Reading Football Club - The Royals

Reading FC History

2005-06 Season

1st in the Championship. Promoted as Champions
League Cup: 4th Round, Arsenal a. 0-3
FA Cup: 4th Round replay, Birmingham City a. 1-2

Low Spot: 1-2 home defeat to Plymouth Argyle on the opening day.
Highlight: The rest of the season (4-0 win over Norwich City possibly the pick 31/1/06).

Good:
Glen Little Let's hope Glen can impose his pretty unique style on the Premier League. At his best he is simply too good for the Championship and he was consistently brilliant this season.
Nicky Shorey One of those Championship rarities, a footballing full back. Shorey gets the nod here above a rash of other candidates for having been consistently excellent throughout Reading's recent rise.

Bad:
John Oster We had to pick on someone and Oster has simply been put in the shade by the brilliance of Little and Bobby Convey.
Steve Coppell Another obscure choice but Football England could not agree with Coppell's desire to get knocked out of the FA Cup. His claims that his side weren't assured of promotion were becoming boring before Christmas and were just plain ridiculous by the time they were playing Birmingham in the 4th round. Getting knocked out might have helped the side set a new points record but there was every chance of a trip to the semi finals given the way his side were playing and surely that was worth going after?

In Brief:
What a fantastic season.
Reading simply took the Championship by storm and surged triumphantly to a magnificent title. Not only did they set a new points record for the division but they did so playing wonderful, attacking football.
Virtually everyone starred but the wingers Little and Convey deserve special mention. All the strikers scored consistently although that was hardly a surprise given the service.
Leroy Lita looked more than a little special and although his progress was interrupted by a bad injury he returned to score a magnificent hat-trick that knocked West Brom out of the cup.
106 points, 99 goals and only 2 defeats (one coming on the first day of the season). It was the kind of season all supporters dream of for their club and the Royals certainly deserved all their success.

Reading F.C. - Club History

Reading Football Club was formed in 1871 after a public meeting held at the Bridge Street Rooms. This new club was strengthened in the coming years by amalgamations with other local clubs and they were regular contestants in the early FA Cup competitions. Indeed the club came to notice in an unfortunate manner after suffering an 18-0 cup tie defeat at the hands of Preston North End in the 1893-94 season.

It was not until the formation of Division Three in 1920 that Reading gained entry into the Football League, however. The club made a modest start to life in the league but burst into the limelight in the mid 1920's with two outstanding campaigns.

In 1926 the Royals gained promotion to the second division after pipping Plymouth Argyle to the Division Three South championship and the following year they shocked football by making it all the way to the FA Cup semi finals. The clubs toughest hurdle was the first as they were drawn against Manchester United in the 3rd round. After drawing both home and away Reading won through after a 2-1 win in the third game at Villa Park.

After dumping out Portsmouth, Brentford and Swansea Town they fell to a 3-0 defeat against Cardiff City in the semi finals.

The club dropped back into Division Three South in 1932 and remained in the third division until 1971 when they suffered relegation to Division Four. Reading spent the next fifteen years alternating between the bottom two divisions before managing promotion to Division Two in 1986 as champions of the third division.

Despite their lack of progress in this period the club did distinguish themselves in the early 1980's by introducing two future England internationals, Neil Webb and Kerry Dixon, to league football. Reading also set a Football League record on the way to the 1979 fourth division title when they went 1,074 minutes without conceding a goal, the man between the sticks being the magnificently named Steve Death.

Reading managed only two seasons in the second division before suffering relegation in 1988. The season was not wholly depressing, however, as the Royals did manage a memorable Simod Cup triumph which they clinched by thrashing first division Luton Town 4-1 at Wembley before a crowd of 61,470.

In 1994 Reading were again crowned champions in the third tier of English football and had a great season on returning to the second tier only to be dealt a cruel twist of fate.

The Royals finished second in the table behind Middlesbrough but with the Premier League being reduced in number by two teams that year only the champions gained automatic promotion.

It seemed as though Reading would prevail through the play offs after they took an early 2-0 lead over Bolton Wanderers in the final at Wembley but after Stuart Lovell had missed a penalty Bolton stormed back to win a pulsating game 4-3 after extra time.

In 1998 Reading were again relegated into the third tier but were to prove a force at that level and won promotion again as runners up in 2002, a year after missing out in the play offs.

The club have settled extremely well in their latest spell in the second tier and look better equipped to enjoy a sustained spell away from the leagues' lower reaches. The club have been bouyant ever since their move to the splendid Madejski Stadium in 1998 with crowds significantly improved from their days at Elm Park.

Indeed Reading made the play offs in their first season back in Division One in 2003 but lost out in the semi finals to Wolverhampton Wanderers.

The clubs best effort in the League Cup came in 1996 when they reached the 5th round. Reading saw off West Bromwich Albion, Bury and Southampton before losing narrowly, 2-1 at Leeds United.

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