Your worst 11 since supporting RFC?

[Tilehurstsouthbank]

In defence of Bodin he was already past his best when he joined us and was a solid left-back for Swindon during their Premier League/Championship seasons.

Oh I agree he will have been alright at some point, but for whatever reason he was awful for us.

Except for one game. we played Swindon at home and he was outstanding. Me and my mates were joking that someone had spiked his Lucozade!

[South Coast Royal]

I remember that game well and we thought that we had seen the real Asaba.
Unfortunately such performances were few and far between.

That was a great match. Sunderland were right up there and we smashed them.

I loved that season. Started so promisingly with games like that, and a great League Cup run (*that* 4-2 against Wolves then a 3-2 win at Elland Road). At the start of January we were mid table, still in both cups and playing for the League Cup semi-final, and then George Cain intervened. That loss to Boro' seemed to turn the whole season around, and with a massive run of injuries after January we lost 14 out of 16 games, only winning against the two teams that went down with us.

Thanks for reviving those memories Dirk and Ian.

The Leeds result made up for the earlier visit to Elland Road where, with the Tranmere keeper just signed on loan, we were cheated out of at least a draw there with all the refereeing decisions going for them (?Yeboah, McAllister, Brolin etc?).

As for the Boro game I gather that the ref gave them a free-kick because Morley was remonstrating about us not getting any!!
They were a good side then with Gazza,Parlour (?) etc.

[Ark Royal]

Michael Meaker plus ten others. To even see him mentioned in the same sentence as Simon Osborn still makes my blood boil. At best, he was fu cking awful.

Also, as mentioned earlier, I have never heard a crowd give as much stick to a player as the Elm Park crowd did to Malcolm Swain in the early 70s. Absolutely brutal.

[John Smith]

Rafael, Virginia, Alex Pearce, Joey van den Berg, Guthrie, Vydra, Sonko (2nd Prem season), Keith Scott, Gareth Davies

[YorkshireRoyal99]

Rafael, Virginia, Alex Pearce, Joey van den Berg, Guthrie, Vydra, Sonko (2nd Prem season), Keith Scott, Gareth Davies

There have been far worse players at this club than Alex Pearce , Joey van den Berg and Rafael before for sure.

[South Coast Royal]

Michael Meaker plus ten others. To even see him mentioned in the same sentence as Simon Osborn still makes my blood boil. At best, he was fu cking awful.

Also, as mentioned earlier, I have never heard a crowd give as much stick to a player as the Elm Park crowd did to Malcolm Swain in the early 70s. Absolutely brutal.

Well said about Meaker, Ark.
The previous poster Karbota must either be him or a mate of his.

[Snowflake Royal]

Rafael, Virginia, Alex Pearce, Joey van den Berg, Guthrie, Vydra, Sonko (2nd Prem season), Keith Scott, Gareth Davies

There have been far worse players at this club than Alex Pearce , Joey van den Berg and Rafael before for sure.

John Smith confirming his status as clueless wum

[Loafer]

Rafael, Virginia, Alex Pearce, Joey van den Berg, Guthrie, Vydra, Sonko (2nd Prem season), Keith Scott, Gareth Davies

[blueroyals]

Bongani Khumalo

[Snowflake Royal]

Bongani Khumalo

I play random 5 a side with people who have better defensive awareness than him. Hell, I think I might be able to give him a run for his money if I was actually fit.

[karbota]

He cost us supposedly £550,000 in 1995 which would maybe be something like £2 million today perhaps or more bearing in mind the escalation of transfer fees.

He scored all of 2 goals in 67 appearances and after 3 years went off to Plymouth for a short period and then to loads of non-league teams.

As I said earlier, his arrival was part of the deal taking my favourite ever Reading player to QPR, so I would never see the best in him, if indeed there was ever a best.

Fake news wrong again. Welsh International and former premier league star Michael Meaker left Reading to join Bristol Rovers and was a key player in the squad that thrashed us 0-6 at home, he then went on for a successful spell at Swindon Town, and then onto Plymouth Argyle. Meaker is now player-manager at Taunton Town.

One of the biggest wastes of money in the club's history-£550,000 and we lost possibly our best ever player in getting him.
Remind me what we got for him when he left after doing so little for our club.
What he went on to do as a manager, a bin man or an opera singer is irrelevant.

I will again remind you of your inaccurate fake post above. Please can you post an apology asap.

