Best XI in your lifetime. (Excluding the 106 team)

[Henley Royal 1]

Gk Hislop RB Ransom LB Kerr CB Wdowczyk CB Williams RM Taylor CM Sigurdson CM Hurlock LM Canoville CF Senior CF Quinn Subs Death Harte Gooding Osborn Bremner .

[Zip]

Good to see Kevin Bremner getting mentions here. He was a handful for the opposition.
I thought Dean Horrix would get mentions as a sub. Clever player.

[Zip]

Surprised nobody's included Long - surely wouldn't get in for 05-07 but a contender for that playoff season.

Gonna play 4-2-3-1 for Gylfi.

Shaka
Gunter, Pearce, Dariusz, Armstrong
Leigertwood, Norwood
Kebe, Sigurdsson, McAnuff
Fozzy

Subs: Al-Habsi, Mariappa, S. Kelly, Swift, Beerens, Gilkes, Long

....and you could play Fozzy in the lone striker role because he was so bloody good at it.

[Henley Royal 1]

Good to see Kevin Bremner getting mentions here. He was a handful for the opposition.
I thought Dean Horrix would get mentions as a sub. Clever player.

Would loved to have got Bremner in the side but couldnt leave out either striker.

[Zip]

Good to see Kevin Bremner getting mentions here. He was a handful for the opposition.
I thought Dean Horrix would get mentions as a sub. Clever player.

Would loved to have got Bremner in the side but couldnt leave out either striker.

Off the bench seems fair enough to me.

[Franchise FC]

Good to see Kevin Bremner getting mentions here. He was a handful for the opposition.
I thought Dean Horrix would get mentions as a sub. Clever player.

Would loved to have got Bremner in the side but couldnt leave out either striker.

Off the bench seems fair enough to me.

Max certainly put the wind up Plymouth. They went to pieces and couldn’t handle him at all.

[Zip]

Would loved to have got Bremner in the side but couldnt leave out either striker.

Off the bench seems fair enough to me.

Max certainly put the wind up Plymouth. They went to pieces and couldn’t handle him at all.

Didn’t go to the game but remember jumping up and down when the final score came through on the Grandstand vidiprinter. I was a curse to the team that season, ie Wolves2-2 and Walsall away 6-0.

[LUX]

Difficult because obvs I’m gonna say Robin Friday, but he was basically a fourth division player. Whereas Le Fondre scored quite a few for us in the Premiership. Senior and Friday up front. Senior was not “that good”, he just could not help scoring.
Similarly I’d be tempted to put Steve Death above Shaka.

I thought Gary Peters was a great right back.

Gylfi, Gilkes and Gorkks

Richie Bowman, yes.

Hetzke.

Mark White

Sanchez.

[Cape Town Royal]

Forster's goals to game ratio wasn't actually that great. He was superb on his day, but I always found him frustratingly greedy. But his turn of pace was something else.

Left wing was between Jobi and Michael Gilkes but went with Jobi as he got promoted and was Captain as well.

Gilkes scored and won the Simod Cup, and narrowly missed out on auto promotion to the Premier League in 1995 when we finished 2nd. I'd argue Gilkes edges McAnuff.

Anyway, for me:

------------------------------- SHAKA ----------------------------------

BRIDGE --- UPSON ----------------- WDOWCZYK --- HARTE

TAYLOR ---- OSBORN ---------- SIGURDSSON ---- GILKES

---------------- CURETON --------- QUINN ------------------------

The problem with Curo is he didn’t do it for us at Championship level. Great at lower League level

Just my opinion but we had three good strikers at that time Cureton worked really well with Butler the year we went up . Butler created a lot for Cureton to feed off (big man / little man combo) but in the Championship Butler did not make the step up so Cureton's chances dried up. Pardew went for plan B which was Foz up front on his own with his pace and to sit deeper with the extra man in midfield and it worked, which limited Curetons chances. I am pretty sure if Butler (or had we brought in someone else to play that role) had stepped up Cureton would have scored lots because he's the best natural finisher we have had in my time supporting Reading.

It is just my opinion though...

[One87One]

Hislop

Gunter
Kerr
Mills
Moore

Karacan
Caskey
Kebe
Sigurrdson

Senior
Friday

Gunter is the best right-back you've seen play for us?

[From Despair To Where?]

Pretty sure there were some shenanigans going on behind the scenes involving Butler's wife and another member of staff, maybe Pardew?

IIRC, he also got a nasty ankle injury which really set him back.

[Forbury Lion]

Hislop

Gunter
Kerr
Mills
Moore

Karacan
Caskey
Kebe
Sigurrdson

Senior
Friday

Gunter is the best right-back you've seen play for us?

