On This Day

07 May 2020
By Hob Nob Anyone?

We are now at the point of the year when the season usually wraps up, but instead, due to the Covid-19 outbreak, Reading are left with nine games left to play. With football set to resume in Germany in 9 days time and talk of the Premier League making plans to start up again, it remains unclear if the Championship will run to completion. Next season's fixtures are also likely to follow a different pattern as football adjusts to the pandemic. it is also unknown when fans will be able to return to the Madejski Stadium to watch their team. In some ways the Royals are lucky in that they were heading towards a certain midtable finish, so whatever the decisions made we will remain a Championship side - unless dramatic changes are made.

With no sport to watch, sports channels are filled with re-runs of historic fixtures and previous cup finals and league deciders. It seems like a good opportunity to have a quick look at games on this day when Reading ended their league seasons on time:

7 May 2017: Burton 2 Reading 4
Reading wrapped up the regular 2016/2017 season with a hugely enjoyable trip to Burton Albion and an equally excellent third place finish. The Royals were already guaranteed a play-off position in the Championship with plenty of games spare but found themselves well behind Newcastle and Brighton who took the automatic promotion places. The season had been a massive surprise and unexpected success under the management of Jaap Stam. Some found it difficult to believe that Reading had picked up 85 points without actually looking that good. Mendes, Obita, Kermorgant and Grabban scored the goals as Reading were clear 4-2 winners. It set us up well for the play-offs and a two leg victory over Fulham... before the epic failure at Wembley and the eventual 4-3 defeat on penalties to Huddersfield.

7 May 2016: Blackburn Rovers 3 Reading 1
The season before also ended on 7 May and was the opposite of the win at Burton. Reading slumped to a 17th place finish, despite starting the season as genuine promotion contenders. It was a dramatic turn around as the season just got worse as it went on. On the final day a 3-1 defeat at Blackburn summed it up. Kermorgant scored Reading's only goal after 31 minutes - but we were already two down at that stage and we went on to lose with little resistance. A season to be forgotten.

7 May 2011: Reading 2 Derby County 1
Rewind another five years and, like 2017, we again finished the season in a Championship play-off position. A 2-1 home victory over Derby County saw us finish in 5th place, after we had already confirmed a play-off finish the week before. And also like 2017 it would end in play-off final failure - this time at the hands of Swansea City who took their place in the top tier of English football. The win over Derby at the Madejski Stadium was a strange one as Brian McDermott put out a weakened team and rested players ahead of the play-off fixtures. Harte scored from the penalty spot and Robson-Kanu wrapped up the win in the second half. Shane Long received the fans' player of the season award but found himself sitting on the bench for the whole game as Reading eased to a win.

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