The Simod Cup (not the Zenith Data Systems Cup)

[Royality creeps In]

Got absolutely oxf*rd in Gary Peters pub (The Blue Lion) after getting back from Wembley.

Magnificent day that will live long in the memory

[From Despair To Where?]

It's easy to forget that Luton won the League Cup a couple of weeks later, and I think they also made the semi finals of the FA Cup. They were a good side and fielded a near first choice team.

Others are right, despite being a Mickey Mouse Cup, for a club of our stature as it was then, it was a huge deal to play at Wembley and win a trophy. I would rank it above a Play Off final and an FA Cup semi final. It's arguably in the top 3 significant achievements for the club along with the 106 season and the first season in the Premiership.

[The Cap]

Jackson Corner wrote:
For Reading fans at the time when expectations were somewhat lower than they are now. Winning the Simod cup still rates as the best day in the clubs history. Yes it was bit of a mickey mouse cup but for us it was like winning the Champions league.

Well put mate and a justifiable comparison.

[Branfoot Out]

Reading's greatest ever cup run, some of the most unlikely victories, biggest shocks, and for once, a happy ending. The stats of that cup run are pretty incredible - in winning the cup, Reading beat 5 top flight teams - 4 would end up in the top 10 of Division 1 (the Prem in new money) with QPR and Forest ending up in the top 5. The FA Cup holders - Coventry and the League Cup winners - Luton were beaten. And all of this in the days before squad rotation had been invented so these were full strength teams that Reading beat, even more incredible when you consider how piss poor Reading's league form was that season..

I went to every round that year - the semi win still ranks as my favourite game. Memories:

Round 1 - a Monday night trip to London's top team at the time, QPR on the plastic. At half time, everything going to form - QPR led 1-0 (Martin Allen goal if I remember right) and Reading looked completely lost on the plastic pitch. Then in 10 crazy minutes from the 70 minute mark, Reading turned the game on its head scoring 3 times, led by Linden Jones’s brace to win 3-1.

Round 2 - a local derby against an Oxford team whose tenure in the top flight would soon be over. It’s fair to say that Simod Cup fever had not yet swept around Berkshire or indeed Oxfordshire as only about 5000 souls turned up on a cold January evening. The late great Dean Horrix scored the only goal of the game and it was on to the next round against Brian Clough’s high-flying Nottingham Forest.

Round 3 - I don’t think even the most optimistic Reading fan expected anything but a home defeat from this one. Forest sat 2nd in the First Division behind Liverpool and had a full strength team out. Over 9,000 were at Elm Park to watch Reading take on a full strength Forest side and were lucky enough to witness one of the great cup shocks.

Reading were fantastic from the off and got the first goal but ex-Royal Neil Webb equalized and took the game to extra time. I remember seeing Clough on the pitch before extra-time trying to cajole the Forest players into life . But in the added period it was Horrix again who was the hero getting the goal which sparked wild celebrations and gave Reading the 2-1 win.

QF- A week later, back at Elm Park for the quarter-final against Division 2 promotion challengers, Bradford City, a team we had already lost to in the League Cup. Again extra-time was needed before Deano again came up with the winner in another 2-1 win after a quite spectacular open goal miss from Bradford when 2 on 1 with Steve Francis.

Semi - Home game again against FA Cup winners Coventry City beckoned. Kick off was delayed as officially around 15,400 souls crammed into Elm Park but it seemed a lot more than that inside the ground. You couldn’t move on the South Bank and all sides of the ground looked absolutely packed. The atmosphere was unbelievable from start to finish. Neil Smillie gave Reading the lead early in the second half but David Speedie levelled for Cov late on before climbing the fence to celebrate with the packed away end. Extra time brought no more goals so it was down to penalties..

Brian Kilcline stepped up first for Coventry and smashed it straight at Steve Francis who despite his best attempts couldn’t stop it from crossing the line, 1-0 Cov. Next, Keith Curle stepped up for Reading and his tame effort was easily saved by man-giant Steve Ogrizovic. I still remember the feeling of utter despondency when Coventry scored their next to go 2-0 up. But Stuart Beavon held his nerve to make it 2-1 and when Francis saved the next City pen to wild celebrations around most of the ground, you could feel the belief come back to the crowd.

The next 3 penalties were scored leaving it at 3-3 with one kick left each. Up stepped Coventry’s FA Cup final man of the match Dave Bennett who shot hard to Francis’s right. In a blur, Francis guessed right and clawed the ball away. Cue absolute pandemonium – the roof nearly came off the South Bank, and some mathematically challenged people invaded the pitch thinking it was all over.

The only problem was that it wasn’t over – it was only 3-3 and Reading still needed to score their last penalty. It was down to soon to be Reading legend, Michael Gilkes to make history and send Reading to Wembley for the first time ever. At around 10.45pm, the latest finish of a game in British history at the time, he began his walk to the penalty spot, urgently trying to encourage people off the pitch and looking like a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

By the time he started his run up, calm had been restored and a deathly nervous hush seemed to fall around the ground. Gilkes struck it hard the same side as Bennett had gone. The ball beat Ogrizovic but crashed against the inside of the post and time seemed to stand still as everyone held their breath….

And then the net bulged and all hell broke loose. The ground seemed to be shaking, the noise was deafening as Gilkes wheeled away, arms and fists pumping, his face a picture of pure unadulterated joy. This time everyone was over the wall from the South Bank and on the pitch to begin the celebrations and to catch up with Gilkesy who was quickly engulfed by the massed crowd. Everyone remained on the pitch for ages afterwards soaking it all in and coming to terms with the fact that Reading were at Wembley..

Final - Three weeks later, 45,000 Reading fans made their way to Wembley. Reading were massive underdogs against a strong Luton team already through to the League Cup final, where a month later they would beat Arsenal to lift the cup.