Let's give him some credit and assume he's excluded Murty as he was part of the 106 team, making Gunter 2nd best (considering how many times he appeared, it doesn't leave too many other options)

[sandman]

Forster's goals to game ratio wasn't actually that great. He was superb on his day, but I always found him frustratingly greedy. But his turn of pace was something else.


Gilkes scored and won the Simod Cup, and narrowly missed out on auto promotion to the Premier League in 1995 when we finished 2nd. I'd argue Gilkes edges McAnuff.

Anyway, for me:

------------------------------- SHAKA ----------------------------------

BRIDGE --- UPSON ----------------- WDOWCZYK --- HARTE

TAYLOR ---- OSBORN ---------- SIGURDSSON ---- GILKES

---------------- CURETON --------- QUINN ------------------------

The problem with Curo is he didn’t do it for us at Championship level. Great at lower League level

Just my opinion but we had three good strikers at that time Cureton worked really well with Butler the year we went up . Butler created a lot for Cureton to feed off (big man / little man combo) but in the Championship Butler did not make the step up so Cureton's chances dried up. Pardew went for plan B which was Foz up front on his own with his pace and to sit deeper with the extra man in midfield and it worked, which limited Curetons chances. I am pretty sure if Butler (or had we brought in someone else to play that role) had stepped up Cureton would have scored lots because he's the best natural finisher we have had in my time supporting Reading.

It is just my opinion though...

Not quite accurate.

Fozzy was the top goalscorer and preferred striker the year we went up from Division 2/League 1. That's why Curo put his hands to his ears after the famous Brentford goal as a dig at Pardew for not playing him.

The Cureton - Butler partnership was very successful the year before in the failed play off campaign against Walsall but it was fazed out once Forster came back the following season.

Tbh if Forster hadn't got injured in the pre season of that play off campaign I'm not so sure we would have signed Curo. We're all glad we did sign him because of that Brentford goal.

Forster was always the favourite of Pardew which you can tell really annoyed Cureton and led him to the rash decision of leaving. A decision which he now admits was an immature one and he should have stayed..

[From Despair To Where?]

Hislop

Gunter
Wdowczyk
Wood
Harte

Kebe
Sigurdsson
Gooding
Gilkes

Quinn
Forster

Hislop is a given really. I saw Death play but only a couple of times.

RB was a struggle. Picked Gunter by default really.

CB. Dariusz was a class act and Wood looked really cultured alongside Hicks.

LB. Harte just for that left foot and sat piece delivery.

Gylfi is unquestionably the best pure footballer I've ever seen in a Reading shirt and Gooding was just a great all round CM. Went for flare, pace and that ability to get bums off seats in the wings, if not consistent end product.

Went for a combination of pace and and all round footballing intelligence up front.

Thing is. We all know that if the 2005-2007 team were allowed, there'd be at least 8 changes to that XI.

[Cape Town Royal]

The problem with Curo is he didn’t do it for us at Championship level. Great at lower League level

Just my opinion but we had three good strikers at that time Cureton worked really well with Butler the year we went up . Butler created a lot for Cureton to feed off (big man / little man combo) but in the Championship Butler did not make the step up so Cureton's chances dried up. Pardew went for plan B which was Foz up front on his own with his pace and to sit deeper with the extra man in midfield and it worked, which limited Curetons chances. I am pretty sure if Butler (or had we brought in someone else to play that role) had stepped up Cureton would have scored lots because he's the best natural finisher we have had in my time supporting Reading.

It is just my opinion though...

Not quite accurate.

Fozzy was the top goalscorer and preferred striker the year we went up from Division 2/League 1. That's why Curo put his hands to his ears after the famous Brentford goal as a dig at Pardew for not playing him.

The Cureton - Butler partnership was very successful the year before in the failed play off campaign against Walsall but it was fazed out once Forster came back the following season.

Tbh if Forster hadn't got injured in the pre season of that play off campaign I'm not so sure we would have signed Curo. We're all glad we did sign him because of that Brentford goal.

Forster was always the favourite of Pardew which you can tell really annoyed Cureton and led him to the rash decision of leaving. A decision which he now admits was an immature one and he should have stayed..

Fair point and it was a while ago.. I just remember thinking then that Butler's loss of effectiveness seemed to impact on Cureton. I do stand by the point that had we had an effective front man to lead the line with Cureton, he would have scored a lot of goals in the championship. I agree he left too early.

I was a fan of both Cureton and Forster but they never worked together well as a pair, which was a shame because they could both score goals..

My X1 would be

Death (mainly because I moved away so did not see much of Hislop)

Griffin
Upson (I wasn't going to go for any loanee's but he was brilliant for us and seemed to care so I have included him in)
Curle (toss up between him and Steve Wood who I always thought looked class)
Harte

Kebe
Hurlock (just because he always made me laugh when he went into kill (tackle) someone and would be a great foil for the next pick
Gylffi (best player I have ever seen play for Reading)
McAnuff

Kermogant
Forster

Subs Hislop, Wood, Richardson, Osborne, Karacan (to come on once Hurlocks been sent off), Cureton

Manager: Guess we can't have Sir Steve so I'll go for Pardew. I really thought he took us forward when he came in (tenacity, spirit, flair) and we've had nearly 20 years in the top two leagues on the back of it.