[Rax]

Some decent shouts here - mainly comprising of the Burns/Bullivant season.

Mark Reilly was the worst player I've ever seen - makes Drinkwater look like Messi...

Nick Colgan though, wow, if you boys thought Virginia was bad........... the ROI side in 2004 must have been spectacularly bad!

[bakerlou]

Phillips, Colgan, vdK, Sheppard all very poor keepers from memory but the worst individual goalkeeping performance I can recall was Scott Howie's 45 minutes of shame away at Wycombe, so poor he was subbed off at HT.

Wycombe scored 5 that day, and they played Cherokee war dance music after each goal, hell's teeth I was sick of it by the end.

That aside though, it has to be

Sheppard
Halford
Gernon
Whitlock
Swales
Derrick Christie
Crawford
Glenn Burville
Reilly
Ollie Kearns
Conroy

Some of these guys (Christie / Burville, Crawford / Reilly) would have been playing in the same teams. Ollie Kearns scored goals now and then in Div 4 but he seemed to be a really poor player.

[Snowflake Royal]

Can't accept any worst team that has Swales in ahead of Bodin.

[NathStPaul]

Yeah not having Swales in any worst team, there are far greater crimes against left backs out there.

[Dirk Gently]

Rafael, Virginia, Alex Pearce, Joey van den Berg, Guthrie, Vydra, Sonko (2nd Prem season), Keith Scott, Gareth Davies

Don't knock Gareth Davies. he was perfectly adequate as an old-fashioned centre-half, which was what we needed at teh time. I could name 50 players worse than him.

And Sonko in his second prem season doesn't really count - he just wasn't the same player and should never have been playing, so it sullies the memory of how immense he was in the previous two seasons to call him out here.

I could tie the two strands together and nominate Michael Duberry. About as mobile as an oil-tanker and always with an own-goal lurking. I know he was emergency cover for Sonks, but he was just terrible. I'd have Gareth Davies ahead of him any day of the week...

[Dirk Gently]

Ollie Kearns scored goals now and then in Div 4 but he seemed to be a really poor player.

I can't have that - he was awkward and ungainly and didn't ever really seem to have the ball under control, but 40 goals in 75 + 11 league games is a decent return, and he was second-highest scorer when we went up in 1979.

But if you're trying to rule out someone because they look awkward and ungainly and didn't ever really seem to have the ball under control, you might as well nominate Trevor Senior...

[John Smith]

Rafael, Virginia, Alex Pearce, Joey van den Berg, Guthrie, Vydra, Sonko (2nd Prem season), Keith Scott, Gareth Davies

There have been far worse players at this club than Alex Pearce , Joey van den Berg and Rafael before for sure.

Joey van den Berg was, without doubt, the single worst player to ever play for the club.

Does he even earn money from football anymore?

[Dirk Gently]

Rafael, Virginia, Alex Pearce, Joey van den Berg, Guthrie, Vydra, Sonko (2nd Prem season), Keith Scott, Gareth Davies

There have been far worse players at this club than Alex Pearce , Joey van den Berg and Rafael before for sure.

Joey van den Berg was, without doubt, the single worst player to ever play for the club.

Does he even earn money from football anymore?

No.

After three months without a club, van den Berg signed a deal with Dutch amateur club MVV Alcides - the club he also played for in - on 3 February 2020, after failing to find a professional club during the January transfer market.[13]

On 20 September 2020 the club confirmed, that van den Berg suffered from knee problems and probably wouldn't play for the club anymore. However, he would continue to participate in the trainings.[14]

[Barney]

Phillips, Colgan, vdK, Sheppard all very poor keepers from memory but the worst individual goalkeeping performance I can recall was Scott Howie's 45 minutes of shame away at Wycombe, so poor he was subbed off at HT.

Wycombe scored 5 that day, and they played Cherokee war dance music after each goal, hell's teeth I was sick of it by the end.

That aside though, it has to be

Sheppard
Halford
Gernon
Whitlock
Swales
Derrick Christie
Crawford
Glenn Burville
Reilly
Ollie Kearns
Conroy

Some of these guys (Christie / Burville, Crawford / Reilly) would have been playing in the same teams. Ollie Kearns scored goals now and then in Div 4 but he seemed to be a really poor player.

Kearns ahead of Brayson ???? Have you forgotten just HOW BAD Brayson was ??

Good suspects though..other than Oliie.