Arriving at Wembley that sunny March day was amazing. Reading fans were everywhere, filling half of the ground and dominating the crowd of 61,400, outnumbering Luton by 3:1. The excitement at just being at the famous old stadium was enough for most - I don’t think anyone really expected the day to end in victory. Particularly as Reading had no recognised strikers for the game, Horrix having left to join Millwall after the semi-final, and record signings Steve Moran and Billy Whitehurst being cup-tied.

Sure enough, the match seemed to be going as expected when Mick Harford put Luton ahead after 13 minutes. Strangely, the goal seemed to galvanise Reading though and they began to take control. Not content with his penalty heroics in the semi-final, Gilkesy began to enjoy the wide open Wembley spaces down the left flank and was causing Luton endless problems. His equalizer on 20 minutes was magnificent, lobbing Les Sealey from the corner of the box after he’d raced clear down the left. A few minutes later, he was causing havoc again – his run resulting in a penalty after Tim Breaker brought him down. Stuart Beavon duly converted to put Reading 2-1 up. Make-shift Royals striker Mick Tait then hit the bar with a great header but it stayed 2-1 at the break.

Reading continued to dominate in the second half and Tait was soon on hand to make it 3-1 after a barnstorming run by Neil Smillie, before Smillie himself wrapped it up just past the hour mark with a lovely finish. No-one in the Reading end could really believe what they were witnessing now - looking at the scoreboard and seeing Reading 4 Luton Town 1. Luton seemed shell-shocked and were unable to muster any sort of response in the final half an hour. The celebrations begun long before the final whistle sounded and continued long long after the game. No-one who was there that day to watch Martin Hicks lift that glorious gold trophy will ever forget what they had witnessed.

[lewesroyal]

My first ever match as a 10 year old. My neighbour had got me a ticket to go along with him and his boys.

I'd never seen anything like it. So many people, so much noise!

I remember nothing of the match itself but being down at the old fence holding the crowd back and the sheer number of bodies there. A mix of utter terror and joy!

I still remember the ditty we sang on the way home.

1 nil down,
4-1 up! Reading won the Simod cup.

With Gilkes, Beavon , Smillie and Tait,
Reading took it on a plate!

Happy days, and what an introduction to the glory years of being a Reading FC fan

[stealthpapes]

Reading's greatest ever cup run, some of the most unlikely victories, biggest shocks, and for once, a happy ending. The stats of that cup run are pretty incredible - in winning the cup, Reading beat 5 top flight teams - 4 would end up in the top 10 of Division 1 (the Prem in new money) with QPR and Forest ending up in the top 5. The FA Cup holders - Coventry and the League Cup winners - Luton were beaten. And all of this in the days before squad rotation had been invented so these were full strength teams that Reading beat, even more incredible when you consider how piss poor Reading's league form was that season..

I went to every round that year - the semi win still ranks as my favourite game. Memories:

Round 1 - a Monday night trip to London's top team at the time, QPR on the plastic. At half time, everything going to form - QPR led 1-0 (Martin Allen goal if I remember right) and Reading looked completely lost on the plastic pitch. Then in 10 crazy minutes from the 70 minute mark, Reading turned the game on its head scoring 3 times, led by Linden Jones’s brace to win 3-1.

Round 2 - a local derby against an Oxford team whose tenure in the top flight would soon be over. It’s fair to say that Simod Cup fever had not yet swept around Berkshire or indeed Oxfordshire as only about 5000 souls turned up on a cold January evening. The late great Dean Horrix scored the only goal of the game and it was on to the next round against Brian Clough’s high-flying Nottingham Forest.

Round 3 - I don’t think even the most optimistic Reading fan expected anything but a home defeat from this one. Forest sat 2nd in the First Division behind Liverpool and had a full strength team out. Over 9,000 were at Elm Park to watch Reading take on a full strength Forest side and were lucky enough to witness one of the great cup shocks.

Reading were fantastic from the off and got the first goal but ex-Royal Neil Webb equalized and took the game to extra time. I remember seeing Clough on the pitch before extra-time trying to cajole the Forest players into life . But in the added period it was Horrix again who was the hero getting the goal which sparked wild celebrations and gave Reading the 2-1 win.

QF- A week later, back at Elm Park for the quarter-final against Division 2 promotion challengers, Bradford City, a team we had already lost to in the League Cup. Again extra-time was needed before Deano again came up with the winner in another 2-1 win after a quite spectacular open goal miss from Bradford when 2 on 1 with Steve Francis.

Semi - Home game again against FA Cup winners Coventry City beckoned. Kick off was delayed as officially around 15,400 souls crammed into Elm Park but it seemed a lot more than that inside the ground. You couldn’t move on the South Bank and all sides of the ground looked absolutely packed. The atmosphere was unbelievable from start to finish. Neil Smillie gave Reading the lead early in the second half but David Speedie levelled for Cov late on before climbing the fence to celebrate with the packed away end. Extra time brought no more goals so it was down to penalties..

Brian Kilcline stepped up first for Coventry and smashed it straight at Steve Francis who despite his best attempts couldn’t stop it from crossing the line, 1-0 Cov. Next, Keith Curle stepped up for Reading and his tame effort was easily saved by man-giant Steve Ogrizovic. I still remember the feeling of utter despondency when Coventry scored their next to go 2-0 up. But Stuart Beavon held his nerve to make it 2-1 and when Francis saved the next City pen to wild celebrations around most of the ground, you could feel the belief come back to the crowd.

The next 3 penalties were scored leaving it at 3-3 with one kick left each. Up stepped Coventry’s FA Cup final man of the match Dave Bennett who shot hard to Francis’s right. In a blur, Francis guessed right and clawed the ball away. Cue absolute pandemonium – the roof nearly came off the South Bank, and some mathematically challenged people invaded the pitch thinking it was all over.

