Forget Achievements.What Has Been Your Favourite RFC Season

[AthleticoSpizz]

For me, it was 1987

The (old) Division Two....a 1-1 draw at Ipswich on our last game of the season secured our best ever league position finish ever.

Whilst served up a dish of Div 3&4 for the previous decades, this was even pre-cum to our forthcoming Wembley trips and Premier/Division One aspirations.

Had the priviledge to be at that game..penned up in a cage in Portman Road to the corner of the ground....the generousity of the home fans was such, as they even threw money at us.

We finished 13th ..the equal highest ever

It meant a lot in the pre-internet days

(and to prove a point Man Friday)

[AthleticoSpizz]

12 readers brains are already on overload

[cmonurz]

97-98.


First 'full season' watching Reading, I went to 14 games and didn't see us lose once, which was no mean feat considering we lost 26 league games. Included the brilliant 3-3 draw with Forest (Skittles getting Beasant sent off, Lambert's wonder-goal, Stone's missed sitter and Linvoy's equaliser)', the 4-2 league cup win over a McGhee-led Wolves, and the FA cup win on penalties over Cardiff where for one night Nicky Hammond became the best keeper on the planet. Even saw Ray Houghton play well in a Reading shirt, when we thrashed City in the middle of 10 defeats.

[bobbybottler]

93/94 - I could, quite literally, not believe what I was seeing. The season after was a better team, against better teams, but after a decade and a half of watching ugly and by and large mediocre football, it came as a rather pleasant surprise.

One touch, slick, pass and move, er jumpers for goalposts isn't it eh etc but still, the team went out with total self-belief, tried to play passing football, had a credible plan B (hoof it for Gilkes to run after), had predatory strikers, a gigantic and hugely talented and also utterly charming goalie, and there was plenty of local lads in the team.

And if you wanted to see your drunken Welsh international centre-half chatting up ropey looking jailbait and then falling down the stairs in Utopia, well every Saturday was your lucky Saturday.

Ah fuck it I'm getting old.

[jellytot]

Yeah bobbybottler 93/94 was special. When a cross went over and jimmy Quinn was on the end of it you knew that a goal was going to result!

Do you remember that season when all the players wore shades for the warm up!

I remember being devastated when Gilkes left for wolves!!

Also special was the simod cup win! I remember rfc 2 wolves 2 great game. They ended our 13 match winning streak! That was great too. :0)

In those days the players woulld talk to you.

[Ups and Downs]

2005/2006. Obvs. It was just so out of the blue. Being 20 points clear at Christmas was phenomenal.

[Arch]

Since the vast majority of my seasons have been followed from afar, enjoyment is a relative notion here. But 85-86 was pretty skillz. I got the results by reading the Boston Sunday Globe ove bagels and coffee with a bunch of housemates, and I get pretty nostalgic thinking about it.

Even so, hard to trump 05-06. It was a permanent high wherever you were in the world.

[Jackson Corner]

78-79 DIV 4 champions. My first full season as a Royal and our first title for 50 odd years. Based on a rock solid defence and hard working box to box midfielders, unlike todays team once they took the lead you new they were never going to surender it.

[Wimb]

94/95 was fun for my first half-season watching the club. Can't say I appreciated it fully as I was only 8 for most of it but was still a great season to get me hooked.

2002/03 was good fun, getting to see the team challenge in the second tier again but for me personally last season was my favorite. The unexpected way we stormed up the table and won the league after starting to fear relegation after getting well beaten by Watford at home is something that we've not really seen before and doubt we'll see again. The away days at West Ham and Southampton were just incredible and to top it off with promotion night against Forest was awesome.

[LUX]

78-79 DIV 4 champions. My first full season as a Royal and our first title for 50 odd years. Based on a rock solid defence and hard working box to box midfielders, unlike todays team once they took the lead you new they were never going to surender it.

75-76 , third in Div 4, promoted. Team full of players you just loved to watch.

Typical team ( from memory)

Death, Peters, Henderson, Cumming, Hetzke, Youlden, Murray, Hiron, Friday, Carnaby, Stuckey.

Very happy, innocent days

[Royal Ginger]

05/06 The team was firing on all cylinders. I remember constantly thinking that it can't last, but each game we marched on.

