Following Reading

[Turnball ACs]

I have to say peeps, I am extremely disappointed with the reaction of some fans on BBCRB after the Arsenal game. Expressions of "disgust" etc at the performance and end result. I'm sorry, but how very sad. If you want to watch a highly successful team, week in week out, then Reading are clearly not the team for you. Watching Reading is, to me, about being proud of your town and your team. Having Reading in your heart, no matter what. Let's face it, Reading have a hardcore support of about 5-6,000 these days, which is a massive improvement on the old Elm Park days of the 80s. We have clearly enjoyed the most successful years in our history over the last ten years or so, and a lot of the new fans will probably not understand or appreciate that. I remember the days when getting a crowd of 7,000+ really built excitement going to the game. Who can forget Trevor Senior's last game for Reading against Wigan when he ended up in goal at 2-0 down, made some great saves, and we won 3-2. in front of 3,000 fans at most. And he still got carried off the pitch. Watching Reading means giving up a cold, November night, going to places like Burnley or Rotherham away, with only a couple of hundred fans if that. I must admit, listening to the people sat around me on Tuesday night, it was clear that they'd never been to see Reading before and were only there because we were playing Arsenal. Not because they were Arsenal fans, but just because it was one of the World's best club teams. From a financial point of view, this is obviously good for RFC but seriously, those of us that are proper, loyal supporters, who are there week in week out, do we want these people turning up for the big games and never being seen again?
I genuinely couldn't imagine spending my Saturday afternoons doing anything else. Birds come and go. Jobs come and go. Friends come and go. But Reading FC will be there for me. Hopefully forever.
Life = drinking and football. And to me, it always will be. "We are the travelling, the travelling South Bank"............

[Royal Lady]

So, would you say you are "proud to be a Reading fan"?

http://hobnob.royals.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=115892

[Royal Ginger]

OP, No, as fans, we have every right to be disgusted by our team's capitulation. It doesn't mean we support the team less, in fact, if anything the strong feeling mean that we care more. We all desperately want them to do well. If we got hammered by a better team from whistle to whistle, then fair enough, but to give up a 4-0 lead? There will be hardcore fans here who have been supporting this team through thick and thin who will be pissed at that result. I may have only been a fan since the lat 80s, but that doesn't mean i don't have a buy in. That defeat simply wasn't good enough, and to say otherwise is naive.

[Mike Hunt]

OP, No, as fans, we have every right to be disgusted by our team's capitulation. It doesn't mean we support the team less, in fact, if anything the strong feeling mean that we care more. We all desperately want them to do well. If we got hammered by a better team from whistle to whistle, then fair enough, but to give up a 4-0 lead? There will be hardcore fans here who have been supporting this team through thick and thin who will be pissed at that result. I may have only been a fan since the lat 80s, but that doesn't mean i don't have a buy in. That defeat simply wasn't good enough, and to say otherwise is naive.

/thread

[marcusopp]

I have to say peeps, I am extremely disappointed with the reaction of some fans on BBCRB after the Arsenal game. Expressions of "disgust" etc at the performance and end result. I'm sorry, but how very sad. If you want to watch a highly successful team, week in week out, then Reading are clearly not the team for you. Watching Reading is, to me, about being proud of your town and your team. Having Reading in your heart, no matter what. Let's face it, Reading have a hardcore support of about 5-6,000 these days, which is a massive improvement on the old Elm Park days of the 80s. We have clearly enjoyed the most successful years in our history over the last ten years or so, and a lot of the new fans will probably not understand or appreciate that. I remember the days when getting a crowd of 7,000+ really built excitement going to the game. Who can forget Trevor Senior's last game for Reading against Wigan when he ended up in goal at 2-0 down, made some great saves, and we won 3-2. in front of 3,000 fans at most. And he still got carried off the pitch. Watching Reading means giving up a cold, November night, going to places like Burnley or Rotherham away, with only a couple of hundred fans if that. I must admit, listening to the people sat around me on Tuesday night, it was clear that they'd never been to see Reading before and were only there because we were playing Arsenal. Not because they were Arsenal fans, but just because it was one of the World's best club teams. From a financial point of view, this is obviously good for RFC but seriously, those of us that are proper, loyal supporters, who are there week in week out, do we want these people turning up for the big games and never being seen again?
I genuinely couldn't imagine spending my Saturday afternoons doing anything else. Birds come and go. Jobs come and go. Friends come and go. But Reading FC will be there for me. Hopefully forever.
Life = drinking and football. And to me, it always will be. "We are the travelling, the travelling South Bank"............

i'm with you buddy.
in a perverse way i preferred being 3rd tier. Nothing will be better than when we won the 3rd division and jimmy quinn starting singing we are the champions by queen on the PA. My mate shook Shaka's hand during the pitch invasion too!