The only problem was that it wasn’t over – it was only 3-3 and Reading still needed to score their last penalty. It was down to soon to be Reading legend, Michael Gilkes to make history and send Reading to Wembley for the first time ever. At around 10.45pm, the latest finish of a game in British history at the time, he began his walk to the penalty spot, urgently trying to encourage people off the pitch and looking like a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

By the time he started his run up, calm had been restored and a deathly nervous hush seemed to fall around the ground. Gilkes struck it hard the same side as Bennett had gone. The ball beat Ogrizovic but crashed against the inside of the post and time seemed to stand still as everyone held their breath….

And then the net bulged and all hell broke loose. The ground seemed to be shaking, the noise was deafening as Gilkes wheeled away, arms and fists pumping, his face a picture of pure unadulterated joy. This time everyone was over the wall from the South Bank and on the pitch to begin the celebrations and to catch up with Gilkesy who was quickly engulfed by the massed crowd. Everyone remained on the pitch for ages afterwards soaking it all in and coming to terms with the fact that Reading were at Wembley..

Final - Three weeks later, 45,000 Reading fans made their way to Wembley. Reading were massive underdogs against a strong Luton team already through to the League Cup final, where a month later they would beat Arsenal to lift the cup.

Arriving at Wembley that sunny March day was amazing. Reading fans were everywhere, filling half of the ground and dominating the crowd of 61,400, outnumbering Luton by 3:1. The excitement at just being at the famous old stadium was enough for most - I don’t think anyone really expected the day to end in victory. Particularly as Reading had no recognised strikers for the game, Horrix having left to join Millwall after the semi-final, and record signings Steve Moran and Billy Whitehurst being cup-tied.

Sure enough, the match seemed to be going as expected when Mick Harford put Luton ahead after 13 minutes. Strangely, the goal seemed to galvanise Reading though and they began to take control. Not content with his penalty heroics in the semi-final, Gilkesy began to enjoy the wide open Wembley spaces down the left flank and was causing Luton endless problems. His equalizer on 20 minutes was magnificent, lobbing Les Sealey from the corner of the box after he’d raced clear down the left. A few minutes later, he was causing havoc again – his run resulting in a penalty after Tim Breaker brought him down. Stuart Beavon duly converted to put Reading 2-1 up. Make-shift Royals striker Mick Tait then hit the bar with a great header but it stayed 2-1 at the break.

Reading continued to dominate in the second half and Tait was soon on hand to make it 3-1 after a barnstorming run by Neil Smillie, before Smillie himself wrapped it up just past the hour mark with a lovely finish. No-one in the Reading end could really believe what they were witnessing now - looking at the scoreboard and seeing Reading 4 Luton Town 1. Luton seemed shell-shocked and were unable to muster any sort of response in the final half an hour. The celebrations begun long before the final whistle sounded and continued long long after the game. No-one who was there that day to watch Martin Hicks lift that glorious gold trophy will ever forget what they had witnessed.

Wonderful read. Thanks.

[handbags_harris]

Before my time was the Simod Cup, but it strikes me as the mood and excitement that swept across the town in those three weeks leading up to the final were simply because club matches at Wembley were rare in those days. You had the League Cup final, the FA Cup final, the Full and Associate Members Cup finals, and that was it as far as I'm aware. Playoff finals were two legged affairs and weren't played at the Twin Towers until 1990, so the opportunities for a club of Reading's size and stature to feature at the national stadium were severely restricted.

So, a first appearance at Wembley in the first appearance in a final of a nationwide, domestic cup competition, given the circumstances it's pretty clear to see why people were so excited.

Sadly, the achievements of the players who won us that trophy are somewhat undermined as judgement is made on modern day standards, rather than the standards of the day.

[Franchise FC]

So many moments to remember from Wembley that day.

Going 2-1 up and my mate saying 'Only 55 minutes to waste'

Going 4-1 up with c20-25 minutes left and just knowing that we were going to win at Wembley - that's without doubt the best feeling as we had ages to celebrate while the game was still going on

Seeing the only penalty to be scored in a cup final at Wembley that year (Arsenal and Liverpool both missed)

Linden Jones's ridiculous celebration (but nobody cared)

... and the list goes on and on

Watching the highlights with the commentary '... and then the crossbar got the biggest bashing since the Scots smashed it ...' when Mick
Tait's header hit the bar

[Uke]

I was there when Hicks went up

I was completely Rowley Birkin though

Prophetic caption about Gullit Gilkes on the photo below

[Ark Royal]

When Gilkesy scored the winning pen against Coventry, I just collapsed on the Tilehurst terracing and cried.

As for the final, when Mick Harford scored the opener, I can remember just thinking to myself please, please, please don't let us get hammered. As I have since discovered, Wembley is for winners only.

Got barred from my local that evening for somewhat 'over-zealous' celebrations.

Some pics:

[genome]

My mum and dad went to this final, and got smashed afterwards. I was born 9 months later.

Coincidence?

[Ark Royal]

Reading's greatest ever cup run, some of the most unlikely victories, biggest shocks, and for once, a happy ending. The stats of that cup run are pretty incredible - in winning the cup, Reading beat 5 top flight teams - 4 would end up in the top 10 of Division 1 (the Prem in new money) with QPR and Forest ending up in the top 5. The FA Cup holders - Coventry and the League Cup winners - Luton were beaten. And all of this in the days before squad rotation had been invented so these were full strength teams that Reading beat, even more incredible when you consider how piss poor Reading's league form was that season..

I went to every round that year - the semi win still ranks as my favourite game. Memories:

Round 1 - a Monday night trip to London's top team at the time, QPR on the plastic. At half time, everything going to form - QPR led 1-0 (Martin Allen goal if I remember right) and Reading looked completely lost on the plastic pitch. Then in 10 crazy minutes from the 70 minute mark, Reading turned the game on its head scoring 3 times, led by Linden Jones’s brace to win 3-1.