[Croydon Royal]

It has to be 2005/06 for the same reasons everyone else has said. But for me a special mention also to 2000/01. I know it all ended in tears at the Millenium Stadium, but having spent 6 or 7 years going to 10 or so Reading games per season, it was the first year that I really became obsessed, got a season ticket etc. It was also the first year that kick started an incredible decade of RFC success, and contained some of the most exciting matches I can remember - Wigan play off semi final, Reading 4-3 Oxford in the pouring rain, 3-3 with Bournemouth on last day of season, the run of 3 games at Madejski where we won 4-0, 5-0 & 5-1, Caskey last minute free kick against Northampton on New Years Day. With Cureton and Butler scoring for fun, it was great stuff.

[URZZZZZZZZ]

02/03 for me. Stepped up from being a casual fan to a season ticket holder that year, and we were sensational. Nicky Forster remains my favourite player just because of that season.

[Lovely hot donuts!]

It does have to be 2005/06 season. I was only ten and the first year I went to games regularly. By chance we were also phenomenal and that was probably a major factor in me falling in love with Reading and the game. I always wonder, if we'd been crap that year, would I have even kept following Reading, or even football in general?

The shame was that, because I was ten and new to following the game, I don't think I really appreciated how spectacular it really was!
I still daydream about that team on a daily basis!

I <3 Graeme Murty, Dave Kitson, Glen Little, James Harper, Marcus Hahnemann...

Anyway, that's enough reminiscing for now!

[Stooper]

93-95 for the sheer disbelief of it all.

Steve Bull at Elm Park on live TV. It seemed like an alternate reality to beat top of the table Middlesbrough at their place. Being 2-0 up in a game that meant promotion to the Premier League. It was such a far cry from limping over the line at the end of '93....2 wins in 10 wasn't it?

Obviously 05/06 is up there in terms of fun, but I think 01/02 is a bit of an unsung hero. Years of disappointment and slipping into/out of the play offs had left us a bit deflated. In October, Y26 were calling for Pardew's head after going 3-0 down to Swindon. We pulled it together and were battling with Brighton & Brentford before stumbling and only just notching 0-0 draws and it looked like we'd blow it, again. Then Curo chipped that ball.

[marcusopp]

Yeah bobbybottler 93/94 was special. When a cross went over and jimmy Quinn was on the end of it you knew that a goal was going to result!

Do you remember that season when all the players wore shades for the warm up!

I remember being devastated when Gilkes left for wolves!!

Also special was the simod cup win! I remember rfc 2 wolves 2 great game. They ended our 13 match winning streak! That was great too. :0)

In those days the players woulld talk to you.

Yeah, 92-93, then the following season in div 1 (championship). Our side was; Shaka; Bernal, Williams, Wdowczyk, Kerr; Taylor, Parkinson, Osbourn/ Dillon, Gilkes; Lovell, Quinn. What a side.
To argue about players talking to you, my mate met Noel Hunt and said he's a top bloke who really appreciates the club and fans, so there are still a few players without inflated egos still out there.

[Elm Park Old Boy]

2006 was obviously very hard to beat.

But I really enjoyed last season too, for the way we just kept winning and surprised everyone.

[SPARTA]

05/06 for the fantastic football, and going to games knowing we were going to win and it was just how many by. The memorable tear jerker at Leicester when we cemented our promotion in record time in early March.

94/95 as it was my first full season as a Reading fan, stood under the beautiful old South Bank, being absorbed by the atmosphere and the good football Jim and Mick kept us playing after McGhee walked out for Leicester. One of the the highlights was Archie's hat-trick against McMahon's (baldy headed c**t) Swindon. The fantastic atmosphere away at Tranmere in the P/O Semi, and then the experience of Wembley and the mad first 20 mins which saw us go 2-0 up against Bolton and then 'that' penalty miss and the sinking feeling I felt from that moment on. You just knew it was backs to the wall from there.

[ankeny]

75/76',when we finally got out of the depths of the fourth division..69/70 must get a mention ,saw the most entertaining team we ever had.

[super darren caskey]

2000 - 01 season

Got free tickets to all the home games for the whole season

A mate worked at Westcoast