[under the tin]

I'm old school as well mate. I dont attend anymore because I've fallen out of love with the game.
However, I would like to point out that there were indeed bad Reading sides back in the mists of time.
Fans getting cheesed of with players and performances, and being vocal about it is nothing new.
I can remember watching an utter capitulation by a Bullivant side at the Headington club, and the very angry reaction of the travelling fans afterwards; slow handclapping at Elm Park on many an occaision, and one Martin James getting utterly fearful stick in every game that he appeared.
We might have sometimes booed them, but we were back the next week.
Loyalty to the cause is expressed in deeds, not words.

[paultheroyal]

Coupled with the "I wish we were in league 1"

[susieroyal]

I kind of get the point, but I just can't buy in to the "I was at Tranmere in the the fog and so if we lose to Arsenal it's not as bad as that".

Comparing football and Reading from the 80s to now is pointless - any club that has improved is completely different.

[Big Foot]

Coupled with the "I wish we were in league 1"

Genuinely wish we were

Very envious of the likes of Southampton and Norwich who've been down there and bounced back. If the club's "5 year plan" revolved around me then I'd want consecutive relegations to League 1/2 and then consecutive promotions back up.

[Elm Park Pasty]

I think we all know the other night was a complete disaster, only a fool would really suggest otherwise. No team should give up a four goal lead, I don't care if you are Arsenal playing Barcelona. We could all have taken losing 7-5 if the goals had been shared throughout the game. However, that game is gone. I find some of the blood letting and almost suicidal talk since then ridiculous. IT WAS ONE GAME!!! It wasn't even a league match for god's sake. Get some perspective people. The thing is going to be how the team move on from here, and getting results from now on. On 22 October 2006 we were beaten 4-0 at home, strangely enough by Arsenal. We finished 8th, 8th in the Premier League. One game does not a season make.

Following Reading FC is a bit of a strange story if you've been round long enough. Excepting Wigan, there are probably not many clubs that have risen from the bottom of the Third/Fourth tiers of English football to be in and around the Premier League. Yes, Southampton and Norwich have made their way through but they had to come down first. I don't think if you were around in the Seventies it makes you a better fan from someone who started following last season, but it does give you a much more rounded perspective. A fan from 2005 has tasted success and failure of equal feeling to a longer fan but at a higher level of football. I was there for 1-6 against Crystal Palace and the Uri Gellar spoon bending afterwards, the 0-6 against Bristol Rovers where it was 0-0 at half time, Pants for Pants, the game against Notts County where we were so bad that we only won 1-0 cos they scored for us. That doesn't make me a better fan than anyone else, what it does make me is someone who remembers that there are some games where we have played appallingly, and the most important thing was always what happened next............

[Big Foot]

On 22 October 2006 we were beaten 4-0 at home, strangely enough by Arsenal. We finished 8th, 8th in the Premier League. One game does not a season make.

We were 9th in the league after that defeat, so a bit of perspective is required.

[westongeezer]

Just grabbing my RTG's Its a fans right to bitch and moan, that don't make us less loyal......

[Elm Park Pasty]

On 22 October 2006 we were beaten 4-0 at home, strangely enough by Arsenal. We finished 8th, 8th in the Premier League. One game does not a season make.

We were 9th in the league after that defeat, so a bit of perspective is required.

The point I was trying to make was that we didn't go to pieces. It was a bad result but a rot didn't set in. However, I could have done without the club tweeting yesterday that after the Portsmouth 7-4 defeat we beat Derby in the next game, we all know where that season went!!!

[bracksroyal10]

I have to say peeps, I am extremely disappointed with the reaction of some fans on BBCRB after the Arsenal game. Expressions of "disgust" etc at the performance and end result. I'm sorry, but how very sad. If you want to watch a highly successful team, week in week out, then Reading are clearly not the team for you. Watching Reading is, to me, about being proud of your town and your team. Having Reading in your heart, no matter what. Let's face it, Reading have a hardcore support of about 5-6,000 these days, which is a massive improvement on the old Elm Park days of the 80s. We have clearly enjoyed the most successful years in our history over the last ten years or so, and a lot of the new fans will probably not understand or appreciate that. I remember the days when getting a crowd of 7,000+ really built excitement going to the game. Who can forget Trevor Senior's last game for Reading against Wigan when he ended up in goal at 2-0 down, made some great saves, and we won 3-2. in front of 3,000 fans at most. And he still got carried off the pitch. Watching Reading means giving up a cold, November night, going to places like Burnley or Rotherham away, with only a couple of hundred fans if that. I must admit, listening to the people sat around me on Tuesday night, it was clear that they'd never been to see Reading before and were only there because we were playing Arsenal. Not because they were Arsenal fans, but just because it was one of the World's best club teams. From a financial point of view, this is obviously good for RFC but seriously, those of us that are proper, loyal supporters, who are there week in week out, do we want these people turning up for the big games and never being seen again?
I genuinely couldn't imagine spending my Saturday afternoons doing anything else. Birds come and go. Jobs come and go. Friends come and go. But Reading FC will be there for me. Hopefully forever.
Life = drinking and football. And to me, it always will be. "We are the travelling, the travelling South Bank"............