Round 2 - a local derby against an Oxford team whose tenure in the top flight would soon be over. It’s fair to say that Simod Cup fever had not yet swept around Berkshire or indeed Oxfordshire as only about 5000 souls turned up on a cold January evening. The late great Dean Horrix scored the only goal of the game and it was on to the next round against Brian Clough’s high-flying Nottingham Forest.

Round 3 - I don’t think even the most optimistic Reading fan expected anything but a home defeat from this one. Forest sat 2nd in the First Division behind Liverpool and had a full strength team out. Over 9,000 were at Elm Park to watch Reading take on a full strength Forest side and were lucky enough to witness one of the great cup shocks.

Reading were fantastic from the off and got the first goal but ex-Royal Neil Webb equalized and took the game to extra time. I remember seeing Clough on the pitch before extra-time trying to cajole the Forest players into life . But in the added period it was Horrix again who was the hero getting the goal which sparked wild celebrations and gave Reading the 2-1 win.

QF- A week later, back at Elm Park for the quarter-final against Division 2 promotion challengers, Bradford City, a team we had already lost to in the League Cup. Again extra-time was needed before Deano again came up with the winner in another 2-1 win after a quite spectacular open goal miss from Bradford when 2 on 1 with Steve Francis.

Semi - Home game again against FA Cup winners Coventry City beckoned. Kick off was delayed as officially around 15,400 souls crammed into Elm Park but it seemed a lot more than that inside the ground. You couldn’t move on the South Bank and all sides of the ground looked absolutely packed. The atmosphere was unbelievable from start to finish. Neil Smillie gave Reading the lead early in the second half but David Speedie levelled for Cov late on before climbing the fence to celebrate with the packed away end. Extra time brought no more goals so it was down to penalties..

Brian Kilcline stepped up first for Coventry and smashed it straight at Steve Francis who despite his best attempts couldn’t stop it from crossing the line, 1-0 Cov. Next, Keith Curle stepped up for Reading and his tame effort was easily saved by man-giant Steve Ogrizovic. I still remember the feeling of utter despondency when Coventry scored their next to go 2-0 up. But Stuart Beavon held his nerve to make it 2-1 and when Francis saved the next City pen to wild celebrations around most of the ground, you could feel the belief come back to the crowd.

The next 3 penalties were scored leaving it at 3-3 with one kick left each. Up stepped Coventry’s FA Cup final man of the match Dave Bennett who shot hard to Francis’s right. In a blur, Francis guessed right and clawed the ball away. Cue absolute pandemonium – the roof nearly came off the South Bank, and some mathematically challenged people invaded the pitch thinking it was all over.

The only problem was that it wasn’t over – it was only 3-3 and Reading still needed to score their last penalty. It was down to soon to be Reading legend, Michael Gilkes to make history and send Reading to Wembley for the first time ever. At around 10.45pm, the latest finish of a game in British history at the time, he began his walk to the penalty spot, urgently trying to encourage people off the pitch and looking like a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

By the time he started his run up, calm had been restored and a deathly nervous hush seemed to fall around the ground. Gilkes struck it hard the same side as Bennett had gone. The ball beat Ogrizovic but crashed against the inside of the post and time seemed to stand still as everyone held their breath….

And then the net bulged and all hell broke loose. The ground seemed to be shaking, the noise was deafening as Gilkes wheeled away, arms and fists pumping, his face a picture of pure unadulterated joy. This time everyone was over the wall from the South Bank and on the pitch to begin the celebrations and to catch up with Gilkesy who was quickly engulfed by the massed crowd. Everyone remained on the pitch for ages afterwards soaking it all in and coming to terms with the fact that Reading were at Wembley..

Final - Three weeks later, 45,000 Reading fans made their way to Wembley. Reading were massive underdogs against a strong Luton team already through to the League Cup final, where a month later they would beat Arsenal to lift the cup.

Arriving at Wembley that sunny March day was amazing. Reading fans were everywhere, filling half of the ground and dominating the crowd of 61,400, outnumbering Luton by 3:1. The excitement at just being at the famous old stadium was enough for most - I don’t think anyone really expected the day to end in victory. Particularly as Reading had no recognised strikers for the game, Horrix having left to join Millwall after the semi-final, and record signings Steve Moran and Billy Whitehurst being cup-tied.

Sure enough, the match seemed to be going as expected when Mick Harford put Luton ahead after 13 minutes. Strangely, the goal seemed to galvanise Reading though and they began to take control. Not content with his penalty heroics in the semi-final, Gilkesy began to enjoy the wide open Wembley spaces down the left flank and was causing Luton endless problems. His equalizer on 20 minutes was magnificent, lobbing Les Sealey from the corner of the box after he’d raced clear down the left. A few minutes later, he was causing havoc again – his run resulting in a penalty after Tim Breaker brought him down. Stuart Beavon duly converted to put Reading 2-1 up. Make-shift Royals striker Mick Tait then hit the bar with a great header but it stayed 2-1 at the break.

Reading continued to dominate in the second half and Tait was soon on hand to make it 3-1 after a barnstorming run by Neil Smillie, before Smillie himself wrapped it up just past the hour mark with a lovely finish. No-one in the Reading end could really believe what they were witnessing now - looking at the scoreboard and seeing Reading 4 Luton Town 1. Luton seemed shell-shocked and were unable to muster any sort of response in the final half an hour. The celebrations begun long before the final whistle sounded and continued long long after the game. No-one who was there that day to watch Martin Hicks lift that glorious gold trophy will ever forget what they had witnessed.

Wonderful read. Thanks.

Brilliant! I got choked up reading that.

[Huckleberry Hound]

After our allocation was snapped up, folks from Reading bought hospitality tickets, Corporate tickets, anything you could get your hands on.

