who remebers 1988....

[spread eagle]

when the club did a deal with british rail to take 1 adult and child free of charge to wolves v royals
and half the kids of reading went missing for a day !!

wolves fans was singing "we hate cockneys.....etc"
and the reading fans joined in with the chanting the same thing .....very funny.


but who else went from here ?

[OldBiscuit]

We were even more shit then and got relegated if I remember correctly.

[BonBoh]

No I don't.

[paultheroyal]

I remebers 1988 but don't remebers this tale sorry.

[From Despair To Where?]

I got the Network South East special that day and walked to the stadium behind a hugely unimpressed Billy Whitehurst,


We were shit, Molyneux looked like it had just been bombed by the Luftwaffe, Andy Mutch, who I worked with about 5 years back, got both goals and I have vague recollections of Karl Elsey running around like headless chicken all afternoon.

[taipairoyal]

Yes I remember 1988, was working in the Middle East training the Kuwaitis, met Dave Mackay (always pissed), Lawrie Mcmenemy, Eric Gates and our very own Steve Hetzke, really could do with him now.

[Jackson Corner]

I remember every game from the Simod cup as I went to all of them. I went to all the league homes and a few away's but I have a job remembering any. Ipswich at home the first game after the simod cup when 30k fans vanished sticks in my head. The Ipswich fans were very gernerous with there aplause when we paraded the cup. Bearing in mind this was a club that had won major trophies would have been easy for them to take the piss. Respect

[AthleticoSpizz]

^ was there....one of the "few"

Wasn't that the game that Colin Baillie and Neil Smillie were dropped pre-match by Brian Infoot......(reasons still unknown)..... We lost and our downward trajectory continued.


And on another note.....Ipswich fans have always been good to us.....last game of the season 1987, they donated their loose change in the direction of the away end (ours) at eye-level and at a rapid rate of knots.....(thanx to a Steve Richardson equaliser, a 1-1 draw the score, thirteenth position for us....this was our highest ever league finish!)....happy days....I got hit with a 50p....a decent return compared to others


Simple things...simple minds, but some of our current clientel have been brought-up spoilt in the last 20 years or so......they are yet to experience the alternatives.

[Old Biscuitman]

^ was there....one of the "few"

Wasn't that the game that Colin Baillie and Neil Smillie were dropped pre-match by Brian Infoot......(reasons still unknown)..... We lost and our downward trajectory continued.


And on another note.....Ipswich fans have always been good to us.....last game of the season 1987, they donated their loose change in the direction of the away end (ours) at eye-level and at a rapid rate of knots.....(thanx to a Steve Richardson equaliser, a 1-1 draw the score, thirteenth position for us....this was our highest ever league finish!)....happy days....I got hit with a 50p....a decent return compared to others


Simple things...simple minds, but some of our current clientel have been brought-up spoilt in the last 20 years or so......they are yet to experience the alternatives.

I remember 1948, but have forgotten the years in between, for the most part thankfully. Glad I woke up in 2006.

[AthleticoSpizz]

Respect to you Oldun

My first days were the bleak 1971's......grassless pitches ( and yet we whinge about a few "rugby-induced" brown spots at the Madejski these days)....absolute lols

Big old blue ex-army Bedford Police wagon already full of irate drunken bums banging on the walls as you entered the SB turnstiles

My mates dad parking on the grass verges on Tilehurst Road as we disgourged from the back of his Anglia van

Smoking fans, damp coats, no segregation

[Old Biscuitman]

Respect to you Oldun

My first days were the bleak 1971's......grassless pitches ( and yet we whinge about a few "rugby-induced" brown spots at the Madejski these days)....absolute lols

Big old blue ex-army Bedford Police wagon already full of irate drunken bums banging on the walls as you entered the SB turnstiles

My mates dad parking on the grass verges on Tilehurst Road as we disgourged from the back of his Anglia van

Smoking fans, damp coats, no segregation

With you there AS. Better than today's antiseptic atmosphere.

[AthleticoSpizz]

They don't know they're born etc

Seriously...although you obviously predate me

To listen to the whingeing and whining on here from pricks that have only ever experienced seated stadiums and golf-course pitches, regularly becomes laughable, admittedly, they are too far away from the pitch to voice their opinions these days.

Remember Norman Hunters biography stating that he got pelters from the Reading crowd at EP once.....and actually put him off of his game

[Sutekh]

Remember Norman Hunters biography stating that he got pelters from the Reading crowd at EP once.....and actually put him off of his game

Well we would have only been fitting in with the "pelters" we got from the Bristol City support at the time....

Also, remind me, when did players start coming out 45 mins before ko to warm up. Seem to have vague memories that they just used to run out before kick off and play.....

[The Sum of the Parts]

Remember Norman Hunters biography stating that he got pelters from the Reading crowd at EP once.....and actually put him off of his game

That would be the 7-0 home win at the end of December 1979. Allan Clarke's last match as Barnsley player-manager before hanging his boots up, ISTR - and he took them down a coal mine the next week to show them what life was like for their supporters.

[Gordons Cumming]

I remember it coming very quickly after 1987 ended.

Hope that helps.

[From Despair To Where?]

Also, remind me, when did players start coming out 45 mins before ko to warm up. Seem to have vague memories that they just used to run out before kick off and play.....

It's always happened but with a less sports scientific approach which usually consisted of the forwards welting the ball at the keeper as hard as they could, Martin Hicks practicing his towering headers and everyone else wandering around aimlessly. Think Sunday league without the cigs.

[The Sum of the Parts]

Also, remind me, when did players start coming out 45 mins before ko to warm up. Seem to have vague memories that they just used to run out before kick off and play.....

It's always happened but with a less sports scientific approach which usually consisted of the forwards welting the ball at the keeper as hard as they could, Martin Hicks practicing his towering headers and everyone else wandering around aimlessly. Think Sunday league without the cigs.

Although the first appearance of one or two of them would be at 2.45pm when they would come out of The Spreadeagle and go to get changed.

[Zammo]

Yep, I was on it #loyalroyals

[The Cap]

AthleticoSpizz wrote:

Respect to you Oldun

My first days were the bleak 1971's......grassless pitches ( and yet we whinge about a few "rugby-induced" brown spots at the Madejski these days)....absolute lols

Big old blue ex-army Bedford Police wagon already full of irate drunken bums banging on the walls as you entered the SB turnstiles

My mates dad parking on the grass verges on Tilehurst Road as we disgourged from the back of his Anglia van

Smoking fans, damp coats, no segregation

Nostalgic overview there Spizz. Especially the Bedford Police wagon bit. Memories or what? Plus let's not forget the toilets, urinals....okay yeah, they were bogs, in every sense of the word. The thing was, they were our bogs and they stunk to high heaven. Does heaven really smell like that? How can the stench of stale piss, floating around in cracked concrete troughs, accompanied by the odour of alcoholic fag fumes, ever be forgotten. Shame you can't write a book mate. Entitled 'Tales of the Southbank'