Sorry but I don't agree with your view on the Arsenal game. It doesn't matter who we are playing if we give away a 4-0 lead to then lose then there is a big problem. Fair enough if it was sunday league football where it happens quite commonly but we are competing at the higher end of the scale so we should know how to see a game out with a lead that big no problem.

Don't get me wrong I felt sorry for the boys and Mcd but on the other hand it is just simply unacceptable to throw away a lead this big and yes Arsenal did bring on a couple of their more senior players but this still shouldn't of majorly changed the outcome. I don't think there is anything wrong with the fans attitude its still embarrassing to a lot of people understandably.

We played really well first half that was some of the best stuff we have played all year but unfortunately in a game like that people are only going to remember the way you gave away such a big lead not how well you played during the 1st half. It counts for nothing if we aren't winning games at the end of it.

[Lovely hot donuts!]

I have to say peeps, I am extremely disappointed with the reaction of some fans on BBCRB after the Arsenal game. Expressions of "disgust" etc at the performance and end result. I'm sorry, but how very sad. If you want to watch a highly successful team, week in week out, then Reading are clearly not the team for you. Watching Reading is, to me, about being proud of your town and your team. Having Reading in your heart, no matter what. Let's face it, Reading have a hardcore support of about 5-6,000 these days, which is a massive improvement on the old Elm Park days of the 80s. We have clearly enjoyed the most successful years in our history over the last ten years or so, and a lot of the new fans will probably not understand or appreciate that. I remember the days when getting a crowd of 7,000+ really built excitement going to the game. Who can forget Trevor Senior's last game for Reading against Wigan when he ended up in goal at 2-0 down, made some great saves, and we won 3-2. in front of 3,000 fans at most. And he still got carried off the pitch. Watching Reading means giving up a cold, November night, going to places like Burnley or Rotherham away, with only a couple of hundred fans if that. I must admit, listening to the people sat around me on Tuesday night, it was clear that they'd never been to see Reading before and were only there because we were playing Arsenal. Not because they were Arsenal fans, but just because it was one of the World's best club teams. From a financial point of view, this is obviously good for RFC but seriously, those of us that are proper, loyal supporters, who are there week in week out, do we want these people turning up for the big games and never being seen again?
I genuinely couldn't imagine spending my Saturday afternoons doing anything else. Birds come and go. Jobs come and go. Friends come and go. But Reading FC will be there for me. Hopefully forever.
Life = drinking and football. And to me, it always will be. "We are the travelling, the travelling South Bank"............

Here here. I couldn't agree more!
Admittedly I've only been following since 2004 (I was only 9) but nevertheless some of the dingier championship away trips, losing at home to scunthorpe, stuff like that is as much if not more fun than a full house of bandwagoners in the premier league!

In fact, it was losing 2-1 at home to plymouth on the first day of 2005/06 season that was the game that got me hooked I reckon - only my 5th ever!

[Schards#2]

My children piss me off occassionally, but i'm not about to disown them and ship in some orphans instead.

Being critical of a performance/situation doesn't make anyone any less of a fan or mean you love the club any less than you did previously. Many of those who were appalled to Tuesday's atrocity will still be there, week in/week out regardless of what division we are playing in in future years.

[melonhead]

for me following reading is all about pain, and humiliation, and being let down, and horrific capitulations
punctuated with brief moments of joy, which are all the sweeter due to the above.

the last ten years have been incredibly strange and surreal, and i for one am happy for normal service to be resumed in this way

[bcubed]

[quote="melonhead"for me following reading is all about pain, and humiliation, and being let down, and horrific capitulations
punctuated with brief moments of joy, which are all the sweeter due to the above.

the last ten years have been incredibly strange and surreal, and i for one am happy for normal service to be resumed in this way[/quote]


This is true and goes for all clubs outside the Prem
Reading fans seem to expect the worse At the best of times and at half time people around me were saying we shouldn't have let that one in, second half could be nerve racking
However we surely could have expected to win this one from 4 up?!

[super darren caskey]

We are pretty much hardened to the pain and disappointment of supporting Reading

I started supporting Reading properly off the back of a crushing defeat in the 94-95 play off final.

[super darren caskey]

Well when i say we i mean me but i expect some of you are too.

Its always crap when it happens but its not unexpected.

It tends to mainly happen in play offs though