Has anyone ever done a worst X1???

[sandman]

Hislop

Gunter
Wdowczyk
Wood
Harte

Kebe
Sigurdsson
Gooding
Gilkes

Quinn
Forster

Hislop is a given really. I saw Death play but only a couple of times.

RB was a struggle. Picked Gunter by default really.

CB. Dariusz was a class act and Wood looked really cultured alongside Hicks.

LB. Harte just for that left foot and sat piece delivery.

Gylfi is unquestionably the best pure footballer I've ever seen in a Reading shirt and Gooding was just a great all round CM. Went for flare, pace and that ability to get bums off seats in the wings, if not consistent end product.

Went for a combination of pace and and all round footballing intelligence up front.

Thing is. We all know that if the 2005-2007 team were allowed, there'd be at least 8 changes to that XI.

It's an interesting one. If I was including them I would probably choose..

Hislop

Murty
Ingimarsson
Williams
Shorey

Little
Sidwell
Sigurdsson
Kebe

Forster
Kitson

Leaving out Doyle would be the hardest decision out of that lot but Forster is probably second to Shaka as my all time favourite Reading player.

I'd move Kebe across to left wing instead of picking Jobi. I think left wing would be the one that most people would change to a player from another Reading team, even though Convey was very good in the 106 season.

[sandman]

Just my opinion but we had three good strikers at that time Cureton worked really well with Butler the year we went up . Butler created a lot for Cureton to feed off (big man / little man combo) but in the Championship Butler did not make the step up so Cureton's chances dried up. Pardew went for plan B which was Foz up front on his own with his pace and to sit deeper with the extra man in midfield and it worked, which limited Curetons chances. I am pretty sure if Butler (or had we brought in someone else to play that role) had stepped up Cureton would have scored lots because he's the best natural finisher we have had in my time supporting Reading.

It is just my opinion though...

Not quite accurate.

Fozzy was the top goalscorer and preferred striker the year we went up from Division 2/League 1. That's why Curo put his hands to his ears after the famous Brentford goal as a dig at Pardew for not playing him.

The Cureton - Butler partnership was very successful the year before in the failed play off campaign against Walsall but it was fazed out once Forster came back the following season.

Tbh if Forster hadn't got injured in the pre season of that play off campaign I'm not so sure we would have signed Curo. We're all glad we did sign him because of that Brentford goal.

Forster was always the favourite of Pardew which you can tell really annoyed Cureton and led him to the rash decision of leaving. A decision which he now admits was an immature one and he should have stayed..

Fair point and it was a while ago.. I just remember thinking then that Butler's loss of effectiveness seemed to impact on Cureton. I do stand by the point that had we had an effective front man to lead the line with Cureton, he would have scored a lot of goals in the championship. I agree he left too early.

I was a fan of both Cureton and Forster but they never worked together well as a pair, which was a shame because they could both score goals..

Agreed

Tbf to Butler the horrific injury he got in the promotion season pretty much ended his career here.
Which was, along with Forster coming back from injury, a big reason why the Cureton partnership didn't see more game time.

Cureton proved at Colchester with Iwelumo that he could play well in the Championship if he had a partner.

A Forster - Cureton partnership would have been ideal but, as you say, they didn't work well together. That was probably partly because they were too competitive with each other.

[From Despair To Where?]

If it included the 106 team, I'd have Hislop over Hahnemann, A N Other over Convey and I'd have to fit Sigurdsson in somewhere.

The thing that would give Ivar/Sonks and Kitson/Doyle the nod for me is the combination at CB of brains and brawn and up front, both Kitson and Doyle were intelligent, tireless and selfless players. For me, only Jimmy Quinn comes close in the respect.

[sandman]

If it included the 106 team, I'd have Hislop over Hahnemann, A N Other over Convey and I'd have to fit Sigurdsson in somewhere.

The thing that would give Ivar/Sonks and Kitson/Doyle the nod for me is the combination at CB of brains and brawn and up front, both Kitson and Doyle were intelligent, tireless and selfless players. For me, only Jimmy Quinn comes close in the respect.

That's the thing with the 106 team, the partnerships within the team are what made it so great as well as the individual talent.

[WoodleyRoyal]

GK Hislop
RB Andy Bernal
CB Ady Williams
CB Hicks
LB Dariusz Wdowczyk
RW Kebe
CM Parkinson
CM Gooding
LW Gilks
ST Quinn
ST Cureton