Wembley used to have a ticket office in the Virgin Megastore at Tottenham Court Road. I picked up some tickets from there. I guess it was supposed to be a neutral section but turned out to be in the Luton end.

[tmesis]

...Brian Kilcline...

There'd been a story in the papers a few days earlier about Kilcline's wife leaving him for some other guy.

I remember him being near the Southbank fence, and one fan, down the front, started a (solo) chant of "Kilcline...where's your wife?"

He turned and shot the guy such an evil menacing look that even with a fence between then, he crapped himself and stopped the song immediately.


I made one of my least understandable football supporting decisions during that semi-final...I left the game early!

I didn't want to, but I had no real choice. Not for traffic. I was young and still couldn't drive then, but I had to catch the train home. I had no other way of getting back. I knew nobody in Reading, and I think I didn't even have enough money on me to buy a new train ticket the following morning. Even so, I look back and think "why?"

I left it as late as I could, hoping to see us get a (probable) winning goal, but I was just hit by a feeling of knowing we were going to win on penalties.

I was on the Oxford Road as the game drew to an end, running back to the station (not something I could remotely do now). Weirdly, the crowd noise on the Oxford Road sounded almost as loud as being still in the ground.

I heard an away cheer, and knew we'd missed a penalty, but the further away I got, the harder it was to follow.

I was just passing Burger King, go up to the station, when I heard a distant prolonged roar, and knew we'd won, although I didn't know for certain until about an hour later, when I got home and checked very nervously on ceefax.


I would love to know the size of the crowd for that semi-final. No way was it 15000. It was genuinely packed, as in difficult to move packed. I think there were times when I could have lifted my feet off the ground and still stayed in the same spot.

[floyd__streete]

I went to every round that year - the semi win still ranks as my favourite game. Memories:

Wonderful read. Thanks.

Seconded.

I was an 8 year old on cup final day and it left a quite indelible mark on me and was the spark for 25 years of at times stupidly fanatical support. I went on a coach full of my dad's work colleagues and felt quite the 'lad' despite being the youngest on the coach by at least 10 years. My major memories are of being quite overwhelmed by the size and scale of the venue and occasion, of being captivated by the (rather crude by modern standards) animations of the players faces on the scoreboards and of my dad assuring me at 1-0 down we would still win anyway. I can't particularly remember the goals but I do recall the continued and hypnotic sining of we love you Reading we do.

On Monday and for the entire week that followed the lads at school brought in their Wembley programmes which were on permanent display on desks until the novelty of supporting a bad Second Division team wore off. My feelings are that this was a great time for the town of Reading and will be fondly remembered for many years to come.

[LUX]

I only went to the Final in that competition. Was living in Walthamstow at the time (used to commute for all home league games). Had a gr8 singsong in the pub beforehand, bit of bother and a few windows got put out. Mostly just high spirits iirc.

Only other memory is we were stood directly behind the goal, 2/3 of the way up.

I was 27 btw

[Gordons Cumming]

Can the moderators get charleskn off this site please?

Great memories.

I was at QPR

Saw Forest at home

................and obviously Reading at Wembley. Who didn't?

[Portsmouth Royal]

Reading's greatest ever cup run, some of the most unlikely victories, biggest shocks, and for once, a happy ending. The stats of that cup run are pretty incredible - in winning the cup, Reading beat 5 top flight teams - 4 would end up in the top 10 of Division 1 (the Prem in new money) with QPR and Forest ending up in the top 5. The FA Cup holders - Coventry and the League Cup winners - Luton were beaten. And all of this in the days before squad rotation had been invented so these were full strength teams that Reading beat, even more incredible when you consider how piss poor Reading's league form was that season..

I went to every round that year - the semi win still ranks as my favourite game. Memories:

Round 1 - a Monday night trip to London's top team at the time, QPR on the plastic. At half time, everything going to form - QPR led 1-0 (Martin Allen goal if I remember right) and Reading looked completely lost on the plastic pitch. Then in 10 crazy minutes from the 70 minute mark, Reading turned the game on its head scoring 3 times, led by Linden Jones’s brace to win 3-1.

Round 2 - a local derby against an Oxford team whose tenure in the top flight would soon be over. It’s fair to say that Simod Cup fever had not yet swept around Berkshire or indeed Oxfordshire as only about 5000 souls turned up on a cold January evening. The late great Dean Horrix scored the only goal of the game and it was on to the next round against Brian Clough’s high-flying Nottingham Forest.

Round 3 - I don’t think even the most optimistic Reading fan expected anything but a home defeat from this one. Forest sat 2nd in the First Division behind Liverpool and had a full strength team out. Over 9,000 were at Elm Park to watch Reading take on a full strength Forest side and were lucky enough to witness one of the great cup shocks.

Reading were fantastic from the off and got the first goal but ex-Royal Neil Webb equalized and took the game to extra time. I remember seeing Clough on the pitch before extra-time trying to cajole the Forest players into life . But in the added period it was Horrix again who was the hero getting the goal which sparked wild celebrations and gave Reading the 2-1 win.

QF- A week later, back at Elm Park for the quarter-final against Division 2 promotion challengers, Bradford City, a team we had already lost to in the League Cup. Again extra-time was needed before Deano again came up with the winner in another 2-1 win after a quite spectacular open goal miss from Bradford when 2 on 1 with Steve Francis.

Semi - Home game again against FA Cup winners Coventry City beckoned. Kick off was delayed as officially around 15,400 souls crammed into Elm Park but it seemed a lot more than that inside the ground. You couldn’t move on the South Bank and all sides of the ground looked absolutely packed. The atmosphere was unbelievable from start to finish. Neil Smillie gave Reading the lead early in the second half but David Speedie levelled for Cov late on before climbing the fence to celebrate with the packed away end. Extra time brought no more goals so it was down to penalties..

