really wish I had been a couple of years older for Wembley. I have vivid memories of the build up to the game and of my Dad telling me we'd got tickets. Then the local press building it up and the fact that I'd never seen so many Reading fans before in one place outside of Wembley.

Then the feeling of dispair as we lost the game. I missed Quinny's goal as I was crying
Then after the game I remember listening to 'always look on the bright side' on Radio Berks as we headed back to Reading after the game, with Steve Beddow(?) babbling on. That became an anthem of sorts for a while.

I've still not watched the video all the way through, even though I thought I might be able too after we won promotion


But the more I think about it, the more this years playoff defeat to Burnley sticks in my mind. Perhaps because it was most recent but it almost felt like a dream sat in a half empty stadium literally watching the end of an era. Almost like the team had a terminal disease and you were just waiting for someone to turn off life support.

[Woking Royal]

The obvious ones, Bolton & Walsal ...............

But how about this one ............(not sure if anyone else has flagged it up yet)

Matty Upson going back to Arsenal(?) after his loan spell. His presence transformed the team, on & off the pitch. He was there for the taking, but clearly someone did not want to break the Wage structure. I remember being gutted ................ and results taking an almost immediate dive.

What might have been ......

[Big Foot]

Losing away at Wigna last day of the 03/04 season for them to get promoted and us to miss out on play offs

[Wimb]

If I remember rightly Upson didn't want to join us, he wanted to play in the PL. Pardew was basically saying as much right through his loan spell

[Negative_Jeff]

First home game and defeat by the Swinedon in 1997. Brendan Rodgers needs time and all that, but it was immediately apparant back then that we were going in only one direction under Bullivant.
Of all Madejski`s decisions, appointing Terry the Taxi was surely the worst.

[rhroyal]

I know this isn't one moment - but Steve Coppell's glorious era and team should have ended on a better note. It didn't seem right the best manager we've ever had ending with an abject final 6 months which led to me thinking his time was over.

Like I've said earlier in the thread, Murphy's goal for Fulham was the worst one moment for me. Over the season we deserved to go down, but on that afternoon we did everything we could. With 20 minutes left we were 3-0 up and there was still no score from Fratton Park. I thought we'd done it......

[Thaumagurist*]

If I remember rightly Upson didn't want to join us, he wanted to play in the PL. Pardew was basically saying as much right through his loan spell

I don't quite remember it like that. The noises coming from Upson was that he was keen to join us. Especially if we ever got to the Premiership.

[Mad Dog's Ghost]

WCHBAP.

Nearly forgot ... watching the away fans going mental at the end of virtually every home game in 2009.

[rhroyal]

WCHBAP.

eh?

[Wimb]

If I remember rightly Upson didn't want to join us, he wanted to play in the PL. Pardew was basically saying as much right through his loan spell

I don't quite remember it like that. The noises coming from Upson was that he was keen to join us. Especially if we ever got to the Premiership.

Well he was trying to get back into the Arsenal team and joined us to get fitness after a long injury, if we'd gone up he might have signed but Brum (in the PL) came in for him and that was that.

[yuomi]

the bolton game. and, in particular, archie's miss. i sat down thinking it didnt matter that much...walsall comes pretty close though.

[southbank1871]

Has to be the Bolton play-off final by an absolute mile. I was only 14 and so that was around the time when football was absolutely everything to me and it still remains my worst ever sporting moment. The inevitability of that team breaking up was hard to take too.

Finally getting promotion to the top flight exercised some of the demons, but I don't think we can properly forget about it until we win a play-off final, which I'm sure will never happen.

Walsall was bad, but not in the same league as Bolton IMO.

[Tilehurst End]

Although Wallsall was gutting, I have always consoled myself with the fact that if we had have gone up, as Pardew said, we would have put players on much improved contracts with a promise of the cash injection from ITV digital and who knows where we might be now.

The Middlesboro' league cup game is right up there for me. I'm not sure I ever cancelled the contract I put out on that ref...........

[Wimb]

Although Wallsall was gutting, I have always consoled myself with the fact that if we had have gone up, as Pardew said, we would have put players on much improved contracts with a promise of the cash injection from ITV digital and who knows where we might be now.

The Middlesboro' league cup game is right up there for me. I'm not sure I ever cancelled the contract I put out on that ref...........

Was that Craig Hignetts cheating goal when we stopped thinking we had a freekick?