Your first game

[rhroyal]

These threads have to come around every now and again. A few ppl mentioned their first game on the age thread, thought we'd have a thread dedicated to the issue.

For me it was Reading v Grimsby on 12th October 1996 in the old(ish) Division 1. Hardly a glamour tie but I enjoyed the game. A Trevor Morley penalty gave us the lead but we threw it away to finish at 1-1.

I was aged 8 at the time, quite old for a first game. I wasn't brought up in a football family so it was only when my parents noticed how obsessed I was with playing football in the garden, my FIFA 95 game and my sticker albums that my Dad thought taking me to my local team would be a good idea, even though I was a Newcastle fan at the time. A great decision on his part.

[Tony Le Mesmer]

Brentford 2-2 Reading 03/11/1979. Aged 7.

Still have the programme and scarf bought for me that day by my Grandparents. Family from the Brentford area, but still not sure excatly how i ended up a Reading fan, my local team but cant ever recall deciding to support them.

[Isaac Hunt]

Vs Portsmouth, April 1979.

Stood in the Tilehurst End, aged 5 I only seemed to remember one goal being scored but knew that we'd won 2-0

[Maguire]

Simod Cup Final aged 9

It was like watching a brilliant trailer for a really shit film.

[Wycombe Royal]

Is this the first game you saw or the first READING game you saw?

My first ever game was West Brom v Liverpool on the 29th December 1979. My dad was a West Brom and thought that at the age of 5 he would try and get me to support them as well.

Four years later he gave in and took me to my first Reading match. Reading v Chesterfield was that occasion on the 17th September 1983 back in the old Division 4.

[Focher]

Simod Cup Final aged 9

It was like watching a brilliant trailer for a really shit film.

Hicks is almost 'hanging out' there

[BR2]

Reading v Norwich 1954 (?)
Reading scored 4 and I was hooked.
There were no subs of course,Blackman scored (But he wasn't a black man)and I stood at the Town End at a time when there was no segregation.
Didn't have enough money for a Bovril and there were railway sleepers (IIRC)as part of the terracing.
If there weren't any railway sleepers there definitely were some at the Tilehurst End.
Old men probably wore a hat and there would have been no women there-a few in the stands perhaps but not amongst the riff-raff.
There was no singing and the Whitley(?) Brass Band played at half-time.

[Smoking Kills Dancing Doe]

Reading v Swansea 1989. Few days after my 5th birthday, got a season ticket the season after.

Happy Days!

[Focher]

Reading v Norwich 1954 (?)
Reading scored 4 and I was hooked.
There were no subs of course,Blackman scored (But he wasn't a black man)and I stood at the Town End at a time when there was no segregation.
Didn't have enough money for a Bovril and there were railway sleepers (IIRC)as part of the terracing.
If there weren't any railway sleepers there definitely were some at the Tilehurst End.
Old men probably wore a hat and there would have been no women there-a few in the stands perhaps but not amongst the riff-raff.
There was no singing and the Whitley(?) Brass Band played at half-time.

RACIST AND SEXIST

[Royalwaster]

First game Rapid Vienna vs Austria Vienna - think it was a cup final and ended in penalties, but don't know who won.

First Reading game - Reading vs Swindon 1:3 (the year we got promoted to the Championship) - went with a friend who had a spare ticket and was hooked even though Reading were rubbish. Went on a run of seven straight wins after that game ....

[Terminal Boardom]

August 1971

Home to Chester in front of 4,000 or so. We won 1-0 and Terry Bell scored with a diving header at the Tilehurst End. I went with my Dad who is a palarse fan and still is. I was 8 at the time, stood on the halfway line in the South Bank right by the wall. I remember asking my Dad if there were going to be any action replays

I was 8 FFS!

[papereyes]

Some game in the late-80s, early 90s.

Reading fans could sit by the away end, Mick Gooding scored, we won 1-0. I think it was Tranmere (http://www.soccerbase.com/results3.sd?gameid=229198) which would have made it a birthday present.

Dad was taking two business mates, one from New Zealand. He was deeply disappointed by the half-time fare.

First game may have been England vs Poland or England vs Hungary, 1990.

[Tony Le Mesmer]

I went to A Youth Cup game at EP circa 1980, think it was against Boro, might have been FA Youth CUp Semi, there was a decent crowd.

I remember asking someone "Is it Rush Keeper?'

[gonesy]

My Dad's been a Burnley fan since the 50's despite living in Ascot and watching Reading whenever they were at home, so my first game was a Div4 game in December 1988 - Hereford 0-0 Burnley (we lived in Wales at the time). He made the mistake of taking me to see Reading v Burnley in March 1993 which Reading won 1-0 and I've been hooked ever since.

[Only one Trevor Morley]

My old man was a plastic hoops fan so they held influence over me into my mid teens

So first match was cira 1985 QPRv Sunderland QPR won 1-0 and John Byrne scored in then 62nd minute.

First Reading match was home to Bradford 1992 - 1-1, Gilkes scored for us and Jewell for Bradford. I was in the tilehurst End but soon moved to the South Bank.

[eleventh earl of mar]

I went to A Youth Cup game at EP circa 1980, think it was against Boro, might have been FA Youth CUp Semi, there was a decent crowd.

I remember asking someone "Is it Rush Keeper?'

The youth team played Boro in the final of the youth cup around then and lost the two legged final 3-1. I think Martin Allen played in the Reading team.

[Terminal Boardom]

I went to A Youth Cup game at EP circa 1980, think it was against Boro, might have been FA Youth CUp Semi, there was a decent crowd.

I remember asking someone "Is it Rush Keeper?'

An ex work colleague played for Reading in that game - Mark England. Centre back. Good player.

[General B]

I have no idea. It was about 1983. Which would make me 8 at the time.

I am always deeply suspicious of people who come out with this sort of sub-Hornby crud: 'It was a cold Wednesday night in January and I was wearing the gloves my mum had knitted me for Christmas *embarrassed smiley*. We played Preston and won 2-0, with Senior getting both. I don't remember much about the game, but I do remember enjoying all the colours and noise, staring up at the flood lights and the smell of pipe smoke.'

No you don't.

For the record, my first memory is of someone in the family enclosure calling Gilkes a ropey c***.

[eleventh earl of mar]

I went to A Youth Cup game at EP circa 1980, think it was against Boro, might have been FA Youth CUp Semi, there was a decent crowd.

I remember asking someone "Is it Rush Keeper?'

An ex work colleague played for Reading in that game - Mark England. Centre back. Good player.

I played in the same Sunday league team as him.

[TBM]

A boring 0-0 draw at home to Brentford in May 1985.........