Brian Kilcline stepped up first for Coventry and smashed it straight at Steve Francis who despite his best attempts couldn’t stop it from crossing the line, 1-0 Cov. Next, Keith Curle stepped up for Reading and his tame effort was easily saved by man-giant Steve Ogrizovic. I still remember the feeling of utter despondency when Coventry scored their next to go 2-0 up. But Stuart Beavon held his nerve to make it 2-1 and when Francis saved the next City pen to wild celebrations around most of the ground, you could feel the belief come back to the crowd.

The next 3 penalties were scored leaving it at 3-3 with one kick left each. Up stepped Coventry’s FA Cup final man of the match Dave Bennett who shot hard to Francis’s right. In a blur, Francis guessed right and clawed the ball away. Cue absolute pandemonium – the roof nearly came off the South Bank, and some mathematically challenged people invaded the pitch thinking it was all over.

The only problem was that it wasn’t over – it was only 3-3 and Reading still needed to score their last penalty. It was down to soon to be Reading legend, Michael Gilkes to make history and send Reading to Wembley for the first time ever. At around 10.45pm, the latest finish of a game in British history at the time, he began his walk to the penalty spot, urgently trying to encourage people off the pitch and looking like a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

By the time he started his run up, calm had been restored and a deathly nervous hush seemed to fall around the ground. Gilkes struck it hard the same side as Bennett had gone. The ball beat Ogrizovic but crashed against the inside of the post and time seemed to stand still as everyone held their breath….

And then the net bulged and all hell broke loose. The ground seemed to be shaking, the noise was deafening as Gilkes wheeled away, arms and fists pumping, his face a picture of pure unadulterated joy. This time everyone was over the wall from the South Bank and on the pitch to begin the celebrations and to catch up with Gilkesy who was quickly engulfed by the massed crowd. Everyone remained on the pitch for ages afterwards soaking it all in and coming to terms with the fact that Reading were at Wembley..

Final - Three weeks later, 45,000 Reading fans made their way to Wembley. Reading were massive underdogs against a strong Luton team already through to the League Cup final, where a month later they would beat Arsenal to lift the cup.

Arriving at Wembley that sunny March day was amazing. Reading fans were everywhere, filling half of the ground and dominating the crowd of 61,400, outnumbering Luton by 3:1. The excitement at just being at the famous old stadium was enough for most - I don’t think anyone really expected the day to end in victory. Particularly as Reading had no recognised strikers for the game, Horrix having left to join Millwall after the semi-final, and record signings Steve Moran and Billy Whitehurst being cup-tied.

Sure enough, the match seemed to be going as expected when Mick Harford put Luton ahead after 13 minutes. Strangely, the goal seemed to galvanise Reading though and they began to take control. Not content with his penalty heroics in the semi-final, Gilkesy began to enjoy the wide open Wembley spaces down the left flank and was causing Luton endless problems. His equalizer on 20 minutes was magnificent, lobbing Les Sealey from the corner of the box after he’d raced clear down the left. A few minutes later, he was causing havoc again – his run resulting in a penalty after Tim Breaker brought him down. Stuart Beavon duly converted to put Reading 2-1 up. Make-shift Royals striker Mick Tait then hit the bar with a great header but it stayed 2-1 at the break.

Reading continued to dominate in the second half and Tait was soon on hand to make it 3-1 after a barnstorming run by Neil Smillie, before Smillie himself wrapped it up just past the hour mark with a lovely finish. No-one in the Reading end could really believe what they were witnessing now - looking at the scoreboard and seeing Reading 4 Luton Town 1. Luton seemed shell-shocked and were unable to muster any sort of response in the final half an hour. The celebrations begun long before the final whistle sounded and continued long long after the game. No-one who was there that day to watch Martin Hicks lift that glorious gold trophy will ever forget what they had witnessed.

This is one of my favourite posts on this site. It was just a couple of years before I really got into football and watching Reading. This is as good a summary as I have read of the cup run.

[Branfoot Out]

Reading's greatest ever cup run, some of the most unlikely victories, biggest shocks, and for once, a happy ending. The stats of that cup run are pretty incredible - in winning the cup, Reading beat 5 top flight teams - 4 would end up in the top 10 of Division 1 (the Prem in new money) with QPR and Forest ending up in the top 5. The FA Cup holders - Coventry and the League Cup winners - Luton were beaten. And all of this in the days before squad rotation had been invented so these were full strength teams that Reading beat, even more incredible when you consider how piss poor Reading's league form was that season..

I went to every round that year - the semi win still ranks as my favourite game. Memories:

Round 1 - a Monday night trip to London's top team at the time, QPR on the plastic. At half time, everything going to form - QPR led 1-0 (Martin Allen goal if I remember right) and Reading looked completely lost on the plastic pitch. Then in 10 crazy minutes from the 70 minute mark, Reading turned the game on its head scoring 3 times, led by Linden Jones’s brace to win 3-1.

Round 2 - a local derby against an Oxford team whose tenure in the top flight would soon be over. It’s fair to say that Simod Cup fever had not yet swept around Berkshire or indeed Oxfordshire as only about 5000 souls turned up on a cold January evening. The late great Dean Horrix scored the only goal of the game and it was on to the next round against Brian Clough’s high-flying Nottingham Forest.

Round 3 - I don’t think even the most optimistic Reading fan expected anything but a home defeat from this one. Forest sat 2nd in the First Division behind Liverpool and had a full strength team out. Over 9,000 were at Elm Park to watch Reading take on a full strength Forest side and were lucky enough to witness one of the great cup shocks.

Reading were fantastic from the off and got the first goal but ex-Royal Neil Webb equalized and took the game to extra time. I remember seeing Clough on the pitch before extra-time trying to cajole the Forest players into life . But in the added period it was Horrix again who was the hero getting the goal which sparked wild celebrations and gave Reading the 2-1 win.

QF- A week later, back at Elm Park for the quarter-final against Division 2 promotion challengers, Bradford City, a team we had already lost to in the League Cup. Again extra-time was needed before Deano again came up with the winner in another 2-1 win after a quite spectacular open goal miss from Bradford when 2 on 1 with Steve Francis.

Semi - Home game again against FA Cup winners Coventry City beckoned. Kick off was delayed as officially around 15,400 souls crammed into Elm Park but it seemed a lot more than that inside the ground. You couldn’t move on the South Bank and all sides of the ground looked absolutely packed. The atmosphere was unbelievable from start to finish. Neil Smillie gave Reading the lead early in the second half but David Speedie levelled for Cov late on before climbing the fence to celebrate with the packed away end. Extra time brought no more goals so it was down to penalties..

Brian Kilcline stepped up first for Coventry and smashed it straight at Steve Francis who despite his best attempts couldn’t stop it from crossing the line, 1-0 Cov. Next, Keith Curle stepped up for Reading and his tame effort was easily saved by man-giant Steve Ogrizovic. I still remember the feeling of utter despondency when Coventry scored their next to go 2-0 up. But Stuart Beavon held his nerve to make it 2-1 and when Francis saved the next City pen to wild celebrations around most of the ground, you could feel the belief come back to the crowd.

The next 3 penalties were scored leaving it at 3-3 with one kick left each. Up stepped Coventry’s FA Cup final man of the match Dave Bennett who shot hard to Francis’s right. In a blur, Francis guessed right and clawed the ball away. Cue absolute pandemonium – the roof nearly came off the South Bank, and some mathematically challenged people invaded the pitch thinking it was all over.

The only problem was that it wasn’t over – it was only 3-3 and Reading still needed to score their last penalty. It was down to soon to be Reading legend, Michael Gilkes to make history and send Reading to Wembley for the first time ever. At around 10.45pm, the latest finish of a game in British history at the time, he began his walk to the penalty spot, urgently trying to encourage people off the pitch and looking like a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

By the time he started his run up, calm had been restored and a deathly nervous hush seemed to fall around the ground. Gilkes struck it hard the same side as Bennett had gone. The ball beat Ogrizovic but crashed against the inside of the post and time seemed to stand still as everyone held their breath….

And then the net bulged and all hell broke loose. The ground seemed to be shaking, the noise was deafening as Gilkes wheeled away, arms and fists pumping, his face a picture of pure unadulterated joy. This time everyone was over the wall from the South Bank and on the pitch to begin the celebrations and to catch up with Gilkesy who was quickly engulfed by the massed crowd. Everyone remained on the pitch for ages afterwards soaking it all in and coming to terms with the fact that Reading were at Wembley..

Final - Three weeks later, 45,000 Reading fans made their way to Wembley. Reading were massive underdogs against a strong Luton team already through to the League Cup final, where a month later they would beat Arsenal to lift the cup.

Arriving at Wembley that sunny March day was amazing. Reading fans were everywhere, filling half of the ground and dominating the crowd of 61,400, outnumbering Luton by 3:1. The excitement at just being at the famous old stadium was enough for most - I don’t think anyone really expected the day to end in victory. Particularly as Reading had no recognised strikers for the game, Horrix having left to join Millwall after the semi-final, and record signings Steve Moran and Billy Whitehurst being cup-tied.

Sure enough, the match seemed to be going as expected when Mick Harford put Luton ahead after 13 minutes. Strangely, the goal seemed to galvanise Reading though and they began to take control. Not content with his penalty heroics in the semi-final, Gilkesy began to enjoy the wide open Wembley spaces down the left flank and was causing Luton endless problems. His equalizer on 20 minutes was magnificent, lobbing Les Sealey from the corner of the box after he’d raced clear down the left. A few minutes later, he was causing havoc again – his run resulting in a penalty after Tim Breaker brought him down. Stuart Beavon duly converted to put Reading 2-1 up. Make-shift Royals striker Mick Tait then hit the bar with a great header but it stayed 2-1 at the break.

Reading continued to dominate in the second half and Tait was soon on hand to make it 3-1 after a barnstorming run by Neil Smillie, before Smillie himself wrapped it up just past the hour mark with a lovely finish. No-one in the Reading end could really believe what they were witnessing now - looking at the scoreboard and seeing Reading 4 Luton Town 1. Luton seemed shell-shocked and were unable to muster any sort of response in the final half an hour. The celebrations begun long before the final whistle sounded and continued long long after the game. No-one who was there that day to watch Martin Hicks lift that glorious gold trophy will ever forget what they had witnessed.

This is one of my favourite posts on this site. It was just a couple of years before I really got into football and watching Reading. This is as good a summary as I have read of the cup run.

Thanks Portsmouth - glad people liked it. Great memories.

[leon]

Reading's greatest ever cup run, some of the most unlikely victories, biggest shocks, and for once, a happy ending. The stats of that cup run are pretty incredible - in winning the cup, Reading beat 5 top flight teams - 4 would end up in the top 10 of Division 1 (the Prem in new money) with QPR and Forest ending up in the top 5. The FA Cup holders - Coventry and the League Cup winners - Luton were beaten. And all of this in the days before squad rotation had been invented so these were full strength teams that Reading beat, even more incredible when you consider how piss poor Reading's league form was that season..

I went to every round that year - the semi win still ranks as my favourite game. Memories:

Round 1 - a Monday night trip to London's top team at the time, QPR on the plastic. At half time, everything going to form - QPR led 1-0 (Martin Allen goal if I remember right) and Reading looked completely lost on the plastic pitch. Then in 10 crazy minutes from the 70 minute mark, Reading turned the game on its head scoring 3 times, led by Linden Jones’s brace to win 3-1.

Round 2 - a local derby against an Oxford team whose tenure in the top flight would soon be over. It’s fair to say that Simod Cup fever had not yet swept around Berkshire or indeed Oxfordshire as only about 5000 souls turned up on a cold January evening. The late great Dean Horrix scored the only goal of the game and it was on to the next round against Brian Clough’s high-flying Nottingham Forest.

Round 3 - I don’t think even the most optimistic Reading fan expected anything but a home defeat from this one. Forest sat 2nd in the First Division behind Liverpool and had a full strength team out. Over 9,000 were at Elm Park to watch Reading take on a full strength Forest side and were lucky enough to witness one of the great cup shocks.

Reading were fantastic from the off and got the first goal but ex-Royal Neil Webb equalized and took the game to extra time. I remember seeing Clough on the pitch before extra-time trying to cajole the Forest players into life . But in the added period it was Horrix again who was the hero getting the goal which sparked wild celebrations and gave Reading the 2-1 win.

QF- A week later, back at Elm Park for the quarter-final against Division 2 promotion challengers, Bradford City, a team we had already lost to in the League Cup. Again extra-time was needed before Deano again came up with the winner in another 2-1 win after a quite spectacular open goal miss from Bradford when 2 on 1 with Steve Francis.

Semi - Home game again against FA Cup winners Coventry City beckoned. Kick off was delayed as officially around 15,400 souls crammed into Elm Park but it seemed a lot more than that inside the ground. You couldn’t move on the South Bank and all sides of the ground looked absolutely packed. The atmosphere was unbelievable from start to finish. Neil Smillie gave Reading the lead early in the second half but David Speedie levelled for Cov late on before climbing the fence to celebrate with the packed away end. Extra time brought no more goals so it was down to penalties..

Brian Kilcline stepped up first for Coventry and smashed it straight at Steve Francis who despite his best attempts couldn’t stop it from crossing the line, 1-0 Cov. Next, Keith Curle stepped up for Reading and his tame effort was easily saved by man-giant Steve Ogrizovic. I still remember the feeling of utter despondency when Coventry scored their next to go 2-0 up. But Stuart Beavon held his nerve to make it 2-1 and when Francis saved the next City pen to wild celebrations around most of the ground, you could feel the belief come back to the crowd.

The next 3 penalties were scored leaving it at 3-3 with one kick left each. Up stepped Coventry’s FA Cup final man of the match Dave Bennett who shot hard to Francis’s right. In a blur, Francis guessed right and clawed the ball away. Cue absolute pandemonium – the roof nearly came off the South Bank, and some mathematically challenged people invaded the pitch thinking it was all over.

The only problem was that it wasn’t over – it was only 3-3 and Reading still needed to score their last penalty. It was down to soon to be Reading legend, Michael Gilkes to make history and send Reading to Wembley for the first time ever. At around 10.45pm, the latest finish of a game in British history at the time, he began his walk to the penalty spot, urgently trying to encourage people off the pitch and looking like a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

By the time he started his run up, calm had been restored and a deathly nervous hush seemed to fall around the ground. Gilkes struck it hard the same side as Bennett had gone. The ball beat Ogrizovic but crashed against the inside of the post and time seemed to stand still as everyone held their breath….

And then the net bulged and all hell broke loose. The ground seemed to be shaking, the noise was deafening as Gilkes wheeled away, arms and fists pumping, his face a picture of pure unadulterated joy. This time everyone was over the wall from the South Bank and on the pitch to begin the celebrations and to catch up with Gilkesy who was quickly engulfed by the massed crowd. Everyone remained on the pitch for ages afterwards soaking it all in and coming to terms with the fact that Reading were at Wembley..

Final - Three weeks later, 45,000 Reading fans made their way to Wembley. Reading were massive underdogs against a strong Luton team already through to the League Cup final, where a month later they would beat Arsenal to lift the cup.

Arriving at Wembley that sunny March day was amazing. Reading fans were everywhere, filling half of the ground and dominating the crowd of 61,400, outnumbering Luton by 3:1. The excitement at just being at the famous old stadium was enough for most - I don’t think anyone really expected the day to end in victory. Particularly as Reading had no recognised strikers for the game, Horrix having left to join Millwall after the semi-final, and record signings Steve Moran and Billy Whitehurst being cup-tied.

Sure enough, the match seemed to be going as expected when Mick Harford put Luton ahead after 13 minutes. Strangely, the goal seemed to galvanise Reading though and they began to take control. Not content with his penalty heroics in the semi-final, Gilkesy began to enjoy the wide open Wembley spaces down the left flank and was causing Luton endless problems. His equalizer on 20 minutes was magnificent, lobbing Les Sealey from the corner of the box after he’d raced clear down the left. A few minutes later, he was causing havoc again – his run resulting in a penalty after Tim Breaker brought him down. Stuart Beavon duly converted to put Reading 2-1 up. Make-shift Royals striker Mick Tait then hit the bar with a great header but it stayed 2-1 at the break.

Reading continued to dominate in the second half and Tait was soon on hand to make it 3-1 after a barnstorming run by Neil Smillie, before Smillie himself wrapped it up just past the hour mark with a lovely finish. No-one in the Reading end could really believe what they were witnessing now - looking at the scoreboard and seeing Reading 4 Luton Town 1. Luton seemed shell-shocked and were unable to muster any sort of response in the final half an hour. The celebrations begun long before the final whistle sounded and continued long long after the game. No-one who was there that day to watch Martin Hicks lift that glorious gold trophy will ever forget what they had witnessed.

This is one of my favourite posts on this site. It was just a couple of years before I really got into football and watching Reading. This is as good a summary as I have read of the cup run.

Thanks Portsmouth - glad people liked it. Great memories.

Yes B O lovely stuff